Logician.org

I’m a big Maxthon fan. It is my default browser for years. I guess I jumped Maxthon ship in its very early days when it was known as “MyIE”. Due to my profession, I have all browsers installed and use them from time to time to test web applications but when it comes to browsing internet for myself, Maxthon is my only choice as my browser.

It has announced 2.0 version sometime ago and since I was pretty happy with 1.0, I didn’t upgraded for a long time. But then I decided it is time to move on, then for the last few weeks I’m using Maxthon 2.0. Well it is more powerful than ever and I really liked it (once again) 😉

I don’t want to compare it with IE as IE can not be considered as a browser anymore. For me, it is just a “browsing engine” anymore, not a browser to use. However firefox definetely deserves to be counted as a browser so I like to compare Maxthon with Firefox to give you an insight:

* Maxthon Uses IE Engine: This means it is prone to IE security breaches but also means it inherits its compatibility. It is upto you to decide whether this is a advantage or disadvantage.

* Maxthon is much more faster in start up: I don’t mean it is faster in compiling webpages because IMO they are both as fast. However firefox is killing me when I click its icon to start it up. It takes too long to start! Maxthon is very fast on this. Actually this is not Firefox’s fault, as Microsoft loads IE engine to memory during Windows start up and since Maxthon uses this engine, its start up time is incredible fast. But Firefox has to load all its .DLL’s and libraries to the memory from the ground so it takes a lot of time for it to initiate. Even if it is not firefox’s fault, I’m the one experiencing this delay as a user so I have my right to dislike it anyway! I suggest firefox devs to develop to caching system which will initiate firefox related libs and dll’s during Windows start up. Until then, Firefox will get a big minus from me.

* Both browsers uses very well designed pluggins to enhance its capabilities. I think firefox pluggins are more than maxthon pluggins and they are also written well. But IMO firefox pluggins are more interfering and is not as fast regarding performance. I don’t like firefox to check for pluggin updates everytime it starts (which is already slow enough!) and I find Maxthon pluggins less inteferring and faster.

* As for configurability, Maxthon is way ahead. It is incredible customizable in every way you can imagine and as a matter of fact this is why I love it. Firefox is also very good in customizations but it is not as good as Maxthon. Just check both browsers options pages and you’ll be amazed by number of configurability option maxthon provides.

Bottomline : I use both browsers but Maxthon is still my favorite.