RIDGID Tools sounds like the kind of stuff that I usually delete from my mailbox. But what the heck -
Got an itch to do a browser shoot-out while checking out the site - I hope you don't mind. Haven't really compared the current versions of a number of browsers since upgrading them to recent versions. If you are not interested in the details - heck, even I am not, and I just did them - the results are -
Conclusions:
MacOS 8.6:
(1) The site works fine on MacOS 8.6 on IE 5.1.7 on an old slow Mac. Flash works. I do not particularly recollect downloading Flash on top of IE 5.1.7 - I suspect that either the IE 5.1.7 download contained Flash or IE 5.1.7 is leaching off the Flash plug-in from a prior download of IE 5.x.x.
(2) Once again, Mozilla 1.x.x proves significantly faster on Mac OS 8.6 than IE 5.1.x.
(3)
Wamcom (Mozilla 1.3.1-based) proves to be - and is also subjectively - a pretty slow browser on MacOS8.6.
(4) Didn't bother with the old Netscapes - 4.7.8 and/or 4.7.9, as I recall. They have been dog-slow (2X worse that IE) in any prior test I have done with them. Old Netscape (4.x.x) - and good ol' iCab - have long been put out to pasture.
On another platform:
Red Hat 8:
(1) Mozilla Firebird 0.6.1 (aka "Phoenix) smokes on a cheap, low-powered Linux box. But Konqueror runs right up there with Mozilla Firebird, and may bear closer scrutiny than I have previously given it - perhaps there is a reason that Apple chose Konqueror over Mozilla as the foundation for Safari. ;-)
(2) Mozilla and Galeon bring up the rear. But not too shabbily.
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The boring, tedious details:
(A) Macintosh browser run:
Macintosh OS 8.6 running at a blazing 120 MHz - hold on to your hat!
Browsers:
(1) Mozilla 1.2.1
10 seconds for the RIDGID home page to load. All is well except for a horizontally-oriented rectangle in upper right-hand corner with a puzzle symbol with a jagged line through it with a link under the puzzle symbol saying:
< Click here for the plug-in >.
Assuming that the puzzle box probably containted an obnoxious flashing ad, I ignored the plug-in and hit < Support > -
7 seconds to load Support.
With care - and some consternation, mind you - this is really not my thing - I checked out the RIDGID POLL:
12 seconds to load the Ridgid Survey page.
Looked at the first poll - red horizontal bar graphs, all looks copacetic.
(2) Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.1.7:
17 seconds to load the RIGID home page. However, to it's credit IE did load the horizontal box in the upper right corner as three square images of tools which rotated smoothly and gracefully (fade-in and fade-out) twice to other tools, then back to the original, continuously in a seven second cycle.
Support page - 14 seconds to load.
Survey page - 7 seconds to load
Graph - 5 seconds to load - red bars, looks good.
(3) AOL 5.0 (hey, what can I say?) This uses an older IE browser - how old is AOL 5.0? - several years, anyway - I have long ago forgotten which IE browser AOL 5.0 uses, probably an IE 5.x, possibly an IE 4.x - this has not been updated in years:
10 seconds to load the RIDGID home page. No sign of the rectangular box at the upper right hand corner - no pictures there or anything.
10 seconds to load the support page.
6 seconds for the Survey page.
5 seconds to view the bar graphs. They look good.
(4) Wamcom 20030723 (Mozilla 1.3.1 +5% more for MacOS 8.6, 9.xx, and 10.x:
http://wamcom.org/ 14 seconds to load - but automatically also loaded the Macromedia Flash Player Download Web Page for OS 9. To be ignored.
Support - 10 seconds.
Survey page - 13 seconds.
Bar graph - 8 seconds
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RED HAT 8 running on an October 2002 $199 Walmart Linux 800 MHz Cyrix C3 box.
(1) Mozilla Firebird 0.6.1 (aka "Phoenix"):
The site opens in under 1 second.
The site is almost instantly overlaid by a window stating:
<< This page contains information of a type (application/x-shockwave-flash) that can only be viewed with the appropriate Plug-in.
Click OK to download Plug-in
OK
CANCEL >>
I hit CANCEL, of course, and see the web site.
A puzzle symbol in a box in the upper right hand corner.
I hit << support >> - support web page is up in less than a second - no problems.
Look over the survey page - click on survey - red horizontal bar graphs - everything works, no problem.
(2) Mozilla 1.4 -
Opens in a little over a second - a tad slower than Firebird in all other tasks, as well - otherwise, everything as in Firebird above, down to the horizontal bars on the survey graph.
(3) Konqueror 3.0.5a-9 Red Hat
Near instantaneous! as follows:
<< No plug-in found for Shockwave Flash Media'. Do you want to download one from
www.macromedia.com? >>
YES
NO >>
The underlying RIDGID home page loading hangs at 99% until I hit < NO >.
If I clear the cache and then load the web site and hit < NO > as quickly as I can, the RIDGID home page loads in a little over a second.
2 seconds to load support.
1 second to the Survey page.]
Less than a second to the bar graphs.
Galeon 1.2.11 - one-two seconds. Feels a wee bit slower than the others. No window encouraging me to upload Flash - just the puzzle symbol in the upper right of the web page. All the rest, same as above, just a little slower.
End of boring details - see Conclusions, above, if you like.
