Wednesday, November 26, 2008

web browsers

Everyone probably knows about Google Chrome, Google's lightweight web browserfancy information collector. What most people probably don't know is that there's another compile of the same code out there (yay open source) that omits all of the data mining stuff, turning Chrome into just another web browser.

It's called SRWare Iron.

Let's compare.

Chrome: Collects information about your web browsing habits and sends it back to Google.
Iron: None of that bullshit.

Chrome: No ad blocker.
Iron: Has one integrated, that runs off of a file "adblock.ini" in its directory. They have a file you can toss in there to block most everything on the internet. It works pretty well, I haven't seen an ad since I set it up.

Chrome: No flash blocker.
Iron: Sadly, the same.

Chrome: Uses Windows' Internet Options control panel to connect to the internet.
Iron: Sadly, still uses it. I'd like to cockblock IE and allow everything decent plz.

Chrome: Refuses to install on Windows XP SP1 or earlier.
Iron: No such artificial OS limitation.

I'm using it to write this post right now on WinXP SP1. Just like Chrome, it crashes a fair amount, but the codebase is still technically beta, so that's to be expected. Unfortunately, it lacks the one feature other browsers have where you can press F11 to browse in fullscreen, with the location/tab bars hidden except when you need them. It's still got a long way to go, but it's a decent browser.

Iron also has a portable version that you can run from a USB flash drive and makes no system configuration changes.

The verdict: Use when you need a light and fast web browser. Funny, that's what Firefox was supposed to be, but it's a behemoth now.

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