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Linux Web Browsers Reviewed

Written by:  • Edited by: Michele McDonough
Updated Feb 13, 2009 • Related Guides: Web Browser | Java | Linux
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With Linux you get a few options in web browsers. In this article we highlight 11 of those browsers - some popular, some not so popular. Whether you want to use a big name browser or not, this article will give you an insight into what your choices are.

What Types Of Web Browsers Are There

In linux we have two main groups of browsers: Text based and GUI based. The web browsers can have different engines behind them (an engine is what makes the browser work). The two biggest engines used are Gecko and Webkit, but below is a full list of all engines that are commonly used.

  • Gecko
  • WebKit
  • Presto and Presto Core 2
  • Trident
  • Tasman
  • KHTML

This is probably not all of them, but it's just to give you an idea. Web Browsers are a critical part of any operation system. These days most people wouldn't know what to do without Internet and their web browser.

Below, you will find an overview of 11 web browsers. I used my own blog to test them. I did this because I know exactly what the website has in terms of Flash, Javascript, and advertising.

Each browser is rated on the following:

  • Usability
  • Adblocker
  • Javascript & Flash

Please note that I have used all of them to do my regular surfing (blogs, news, Google etc.) for at least a couple of hours except for the text based one. I just couldn't bring myself to use the text-based web browser for more then a few minutes.

The list below is in no particular order.

lynx
click to enlarge

The Lynx Web Browser
Rating Average

This is the text-based web browser I checked out. Lynx is one of the web browsers that you would use if you only have a Terminal like on a Server with out an X-server installed.

It is a fully functional browser, and you can do basic stuff like open pages and click download links. Of course, it goes without question that this browser doesn't have Flash or Javascript. There is no use for Flash or Java if the browser is text-based, after all.

I can only rate this browser as average because I rated the browser on the above criteria. But, for what it does, it's great and it has helped me out of a squeeze before in a server environment.

arora
click to enlarge

The Arora Browser
Rating Below Average

Arora is a fully functional simple cross-platform web browser. Javascript seems to work without a problem. Flash, however, doesn't. Arora uses the QTWebKit which means there is no problem running it on the QT-based KDE desktops.

The feature list is very short: History and Bookmarks. Arora is a very basic browser which seems to have a problem with SSL. I tried to login to Ebay. This didn't work (see screenshot below).

I could only rate this web browser as good because of the fact that I use Ebay a lot and I need to be able to login to Ebay. Of course the lack of flash didn't help. The browser seems pretty fast and I like the fact that the address bar turns into a progress bar when loading pages. I'll come back to this browser when they are a little further in the development. If SSL is usable, then the browser will get an higher rating.

arora error
click to enlarge

dillo
click to enlarge

The Dillo Web Browser
Rating Below Average

Dillo is one of the basic web browsers. Dillo is small - just over 400k. At this size (as you can see on the screenshot), it doesn't do any CSS processing. There is no Flash support and, as far is I can tell, no Java either.

It does login to my Ebay account, but the My Ebay page is pretty much unreadable.

If the developers would include CSS processing, then this would be a great browser. Dillo claims to load websites fast but, c'mon, this really isn't hard to do if you don't load Javascript or CSS.

No need to explain why this one was rated so low.

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Comments

Showing all 7 comments
 
Berry van der Linden Jul 22, 2010 3:04 PM
RE: Brad Kelley
Hello Brad,

Thanks for you comment. You are totally right. At the time of writing this article Chrome wasn't stable enough yet to be added. I have this article on my todo list to add Chrome and make some other edits.

Thanks,
Berry van der Linden
http://madberry.org
http://q3w.org
Brad Kelley Jul 22, 2010 9:16 AM
Linux Web Browsers Reviewed
I haven't seen any mention of Google Chrome. It is fast and seems to work anywhere i put it. Plus all my book marks sync without an issue.

For me Google Chrome is not only a front runner, but is in First or second in the Linux Browser Race.

Thanks,
Brad
http://www.crackednoodle.com
Vernon Jun 14, 2010 10:08 AM
Text browsers
Firefox is my main browser, but I use w3m a lot, mainly because it works in Emacs. For me the main reason to use text based browsers is for reading tutorials and manuals. It has less distractions and works right in Emacs alongside whatever I am working on at the time.
Neffer Carrillo Nov 4, 2009 2:03 PM
Linux Web Browsers Reviewed
Epiphany is also great and much faster than Firefox.

I will give Opera a try after reading this post.
Chad McCullough Oct 15, 2009 7:24 AM
no longer supported
Galeon is a great browser but is no longer in active development. It was merged with another browser but I can't remember which one. Maybe Epiphany? Great browser, too!
FmX Sep 12, 2009 2:56 PM
RE: Linux Web Browsers Reviewed
Epiphany is also a great browser. Should look at it.
Igor Garfias Sep 9, 2009 3:04 AM
Linux Web Browsers Reviewed
do you know flock? is a firefox based, have social media integration, and many other options for post in blogs, webmail administrator, media bar and more, well sorry for my bad english i'm only good reading.
 
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