Examancer

Firefox performance in linux is always a bit lacking, so I thought I’d try some of the many alternative web browsers for Ubuntu (Gnome). All of these were tested on an Acer AspireOne running Ubuntu 8.10 and all were installed through the Ubuntu package repositories.

Midori

A small and simple WebKit browser. I have been looking for a good WebKit browser to use in linux… unfortunately this isn’t it. The performance is pretty decent when loading and using the page itself, but the actual program UI is clunky, slow, and buggy. This one needs some serious GTK+ work before it can expect to be a real choice for Ubuntu users. It hasn’t crashed on me or anything, but the fact that the toolbar can get resized if you switch tabs or use the back/forward buttons should not happen, but it does and it happens slowly.

Epiphany

Uses the Gecko layout engine, like Firefox, and seems to do it a little slower than Firefox. Some of the tab behaviors are odd and difficult to configure. When I click on a link that should open in a new window I generally don’t want it to appear in a new window, I want it in a new tab. Back and forward history seem to be shared among tabs in the same window? I guess I could see how that would be useful, but it is very odd behavior. Double clicking in the empty area of the tab bar doesn’t spawn a new tab? Also odd. All-in-all this isn’t a bad browser, it just doesn’t seem to do anything better than Firefox, which I was really hoping for.

Galeon

This is another browser using the Gecko layout engine. This browser actually feels pretty fast. I have enjoyed using it. However, it is not without issues. On a netbook it is very frustrating that I cannot seem to configure the browser’s UI to take up a minimal amount of screen space. The stock back and forward buttons are huge, and the height of the toolbar they are on is way to large. Even in full screen, the UI takes up too much vertical screen real estate.

These are the only alternative browsers I have tried so far. None of these browsers offer a good alternative to Firefox on a screen-space-constrained netbook. Not a single browser here had a windowed or full screen mode that offered as much screen real-estate dedicated to displaying the web page as Firefox (when properly configured). Even after exploring the various configuration options there appears to be no way to make ANY of these browsers use less or even similar amounts of screen-space for their UI compared to Firefox (not counting the options to remove the toolbar entirely, which is not realistic) . On a screen this small page real-estate becomes very important. There should at least be OPTIONS to make the UI as minimal as possible, but the options provided are simply inadequate. This compounds the fact that Midori and Epiphany both feel slower than Firefox. Galeon, which generally feels as fast or faster than Firefox, is crippled for me by the fact that the minimum usable UI configuration is the largest of the group. Also, not a single one of these browsers offers the ability have a FULL full-screen browser, like Firefox, where the UI auto-hides and the web page is given nearly 100% of the screen. I hope with the growing number of netbook users and the growing number of them running linux this will have to be a form factor each brower’s community will develop for and offer more customizable/minimizable user interfaces.

I wrote my first Greasemonkey script today, and it happens to be an automatic Twitter Refresher. The script will refresh Twitter every n seconds (10 seconds by default), unless you have placed any input in the input field, in which case it will not refresh.

I haven’t tested this in Greasemetal (Google Chrome) or Greasekit (Safari) yet, but it uses very simple and standard javascript DOM to work, so I’m pretty sure it will work fine in other userscript environments.

Pretty simple, but its something I really wanted so I figured I would share in case anyone else needs a tool like this. Also available through userscripts.org.

Let me know if you can think of any other sites this would be useful for.

When Google released the beta for their new browser, Chrome, they stated their main goal was to create a lightweight, fast, and robust platform for web applications. After spending some time with Google Chrome I can say for certain they have succeeded in that goal. This is still a beta project, and it has its short comings, but it shows real promise and it is hands down the fastest browser I have ever used.

Here is a quick overview of my thoughts on Google Chrome:

Pros

• Super fast rendering
• Super fast javascript and great inspection tools
• Super fast user interface
• Very compatible and standards compliant (thanks webkit!)
• Simple, clean, attractive, and intuitive UI
• Fantastic stability and resource management

Read on for more detailed thoughts about the Google Chrome beta browser.

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Just before heading off to bed last night I came across an interesting leak of information via LifeHacker,  Gizmodo, and Ars. However, the breadth of coverage wasn’t necessary to catch my attention. I knew this was big news the moment I read the headline… Google is releasing a browser, and its called Chrome. The beta is set to be released later today. Read on.

Update: Google Chrome beta has now been released. I’ll write up my first impressions soon.

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