Cool Mac Gear• iPod Video • iPod nano • iPod 1G-2G • iPod 3G • iPod 4G • iPod Mini • PowerBook-iBook • Garageband |
It’s hard to keep up with developments in the OS X browser world, with seven contenders and new version upgrades being introduced almost every week. I hadn’t included Internet Explorer in my previous Odyssey browser shootout comparisons. I make a point of not using Microsoft software, and I don’t even have a IE installed on my production computer. However, I E 5.1 came with the OS X install by default, and since the OS X version doesn’t pollute your System folder with instability-inducing shared libraries like IE does in its legacy Mac OS version, there’s no functional reason to get rid of it, and I’ve kept it around for potential research purposes, so I figured I might as well see how the browser that 93 percent of the Web community uses stacks up against its competition. Consequently, this shootout includes my old standby iCab, my main backup choice Mozilla, the new Netscape 7.0 Preview, the Cocoa browsers OmniWeb and Chimira, the other indie -- Opera, and Internet Explorer. Nobody can say there isn’t plenty of choice in 0 S X browsers. As usual, I tried each browser downloading four different Web pages. Browser caches were cleared before the test, which was conducted on my 500 MHz Pismo PowerBook running OS X 10.1.4 over a 26,400 bps dial-up connection, which is the best performance available in this neck of the boonies. Most users will have faster connections and consequently better download times, so the figures cited here should be regarded it as for comparison mainly. The four test pages were the Applelinks and Low End Mac homepages, and the Environment Canada weather radar image for Halifax, Nova Scotia, as in previous tests. However, the National Post newspaper website, which was my former benchmark for a graphics-heavy, slow-loading page, has gone JavaScript, so iCab no longer works on it. Therefore, I have switched to the homepage of the Halifax Daily News, for which I am a weekly columnist. The Daily News page is even busier and slower than the old National. Post page was. Here are the results: Applelinks Chimera - 21 seconds Low End Mac Netscape - 25 seconds Halifax Daily News Home page Netscape - one minute, 11 seconds Environment Canada Weather Radar Graphic - Halifax, Nova Scotia Opera - 21 seconds 
As in my last browser bake-off, Netscape 7.0 was the clear winner by an impressive margin -- fastest on two of the four pages by a substantial margin (Low End Mac and Daily News pages), a close second on the weather radar page, and in a three-way tie for third on Applelinks. If you want the fastest OS X browser, this is it -- especially impressive being that this is a preview release. Since Netscape uses the same Gecko browser engine as Mozilla and Chimera, its engineers must have figured out some way to goose extra speed from it. 
Overall, Opera 5.0.498 was in second place, with a first, a second, a third, and a sixth place finishes. Not quite the fastest browser it claims to be, but close in this test. 
Third was Chimera 0.3.0, with an uneven first and second, but also two 5th place finishes. One to watch as this browser develops. I like the clean, new interface appearance. 
iCab 2.8 managed two second place showings, and was significantly faster than all but Netscape on the challenging Daily News page, but it got knocked down with a 5th place tie on the weather radar page, and a 6th on Low End Mac. iCab is still my browser of choice when I want to get serious work done efficiently on the Web, but its JavaScript deficiency is becoming more of a handicap lately. 
Mozilla approved a consistent mid-pack performer with two third-place rankings (one a three-way tie on the Applelinks page), and two 4th places (one a two-way tie). Mozilla is my usual choice as a backup browser and for casual surfing, but I’m probably going to switch to Netscape 7.0 for the extra speed. 
OmniWeb 4.1b7 also managed two third-place finishes (one in that Applelinks three-way tie), a 4th (2-way tie), but a dismal 7th on that tough-to-load Daily News page. 
And the booby-prize goes to, you guessed it, the browser 93 percent of netizens blindly opt for -- Internet Explorer 5.1, which managed a pathetic three last places, and a slightly more respectable 5th on the Daily News page. Not only is IE made by Microsoft, which is IMHO reason enough not to use it, but it is also a dog performance-wise. Internet Explorer: you are the weakest link; goodbye! OS X Question X screensavers
Okito ThesaurusFrom Donald Michael Kraig Thanks for your article on this product. It seems to me, and nobody seems to be talking about this, that this aspect of OS X is something which was a goal in Apple's ill-fated Open Doc technology. The idea was to have small applications which could be linked together in any way you liked. As long as an application, such as a thesaurus, was an Open Doc application, any other applications which supported Open Doc could use it. Well, Open Doc died (lamentable, IMO), but (also IMO) the concept was brilliant. I am glad to see that within the framework of OS X, Open Doc is resurrected. Don Kraig
Hi Don;
Now it's Open Source. :-)
Charles From Frank Falcone Greetings, Following your Odyssey finally got me to take the OS X plunge about a month ago and I haven't looked back. I do love it so. Forgive me father for I have sinned by installing MS Office on my machine. A few days ago all of my new downloads started mounting as Excel or Word documents and would not "unstuff." I'm trying to install some of the shareware goodies I found on Applelinks and am now dead in the water. I've attached a tiny image for you. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Frank Falcone
Hi Frank;
Ah, the joys of using Microsoft software..... ;-)
Does this happen when you download stuff using a real browser or just with Internet Explorer?
Beyond that, beats me. Perhaps one of our readers will be able to shed some light.
Using Office is its own penance......
Charles Re: OS X Question From Frank Falcone Charles, Thanks for responding. Allow me to clarify and shed new light on the problem. 1. I am using Netscape 6.2 not IE. I may be crazy but I'm not masochistic. 2. Recently booted from a different start-up disk containing 10.1.3. All icons displayed and unstuffed normally. I tried downloading new files. They downloaded, mounted and unstuffed - perfectly. 3. Booted back into 10.1.5. All icons became Excel or Word. Would not unstuff. New downloads mounted improperly and would not unstuff. Hope this helps. Frank
Hi Frank;
Something has obviously been corrupted (and the icons would seem to point to the likely culprit) in your 10.1.5 installation.
The only, rather unpalatable, suggestion I can think of is to do a reinstall, and perhaps stop at 10.1.4 for now, but I'm not an OS X troubleshooting expert.
Charles From: Tom Barta The pictures are lovely, but I find I prefer a "real" screensaver-- one that doesn't repeat (or at least, SEEMS like it doesn't repeat).
My favorite is "flurry" from Calem Robinson
There are two others I like at
and Illuminex.com has some I have yet to play with.
--Yours Truly,
The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here: Note: Letters to Moore's Mailbag may or may not be published at the editor's discretion. Correspondents' email addresses will NOT be published unless the correspondent specifically requests publication. Letters may be edited for length and/or context. Opinions expressed in postings to Moore's MailBag are those of the respective correspondents and not necessarily shared or endorsed by the Editor and/or Applelinks management. If you would prefer that your message not appear in Moore's Mailbag, we would still like to hear from you. Just clearly mark your message "NOT FOR PUBLICATION," and it will not be published. CM
Page: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5
|
Cool Mac Gear• iPod 1G-2G • iPod 3G • iPod 4G • iPod Mini • PowerBook-iBook • Keyboard Skins • Garageband
| ||||||
|
| ||||||||
