http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_web_browsers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_browsers
The thing is, for a browser to be useful, it has to be standards compliant.
To be standards compliant, it needs a "certain mass of code" to do that.
That makes the browsers bloated, no matter who writes them.
If you find a browser that is trimmed down, then it could be missing
stuff (like maybe support for HTML5).
About all you can argue about for these things, is whether you
control the instant they use to do their updating. Modern Firefox
updates itself, which means, on some interval, it will "phone home"
to check revision number, and then decide whether it needs to
download a pile of stuff.
Under ideal circumstances, the best you could do, is have some
control over when that downloading begins.
As I maintain (on an infrequent basis), a relative's dialup computer,
I'm familiar with the nature of this problem. When I use that
computer, and start a dialup session, all the modern automatic
software updates start first thing. And then half your session
is wasted beating those pieces of crap into submission.
You could try maintaining your computer, using the services
of the local public library. Basically, the idea is, to make
a "care package" while you're there. For example, this
tool, allows a person to collect Windows Updates into a
folder, for usage on a remote computer later. You would need
to carry the "working directory" for this, on a USB flash drive
or something, in order to update the working directory of
patches on a regular basis. Then, run updates against
that when you get home. That's to avoid wasting bandwidth
on Windows Updates. (When this tool runs, it downloads the
files directly from Microsoft, not from their own web site.)
You could also put fresh copies of web browsers, Adobe Flash,
and the like, on your USB flash, and take them home with you.
The idea being, perhaps the freshly installed software
would reduce the immediate need for updates.
http://download.wsusoffline.net/
I can't think of any way to get around the issue. That's the
best I could come up with, the "Care Package" concept, to
maintain the computer without filling the dialup link all the
time with updates.
I suppose on your machine, you probably don't have Adobe Flash
loaded anyway, as that just tempts web sites to use Flash
advertising movies. So right away, for best economy, you'll
need to disable the average plugin, just to maintain
some control over downloaded content. I don't think I could
stand to read your average news website with a browser, if
the full multimedia spectrum was enabled on it. It would
take too long.
Some browsers support the "delayed" loading of images. A box
would be shown in place of the image. Clicking on the image box,
then offers the option to load it. If you need to surf quickly,
that's another option - the ability to select which image
boxes you download. Check the browser preferences, to see
if images can be delayed, then only loaded on demand.
If you need absolutely stripped down surfing, there are
programs like Lynx. But the average web site, doesn't code
the page for Lynx, and navigating web sites with Lynx now
is a waste of time. You can barely tell what site you're on.
*******
If you want another browser to try, there is Opera.
http://www.opera.com/computer
The file I got when I downloaded it in February, was 12.6 megabytes.
http://get3.opera.com/pub/opera/win/1214/int/Opera_1214_int_Setup.exe
I'm using that for email right now, so have the default
changed from looking like a web browser, to looking like
an email client. And it's not 100% successful at the task.
A few browsers, contain multiple clients inside. Opera and
SeaMonkey come to mind. The first to do that sort of thing,
might have been Netscape Communicator, where a number of
things were bundled into one package.
If you want, head off the the local public library, sign out
a machine for an hour, and just fill your USB flash drive
with browsers to test. That will take the annoyance of
downloading them, out of the picture. I was finding, when
working on the dialup machine, virtually any software I
attempted to download, put the machine out of commission
for an hour. And the computer no longer feels like it's
"real time".
*******
It's too bad phone companies don't offer ISDN at reasonable
rates. As that would be some improvement over vanilla dialup.
The service is probably already supported by the line card
in the telephone switch, so on some switches, it would amount
to flipping a bit in the data fill. The idea is, transmission
is digital, there is a channel for voice, a channel for data,
and the channels can be bonded for higher data bandwidth when
you aren't using the phone. It's still no more than 144Kbit/sec
total though (2B+D), so it's not a big jump over dialup. It does
mean, that if you use the service, your computer
session doesn't block the phone. The phone can still ring
when there is an incoming call, the data bonding thing un-bonds,
and you can take the call, all while your data downloads are
still running (uninterrupted). I suppose that means your
downloads run at either 64Kbit/sec or 128Kbit/sec, depending
on whether you're using the phone or not.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isdn
"As such, BRI may be acceptable for customers who are
too remote for ADSL."
"However, AT&T in most states (especially the former SBC/SWB
territory) will still install an ISDN BRI line anywhere a
normal analog line can be placed and the monthly charge
is roughly $55"
So much for a reasonable rate :-(
Paul
