I bought a cheap Win 7 PC off Ebay a few days ago (due to arrive by end of the month), and I am looking into what browsers are compatible, as I will be ditching Firefox and Chrome. Preliminary research on Google indicates these are the contenders: Basilisk Brave Cliqz Cyberfox Opera Slimjet SRWare Iron Torch Ungoogled Chromium Have I missed any? I saw mention of Waterfox, but cannot tell from their website if it runs on 32-bit Win 7 or not. Anyone know for sure?
Waterfox is only for 64 bit systems, I would say go for Vivaldi, it is the most complete browser on the market.
You missed Pale moon, SeaMonkey, Edge browser and a few other Chromium based browsers. Cyberfox is a dead project since 2017
Brave - Shields (best overall built-in blocker+ getting better, maintained well),clean UI and options to cut out some junk, e.g. Rewards, Google, Twitter, etc. Fast Ungoogled Chromium - minimalist UI, "privacy"-oriented", no sync or Google. User configurable features, e.g. extensions. Faster Edgium - M$ chromium. Very nice, has Smartscreen built-in , makes lots of connections. Fastest? maybe but barely noticeable. Vivaldi - if you like loads of customization options. Too much going on for my taste. All are good choices, including Opera (which I forgot) Stay away from the others.
As far as H.264 and Flash support for watching video off the internet, are all equal, or is one better than the others?
Sorry, I don't know. I haven't used W7 in years. I would install Brave, UG Chromium or Edge (from your list) and see if they fit your needs.
Given the lack of updates for Win 7, have you considered a free OS? Also, there might still be free upgrades from Win 7 to 10.
Discontinued OS and several vulnerable browsers Those are not to recommend, more Brave, Opera. "ungoogled" chromium means no sync, no extensions, no safe lists. So this browser is not that secure as chromium or chrome. The rest above are bad clones with an outdated core - it takes time for those teams to adopt the latest changes, means that you can use a vulnerable browser for 2 or more weeks and you don't know - in special for the firefox 56 fork(s). There exist no security software to fill security flaws, they only can prevent or limit the impact. it would be good to know the hardware specs of that used piece, cpu, amount of memory, gpu, hdd and more. A small windows 10 is usable on a dual core (pentium) with 2meg ram and 250gb hdd.
I would choose Pale Moon instead. You will need to equip it with uBO Legacy in medium mode. It would be better to use Noscript or eMatrix but not all users are able to use these extensions to the best of their ability. If you then delete most of the insecure ciphers suites and also block the images mixed content, nothing will be able to pass your browser. Even in an outdated OS. There aren't many remotely exploitable bugs to worry about in W.7 just check it out on the 0-Patch blog. At the limit there is also the possibility of using 0-Patch.
I have decided to install Slimjet, SRWare Iron, Basilisk, Iridium and Waterfox. I would also like to try out either Superbird or Advanced Chrome, but am deadlocked on which one, as I cannot really find out enough about either to make an informed decision. If anyone has experience with Advanced Chrome or Superbird: https://www.superbird-browser.com/index.php https://browser.taokaizen.com/ ....and would like to send some pros or cons info my way that might help me decide, please do. According to the computer shop I used for a full-on malware scan, the OS is Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. Not what I wanted, but looks like what I got. The specs are Dell Optiplex 7010 Mini-Tower, Quad Core i7 3770 (3.4GHz), 16GB DDR3 SDRAM, 1TB Hard Drive. I also had the shop install a Syba SY-MRA55006 mobile-rack in the spare 5.25 bay, same as with my previous PC.This allows me to use both a SSD and regular hard disk in that space...the former for my secondary OS (MX Linux 17.1), and the latter for once yearly bare-metal/clone backup of the Windows OS. I used XP Pro for over three years, and had zero problems with security or anything else, other than the CA nazis and their embedded security certificates store that could not be updated, and therefore rendered all chrome/chromium-based browsers useless. That is the sole reason why I'm begrudgingly moving on to Win 7, but this is the end of the line for M$. I would never even consider Win 8, Win 10, or whatever awful rendition comes thereafter. Beyond Win 7, it will be Linux, which I am already in process of teaching myself. Given my experience with XP Pro, I am not at all concerned with security, but am focused on privacy...Win 7 is no match for XP Pro in this area, but some privacy must be sacrificed for usability.
Thanks for the tip! I have added 0-Patch site to my computer tech's to-do list, and will let him decide if it is needed.
Addendum 25 October: After finding out that I have Win 7 Pro 64-bit, I revisited the browser question, and the following is slated for install: Slimjet, Advanced Chrome, Superbird, Iridium, Basilisk, and Waterfox. For MX Linux, the following is slated for install: Waterfox, Basilisk, Ungoogled Chromium (+NeverDecaf), Slimjet, and TOR browser. Note that Installation does not equate to permanency. Each will be given an appropriate test drive, and two or more of the last-in-class underperformers will be given the boot. In three+ years of using XP Pro, I have found having four browsers (two Firefox+two chromium derivatives) is a good thing. One will be best for HTML5, one for Flash, one for WEBM, etc.
