WinXP: Maxthon or another browser?

Our school has quite a few donated WinXP machines in good working order, but since IE8 is no longer supported I've been considering another web browser. Do you guys think that Maxthon would perform well on these legacy PCs or should I consider another browser?

Wendi

 

Hi Wendi,

I've never used Maxthon, but considering the CPU and RAM (likely) on your school's XP machines, I would suggest Chrome as it's reputed to have the least drain on system resources (when compared to other browsers).

Cruise

 

Single core CPU, 512MB RAM, XP ... and the only usable browser is Opera 12.16 (and older versions), everything else, including Chrome, Maxthon, Firefox, ... is sluggish.

 

Hey Wendi,

After trying several of the more well-known browsers to replace IE8, my son found and finally settled on SlimBrowser for his XP system (2.8GHz P4, 1GB RAM) and likes it. He tells me it's relevant, fast, lean and has very nice built-in features!

TS

Edit:
My son related the above info to me when we spoke in June (Father's Day). Having just read this post he phoned to tell me that he is now running GreenBrowser, which he finds even less demanding on his CPU & RAM than SlimBrowser! Just another alternative for you to consider/try Wendi.

 

You need to try Palemoon

 

My son ran Palemoon on on his XP box after trying FF (which I use) for a couple of days but they both bogged-down his system!

 

Depending on who is administering those systems and what they are being used for, I would consider installing a Linux distro on them. You know XP is reaching EOL next spring.

I realize there are people on this forum that are happy with XP and intend to stick with it, but they are vigilant about security and may know more about how to protect their systems. Although, Linux has its own learning curve.

 

On my slightly underpowered (Vista) notebook I use a PortableApps version of Maxthon. I run it from a folder on the C-Drive. A shortcut can be made for the desktop. I should imagine it could be run on XP as well. If it can be run from a pendrive I should imagine it can be run on a machine running XP.

 

Agree from experience! Don't think most people are familiar with Maxthon or Opera, so that might present a problem in itself.

 

Depends what you want from a browser.?
They all fundamentally perform the same function which is to take you from one website to the other.

Websites are the same no matter what browser you use.
We all use different cars but the road is the same.(excuse the analogy.)

Do you want a multitude of extensions etc to choose from?
Then firefox is the browser for you.

Would you like speed.?
Then chrome is the one for you.

Personal preferences must be set out in your mind and then choose the browser which fits your needs.

Good luck.!

 

I don't think there is any speed difference between these two any more.

 

@SirDrexl: Linux is out of the question. While I am responsible for administering these systems, 'Windows 101' is part of the curricula!

@All others who responded: Thanks for your suggestions. I'll try some (if not all) of those browsers and try to determine which one is most appropriate for these machines (and of course, for the students).

Wendi

 

chrome on my machine's drains tons of cpu, especially on flash.

the drain is so heavy it cant max out my connection on speedtest.net as flash saturates the cpu, both IE and FF dont have the same flash issue.

I spent hours one day trying to fix it as I know chrome has 2 types of flash plugins, but both types had the same problems and I eventually gave up.

 

Yes, I agree. Chrome is a huge drain & quite bloaty I think. Opera 15 is good with flash, I don't have any problems with Maxthon with flash, although its adblocking on YouTube is sporadic at best.

 

Can you tell us more about these systems? Pale Moon, for instance, was suggested but it's optimized for more recent CPUs; it won't run on a Pentium III or Athlon XP.

 

Sure I can. They are all Dell Dimension 4600 desktops, configured exactly the same, as follows:

Processor: 2.66MHz Pentium 4 (single core, hyper-threading)

Memory: 1GB PC3200 DDR SDRAM

HDD: 80.0GB ATA/100 7200RPM

Video: Integrated Intel Extreme Graphics 2

OS: Windows XP Pro (SP3)

Browser: Internet Explorer 8


Please let me know if you need any additional info.

Wendi

 

Wendi,

Because some posters claim that Chrome loads the CPU quite a bit (which I did not realize when I suggested it) and the target platform (described above), it would be best to look elsewhere. However, as the browser is to be used in a teaching environment I think that your choice should be a 'mainstream' browser.

Cruise

 

A browser's a browser. Maxthon is near enough in appearance & use to Chrome whether it's considered 'mainstream' or not. It also has a built in adblocker & note making app & a (Safari-style) Reader Mode, which must be an advantage in education. It's one of the prime reasons I use Maxthon portable in my capacity as a lecturer at work.

Personally I think Maxthon will run fine on XP, portable or local drive version.

 

Daveski,

As you can tell from the title of this thread I haven't ruled-out Maxthon, I'm simply trying to determine if there's a better alternative for the specific platform in question (post 16) and the target audience.

Wendi

 

Yeah, I figured. I'm pretty sure Mx will be fine for that platform. I think most of the major browsers would be though. I wouldn't have thought that there would be much in it.

Mx almost certainly has the best score on the HTML5 Test though.

At least with Mx you wouldn't have to worry about extensions so much as it has so much already built in.

 

Hi Wendi,

You probably haven't yet arrived at a decision, but when you do, please post it back here.

Cruise

 

IMO Maxthon will run fine as long as the CPU is 1.2GHz or more. Below that, I'm not too sure.

Maxthon should be fine for your Pentium 4 computers. Do give it a try, though I am a bit concerned about the 1GB RAM; I've seen Maxthon use upto 300MB on it's own with 15+ tabs running.

 

I'd personally stick with the opera. I love my FF for it's security and privacy attributes, but opera, with a little tweaking renders flash content so much better, and is a smoother browser. I use ver 12.16 and really like it.

 

I´m still on a pc from 2005 (AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2 Mhz with 1GB RAM), and there is only one browser that´s really usable for day to day usage, and that´s Opera (v11).

 

Palemoon.. That one i can really recommend