Battle of the Betas
Browsers:
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Many browsers recently have rushed their workings on the beta version of their next-generation browsers...and it's no secret why they do. Based on NetApplication's browser market share trackings, Microsoft's own Internet Explorer is losing grounds to all browsers available, with its own Internet Explorer 8 eating up market shares of its own IE6 and IE7 versions. For other browser makers, this is exactly the perfect timing for them to further extend their advantage in the browser market....
A) Firefox 3.5 Preview
I've been an avid fan of Mozilla Firefox, not just because it is way faster than IE, but it is also highly customizable (which suits somebody like me who enjoys having control over my PC). The latest Firefox v3.5 recently moved from their 4th beta into the Preview stage, right before the browser is to be released as a release candidate (RC) version. Although using it comes at the sacrifice of many incompatible firefox add-on customizations, it does load pages faster, is much lighter and (judging from the recent instabilities of Firefox v3.0.8 onwards) more stable. Mozilla plans to release this browser as a means of overcoming the market share barrier of 25%. Is it capable of doing that? I think it just might! (Again, IE is so bad that this target sounds achievable)
B) Opera 10 Beta
Opera is well-known for its innovation in browser development; i still can remember reading an article which state that Opera Labs is the pioneer in tabbed browsing before Firefox and IE stole their ideas (LOL!!!). Even until today, they are still innovative, having recently announced Opera Unite, thus becoming the first ever browser to have a built-in Web server, allowing file-sharing capabilities alongside their browsing capabilities. Opera 10 Beta was release a couple of weeks earlier, and reports have suggested that it is the fastest browser on Windows XP!! The release of this version of Opera might help boost their currently meagre market share (which comes as a surprise considering their innovative gene).
C) Google Chrome
Chrome, like a lot of Google's own products, seemed to be sticking to the Beta label like forever (a bit irresponsible IMO)...and yet their latest v3 beta is much of an improvement over their previous works. In my opinion, Chrome already has the best looks and resource management (they allocate the browser memory usage based on tabs, which makes their browser more responsive and more reliable) of all existing browsers, but they lacked extensions and privacy in comparison with Firefox. Chrome v3's biggest change is that they now allows extensions to be installed on the browser, making it very customizable. Performance-wise, they are no noticable improvements, but the browser still maintains the positive characteristics of being lightweight and responsive.
Antiviruse/Security Suites:
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In stark contrast with the browsers, there seemed to be more bad news for beta programs on security suites than good. To be honest, security suites aren't doing that well recently; malwares and security threats evolve just too fast for these companies to keep up based on their current technology.
A) Kaspersky 2010 Beta
As a fan of Kaspersky, i willingly tried out their beta program by installing it in Vista. What i got is a horrible experience; the CPU and memory resources frequently hits the peak, and it constantly crashes on me. The same thing happened when i installed it on a fresh copy of Windows 7 (be reminded that it is Windows 7-compatible) In other words, it is completely unusable. To add insult to an already obsolete beta program, its graphical interface is nothing but ugly and messy. Recent update seems to show that they improved their user interface a wee bit, but performance-wise, my first experience has already resisted the temptation to go back and try again.
B) Bitdefender 2010 Beta
Bitdefender's beta is faring a lot better than Kaspersky, even though i could hardly notice any notable changes apart from the user interface. Yes, the program looks more beautiful, and definitely the usability is there, with no crashes experienced. But overall, the beta program still feels like old technology. The scanning engine is still as slow as ever and there's no notable improvements in detection rate. For the first time, the very-much-hated Norton seems to have something really good that Bitdefender did not: a decent scanning speed...
C) IObit Security 360
The famous vendor of Advanced SystemCare recently dished out their long-awaited Antimalware program, boasting a sleek and easy-to-use interface and a so-called Digital Origin Gene Technology, collectively known as DOG by IObit personnels (LOL). They promised unique detection capabilities compared to conventional antimalware program, but after testing it out, i was being skeptical. It sure detects some unusual stuffs (so far, it detected a suspicious cookies and a trace verified as malicious on my PC), but private testings revealed that it misses quite an amount of spyware which SUPERAntispyware caught. No wonder IObit referred the program as only an additional protection to our security suites...
D) Returnil Virtual System v3 Beta
Returnil has always been my favorite technological means of protecting my system and it is thus far, the best beta security program that i've come across this year. The new Returnil spots a heavily-revamped user interface on which its skin can be customized on later releases, boasts an additional antivirus support with the integration of Scandinavian-based Frisk Antivirus solution and interestingly, added a few really useful functionality which makes extensive software-testing on the host operating system possible. If you think all of these additional stuffs come at the expenses of PC performance, you are totally wrong: Returnil v3 beta runs fine on my Virtual Windows XP and host Windows 7, being very responsive and as useful as ever. It does, however, come at the cost of having forced to eliminate a few features on which Returnil promises to resolve in time for its final release.
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