I have been using Maxthon from back when it was called MyIE2 (probably around 2001… so about 8 years in total).

For most of that time, it provided features (and customisability) that no other browser had. For that reason, I had used it in preference to IE, firefox, Opera, Safari, and Chrome.

Sadly, since the release of version 2.5, some of the customisability has been removed.

Its become increasingly obvious to me, that most of the removed features will not be re-instated.

Instead, the words that I keep hearing are: “it’s by design”.

To me, it like saying: “its not a bug, its a feature”… and its the sort of thing that immediately annoys me.

As an example: the new layout features a fixed window border width that totally ignores the width specified in the windows control panel display properties.

If you are still using a monitor that displays 640 x 480, then you won’t care… but most modern monitors have such high resolutions, that any application that doesn’t follow the display properties border width will immediately go into my “death row” list.

On top of that, the menu bar has now been  moved into the title bar… with no way to move it elsewhere (reminds me of IE7 and the unmovable “stop” and “refresh” buttons… a bad move by Microsoft).

I had been using an older version of Maxthon for nearly a year now… in the hopes that things would improve.

I eventually got tired of the occasional lockups, slowness, and huge memory leaks, so I upgraded to 2.5.7… only to find that the “new” version freezes after a few hours… Grrr

Back when it was called MyIE2, it was small, lightweight, fast, and reliable… but now it has lost its way.

Now, I’ll be seriously evaluating Firefox, Chrome, and Opera over the next few months, and eventually decide on one that suits me best… stay tuned as I keep you updated on my “Browser Wars”.