lubuntu-desktop team mailing list archive

[Joe <xubuntu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

If you want a browser with all the bells and whistles it has to be
Firefox but that doesn't fit with the aims of Lubuntu , although I would
probably personally always have it installed as well as whatever we
chose as the lightweight alternative. (same as I'll always install
open-office but agree that Abiword should be the default Lubuntu app and
I'll use it most of the time) 

I reckon the choices for a lightweight browser which is usable by
non-tecky users are:

Chromium:
+ is very complete and has most of the bells and whistles
- slow to start up and s render pages compared to Midori or Arora
- looks like it uses a lot of memory & CPU when there are lots of tabs
open
- not good with flash

Midori: (I think you need to use 0.2.2 which is in Lucid repos)
+ very fast to open up and load pages
+ does just about everything you NEED a browser to do
+ Flash just works
- doesn't have all the bells and whistles that firefox extensions allow 
+ does have the most important extension features &  plugins build it
(adblock, form filler, flsah viewer, cookie manager, media player,
speed-dial, etc)
+ allows user scripts 
- + some webages say "your webrowser is not supported" BUT remember we
had this problem originally with Firefox? The same solution is available
that we used in the early days of Firefox (PREFERENCES: NETWORK:
Identify as Firefox or Safari)
+ pages render very well (100% on Acid3)

Arora:
= as above since they are very similar browsers
- difference is that Arora is the QT version of Midori or vice versa

My vote goes for Midori 
Chromium would be my second choice
Firefox doesn't fit with Lubuntu but it should be easy to install
perhaps a script in the Internet menu)

If you want to try Midori on a Karmic system it's best to use the newer
version rather than the one in the Ubuntu repos:
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/midori-a-lightweight-web-browser.html


All the best

Joe


On Sun, 2010-01-31 at 10:35 +0000, Steve wrote:
> On Sun, 31 Jan 2010 04:18:06 -0000, Julián Alarcón <alarconj@xxxxxxxxx>  
> wrote:
> 
> Some notes:
> 
> Lubuntu is Ubuntu and free software, so, is not JUST for linux geeks,
> is for all "human beings".
> Lubuntu will be a light OS, so, no big resources. The main goal of
> Lubuntu is to bring Ubuntu to old PCs (here on Colombia many people
> (rural zones) use Pentium II + 256 of RAM + 10 GB DD + 1024x768 max.
> resolution), and, if we can give a complete experience to old
> computers, we'll score!!
> 
> * Browse trough a Terminal? Lynx is completely out.
> 
> * Chrome is NOT free software [1]
> 
> * Chromium really is free software, but, Chromium is NOT a final
> browser,just a development branch, so.. Support for Chromium is
> unknown, but, Chromium is now on Lucid, so, maybe this won't be a
> problem.
> 
> * Firefox is great, and Firefox 3.6 rulez! But, is not fast.
> 
> * Midori is great, but have some render and identification problems,
> and less features.
> 
> * Opera is NOT free software, one less...
> 
> So, we have: Firefox, Chromium, and Midori.
> 
> * The big faults of Chomium are, no official support (so Midori) from
> Canonical and from Google (Chromium is just a name project for Google)
> AND a big amount of memory use (I'm testing Chromium and with 7 tabs I
> got 815 MB used!!! (No flash guys)).
> Don't think so much on HTML5 (video), my PC waste more CPU watching
> OGG (on Firefox) and h264 (on Chromium) than Flash on both (this is
> sad but true, there are not good video libraries yet)
> 
> * Midori is a great tool, not official support from Canonical, but,
> Midori developers are supporting Midori, and this is good. And, Midori
> has been on Ubuntu repos since Hardy, so, we got some experience..
> 
> * Firefox is great, but, it's not so fast, and we need something fast
> (remember, old PC's). Firefox have extensions, browser market, support
>  from many sites, official support from Canonical and Mozilla,low
> memory use.
> 
> 
> So, my favorites:
> 
> * Midori + Extension to bring "false" identification of Firefox or
> Safari (I like more Firefox ID) to surpass identification problems
> 
> * Firefox, keep it simple. Firefox is now a great web browser, and has
> many many people behind.
> 
> Having now used Lubuntu on a PII with 128MB RAM, I have to say I tend to  
> agree with the above.  Once you open 2 or 3 pages with either Chromium or  
> FF the machine can be come quite unresponsive as the poor drive gets  
> thrashed with things swapping in an out. Going to try Midori again latter.
> 
> 
> Note: Don't think on LTS status, I guest that Lubuntu won't be an LTS
> release (just like Kubuntu 8.04).
> 
> I think that was me that throw that one in. I just remember the confusion  
> with the two KDE 8.04 releases
> 
> 
> 
> [1] http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html
> 
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> 
> --
> Steve
> 
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