Get More Done with Alternative Web Browsers: Flock, Lunascape, SeaMonkey, and Avant
The big players in the browser wars are well known: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. [Ed. note: Opera, while excellent, currently accounts for less than 2% of the browser market.] For most people, that provides more than enough choice for anyone wanting to get things done on the web. But there are dozens and dozens more browsers out there. Most are just small projects based on one of the Big Four's rendering engines and don't really add many features, or are intended for very specific applications (such as pure text browsing or debugging).
But there are a few standout alternative browsers that bring innovative new features or faster ways of doing things. Flock, Lunascape, SeaMonkey, and Avant all have unique aspects that can help you get certain things done faster, depending on what you need. And they're all completely free, so feel free to experiment and find something to fit your needs.
The "Social Media" Browser -- Flock
Flock is a browser based on Mozilla's Gecko engine, and was created to be almost a pure portal for social media. Plugins integrating Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Livejournal, RSS, and more allow you to log in to these services and loads them dynamically into a custom sidebar that constantly updates these feeds. In addition to real-time updates from social media feeds, you can also use the built-in blog editor to update many blogging services, drag and drop content from websites into an integrated web clipboard, and even upload photos to services like Flickr and Picasa.
Because Flock is based on Firefox, most of the plugins for Firefox will work just fine in Flock--but not all of them. Fortunately Flock has its own plugins portal that will let you know what's available if you want to extend its functionality even further.
If you spend a lot of time juggling your social life online, Flock is a jacknife that can make it as simple as a click or two to update all your feeds and keep everything (and everyone) connected. If you don't have at least two accounts on social sites like Twitter or Facebook, and don't have a blog you update regularly, you won't get much use out of Flock. But if you practically live online, it's a godsend. Expect a huge memory footprint--opening the People and Media sidebars with just one browser tab takes well over 100MB of memory on my machine--but the idea is that Flock can condense the features of a lot of discrete programs you use to keep tabs on your online life into one simple, extensible app.
Flock is available for Windows and Mac (it works on Linux too with a bit of hacking) and is available here.
The "Has to Render Everything" Browser -- Lunascape
Lunascape is billed as "the world's only triple-engine browser"; that means it's running Firefox's Gecko engine, Internet Explorer's Trident, and Safari's Webkit all under the hood simultaneously. What this means is a faster overall browsing experience, especially in start-up times and Javascript performance. It also means that you can change rendering on the fly. Got a page that requires Internet Explorer to view properly? Just click to switch the rendering engine and there's no need to fire up IE7.
Pop-up blocking, page zoom, form data saving, and mouse gestures are supported as well as support for a lot of personalization like detachable sidebars, menu customization, and more. There are a lot of skins available for Lunascape as well.
This is a strong browser if you want the web to "just work"; using Lunascape, you'll get fast performance and there'll be no page that requires you open it in a different browser. The interface is, to my mind, a little bit cluttered--from a design perspective, it's the "anti-Safari", showing the majority of options at all times unless you turn them off. Still, it's fast, it's fully customizable, and makes page breakage due to browser issues a thing of the past--particularly where Java is concerned.
Lunascape is Windows-only and is available here.
The "Internet All-in-One" Browser -- SeaMonkey
One thing I've always missed since the original Mozilla browser morphed into Firefox was the Mozilla Suite. Specifically, having a connected series of apps that handled web browsing, email, chatting, and even HTML editing all at once, and simply. While Firefox is great for people who just need a fast browser, SeaMonkey is the continuation of that "all-in-one" tradition.
SeaMonkey bundles an Internet browser, email and newsgroup client, HTML editor, IRC chat and web development tools. The browser component is essentially a straight copy of Firefox, so you won't necessarily see any speed gains, but the additional tools are integrated extremely well and extend the functionality--I can't be the only one who misses Mozilla's Kompozer for simple and elegant HTML editing, and it's resurrected here in SeaMonkey. The email client is a simplified carryover of Mozilla's popular Thunderbird, and ChatZilla takes care of IRC and newsgroup duties.
I was tempted to title this the "Web Developer's Browser", but I think anyone can find an integrated environment for browsing, chatting, and email useful. Highly recommended if you want all your online basics covered in a simple and reliable manner.
SeaMonkey is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux and is available here.
The "Internet Explorer, But Better" Browser -- Avant
"That's all well and good," you say, "but I need Internet Explorer." Fear not: Avant Browser is based on Internet Explorer's Trident engine, but brings over the best features from competing browsers. Avant supports mouse gestures, pop-up blocking, form data saving, privacy protection, an integrated RSS reader, customizable skins, and more. It's best feature is online profile storage, which saves your bookmarks and profile information and lets you use your custom settings anywhere.
Avant is a great choice if you want a fast, stable, and customizable browser but are still tied to Internet Explorer for whatever reason.
Avant Browser is Windows-only and available here.
--Aric A.
nicholassimon on November 25, 2009 at 10:39 PM
If you are interested in alternative, free browsers that you can download off the internet (as opposed to Opera, Safari etc.) then check out this post detailing 7 very good alternative browser worth trying out. Read more here:
http://ninjarabbits.blogspot.com/2009/11/alternative-web-browsers.html
Nasir Gul on December 11, 2009 at 03:38 PM
browser, I prefer Mozilla...It is very fast and really like it..
by http://connectonlineshop.com/
John on January 11, 2010 at 12:02 PM
mozila and new google chrome the best ....very fast
Club Penguin Cheats on January 15, 2010 at 07:46 PM
I am impressed from this post....the person who create this post it was a great human..thanks for shared this with us.i found this informative and interesting blog so i think so its very useful and knowledge able.I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article.
Restaurang on January 21, 2010 at 09:19 AM
awesome post....thanks for sharing
discount air jordan 1 shoes onlines sales on February 26, 2010 at 11:52 PM
You may have not intended to do so, but I think you have managed to express the state of mind that a lot of people are in. cheap air jordan 22 shoes http://www.nikejordanshoes2sell.com/ The sense of wanting to help, but not knowing how or where, is something a lot of us are going through.
Johnson Yip on April 19, 2010 at 08:38 PM
I been using Avant Browser as my Daily Browser for many years. I like how I can move the buttons and tab bars to anywhere on the browser I like. Avant also comes with a lot of nice built-in skins. The online storage feature is also nice. It lets me install avant browser on any computer with an internet connection to access my bookmarks, RSS feeds, and password by just logging into my online avant storage account. I can also assign a master password to my online storage which makes it more secure since a hacker has to hack my regular online storage account and my master password which means a hacker has to hack two layers of security till he can access my user account passwords for my twitter account. I just use autofill for my non-critical accounts like Facebook, myspace, and accounts which are easy to replace.
I tried Seamonkey and Flock, but never gotten used to it, so I stuck with Firefox 3.6 instead.
sweetie bracelets on June 30, 2010 at 06:47 PM
Every girl will be happy with inspired links of London jewelry which make her look dazzling and outstanding; every girl will be happier to obtain brand jewelry with less money which makes them a sense of achievement. That's why girls all like links jewelry where various links of London jewelries are at most keen prices
More http://www.linksjewelry.co.uk/Bracelets/
Elle Lawliette on July 27, 2010 at 02:04 PM
What wasn't mentioned is that when first installing Seamonkey, you can choose the components you want to install. So if you just need a browser plus e-mail client, you just check those two options.
As far as it being basically a copy of Firefox and Thunderbird, that is and isn't true. It does have similar features (although the layout differs slightly), but does not support Firefox or Thunderbird add-ons, it has a fair number of its own, some of them being mods of Firefox add-ons designed to make them work on Seamonkey.
Another advantage is its smaller memory print, meaning that it doesn't gobble up memory like Firefox, even with extensions.