A fast browser for an old computer - myth or reality? Browser with support for flash player for windows. How to download a flash player for google chrome and disable the built-in flash plugin Features of installation and use

On duty, I have to keep several computers of a very respectable age in working order. In terms of "hardware" it is not difficult - fortunately, cars released 10 years ago are often assembled (soldered) of higher quality than modern consumer goods. But in terms of software, the task is more difficult. The biggest headache for me is antiviruses and browsers. Both those and others are very eager for RAM, which, alas, is in short supply (for the last 1.5 years, the budget for updating computers at school tends to zero, and a small upgrade can be done only in the event of a complete failure of the old iron). Meanwhile, it is highly desirable to update both the antivirus and the browser periodically. We'll talk about choosing an antivirus some other time, and today I'll try to find the fastest browser for old computers.

First, a little background. Until recently, on all old computers, I installed the old woman Opera 12. But, alas, one fine day, in this once wonderful browser, a vital site - an electronic journal - began to display crookedly. Well, I had to say goodbye to the old Opera and look for alternatives.

First of all, of course, I checked how the fresh Opera would behave on old machines. Alas, as expected, Opera 30 (at the time of my experiment this version was relevant) behaved like a typical Chromium browser: it ate a lot of memory, forcing the computer to swap heavily (with an IDE disk, heh ...). Things were a little better with other typical chromo-clones (Yandex Browser, Chrome itself). The fresh Firefox 40 behaves relatively decently, but it has obvious problems with rendering the interface (slows down) and memory consumption is still quite high (especially when opening 2-3 tabs). Well, since the well-known browsers cannot cope with the task, let's try different exotics.

Part 1. Looking for a fast browser in the Chromium camp

I was pleasantly surprised in terms of speed. Being an add-on to Internet Explorer, it works very fast and does not eat up too much memory. But, alas, all this happiness is available only on Windows 7, and the weakest machines work for me under Windows XP. No, under Windows XP the mentioned SlimBrowser works great, but the IE8 engine, alas, is hopelessly outdated and does not differ much in rendering quality from the same Opera 12-.

Then I decided to try out the "unusual" variations on the Chromium theme. There were as many as three candidates. The first one is. It is positioned by developers as a lightweight and fast browser. In general, this statement is true - for a chromo-clone, Midori is really quite light and fast. But, unfortunately, on computers with 1 gigabyte of RAM (and even more so - with 512 megabytes), it is not light enough.
The second candidate is Chinese. The younger brother of the well-known Maxthon was born about a year ago. In fact, it is Chromium stripped down to the limit. It works really quite fast, but it still consumes a lot of memory. I would recommend it rather as an addition to the main browser on normal machines (when you need to quickly read something without waiting for the main browser to load - Nitro loads almost instantly). But this browser is not suitable for older computers.

Finally, the last Chrome in my experiment is an OpenSource project. The developer positions it as a successor to the good old Opera, but on a modern engine (guess which one?). True, from a technical point of view, this browser is built a little differently - it does not create a separate process for each sneeze. This feature allows the Otter (this is how the browser name is translated from English) to save memory well. In terms of speed and functionality, Otter is also pretty good. But, alas, it is still very raw and not stable enough for everyday use. And the interface, to be honest, leaves much to be desired ... Besides, Otter is essentially a theater of one actor (in the sense of a developer) and, alas, there is almost no hope for a quick project to a digestible state.

Otter Browser. In the bowels of the tundra Otter in gaiters ...

Part 2. Looking for a fast browser in the Gecko camp

Well, since the Chrome community cannot please with anything in terms of speed, let's try to turn to the second opposing side and look at browsers based on the Gecko engine. This engine is no less popular among developers, although with its own specifics. If on the basis of Chromium (and Blink) browsers are built mainly by various commercial companies (Otter is a rare exception), then Gecko is more popular with the OpenSource community. Unfortunately, this community is, for the most part, busy changing the basic functionality of Firefox, as a result of which clones of Firelis (or Firepands - as you like) are born with different sets of functions. Against this background, several projects stand out that make optimized assemblies for certain platforms. Among them, only two are focusing on making Firefox run faster. The first project is. Within its framework, assemblies are made that work (according to the assurances of the developers) 25% faster than the original FF. Until recently, within the framework of the PaleMoon project, there was even a separate assembly optimized for Windows XP, but due to the termination of official support for this OS, its release was curtailed. However, until now, there is a separate build for weak Atom-based machines, which can be used on any old computers.
In terms of speed, PaleMoon is very pleased - the subjective speed of launching the browser and loading pages on a computer with 1 GB of RAM is even higher than when working with Opera 12 (although it eats a little more memory). The interface, by the way, is rendered much faster than the ancestor in the face of FF (the sawn Australis affects). True, to make the work more convenient, the "lunar" browser will have to be finished a little (in particular - and included in the settings). In general, the impressions from this browser are the most pleasant. Among other things, PaleMoon supports extensions from FireFox, which means it will be quite easy to expand its functionality.

Finally, the last contender for the title of "fastest browser for old computers" is the browser. This project, which appeared at the dawn of Firefox's popularity, has been dormant for many years and has only recently begun to revive. In essence, it is a very distant relative of Firefox, taking only the Gecko engine from its ancestor. Due to its distance of affinity, K-Meleon does not support extensions from the original Firefox and does not inherit all its problems (speed in particular). As a result, we have a very smart and quite functional browser. By the speed of work today - K-Meleon is the leader. Only the clumsy interface and the overload of not all the necessary functions prevent it from unambiguously recommending it for use.

K-Meleon 74. The fastest browser ...

As a conclusion. Based on the results of many days of testing (including on real users), I personally opted for PaleMoon (more precisely, on its assembly for Atom). In conditions of a severe lack of RAM, it works noticeably faster than all other browsers. On computers with 512 megabytes of RAM, K-Meleon showed the best results in terms of memory consumption, however, almost 100% of users complain about its inconvenient interface (read - the unusual appearance and non-standard arrangement of controls). In theory, all this can be solved by fine-tuning the interface (fortunately, K-Meleon provides such an opportunity), but in practice the difference in the speed of work with PaleMoon is not so great. The final decision, however, is yours.

Updated March 18, 2016
I tested a couple more programs that claim to be "the fastest browser for an old computer." My impressions are in.

Updated February 19, 2019
It turns out that enthusiasts keep making PaleMoon builds that work on older computers. Here, in particular, (you need to download the file mypal-28.3.1.win32.installer.exe).

Yandex Browser, Google Chrome, Opera and Mozilla Firefox occupy the top ratings in terms of functionality, security and speed. Only you can tell which browser to choose, so let's take a quick look at the features of each browser again.

If we talk about the simplicity of the interface and innovation in total, Yandex Browser will win. The developers have proven that it is possible to create a product that is equally respected by both "dummies" and professionals, and without severe restrictions for users. The browser is cross-platform, fast, stable, synchronizes with Google and Yandex services equally. In fact, it is a combination of the best qualities of the competition with two significant additions: a unique search bar with prompts and a functional bookmark bar, codenamed "scoreboard". Recommended for downloading if you are tired of template solutions and glitches. In addition, this Safe Browser on a Windows computer is "sparing" of RAM. Other Internet browsers are much more demanding on the resources of computers and laptops.

Orbitum is considered a relatively young web browser that can compete with any well-known browser, both in terms of performance when working with Internet resources, and in terms of the number of settings and tools available. Its main feature is an interactive chat that allows you to be on any page and at the same time to correspond with friends from social media. networks. Give Orbitum a try and you will be delighted with its fast web page launch speed, the benefits of using the built-in downloader and the helpful omnibox. It is a good choice of browser for your computer at home.

Less common: Amigo and K-Meleon. The latter is a serious competitor to its progenitor, Mozilla Firefox. However, while doing well in security, the K-Meleon browser falls short in the frequency of updates. Amigo's close connection to social networks can be perceived as an advantage for regular visitors to VK, OK, FB and other social networks. But thanks to the many extensions, plugins and minimal CPU usage, the browser is smooth and glitch-free. The program will be appreciated by all categories of users.

Unfortunately, our review did not include such products as the cross-platform Comodo Dragon, good solutions Pale Moon and Srware Iron, Uran, Baidu Browser, the only browser with advanced anonymity - the Tor browser bundle, the once famous Netscape Navigator, Torch Browser, designed for true fans Rambler Rambler Browser. Each of them deserves special attention, which we will definitely pay in the following publications. I would also like to separately mention the good UC Browser. Its creators have recently begun expanding around the world, constantly adding used chips to their brainchild, such as integration with video hosting sites. There is already a positive balance in the "strengths - weaknesses" competition, but we doubt that UC can be called a secure browser. It is often installed on smartphones without the user's consent.

Adobe Flash Player, in fact, is a monopoly and it is quite difficult to find a worthy replacement for it that would just as well cope with all the tasks that Flash Player performs. Still, we tried to find an alternative.

Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-platform and cross-browser platform with which you can create interactive Internet applications, programs for PCs and mobile devices. As soon as Microsoft Silverlight appeared on the market, it immediately received the status of the "killer" of Adobe Flash, because the product was designed specifically to expand the capabilities of the browser. The application is popular not only among ordinary users, but also among developers of web products due to its wide capabilities.

For the user, the main advantage of using this plug-in, in comparison with Adobe Flash Player, is the lower system requirements, which allows you to work with the plug-in even on a netbook.

HTML5

For a long time, HTML5 has been the main visual effects tool on websites of all kinds.

In order to interest the user, any Internet resource must be of high quality, high-speed, and also attractive. Adobe Flash, unlike HTML5, greatly overloads the site's pages, which affects the loading speed indicators. But of course HTML5 is much inferior in functionality to Flash Player.

The development of web applications and sites based on HTML5 has ensured their functionality, lightness and visual appeal. At the same time, newcomers to web development at first glance are unlikely to find the difference between projects created in HTML5 and Adobe Flash.

Is life possible without Flash Player?

Many users don't use Adobe Flash Player at all. Since now many browsers are trying to move away from using Flash Player, then, having removed this software, you will hardly notice the changes.

You can use the Google Chrome browser, which contains an auto-updating Flash Player. That is, you will have a Flash Player, but not a system-wide one, but a built-in one, the existence of which you would not have guessed.

So, deeds conclusions. Adobe Flash Player is a slightly outdated technology that needs to be replaced. Therefore, we tried to find something to replace it with. None of the technologies considered surpasses Flash Player in functionality, but, no matter what, they are gaining popularity.

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The Google Play Store does not officially support Flash on Android devices. For him, updates and bug fixes are not released here if you install Flash Player from external sources.

If your smartphone or tablet is running an Android version more recent than Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, it is not possible to get the Flash Player from Adobe. Regardless, there are several Flash-enabled browsers on Android if you need to watch videos and run games on this technology. If you don't want to install browsers, you can manually install Adobe Flash Player on Android.

Let's see what these browsers are. Among them there are both free and paid ones.

Boat browser

Boat Browser is a fast and functional browser for Android. There are numerous settings here, installing extensions makes it even more powerful.

In this browser, you can set the background color, as well as what will happen when you press the volume buttons. They can switch between tables, scroll up / down the page or enlarge images on it. Powerful Bookmarks Management supports new folder creation, drag and drop technology, import, export, sync browser bookmarks. There is support for Flash videos and YouTube videos, voice commands and search, simple file downloads and much more.

After Adobe announced it was discontinuing Flash Player for Android, users began looking for an alternative. We will present a couple of interesting options.

Flash Player is dead. Long live HTML5! In a tense struggle, Adobe decided to cede a segment of the video and web application viewing market by users of mobile devices on the Android platform. This was to be expected - the application often "screwed up". The official reason for the developers' refusal to support Flash Player was its unstable work on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). The program disappeared from the Google Play market, and Adobe itself urged users to remove the latest version of Flash. Those models (that is, on the Android platform up to version 4.0 inclusive), on which the Flash player was already installed before the last update, will continue to perform their functions, as well as receive patches for security updates.

But what about those who have recently purchased an Android smartphone or tablet?

Option 1. Browsers with HTML 5 support

Most of the popular Android browsers support HTML5 technology, which has been used by most sites that used Flash before. For example, the same YouTube. This means that you can not bother and just install one of the advanced web browsers. If you often watch videos on the Internet and play games online, then it is better to choose Firefox or Dolphin, in Chrome you will have to additionally install a flash player. It's not difficult, but it takes a little time.

By the way, Dolphin proved to be the best in HTML5 benchmarks, primarily because of the JetPack engine. Chrome is almost at the same level. Opera Mobile displays HTML5 content slightly worse. In particular, it has some problems with the Mandelbrot benchmark.

Firefox for Android, in principle, also plays HTML5 content and JavaScript scripts, launching such tabs in a separate process, but at the same time "slows down". Nevertheless, the flash player in it is quite functional right after installing the browser. You don't have to install anything additionally, just click “Play” and watch your favorite videos.

Option 2. Applications

Some web pages still require Flash. For example, your favorite game or blog videos. What, then, to do?

Adobe programmers came up with this - they developed the Adobe AIR framework. By downloading an application with this name, you can freely work with content on Flash technology. Adobe AIR supports Java Script, AJAX, Adobe Flash, and Adobe Flex. It also allows you to port and deploy web applications on your communicator.

If you are only interested in videos on the VKontakte website or on YouTube, but you want to do without a browser with HTML5 support, then you can download the VKontakte Music and Video application or YouTube for Android. This way, you can view the clips or movies you are looking for without launching your browser.