Thoughts on browsers

[klhrevolution]

I am upset at the firefox team for their "safety" implementation in version 3.xx It has to do with showing a red url bar with a slash through the padlock. While I have not upgraded to version 3.xx I did upgrade to the latest 2.xx version and it has this feature as well. Some folks told me that firefox 3 simply does not show the page at all if firefox 3.xx & friends deem it to be unsafe.. Not only does the government, isp's and the many other people and organizations want to keep us safe from the internet tubes but now we are getting the safeness routine from the applications we use. Well, sadly firefox has not hinted at reversing it's policing decision and so like so many others I must move on.

So many choices I don't know where to begin. Of course I could always use iceweasel which I think they are going to undo this policing action implemented in brand X (ff3) .. And netsurf is starting to make some real progress in that it is building components that not only a browser can make use of but other applications can also make use of. I am very excited to see where that goes. The Midori browser has teamed up with xfce and I suspect that we will see some improvements done in time for the next major release of xfce. HV3 is steadily fixing bugs and continues to impress me with each new nightly build. The google makes a stand and looks to create a browser that can do it all, though it's nowhere complete and the google os creeps in slowly but surely...

Browser market is looking good:

Lookout for Opera if they decide to open source version 10.0

Lookout for Netsurf if they ever manage to get a pr campaign that shows not only
users but developers what they are doing.

Look for firefox to drop in the gnu/linux scene unless they stop trying to police the web. We will see more and more derivatives of mozilla / firefox like swiftfox, iceweasel and others to start gaining users as a reaction to the policing/intervention of mozilla/ff.

Look for midori to start gaining usership once it kinda assimilates into xfce and more people realize it exist. And unlike konqueror it will not be dependent upon the xfce base so it will keep it's portability.

Other webkit browsers like arora, epiphany will continue to pop up but where they will go is anybody's guess. Will they gain stability and attract a user base or continue to be known as that browser..

Many great things happening in the browser world that can go right and wrong. It would be in Opera's best interest to open-source and try and steal some thunder away from the open source projects gaining ground like webkit and googles V8 js engine. In the end we users have some interesting choices on what to use to browse the web. One thing is for sure being proactive can have an effect not expected so let the internet tubes
be and allow the participators to decide what website is good and which is not.

chat.freenode.net #tuxhelper #gotux #linuxoutlaws

[xvedejas]

I was using FF 3.0 until recently; for some reason it began to crash repeatedly on me for no reason. Now I'm trying Flock, and while the theme is hideous, I must admit that I really like the way it handles rss feeds. I might try some other browsers, but this one works for now. Next on my list will be chrome once the linux beta is released.

[vmpeds99]

Midori is a great little browser.

cant think of what else to say...

[Rob]

I commend you on your choice of browser vmpeds99.

[mjjzf]

Midori is not very far yet, but judging from the frequent updates to it that I see on Arch, it seems it is being very actively developed. Personally, I would like to see it be the Abiword of browsers: A solid basic functionality, pleasant if not dazzling to look at - and to /dev/null with huge lists of features practically noone uses.

[Bazzawill]

I believe you can get firefox to view "unsafe pages" but you have to jump through some hoops. From memory you get two warning pages and then need to copy a new address from the 2nd warning page to the location bar

[vmpeds99]

I think the best thing that can happen to web browsers is flash being replaced by something more... open source.

That seems like the #1 issue to me.

[Miko]

the best thing that can happen to web browsers is flash being replaced by something more... open source.

That seems like the #1 issue to me.

Yeah, Flash sucks on just so many levels, the best thing would be for website designers to just stop using it at all, then we would have no need for Gnash or whatever

[edythemighty]

+1 for Flash alternative. Also, while we're at it, kill Java. I'm studying it right now, but it wouldn't bother me to have to study something else.

[jezra]

while we're at it, kill Java

What? I hope you are referring to Java Applets and not the entire language.