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Contrary to common opinion, there are plenty of web browsers
for Linux. This page introduces you to the big three (Mozilla, Opera,
Konqueror), and to some less well known but interesting projects.
The term 'web browser' usually only refers to graphical
browsers, to be used only in X, Linux' graphical subsystem. But since Linux
is a very powerful console operating system, there are console browsers,
too. These are optimal if you want textual information fast. You usually
can't run them on their own, instead provide a URL or filename as an argument
to the command.
The veteran in this category is the Lynx
browser. Plenty of options to choose from, either from within the program
by using the 'o' key, or by editing '/etc/lynx.conf', like e.g. the possibility
to have links numbered so you can jump directly to the link you prefer. Newer
versions support some quite fancy character coloring (see '/etc/lynx.lss')
which please the eye and structure the displayed text. Note that Lynx can
only display one frame at a time, and that tables are always displayed vertically.
lynx -dump [html file] | lpr is a very easy
way to print HTML files stripped off any presentational markup. Lynx is most
likely already installed on your Linux system.
There has been some competition for Lynx lately: w3m and links. Both
feature a more conventional display of frames and tables (horizontally) and
other minor tweaks. You may want to choose one of them if you are not used
to working and browsing on the console. I still prefer Lynx, because it is
more configurable and hasn't crashed on me once in all those years. 'w3m'
is available as a 'Cooker Contrib' RPM (on the 'Contrib CD'), 'links' is
on your Mandrake CD.
Most of us however want to have some fun while browsing,
and often graphics make orientation easier. And we want a good-looking browser.
Let's have a look at actively developed XHTML 1.0 capable browsers (in alphabetical
order):
Amaya
is the browser developed by the WWW consortium (which is responsible for
the HTML standard). You can browse as well as generate web pages with it.
The editor has a very useful feature called structured overview
which helps you find your way through heavily nested tables. The generated
code is quite good (well, it's by the W3C after all).
The interface is built using the legacy Motif library (i.e. if you're coming
from Windows, you won't like it ;-)), but a port to GTK has been in the works
for quite a while. Support for XHTML is provided, but CSS 1.0 support is
still incomplete. It tends to render fonts either too small or too blocky
or both. The rendering of pages is slow and not so accurate as one might
wish it should be.
Konqueror
is the file manager, web and network browser, and file viewer of KDE (although
you can use it without running KDE, of course). Nowadays it can do pretty
much everything you expect from a fifth generation browser: Java, Javascript,
SSL, CSS, Plug-ins etc, which is quite an amazing feat given the short time
in which Konqueror was written.
Mozilla
has come a long way. The Mozilla project was born when Netscape decided to
open the source for their Netscape Communicator / Navigator two years ago.
The idea was to build the next version, 5.0, from these sources, using the
help of the Open Source developer and user community. Well, that didn't work
quite out because the Netscape 4.x source code turned out to be almost completely
unusable (if you've ever used Netscape 4.x for a considerable amount of time,
you might have guessed that ...).
So after half a year the project decided to build a completely new browser.
1.0 is to be released 'soon'.
Meanwhile Netscape has been bought by AOL and it looks like they want to retire
from the browser business. But while the Netscape 6.0 release, based on an
early version of Mozilla, turned out to be the worst release of a web browser
or indeed any software for a long time (really, you didn't want to use this.
It sucked asteroids.), 6.1 actually is a decent browser. If you want Mozilla
with some goodies like an integrated AIM, a spell checker and what not thrown
in, you should definitely give 6.1 a try.
Mozilla often receives hefty flak for its somewhat sluggish interface and
heavy memory footprint. This is partly due to its platform independence. Meanwhile
there have sprung forth a new range of browsers which all use the excellent
Mozilla rendering machine, 'Gecko', but replace the interface with native
widgets, thus being by some magnitudes faster.
The most prominent member of this group is Galeon. You really want
to try this one, especially if you are looking for a free MDI browser. It
still has some bugs, mainly with redirecting scripts and the tabs, but so
far this is the browser which offers the most browsing functionality. I love
it. You'll find an RPM of it on your Mandrake CD.
Netscape's Navigator and Communicator
were for years the only graphical about working web browsers for Linux. And
while a lot of people are thankful that they released a version for Linux
at all, many also grudgingly remember the shoddy quality of these releases,
especially around 4.5 when every release was more unstable than the previous
one. If you're still using Netscape 4.x, read the tips on the next pages,
turn Java off and good luck out there ...
Opera for Linux is a commercial
and proprietary browser. Opinion is divided on this browser, mainly because
of its Multiple Document Interface, which some people just don't like. I
once belonged to them, then used it a daily basis (before I discovered Galeon)
and in my opinion it's one of the best browser available on Linux today.
It's fast, stable, light on resources and full of nifty features. You may
to have a look at Opera if you run Linux on a small screen or if you tend
to get lost in dozens of open browser windows.
Opera is available as a free of charge, advertised version, or as a licensed
version for 35$ per license. Get the 'static QT' RPM. This way you don't
have to fiddle with dependencies.
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