Firefox Lite And Old PCs Could Crush IE 434
Eatfrank writes "A recent CNet article suggests that Mozilla should pipe a lite version of Firefox into older PCs to further attack IE's dominance: 'Firefox supporters, take note. A bare-bones Firefox will get the browser into more houses, increasing the Fox's market share and keeps it in novice users' eyes for when they get a new PC ... a truly great super-lightweight browser would have the security of Firefox, without the add-ons, without the tabs, yes, even without favourites, history lists and customisability. The Firefox name is synonymous with security and Web-browsing vigilance. Why not give this to the processing lightweights of the PC world?'"
They've had this idea before... (Score:5, Informative)
If my memory serves me well, it was going to be called "Firefox".
Opera? (Score:5, Informative)
"Nate is CNET.co.uk's expert on digital music and portable media"
Expert? He hasn't even figured out that the Opera browser even runs on mobile phones, and using the same engine as the desktop version...
Re:Opera? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Opera? (Score:3, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Opera? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:mozilla firefox ??? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Opposite effect? (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, it's called a default homepage. You build a local index.html that includes the links you want (you call them Favorites, but we in the non-Windows world call them Bookmarks) and load that as your default homepage in FF-Slim.
This is not an issue at all. History might be a problem, but you can always use 'about:cache' or 'about:history' to derive that.
Tabs heavy? I'd suggest the opposite... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Opera? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:They've had this idea before... (Score:4, Informative)
"160go hard drive don't work under some old computers (PII, 1st or 2nd generation of celeron with old bios)."
Stick the drive in a newer linux box, and make a small boot partition (/dev/hda1) that is small enough for the current bios (I've stuck 160 gig hard drives in machines that won't see beyond 8 gigs with this trick), so it works. Make /dev/hda2, /dev/hda3, etc in your preferred layout. Format each as ext3, reiserfs, fat32, whatevr your poison. This works for win9x, winnt, as well as linux.
Move the drive to the old box, boot off the cd-rom, install on the only visible partition (the small one).
Reboot, and at the end of the boot process, your other partitions are visible. On wn9x systems, your other partitions are limited to 32 gig each, so make sure you do under that. On winnt systems, you're limited to 128gig (yes, I know, its supposed to be 256 gig, but don't do it ... you might even want to stay below the 32 gig limit and stick with vfat, just to be safe), on linux systems, you're limited to ... whatever your heart desires.
Note: if you're using fat32 and are foolish enough to go over the 32 gig limit, you WILL be sorry. It will appear to format, and it will even appear to hold, say, 128 gig. However, once you try to write past the first 32 gig, it will over-write from the beginning of the partition, erasing data ... so if you're doing this with a windows box, your absolute safest bet is:
Re:Opera? (Score:4, Informative)
When I sat magic number, I mean the point where more memory doesn't make a difference on a default install. I have always encouraged people to raise their ram to at least this number and on more then one occasion have heard reports of "it acts like a new computer".
If you are using just 256 of ram, you probably won't know what your computer could do so you don't see it as a slow down. However, When Someone who does have enough memory, even if it is the same processor, uses the same computer, they will think it is slow. If your ever using XP with less then 512 memory, try begging, barrowing or whatever you have to do to jump it up to at least 512 and you will see the difference. You will probably wonder why you ever had less. And yes, this does effect just using it to write letters, surf the interweb, and check email. You don't need to be doing anything fancy to see the benefits.
Re:Opera? (Score:2, Informative)
Also, if you thought Opera was less confusing to use than Firefox or IE, I am sooooooo glad I don't work at your company.