Avant vs. Maxthon

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Corliss
  • Start date Start date
omega said:
How about, "Because I'm a greedy, compulsive geek" ?

I liked to have project groups that would often get into the range of
70+ tabs, and that was a good ceiling. And, max on my w98 resources
allowance was about 110 tabs. So I need to know when I'm passing the ~70
range.

On a web search project, then I especially watch my tabs counter. I
consider that I have got the bulk of the info on the subject query
handled once I've brought things down to under ~30 pages. When I've
brought it down to under say ~20, where I've saved the fullest or most
useful pages, into a set of "favorites groups," that's the count where I
feel things are at the level I was aiming for.

The tabs counter served me very usefully in different projects involving
web information. I was dependent on it in a central way, kind of the
same way we're regularly looking at the clock during various projects.

Eh, but Bloodchen utterly ignored my plight (and others who valued the
tabs counter as well). :(
Click to expand...

Write a plug-in. As plug-ins go, that should be one of the simplest to
code.
 
I finally plunged into the IE-based tabbed browsers with Avant 10 build
29. It works very nicely and I haven't experienced any bugs other than
the memory leak in the previous build which was corrected inside of a
week.

MyIE2/Maxthon didn't appeal to me the several times I tried it mostly
because of the Send Page feature and some configuration quirks I was
having. Avant seems to be more suited to me and it's the only tabbed
browser I've seen yet where the Send Page feature actually works.
Click to expand...

I reverted to an old version of Myie2 also as Maxthon wouldn't display
some of my important web site pages propperly also couldn't get a
download manager to work with it, tried Avant but no matter what I tried
couldn't get it to work , kep on saying cannot display the page.
I think tjey are killing them with trying to put to many things in them.
regards
oldfart.
 
Tim Weaver said:
[Maxthon and tabs counter]

On that note, how about this?

http://maxthon.tarapages.com/plugins/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=566
Click to expand...

Thank you, Tim. Well, that looked so good....

Unfortunately, I found I am not able to use it. :(

Its functionality is dependent upon my changing my MSIE settings in the
internet zone to enable active scripting, javascripts. Something I am
not inclined to do.

I get the same limitation with MSIE and Bookmarklets, result of my not
allowing active scripting on as default for internet zone...

The set of script-based add-ons that do work are those for MSIE's global
context-menus, explorer bars, toolbars. Those which look for their
scripting permissions in the local ("my computer") zone, and not the
internet zone.


.. . . .
I read the forum thread from the link on the page...

http://forum.maxthon.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=7455

Tara is a major contributor to the Maxthon community, and has voiced
support for the tabs counter a plurality of occasions. I really don't
get why Bloodchen has never added it back in. It took up the tiniest
amount of space on the status bar with it toggled on. And it could be
re-implemented the same way as other Maxthon status bar objects, where
user chooses to have it display or not...
 
Tim Weaver said:
[Maxthon and tabs counter]

On that note, how about this?

http://maxthon.tarapages.com/plugins/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=566
Click to expand...

Thank you, Tim. Well, that looked so good....

Unfortunately, I found I am not able to use it. :(

Its functionality is dependent upon my changing my MSIE settings in the
internet zone to enable active scripting, javascripts. Something I am
not inclined to do.

I get the same limitation with MSIE and Bookmarklets, result of my not
allowing active scripting on as default for internet zone...

The set of script-based add-ons that do work are those for MSIE's global
context-menus, explorer bars, toolbars. Those which get their scripting
permissions level from the local ("my computer") zone, and not the internet
zone.


.. . . .
I read the forum thread from the link on the plugin page you gave.
http://forum.maxthon.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=7455

Tara is a major contributor to the Maxthon community, and has voiced
support for the tabs counter a plurality of occasions. I really don't
get why Bloodchen has never added it back in. It took up the tiniest
amount of space on the status bar with it toggled on. And it could be
re-implemented the same way as other Maxthon status bar objects, where
user chooses to have it display or not...
 
As for any complaints, I have only a minor one so far and it's that
the tab bar is at at the bottom of the window. Do you know if there's
some way to move it to the top? I read the help file, but couldn't see
anything listed about it.
Click to expand...

The only complaint I have regarding Avant is that I haven't yet figured out
how to rearrange the order of windows within a group before it opens them
all up. Right now I am reduced to dragging tabs to the desired position.
 
Phil said:
Make sure the toolbars are unlocked then just drag it up to where you want
it to go, much like Windows' quick launch bar, then lock the toolbars
again.
Click to expand...

Jeez. I was really tired last night, but still should have caught
that. Thanks for your help.

--
Regards from John Corliss
No adware, cdware, commercial software, crippleware, demoware,
nagware, shareware, spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses
or warez please.

Because Andy Mabbett is stalking me in this group, I have him killfiled.
 
Fuzzy said:
@corp.supernews.com:




It can be moved to the top (that's where I have it). Just make sure your
toolbars are unlocked and click on the vertical bar on the very left side of
the tab bar and drag it to where you want.
Click to expand...

As I said to to Phil, I was tired last night (had going for 19 hours)
but should have caught it. Thanks for replying.

--
Regards from John Corliss
No adware, cdware, commercial software, crippleware, demoware,
nagware, shareware, spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses
or warez please.

Because Andy Mabbett is stalking me in this group, I have him killfiled.
 
badgolferman said:
The only complaint I have regarding Avant is that I haven't yet figured out
how to rearrange the order of windows within a group before it opens them
all up. Right now I am reduced to dragging tabs to the desired position.
Click to expand...

Hmmm.... Well, maybe you can recommend that to the author? I agree it
sounds like a good feature to have.

http://www.avantbrowser.com/contact.html

--
Regards from John Corliss
No adware, cdware, commercial software, crippleware, demoware,
nagware, shareware, spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses
or warez please.

Because Andy Mabbett is stalking me in this group, I have him killfiled.
 
oldfart said:
I reverted to an old version of Myie2 also as Maxthon wouldn't display
some of my important web site pages propperly also couldn't get a
download manager to work with it, tried Avant but no matter what I tried
couldn't get it to work , kep on saying cannot display the page.
I think tjey are killing them with trying to put to many things in them.
Click to expand...

That is a definite possibility. That Avant and Maxthon are competing
with each other is probably the impetus behind that problem too. It
may not give either of them as much time for dealing with bugs as
well. Regardless, Avant has fewer of them from my viewpoint than Maxthon.

--
Regards from John Corliss
No adware, cdware, commercial software, crippleware, demoware,
nagware, shareware, spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses
or warez please.

Because Andy Mabbett is stalking me in this group, I have him killfiled.
 
omega said:
The refusal to offer any no-install download choices is very annoying.
It's a self-contained program, settings stored in local ini. MyIE's only
reg writes would be user-added (say, if asked it to handle associations).

Avant, OTOH, is built to litter the environment. It forces one to store all
their settings files way off in the appdata directory, and gives no choice
there.
Click to expand...

Not only that, but the data stored there is akin to MS Index.dat
files. They can be emptied more easily though, but still I don't like
this activity.
It forces writes on the HKCR section of the registry (CLSIDs etc).
And that which may or may not still be the case with the latest version: It
puts its name into the header that will be sent out when you are browsing the
web with any MSIE-based web browser.
Click to expand...

Now this really sucks. Maxthon gives you the option of not adding a
browser ID. That alone is enough to make me go back to Maxthon or to
entirely give up on both Avant and Maxthon since Maxthon has other
problems I find unacceptable.
As well, its installer added global menus
for its own self that would show up in one's other installed MSIE-based browsers.
Click to expand...

This is definitely not good at all. However, I saw no indication of
this problem in IE itself.
I'm ignoring the offensively retarded - and destructive - behavior on registry
associations committed by earlier incarnations of Avant. I'm talking about
the latest version 10, about the way it is designed. I installed the ver 10
only for minutes, for purpose of learning whether its horrid registry disaster
was fixed. That part was fixed --
Click to expand...

Not from what I can see. I opened Total Uninstall and counted the
registry changes made during the installation of Avant. Over 90 of them!
but its behavior to litter files off in the
appdata dir, and to do HKCR writes, it remains inherent design. (I'll append
to the end of my post a paste of the reg section of my install report, to
illustrate what I mean by its HKCR writes. Just note that it makes greater
sense for anyone interested to create their own logs, particularly for the
sake of covering any differences between one Avant release and another.)
Click to expand...

I backed up my install with Total Uninstall and as I mentioned, have
just reviewed the changes to the registry. Definitely not good.
It is Bloodchen's program which is refreshingly clean and standalone.
All this might be trivial or irrelevant for most users -- but for those
who do care about this kind of thing, impact on reg and external files,
then this part of the contest is not contest. MyIE/Maxthon beats Avant
by a million miles.
Of course, while Maxthon wins, it still gets demarked at least 20
penalty points for refusing to offer any distribution other than the


I was happiest back somewhere around version 7x. Before the onset of the
nag-donation windows. And, before Bloodchen so broke my heart by eliminating
the one feature that mattered to me more than all the subsequently-added
features combined: the tabs counter in the status bar. :<
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply. You pointed out a lot of stuff not to like
about Avant. Guess it has to come off since I don't like having my
registry raped.

--
Regards from John Corliss
No adware, cdware, commercial software, crippleware, demoware,
nagware, shareware, spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses
or warez please.

Because Andy Mabbett is stalking me in this group, I have him killfiled.
 
Fuzzy said:
John Corliss wrote:




I looked at both and in the end preffered Avant. They are very similar but I
found Avant more customizable. YMMV
Click to expand...

I agree that this is the case, but Omega (Karen S.) pointed out some
very ugly stuff about Avant. I may try Maxthon again (a newer version
than I was using) but only reluctantly.

--
Regards from John Corliss
No adware, cdware, commercial software, crippleware, demoware,
nagware, shareware, spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses
or warez please.

Because Andy Mabbett is stalking me in this group, I have him killfiled.
 
Thanks for your reply. You pointed out a lot of stuff not to like
about Avant. Guess it has to come off since I don't like having my
registry raped.
Click to expand...

How would this affect your use of the program? Just because Avant puts
a bunch of stuff in the registry doesn't mean it will slow down your
computer or start spying on you. What is this big aversion to registry
entries all about anyway? It's there for the use of the operating
system and installed applications. Now if they are not removed during
uninstallation then I would have a problem with that.
 
I'm a little frustrated with Maxthon lately. There is really no help
file, and there seems to be several bugs for which I can't figure out
any workaround.

Has anybody enough experience using both browsers (actually overlays
for IE) to say which program is the better?
Click to expand...

I don't find a single bug in Maxthon in my daily usage. Are you sure you are
using updated Maxthon-compatible plugins? Some of them get errors unless
updated to the latest.

One doesn't really need help for Maxthon. It's really simple, just a lot of
options to choose from. Maxthon has an excellent forum. Click "Help",,
"Maxthon Forum". Everything in the Maxthon Options menu is
self-explanatory.

I like Avant, but it's STILL unstable. I'm watching their forums, and when
the instability goes away, I'll give it another whirl.

-- Bob
 
badgolferman said:
How would this affect your use of the program? Just because Avant puts
a bunch of stuff in the registry doesn't mean it will slow down your
computer or start spying on you. What is this big aversion to registry
entries all about anyway? It's there for the use of the operating
system and installed applications. Now if they are not removed during
uninstallation then I would have a problem with that.
Click to expand...

From what lots of people say, the larger and more unstable the
registry gets, the more prone to errors during bootup a computer becomes.

And I totally agree.... entries not being removed during
uninstallation is a HUGE problem that Windows has. This also means
that the registry can wind up having enormous numbers of worthless
lines in it after several uninstalls. If a program like "Total
Uninstall" can be written to provide for thorough program uninstalls,
why can't MS incorporate such a feature into its OS? God knows they
rip enough stuff off from other people already (IMO.)

--
Regards from John Corliss
No adware, cdware, commercial software, crippleware, demoware,
nagware, shareware, spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses
or warez please.

Because Andy Mabbett is stalking me in this group, I have him killfiled.
 
From what lots of people say, the larger and more unstable the
registry gets, the more prone to errors during bootup a computer
becomes.
Click to expand...

This is partially true. But it is entries that are orphaned or pointing
to wrong locations that are the problem. If you do an occassional
cleaning of the registry with one of those programs like Regseeker then
the bad entries are removed.
And I totally agree.... entries not being removed during
uninstallation is a HUGE problem that Windows has. This also means
that the registry can wind up having enormous numbers of worthless
lines in it after several uninstalls. If a program like "Total
Uninstall" can be written to provide for thorough program uninstalls,
why can't MS incorporate such a feature into its OS? God knows they
rip enough stuff off from other people already (IMO.)
Click to expand...

I disagree that it is Microsoft's fault that poorly written programs
uninstallers do not clean themselves up properly. I'll bet that if you
installed a Windows operating system and only Microsoft products on your
computer, operating system failures would be minimal at best.

Anyway, I digress. Don't let registry entries be the determining factor
of whether you should use an excellent program like Avant browser. Let
the program's usefulness be the guide.
 
badgolferman said:
This is partially true. But it is entries that are orphaned or pointing
to wrong locations that are the problem. If you do an occassional
cleaning of the registry with one of those programs like Regseeker then
the bad entries are removed.



I disagree that it is Microsoft's fault that poorly written programs
uninstallers do not clean themselves up properly. I'll bet that if you
installed a Windows operating system and only Microsoft products on your
computer, operating system failures would be minimal at best.
Click to expand...

Installers got nothing to do with it. Microsoft could improve on the
System Restore feature for instance.
Back in DOS days, you could usually remove a program by simply
deleting it's directory. If there were modifications made to the
autoexec.bat and config.sys you removed them. However, that was a pain
in the ass too IMO.
The problem with software nowadays is that all authors think that
no way in the world will you ever remove their program and that's just
not realistic.
Anyway, I digress. Don't let registry entries be the determining factor
of whether you should use an excellent program like Avant browser. Let
the program's usefulness be the guide.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I disagree. I just don't like registry bloat.

--
Regards from John Corliss
No adware, cdware, commercial software, crippleware, demoware,
nagware, shareware, spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses
or warez please.

Because Andy Mabbett is stalking me in this group, I have him killfiled.
 
Sorry, I disagree. I just don't like registry bloat.

Okay, I'll respect that. By the way, how many registry entries does the
Mozilla program you're using have?
 
John said:
I'm a little frustrated with Maxthon lately. There is really no help
file, and there seems to be several bugs for which I can't figure out
any workaround.

Has anybody enough experience using both browsers (actually overlays for
IE) to say which program is the better?

Avant: http://www.avantbrowser.com/
Maxthon: http://www.maxthon.com/en/index.htm
Click to expand...

Give GreenBrowser a try - still downloadable in zip form (no install)
and is based off the same original MyIE code that MyIE2 is.

Toad
 
badgolferman said:
Okay, I'll respect that. By the way, how many registry entries does the
Mozilla program you're using have?
Click to expand...

Heh. Smartass.

Guess it devolves down to a balancing act between program usefulness
and registry bloat (more or less like you said). Since I use Moz, the
need for an MSIE overlay is less significant. Also, I *loath* Outlook
Express because of it's dangerous default configuration and much
prefer the Moz mail and news reader.

Last night I went back to (a newer version of) Maxthon. I was
pleasantly surprised to discover that since during the uninstall of
the previous version I opted not to delete the Maxthon folder, all of
my settings were maintained and the update went very painlessly. I was
also very happy with the way that "Total Uninstall" totally
uninstalled Avant.

--
Regards from John Corliss
No adware, cdware, commercial software, crippleware, demoware,
nagware, shareware, spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses
or warez please.

Because Andy Mabbett is stalking me in this group, I have him killfiled.
 
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