Newer zombie-like browsers...ugh.

[smallhagrid]

Thanks, but...:

Just realized I forgot to link it before. The new Developer's Edition theme in dark and light is available in all current Firefox releases if you enable it:

This in no way relates with my query from what I can tell;
It seems to be just another 'paint job' to change the colours of a really badly mangled browser from what my eyes see there.

Back when folks actually paid for a browser, and when most folks still thought that 'online' meant to use aol - there was a great example of all that a browser really needs to be and do in simplicity:
Netscape 3.03 Gold version.

-IF- that one could be made reasonably secure for these perilous times which we currently inhabit - then I would be happy to use that old thing, still.
This is not to say that I desire a DOS-like, text-only browser; I do not=> but I (and I suspect this is true for others as well...) can be very happy with something that is neither fancy nor very graphically oriented.

Jest like thangs used to was.

[JohnTHaller]

One of the issues people have with Australis is the rounded corners on tabs and the like. Enabling the developer theme ditches the Australis style and uses old-style squared tabs that are more compact and have more room for titles when you have a lot of tabs. That's why I'd suggested it.

[smallhagrid]

Thanks John.
Now I get what you meant with your suggestion.

For me it is the entire visual aspect of that australis mess that does not work; I want the classic windows ways back 100% and none of that cutesy stuff a'tall.

It is not just a preference either, sadly; it is very literally a perceptual problem that makes it near impossible for me to use things that are too graphically oriented.

[JohnTHaller]

In that case, I'd really give a try to Classic Theme Restorer: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... erestorer/

And combine that with Classic Toolbar Buttons: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cstbb/

Put together with the right set of options, you can get really close to the Firefox of old without sacrificing the speed and security of Firefox of new. In addition to using both of those and setting up your tabs and buttons as you'd like them, I'd suggest re-enabling the main menu (right click on any toolbar button like Home and check off Menu) and the standard Windows titlebar (click the hamburger menu in the upper right, select Customize, click the Titlebar button in the lower left, then Exit Customize). With those 2 extensions and those 2 changes, you can really get Firefox a lot closer to what you remember.

If people are really interested in this, I could put together a step by step How to along the lines of the (very) old how to I did to make old Firefox look like IE6 so you could substitute a secure browser for friends and family that couldn't handle the switch otherwise.

[smallhagrid]

Thanks Very Much John:

In that case, I'd really give a try to Classic Theme Restorer: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... erestorer/

And combine that with Classic Toolbar Buttons: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cstbb/

Put together with the right set of options, you can get really close to the Firefox of old without sacrificing the speed and security of Firefox of new. In addition to using both of those and setting up your tabs and buttons as you'd like them, I'd suggest re-enabling the main menu (right click on any toolbar button like Home and check off Menu) and the standard Windows titlebar (click the hamburger menu in the upper right, select Customize, click the Titlebar button in the lower left, then Exit Customize). With those 2 extensions and those 2 changes, you can really get Firefox a lot closer to what you remember.

If people are really interested in this, I could put together a step by step How to along the lines of the (very) old how to I did to make old Firefox look like IE6 so you could substitute a secure browser for friends and family that couldn't handle the switch otherwise.

This people is VERY interested to know whatever will make the newer (and for me, visually impossible) browsers into something I am able to use again.
If you do this, please post a link to it ??

Thanks Again.

Addendum=>
Regarding lobotomized browsers, here is a posting which shows that others also feel strongly about this:
http://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3415

[smallhagrid]

Thus far the 'winner' for me is K-Meleon 74.
It is incredibly light while still being able to access 'modern' sites & media.

It is also nicely plain & square - mostly easy for my messed-up vision to see, and if I can customize it a bit somehow it may become my full-time daily browser.

My 1st quest is to find out how one may change all its icons to text without having to learn any coding or such...
Only time will tell how this works out.

[Midas]

[I'm sure smallhagrid is well aware of it ] K-Meleon stable v75 has been released (changelog is at http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/changelog.txt).

Also, the "Release Notes" "Installation" section mentions portability: http://kmeleonbrowser.org/wiki/ReleaseNotes75#install...

kmeleon

[smallhagrid]

Thanks Midas !!
I have been watching & waiting for that one.

Did not see where it says this though:

If you want to get a portable installation for a USB stick for instance, make sure to uncheck the option Multi-user profiles.

Thanks very much for the pointer; seems a bit too simple to make it portable with just one wee check box...?

Now that it has come out maybe Rodocop will make a more current release of KMTwin, which I use & like very much.

Of course what I really like is the ancient Pocket K, but it has not been updated in practically forever.

Best Wishes !!

[Midas]

Tungsten is based on blink, so no go for smallhagrid -- here it is, nonetheless: http://en.tungsten-start.net/ (portable is a ~50MB download).

Double engine (Blink+Trident) Tungsten browser was still in development recently: v2.14 released 2019-01-08 (changelog at http://en.tungsten-start.net/history.html).

[smallhagrid]

My solution for all of this sort of stuff...
Go to a Linux based system;
Add all variations of WINE;
Have a VM of my own, tweaked XP for anything that isn't WINE friendly.
That seems to cover all that matters - and browser choices now abound as well as keeping my most favourite windoze portables working for me.

[webfork]

That seems to cover all that matters - and browser choices now abound as well as keeping my most favourite windoze portables working for me.

Given that you started this thread initially out of frustration with available browsers, what did you end up using?

[smallhagrid]

Thanks for asking Webfork !!

I still use K-Meleon very regularly, Mypal too - with side helpings of Palemoon (Linux) and Vivaldi (both OSes).
When I looked into viable browser choices for use with Linux I found about 10 decent choices WITHOUT having to use Chrome or Chromium at all.

[h3kt0r]

For what it's worth, i went through the same process as smallhagrid and ended up using the exact same
browsers : namely K-Meleon and MyPal.

So, if you're looking for fast, uncluttered and pleasant web browsing, you know what to use.

Especially whenever you put your [TEMP], [Downloads] and [Browser Cache] folders on a 3Gb RAM disk...