Because I have been happy with Firefox, I have not checked out (extensively) many of the other browsers that are out there. The other day, however, I finally removed IE 6 from my computer - completely forgetting that this is the browser my mom uses when she comes over to play on the computer. Firefox, with the zillion tabs that I have set to open automatically, proved to be a little "much" for her (and she kept closing out all my tabs by accident), so I looked around for an alternative (since I simply refuse to load IE 7 on my machine).
I decided to try FlashPeak's Slim Browser, and it's proven to be a perfect browser for Mom, and my computer. It's light, has tabs (if you want them), skins, pop-up killer, search, etc., etc. Did I mention that it's light? It's not a resource hog, and I think it would make a great alternative browser on library machines that are getting old or are simply a little light on RAM. I love Firefox, but it's a killer on old or slow machines. You may also be able to get Slim Browser on Gates library computers - and, according to my IT person, it's a bitch, if not impossible, to get Firefox to run on a Gates machine (go figure) (and, funny, but IE7 is also not fully functional on our Gates computers).
It's a Windows app, so I'll be bummed to lose it when I finally jump to Linux on the desktop. But for now, it's doing a great job for Mom.
3 comments:
How did you get rid of IE if you're running Windoze? I thought it was integrated into the OS and impossible to kill. I toasted a laptop when I tried a few years ago. Hints would be appreciated!
I wonder why you refuse to have IE7 on your machine? It's a whole bunch better than IE6. I still prefer Firefox, but I think the delta is a lot smaller.
Kaijsa,
You're right - I simply "uninstalled" windows, but that does not remove it completely. It does remove some of the extraneous stuff, and frees up some space, but it is considered an intregral part of Windows.
For more on that:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/
Uninstalling_Internet_Explorer
Apparently you CAN remove it completely, but it's not a great idea.
Walt,
Several reasons ranging from "I am not a Microsoft fan" to "I think it's ugly."
I was disheartened when we could not get IE7 to run (fully) on our Gates computers (and I will admit that this may be partially the fault of my tech person, but, still, it's a Gates computer with new profiles - it should just work).
And, my machine is fairly new, and I have been trying to keep it as "clean" as possible. I am also preparing - mentally and physically - to ditch Windows for Linux, so I am weaning myself off MS products.
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