Old PC Needs Browser


Recommended Posts

You may be aware that many elderly people in the USA are living

into their 90's. My great grandmother is 99! Her mind is still

sharp and she does use the internet.

Her PC is kind of old and slow. She needs a simple browser with

a light footprint. The objective would to load web pages as quickly

as possible. She doesn't need a browser with a million extra

features.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yup. or even firefox but remember these 3 words of something doesn't seem right "Just don't click"

thats amazing that she uses the net. teach her some <html>

<title>html code</title>

<h1>ihhi</h1>

</html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll take a look at K-Meleon. Thanks guys.

Sadly, my great grandmother's generation may be the end of the line.

There are a growing number of people living into their 90's with their

minds still intact, if not their bodies!

With the epidemic of obesity (about 40% of the population) life expectancy

will surely decline.

My great grandmother lives in a retirement community. There are numerous

other retired folks who help keep her PC healthy. If I install K-Meleon I'll make

sure its setup right.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
uBuntu Linux + Firefox = No Spyware + No Viruses = No Problems, No Stress :)

Ubuntu runs a little slow on older computers (such as my Pentium III), but its lightweight brother Xubuntu will work well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

uBuntu Linux + Firefox = No Spyware + No Viruses = No Problems, No Stress :)

better for her to stay with something she would be familiar with... going with your method may yield many phone calls regarding how to do this and that. unless she is one of those people who picks up on new things quickly

Link to comment
Share on other sites

better for her to stay with something she would be familiar with... going with your method may yield many phone calls regarding how to do this and that. unless she is one of those people who picks up on new things quickly
The Linux suggestion isn't bad. Using Ubuntu with full Gnome on a low-end PC is rather questionable, though.

But using a web browser and email in Linux (believe it or not) is pretty much functionally identical to browsing and emailing in Windows. Shocker! Yes, I know.

You might get the odd phone call about "how do I attach a picture to my email" again. But those questions probably come in Windows too. You won't get the "my computer keeps popping up ads all the time and is dog slow" because it is now a spam-zombie types of calls.

Linux is a possibility. It may not be a best fit. But it very well may be a best fit. You shouldn't just dismiss it summarily.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Opera.

Their core development strength comes from optimizing Opera to run on the lowest speced devices, like mobiles phones and hand held games. Opera runs fast everywhere...

Opera all the way!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I suggest using TheWorld Browser.

Homepage

Offbyone Browser is certainly a light browser but it does not have Flash or Javascript support.

Source: Homepage of Offbyone Browser

Off By One Browser Limitations

* No JavaScript support (so no pop-up ad windows).

* No applet, plug-in or Flash support.

TheWorld Browser is of almost the same size with all the features required for safe moderate browsing.

Opera is also recommended but it depends on how "old" your computer really is.

If it has at least 512 MB RAM and runs Windows 2000=< then go with Opera.

If not TheWorld Browser is also a good choice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Opera's a bit heavy on resources isn't it?

No, quite the opposite, of the full-featured browsers (at the very least plugin-enabled ones) its only competitor for resource use would be K-meleon, and even then I'd say it's a tossup. On my 1.7GHz P4 laptop (768MB RAM) I can't tell the difference, but it's not exactly the slowest machine out there.

To the OP - Opera has a built-in email client which is very functional and uses virtually no resources in addition to the actual browser. If you have to use an email client, then Opera is a better choice over the other browsers because of this. Of course, if the only mail checking going on will be webmail, then it's a moot point. The email client doubles up as an RSS reader, and there's IRC too, so on an old computer needing a modern browser, email client, rss reader and/or irc chat, going with Opera will be the best use of the resources available. And keep in mind, not using those features means they do NOT take up any resources, so don't go down the "bloated, won't use it" road :).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

I have to say Opera. In my old Pentium 3 500 with 256M RAM, Opera is only browser which I can open dozen of tabs without too much slow down and with some good responsive-ness. Firefox continuously locks up at times, and IE7 simply crashes.

I even used Opera on my super old Pentium 133 with 64M RAM once, and it can actually opens up half a dozen tabs. Wow, that's simply... Wow! :cool:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.