Maxthon Nitro: how it all started

Here, at Maxthon’s San Francisco office, when we saw this: http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-is-building-a-new-browser-as-part-of-its-windows-10-push/  we did a double take. That was the second major browser company touting a ‘lighter, simpler and more minimalist browser’ project in less than 6 months. The first was Mozilla, leaked in August just after Chris Beard was named its new CEO.  Here’s a link to a cache-d version of their blog that was unpublished within 24 hours of it being published on August 7, 2014. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:bmtHpXU_mXIJ:https://blog.mozilla.org/verdi/463/lightspeed-a-browser-experiment/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=aff-maxthon-newtab
Let’s check and see who started what first…
Maxthon —> ‘Nitro’, started in March of 2014
Mozilla —>  ‘Lightspeed’ started in July of 2014
Microsoft —> ‘Spartan,’ started Fall of 2014.

Yep. Mozilla and Microsoft are copying Maxthon. We started the lightweight/spartan browser trend. In March of 2014 we kicked off a project to create a *very* lightweight browser with minimal feature set and SUPER performance.  We knew that if we simplified the UX load and all of the processes that needed to exist to support skins, plug-ins and tons of other features we could make the core speed faster. In a March 21, 2014 email one of our engineers summarized the concept of Nitro to me this way, “It will not be feature rich, in fact, I would go as far as it is “bare” minimum. What it lacks in feature set size will be made up for in:

start-up speed
fetching
rendering speed and stability.”

This is an important distinction to remember.  To reap gains in start-up time, page fetching and rendering and stability something had to give. And that something was a large list of features and tools. Things like the screenshot utility, split-screen, cloud services and add ons. All of these come with a significant performance and stability hit. But, we were OK with it — as we knew from looking at our detailed user data pool that *most* web browser users do NOT use most of the features. We mention this now because as the more traditional Maxthon users discover Nitro, the more they are asking for the favorite features to be added.  You can’t have all of that super speed without sacrificing some of your favorite features.  (Even Chrome acknowledges that limitation.) Here’s a very short side-by-side to help you decide which version of our PC browsers to use and why…

If you want… Maxthon Nitro Maxthon 4 Cloud Browser
Fastest start-up time X
Fastest page rendering X
Smartest caching and pre-fetching X
Minimalist UX X
Cross Platform Cloud Services X
Add-ons/Plug-ins X
Screenshot capture X
Mx Notes X

Bottom line, if you’re the sort of browser consumer who likes to customize, tinker and use a combination of skins and add-ons, Nitro was not made for you.  You should stick to Maxthon 4 — our Cloud Browser.  It’s feature rich, cross-platform and still incredibly fast. BUT – if you’re a more minimalist browser user you should give Nitro a try.  It’s so clean and fast you sometimes forget you’re browsing the web. It feels almost like you’re looking at locally-hosted webpages. Having said that, you can bet that, as we have before ,we are now looking at Nitro and seeing which of our most popular features we may be able to add back to Nitro without sacrificing any of its speed.

Stay Tuned!


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21 responses to “Maxthon Nitro: how it all started”

  1. Gerardo Avatar
    Gerardo

    Please deactive the gestures in the Nitro browser ;))

  2. LOL Avatar
    LOL

    AdBlock&Favorite

    1. LOL Avatar
      LOL

      I means AdBlock&Online Favorite

  3. ssd Avatar
    ssd

    —–
    extehions
    addblock
    no youtube downloader
    no mht and maff
    —-
    other refresh page (f5) – page starts in up
    no smooth scrolling
    eats a lot of memory for a minimalist browser
    other close tab need to move to the previous tab
    liked the design

  4. ssd Avatar
    ssd

    if push *back* (blue navigation) button need add list who to back

    1. Julissa Avatar

      This was so helpful and easy! Do you have any aritelcs on rehab?

      1. maxthon Avatar
        maxthon

        Thank you for your attention and we are glad that you like our blogs. If you have any suggestion on the content or anything else, please feel free to contact us.
        Besides, if you have interested in Maxthon鈥檚 other product, welcome you to join our official forum by https://forum.maxthon.com , where there will be many Maxer and Maxthon staffs sharing and communicating with each other!
        Have a nice day!

  5. Tasawk Avatar

    This website is realy great it works like a charm with me

    but lag when open this website : http://tasawk.com/

    1. Tasawk Avatar

      im sory i mean this browser

      1. Kory Avatar

        The paragon of untdesranding these issues is right here!

        1. maxthon Avatar
          maxthon

          Thank you for your attention and we are glad that you like our blogs. If you have any suggestion on the content or anything else, please feel free to contact us.
          Have a nice day!

  6. Willian Silva Avatar

    Now I understood the difference between the two browsers. We will have two distinct is this? One for advanced users and another for the more simple? I am satisfied with the Maxthon Nitro. The boot is very fast, the fluidity and the performance are great. And has a good design too. But I ask you to include some basic services such as a password manager, and the Maxthon Downloader. Very good browser.

  7. Willian Silva Avatar
    Willian Silva

    The Nitro is being a good browser, in this post I understood why he was so basic, in this case I have the need to use the two versions of the program, the design is beautiful, has fluidity, initializes faster than all the others, etc. We are only waiting a few basic functions that it may have, as a private mode, password manager, etc. Thank you for the space friends.

  8. john doe Avatar
    john doe

    I like this really fast browser, but after a check it eat a lot of memory. there is no way to do a modulable browser ?
    flash, pdf, or devtools modules should be removable …

  9. Dja Avatar

    it just needs a dark theme , i dont know why people like this white shit

    1. maxthon Avatar
      maxthon

      Thank you for your attention and we are glad that you like Maxthon browser.
      You can customize your Maxthon browser in settings by youself.
      If you have any suggestion or problem when using, please feel free to contact our engineers via help@maxthon.net
      Besides, if you have interested in Maxthon鈥檚 other product, welcome you to join our official forum by https://forum.maxthon.com , where there will be many Maxer and Maxthon staffs sharing and communicating with each other!
      Have a nice day!

  10. d3m24 Avatar

    it works goood

    1. maxthon Avatar
      maxthon

      Thank you for your attention and we are glad that you like our blogs. If you have any suggestion on the content or anything else, please feel free to contact us.
      Have a nice day!

  11. Iv谩n Avatar
    Iv谩n

    Personally I think it’s an incredibly fast browser, and is a savior for slow computers. But I miss the History and the Adblock. I think your team can add this features.

    PD: Sorry for my bad english, I’m uruguayan.

    1. maxthon Avatar
      maxthon

      Thank you for your attention and we are glad that you like Maxthon browser.
      We apologize to you that we stopped updating and supporting Nitro for long. Do you want to try our other version?
      Version 4.4.8.1000 is very stable and supports much more features than Nitro, do you want to have a try?
      Here is the link for you:
      Please serve yourself

      Installer version:
      https://dl.maxthon.com/mx4/mx4.4.8.1000.exe
      MD5: 45ecc1dc82c0db74b08f0b2a6087a6f2

      Portable version:
      https://dl.maxthon.com/mx4/maxthon_portable_4.4.8.1000.7z
      MD5锛?f22066d263ef71348df4d4c0ef55d19

      If you still have any questions with Maxthon, please feel free to contact us, we will reply you shortly.
      Besides, if you have interested in Maxthon鈥檚 other product, welcome you to join our official forum by https://forum.maxthon.com , where there will be many Maxer and Maxthon staffs sharing and communicating with each other!
      Have a nice day!

  12. Lisa Avatar
    Lisa

    Lol

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