I have aquired a Compaq Deskpro, P3, 450mhz, 128mb, 13gb, Win98. I need a web browser, and my priorities are speed and stability, not sophisticated features. My requirements as regards graphics and sound are very light. Please advise which browser / version would be best.

Also: how are the browsers aquired?
Are they to be paid for, or are they available free?

I see a whole collection of "alternate" browsers are available, but I don't know anyone who uses them.

Thanks for any suggestions.
Regards
doghead

Internet Explorer and Netscape are the best around for sure! But if you just want to surf fast and simple, you can try *Opera*. Opera is the fastest browser I know...

True story! Opera is handsdown the fastest at page loading when surfing.
Ray

I find IE6sp1 from Microsoft to be their fastest browser yet since IE4.

I have tried OffByOne and Phoenix but like IE better.

Never tried Opera so can't speak for it but many seem to like it.

Bryan

I tried Opera and never liked it.

I only use Internet Explorer. Everytime I use Netscape Navigator I just get fed up with it.

But what I am Interested in: What about Mozilla? Is this a Browser? If yes, how good is it and how complient to standards?

Mozilla Rules! (http://www.mozilla.org/) I've been abusing it for almost a year and it's still ticking. It's free, and has a new feature: the ability to defeat pop up windows. Much more stable than netscape and not part of the evil empire. I highly recommend it! Feel free to email me if you want help setting it up.

Huge fan of Opera - it's highly configurable, and, yes, it's fast (not exactly free though). Still, I wouldn't think that speed would be much of an issue on a P3.

Some of the browser 'replacements' out there are merely shells for IE - you'd have to have it installed to use them.

These are interesting remarks.

So how much $$ is Opera ??

(I should have mentioned in my original post that
I would be willing to use an older version of a
browser in order to save resources and $$$.
I mostly read a zillion newspapers, so my
graphics/sound requirements are low. Still, I
don't want to be obsessed with the "size" issue...)

About $39 (US).

You can d/l it for free, and use it indefinitely without registering, but there's an ad banner that requires the reg code to deactivate. For an initial install, the full java version is recommended. Updates are to the browser portion only, about 3 Mb or so.

Phoenix is Mozilla.
I found Phoenix to be very similar to Netscape.

Bryan

The general concensus seems to be that
Internet Explorer is less cumbersome, and
is quicker loading, than Netscape.

Where do Phoenix/Opera fit in this
comparison?

Thanks again.

Phoenix (Mozilla)is free and is a standalone program. (~14mb)

Each person has their own likes and dislikes. It would be difficult to state if you, personally, will or will not like it.

You can simply try it and if you do not like you can stop using it or just move it to the recycle bin.

No installing or uninstalling involved.

I thought Phoenix was OK but I am back to using IE6sp1.

Bryan

Thanks, everyone.

I now have Opera 6.01. I chose the non-java version for now. It allows 2 choices of screen/window setup, the difference between which I didn't understand. Choose the one on the right. This is a FAST browser, and quite functional for my needs. I've come across only one page which bitched about java, and of course the java version is there for the asking. Opera takes about 4 seconds to load to my desktop, and pages load pretty quickly, for the most part, and this is on a dial-up phone line.