Pear

The main gateway to the information superhighway so far is the web browser. You probably have a preferred one right now, and chances are you’re not really using all of its features. As a lightweight alternative, Pear wants to provide simple means of going online to visit your favorite web pages.

Before you can actually enjoy anything the application has to offer, you need to make sure that .NET Framework is installed on your PC, even though modern Windows iterations include it in the default feature pack.

The visual design is clean, and intuitive, although the upper toolbar feels a little rough in terms of aesthetics. Jumping to a page is done through regular means, by simply writing down the target URL, but note that hitting “Enter” has no effect, so you need to interact with the “Go” button following the URL field.

Back, and forth controls make it possible to navigate through content easier, with the possibility to refresh at the press of a button. Moreover, a built-in search system helps you look up info of interest on Google. Sadly, there’s no way to select a different search provider.

Unfortunately, the application doesn’t really fair well with modern types of content, such as HTML5, or even some types of multimedia files. Sure enough, it’s light set of features has a decent impact on system resources, but it’s also devoid of some popular, and pretty useful ones, such as tabbed navigation, history tracker, or favorites manager.

Making it your default web browser needs to be done through Windows features, with no dedicated option here. Although there’s no tab support, multiple instances of the application can be launched as an alternative.

All things considered, Pear comes with good intentions, and a slim set of features to minimize impact on system resources, and put emphasis on navigation speed and quality. However, these goals are not properly achieved, with content compatibility here and there, also lacking even comfortable features such as the favorites manager.