Other than that, the most interesting touches we could find – and it was tough – were a button to close all but the current tab and another to automatically scroll a window while you read, presumably to rest your poor mouse hand.

Rather than simply dragging the tab to its destination, it’s all done with right-clicks and menus so it’s not exactly smooth, but it’s a nice way to compare websites. It’s evident that Opera was the main early influence, with Avant offering the ability to undock tabs and tile or arrange them within the overall browser window. Unfortunately, in the three-and-a-half years and close to 50 minor updates since, it’s received zero new features. In some ways it was ahead of its time, introducing an online account for your bookmarks – something Google has only recently added to Chrome – as well as an RSS reader and an auto-fill function. The interface isn’t a retro design choice, though: the reason it looks so old is that the last major release was Avant Browser 11, way back in September 2006.

Download avant browser