Opera, Vivaldi, Chrome and slow connections

As I have mentioned before, over the last year I've been sharing a house in which for various reasons there is no internet connection. So I've been mostly using the WiFi at the public library on my laptop and from time to time picking up a connection here and there such as McDonalds and Starbucks WiFi.

I do have an unlimited data plan with my mobile phone service provider, which means I can use my phone to tether to my laptop when I am at home and wish to go online. Of course, "unlimited" really means that I get 6 GB worth before they throttle the speed down.

When I first tried out Yandex, which I did purely out of curiosity, I was not aware of a feature called "Turbo" until I started to poke around in it. Turbo is something that Yandex picked up from Opera and as far as I know no other browser comes with a similar feature. Basically it compresses data and sends it from a proxy for to speed things up. Not only would this come in handy when tethering, but also for people who live in remote areas that still use dial-up to get online. Besides, sometimes public WiFis are bogged down and it becomes useful then to. Tip: when your downloading dozens of torrents on the library WiFi it also comes in handy.

While I found Yandex to be needing more development before I would pick it up as a browser I would use, I was intrigued by this feature. I have been using Opera Beta now for the last couple of weeks, and have grown to like it, mainly because of this feature. While I have not made it my main browser, it's what I launch when my connection is slow. In many ways it reminds me of early Chrome: fast, light on the CPU and easy on memory usage. Plus, many Chrome extensions will work with it.

Vivaldi is a new browser in beta developed by Opera co-founder and former CEO Jon Stephenson. It seems to have very similar goals in mind with Yandex with the look of the browser integrating it's look with the websites you visit. It sports a similar look, feel and functionality of earlier versions of Opera. However, I found that while it was a little less sluggish than Yandex it didn't look as kewl and transparent plus there is no Turbo Mode (at least for now).

I tried a couple of Chrome extensions that are supposed to act similar to Turbo Mode with both Vivaldi and Chrome Canary but they just didn't cut the mustard. I found CC to feel much more bulkier than using Pale Moon.

I would have to recommend Opera to anyone using a slow connection and since it seems to be pretty light, I would say it would be a decent choice for any computers using 2 GB of RAM or less as well.

I'm going to keep my eye on Vivaldi and CC is still my favourite choice out of the various Chrome/Chromium forks.

Yandex Browser from our Russian Comrades

Yandex is a search engine that competes with Google and Yahoo!, mainly for Russian users.

Some time ago they developed their own web browser, which I very briefly mentioned in my piece about Chrome.

Yandex is not just another Chrome type clone. They really have gone out of their way to make something unique and innovative. Yandex uses a transparent interface so it blends right in with the website you are viewing. This is more than the hiding toolbar from view in full screen mode (F11) in other browsers like Firefox and feels a lot more professional.

At setup you can choose to use either Google, Bing or Yandex as your search engine.

Yandex also incorporates the "speed dial" feature, first trailblazed by Opera, when you open a new tab. Admittedly I have a hard time getting used to this as I tend to fill my bookmark toolbar with the sites I visit frequently for quick access. But those who like a more simple interface will probably prefer the speed dial over having 2 or 3 toolbars in view.

Adguard is present by default, which works fine. Adblock Plus works as well if you prefer it. I also installed one of the extensions that downloads flash and videos that was meant for Chrome and it worked fine. I can't say for sure how well Chrome extensions will or will not work in general, though.

One of the things I appreciate most about Yandex is also one which originated with Opera: Turbo Mode. When you are using a slow connection, it works in various ways, such as fetching compressed data or blocking flash (unless you click to view it) to speed things up for you. Right now I'm sharing a house with no internet connection, so I have to go to the library. Things are usually pretty speedy on the public WiFi, but after the library closes sometimes I use the internet from home and that means tethering from my BlackBerry. I'm on Mobilicity so I have "unlimited" data, but of course that just means once I use over 6 GB they start to throttle the speed, which can get pretty bad. It sometimes reminds me of the days of using a 28.8k modem; it was simply really bad using my normal browser.

When I set Turbo Mode to automatic in Yandex, it really did make a huge difference and browsing became tolerable again. I can imagine this feature would not only be useful for people living in Siberia but also Nunavut and other remote places that still rely on dial-up connections.

Yandex also comes with some things like "Share to Facebook" and "Tweet" features that I find handy.

However, Yandex Browser is still beta and it shows. In general I think of it as a drunk bear; strong, hairy, good looking but kind of clumsy and you probably don't want it in your house. Yeah it's kind of kewl to have a bear around, but all the broken furniture and stuff wouldn't be worth it. This Bear needs to be tamed first.

Why? Well first of all I had Yandex crash on me on several occasions. It felt clunky and laggy all around when switching and opening new tabs like it was taking a lot of power to go. Each tab is it's own process like in Chrome and when I checked task manager I saw that some tabs were using up to 200k of memory and more. To give you some idea, Pale Moon with 10 tabs open might take up 600k in total (unless there's a memory leak). When using Opera Beta the tabs average 50-100k each.

Yandex might run better on a higher end machine in 64bit, maybe something with 8 GB of RAM or more and a kickass CPU. I'd be willing to give it another spin but they definitely are going to have to make it run more efficiently. My Acer Aspire 7720-6335 is no doubt dated, but it should be able to handle a common piece of software like a web browser. In fact, once I opened 5 or more tabs they started to display improperly. Not good.

I'm currently giving Opera Beta a spin and plan to try out a new Opera fork called Vivaldi. It looks like it might have similar features to Yandex and hopefully it will run smoother.

Yandex is available for Windows, Mac, Tablets and Smartphones. However, I can't recommend Yandex just yet. 

I encourage people to keep their eye on it. It has a lot of potential and has been regarded as a bold step. It is nice to have something out there to compete with Google, that's not an American product and not afraid to try something more radical of an interface than Firefox's rather tame Australis.