cmccaff1 Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 Honestly, I wouldn't know what to tell you. Actually, 13.0 isn't too unstable compared to 13.5, and I can see why some would have better luck with it. It really is a "pick 'em"--you can flip a coin, because 13.5 didn't offer any notable improvements over 13.0 aside from some stability fixes. Having tried both, I haven't really had much trouble with either of them, except for occasional YouTube crashes (13.5 fares better in this regard). In my personal experiences, 13.5 has never crashed my PC, but I have had the VERY occasional freeze on startup where the browser locks up completely, and I have to close the browser and load it again (after that, it has no problems). I didn't know the first-time startup 'Esc' trick for Humming Owl builds until very recently (I always resorted to using the Task Manager), and I'm not sure why it happens, but at least they work fine afterwards! 12.0 definitely performs better than any 13.x version, but it occupies this awkward middle ground where the rendering capabilities are better than 11.0 but the performance is closer to 13.x (meaning some sites run slower on it, especially media-rich sites like YouTube; I can't have a YouTube video playing in one tab and do something in another without there being some stuttering and skipping--this can happen in 11.0 too, but the odds of major stutters/skips are FAR less). Being based on Chromium 78, it is also starting to run into compatibility issues with some websites that use more cutting-edge 'features', but it's still a perfectly fine (actually, quite good) choice for general use if your PC can handle it. Actually, all 360 browsers are good depending on your preference--you can go older for speed, newer for compatibility--but in an ever-changing Wild Wild Web, they will begin to run into unique challenges as time goes on. (I still believe web technologies peaked in the HTML4 days, and that there's no reason why website designers now shouldn't still be building off of the best aspects of pre-2008 web design, or why any site [even YouTube] shouldn't still be usable even on old PCs and ancient browsers, but that's another topic altogether...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrevMUN Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 It's been a hot minute since I had looked into 360 Extreme Explorer; what's the main difference between the ArcticFoxie and HummingOwl versions? I also remember there had been some effort to go through the code of the browser and the Russian repack to dig out any malware, backdoors, or telemetry. Was there ever a summary of what people found? As interested in this browser as I've been, I've been hesitant to give it a go for those reasons. 6 hours ago, cmccaff1 said: (I still believe web technologies peaked in the HTML4 days, and that there's no reason why website designers now shouldn't still be building off of the best aspects of pre-2008 web design, or why any site [even YouTube] shouldn't still be usable even on old PCs and ancient browsers, but that's another topic altogether...) There's been a huge shift in web development philosophies over the decades. I remember back in the 90s and 00s when web developers prided themselves on being able to write pages in a text editor. Now the big thing is importing entire scripts offsite wholesale. With the browsers I have which use NoScript, it becomes a game of trying to figure out which off-site script does what and if I should unblock it or not. That can be quite annoying when the scripts in question involve very superficial cosmetic stuff that could have been handled within the same domain name ... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotHereToPlayGames Posted April 7, 2022 Author Share Posted April 7, 2022 (edited) 2 hours ago, TrevMUN said: what's the main difference between the ArcticFoxie and HummingOwl versions? Telemetry has been blocked in both. I hard-code everything that HO hard-codes with the exception of default search engines. I remove them by other means and HO replaces multi-character Chinese strings with a finite number of English strings so as not to affect address locations. Which means the default search engine is named "Ggle" because the address locations would break the entire browser if the name "Google" was used. I alter the GUI and correct missing tags in the original Chinese and the Russian Repack that both have the GUI "jumping" when a settings page goes from Page 2 to Page 3 and "jumps again" when closing Page 3 and returning to Page 2. My GUI is for XP. I have a very strong dislike for having 200 programs on my XP and only ONE of them not using XP icons, so my versions have an XP theme to avoid this "OCD Trigger" of not looking like XP when ran on XP. MY GUI disables and hides portions of the settings pages that could be used to turn telemetry back on. The telemetry has been removed, but why risk the end user trying to turn a broken function back on? HO versions throw a nag screen when you run it for the very first time, mine do not. HO versions are "installed" versions and mine are "portable" versions that maintain their own registry file and do not keep settings saved in the Windows Registry. Edited April 7, 2022 by NotHereToPlayGames 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henry18th Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 @cmccaff1 Many,many thanks for your tip on how to DL files/s from Dropbox if the site isn,t renderring the page!!!! It works great @NotHereToPlayGames And thanks for editing your introductory page to include the "tip"..well done.. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmccaff1 Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 1 hour ago, henry18th said: @cmccaff1 Many,many thanks for your tip on how to DL files/s from Dropbox if the site isn,t renderring the page!!!! It works great @NotHereToPlayGames And thanks for editing your introductory page to include the "tip"..well done.. You're welcome! This should be a good workaround for older browsers that can't render the Dropbox page correctly due to not supporting the bloated junk JS/HTML5 code that is becoming prevalent in modern web design (RetroZilla, Presto Opera, IE8, etc.) but is also convenient for modern browsers because once a file is uploaded to Dropbox, you can download it without going onto the site itself. It's also good for older PCs that are stuck with old browsers, either for speed or because processor/OS limitations prevent upgrading from a certain plateau. Many sites have been overhauled in such a way that a browser that could have handled it just fine 5 years ago now struggles with it, if it works at all. To make matters worse, many sites no longer offer graceful fallback options that make it possible for older browsers to still use them. (Gmail and Facebook are among the very few sites that still offer a fallback option.) Planned obsolescence is one thing. Intentionally adding bloated code and changing design elements to force out old browsers & OSes is quite another. There's no reason I shouldn't still be able to use Opera 12.18, or Chrome 49, in 2022 just as efficiently as I was using them back in 2016. In any event, I am very grateful to @NotHereToPlayGames and @Humming Owl for their individual efforts in maintaining 360EE builds for our enjoyment and daily use. You can't go wrong with anything they do, as far as I'm concerned...it all comes down to your preference. A NHTPG build provides features you can't find in a HO build, and vice versa. You can flip a coin and pick the one you want, and fully expect to have a good experience. (Just remember the Esc trick on first-time startup for HO's builds, and make sure to adjust the settings to your liking, and you'll be fine!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave-H Posted April 13, 2022 Share Posted April 13, 2022 Another bit of residual Chinese I keep meaning to mention and forgetting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotHereToPlayGames Posted April 13, 2022 Author Share Posted April 13, 2022 Do you know the "function" that button performs? Is it just an "OK" that all downloads are completed or does it open the "Download Manager"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave-H Posted April 13, 2022 Share Posted April 13, 2022 It opens the Download Manager. It only appears when there's several entries in the list (perhaps more than six?) so it could be an "All" button, maybe that is the most that can be displayed there. I can do some tests on that if you like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave-H Posted April 14, 2022 Share Posted April 14, 2022 Just to update, it seems that a maximum of five entries are shown in the downloads menu. After that, only the most recent five are shown, and the button with Chinese on it appears. I guess that's so you can go to the Download Manager and see the downloads which are no longer displayed. I would thank that 'All' would probably be the right labelling for the button in that case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotHereToPlayGames Posted April 14, 2022 Author Share Posted April 14, 2022 @Dave-H - What was the possible telemetry address that was a suspect in v13.5? Do you recall? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotHereToPlayGames Posted April 14, 2022 Author Share Posted April 14, 2022 On 3/10/2022 at 6:21 PM, Dave-H said: @NotHereToPlayGames Hi again! Do you remember when I started using your 360Chrome 13.5 I queried that it seemed to be searching for something when the first tab was opened when the program started? I've just checked on this again, and found this when the program is first run and there is a progress animation (which never ends) in the first tab. The domain ws-in-f188.1e100.net appears to be a Google domain. Any idea why the program should be trying (presumably unsuccessfully) to contact it when it runs, and should I block it? Dave-H -- disregard, found it. Will dig a little deeper on this when I track down that remaining Chinese. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave-H Posted April 14, 2022 Share Posted April 14, 2022 OK thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotHereToPlayGames Posted April 14, 2022 Author Share Posted April 14, 2022 3 hours ago, NotHereToPlayGames said: domain ws-in-f188.1e100.net I have been unable to replicate this on five different computers. Unless another v13.5 user can report this also, I kinda have to assume this is only on your system. 15 hours ago, Dave-H said: After that, only the most recent five are shown, and the button with Chinese on it appears. I cannot find this and the Chinese also appears in the Russian Repack, suggesting they could not isolate this button either. With it only being an on-hover and only being when six or more downloads are downloading, seems too much or a rarity to worry too much about. I'll keep digging for curiosity, but it's not looking like it's going to be in any of the normally-modified files. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave-H Posted April 14, 2022 Share Posted April 14, 2022 OK, no problem with either issue as far as I'm concerned, they don't affect the usability of the browser at all. I guess the first tab may not be trying to connect to anything at all, I've looked quite a few times and while the browser always seems to have a connection or two going, there is no consistency in fact as to what addresses it's accessing. It could just be that the loading of the first tab can't complete for some other reason. As for the Chinese button, interesting that the Russians didn't translate that either, I guess as you say its label is a bit buried somewhere! It's the only bit of Chinese I've spotted in the GUI, so you've done a pretty thorough job everywhere else! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotHereToPlayGames Posted April 14, 2022 Author Share Posted April 14, 2022 11 minutes ago, Dave-H said: It could just be that the loading of the first tab can't complete for some other reason. VERY possible! Because v13.5 always locks up for me after every hibernate or reboot. The very first launch after a reboot/restart/unhibernate "spawns" differently than every launch thereafter. And for me, that first launch always locks up in v13.5 and v13.5 only. 13 minutes ago, Dave-H said: As for the Chinese button, interesting that the Russians didn't translate that either I can't (ie, choose not to) post in Chinese or Russian forums or I'd post it to "upstream" folks. Given the nature (hover only, six+ downloads only), I can see why nobody ever noticed it for so long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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