m9P Surfer

Modern web browsers evolve along with the Internet, but the added functionality, support for multiple protocols and extensions add to the amount of resources they need to function properly. If you use an older computer or want to allocate more RAM and CPU cycles to other applications while viewing websites, you should try alternatives to the full-featured browsers, like m9P Surfer.

In order to be lightweight, this program does not support multi-tabbed browsing. In case you want to view multiple sites at the same time, you must open a separate window for each. Considering this application is not designed as a browser replacement, the omission of this staple feature makes sense.

m9P Surfer takes advantage of Internet Explorer's library to render web pages. On the downside, it is limited to the IE version you have installed on your system. On the upside, it means that popular frameworks, such as HTML 5, CSS and JavaScript, used by the majority of websites are technically supported.

Another side-effect of using the IE library is the fact that the application automatically integrates the favorites set in Microsoft's browser. Alternatively, you can import bookmarks saved with Netscape Navigator. Unfortunately, you cannot append favorites exported from Firefox or Chrome.

Keeping up with the lightweight theme, extensions for this application are not available. Moreover, there are no developer tools. For some users these two omissions might be deal breakers.

Aside from the lack of multi-tabbed browsing, other important features, such as extra layers of security and rendering optimizations are missing.

Overall, m9P Surfer is able to successfully display the vast majority of websites, provided you have installed a newer Internet Explorer. If you are willing to sacrifice the added benefits of a fully-featured browser for a lightweight surfer, then this might be the solution for you.