Swiftweasel is yet another browser based on Firefox, but available only for Linux. Midori offers seamless integration with GTK+, hassle-free bookmark management, and ad blocking (though most ads were not successfully blocked, while I was testing it). By default, the XFCE desktop environment bundles Midori among its “Goodies” components. Midori has three factors that are unique: speed, stability and a nice name - Midori means “green” in Japanese. IceCat natively supports Firefox add-ons and extensions, as it is based on the Mozilla engine. It includes several enhanced security measures, such as the option to block third-party cookies warnings against URL redirection (which I found to be irritating - loading Gmail gives you 4 warnings), etc. GNU IceCat was earlier known as GNU IceWeasel. ![]() Minimalist and simple, Epiphany provides a nimble browsing experience for the casual user, with great support for add-ons. EpiphanyĮpiphany is the default Web browser for the GNOME desktop. Until KDE 3.5, it used to double up as a file manager as well, but with the release of KDE 4, the file-management part was given to Dolphin, in order to make Konqueror a stand-alone Web browser in its own right.īeing fully open source, Konqueror suffices as a browser for everyday use, though it seriously lacks the prowess of leaders like Firefox or Chrome. Konqueror is the default Web browser bundled with KDE. Nevertheless, Flock has gained tremendous popularity. On the downside, most of the software is proprietary. It offers seamless integration of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc, and has features like a blog editor and a feed reader. Flockįlock has established a reputation for being the “social browser”. Though overshadowed by Firefox, Seamonkey does have some useful features, such as the password manager and form manager. Coming from the same stable as Firefox (Mozilla), Seamonkey is open source and available for both Windows and Linux. Actually, it’s more of an Internet suite, including a browser, an email client, and an HTML editor (Wow! Talk about goodies!). Yes, I’m not joking - there is a Web browser by that name. The down-side? Opera is not “entirely” open source - it is more of a freeware application, with chunks of FOSS thrown in here and there. Nevertheless, Opera has a few unique features up its sleeve, like widgets Speed Dial to quickly access your favourite pages (no longer unique though, since Chrome also offers the same) Opera Turbo to speed up slow connections (a real blessing for me when I am on GPRS) built-in phishing and malware protection (shame on you, IE!) cross-platform compatibility (including BSD and Solaris) and strong encryption. Opera Mini for mobile phones is popular with every mobile Internet user, but the story is hardly the same on the desktop. The browser of choice for the geek community, Opera has been around for a long time, though its presence on the desktop has rarely been noticed. Gaining popularity day by day, Chrome has established itself as the ideal Web browser for numerous home users. It has a minimalist interface, which is customisable via themes, and its Javascript processing speed is considered to be the swiftest of all browsers, at present. Chrome aims to improve speed and overall performance, and it does quite well at this. Most of Chrome’s source code is open, under the BSD licence, so you should definitely have no ethical problems with using it. Shipped with almost every distro, Firefox will be your safest bet for browsing! Google ChromeĬhrome is one of the fastest-growing browsers in the world. Besides, the Firefox community keeps adding new and innovative features to enhance the browsing experience. The world’s second-most-used Web browser boasts of features such as tabbed browsing, spell-checking, incremental search, live bookmarks, a download manager, and much more. You can hardly speak of the Internet without mentioning Firefox in the same breath. So without further ado, let’s plunge into exploring the list of Web browsers. ![]() Gone are the days when Mozilla Firefox was the de facto Web browser bundled with every distro there’s talk of Google Chrome being included in upcoming releases of several distros. With the ever-increasing number of browsers available, users are bound to feel pampered. After all, FOSS is about helping and sharing, right? Now coming to the point: which is the best choice to surf the Web? No, I am not going to answer that here, but I will help you make that decision yourself.
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