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Last modified: 27.Oct.2005
WWW-Browsers for Linux
There are many browsers available for Linux. I did not find a listing which I thought to be complete, especially considering non-Intel platforms. This list tries to accomplish this task. I tried to include all browsers for web pages (i.e. no pure 3D browsers) which are available for Linux. If a browser is missing or the information given is incorrect, I would be very glad if you could give me the information via email at kreutzm@itp.uni-hannover.de.
The list is limited to Browsers for HTML/XHTML/XML. Some might do other Formats as well (VRML, WAP) but I will not list browsers which are limited to such an format/protocol.
The column state indicates if and how the browser can be run under Linux/AXP: Check below for a detailed description.
If your favorite web page insists on certain browsers, you have to fake the browser identification.
Since several browsers are either totally out of date or their web page is no longer available, I split the list into browser with recent developement (i.e. those which are likely to display current web pages) and older browsers. If you think I misplaced a browser then please mail me.
Current Browsers
Name
State
Brief description
This reference browser from the W3C is capable of handling some of the latest web technologies, e.g. Cascaded Style Sheets. It is especially well suited for editing and syntax-checking of existing pages.
?
Currently being ported from DOS to Intel-Linux. Svgalib based, beta version available. Binary only.
Barque is a new web browser designed to be run on the G.N.O.M.E environment. It uses the GtkHtml component and is Bonobo enabled.
A (security) enhanced version of Mozilla. Commercial support available.
BrowseX is a free Open Source, cross-platform Web Browser, Mail Program, Talk/Chat client and more. There is a database interface, SQLite, and BrowseX is easily extensible via an API. BrowseX has been written primarily in C and Tcl.
The cheetah web browser is a project that has been started to create a fully functional, light-weight, bloat-free web browser for Linux (and other free unix clones) that is not dependant on KDE, GNOME or Mozilla.
HTML 3.2 capable browser (including several picture formats, tables, forms) capable of handling SSL. Written in OTcl. Development is currently frozen.
Conkeror is a mozilla based web browser (requires Firefox to install) designed to be completely keyboard driven, no compromises. It also strives to behave as much like Emacs as possible. This means all the keybindings and to-die-for features of Emacs that can be imitated by a javascript/XUL web browser Just Work.
Dillo is a small (less than 400 Kb), GTK+ based web browser project completely written in C. It is based on gzilla and armadillo (see below) and aims to be small, stable, developer-friendly, usable, fast and extensible.
Encompass is a web browser for the GNOME Desktop. Currently being completly rewritten.
Epiphany is a GNOME web browser based on the mozilla rendering engine; it aims for simplicity, standard complience and GNOME integration (including the Human Interaction Guidelines).
Firefox (previously Firebird) is the new name of Phoenix which is a redesign of the Mozilla browser component, similar to Galeon, K-Meleon and Chimera, but written using the XUL user interface language and designed to be cross-platform. It has a modularized design and user can install a large number of plug-ins (like googlebar; mouse gestures like in Opera) of his choice.
Galeon is a GNOME web browser based on gecko (mozilla rendering engine). It's fast, it has a light interface and it is full standards compliant. It requires current Mozilla sources to build.
Yelp is the default help viewer for GNOME 2. It can read documentation in HTML or DocBook format.
Grail is an extensible Internet browser written entirely in the interpreted object-oriented programming language Python. Last release March 2000.
Since Sun's direct support is limited to Solaris for SPARC, Windows NT and Windows 95. Linux users have to get the runtime environment seperatly and cannot use SSL. If you've tried it with Compaq's JDK (on alpha) I'd be glad to know the results.
ICEsoft's family of comercial Java-based browsers, browser toolkits, and related products is available for licensing on embedded devices or enterprise applications and contains a MathML pilot which can render MathML content based on Webeq 2.3. Trial downloads are available. If you've tried it with Compaq's JDK (on alpha) I'd be glad to know the results.
The Jazilla Project aims to create a Mozilla like Browser suite in Java, which is standards compliant and embedable. If you've tried it with Compaq's JDK (on alpha) I'd be glad to know the results.
Pure Java based browser for HTML 4.0. At this point of the development stage all JoZilla does is simply retrieve and render non-framed web pages. If you've tried it with Compaq's JDK (on alpha) I'd be glad to know the results.
Kazehakase is a browser with gecko engine like Epiphany or Galeon and support for remote (japanese) bookmarks.
The KDE file-manager (kfm) is capable of browsing as well.
Konqueror is the successor of kfm, the file manager and web browser in KDE 1.x. Besides browsing, it can be used as a file manager and universal viewer as well. HTML 4.0, ECMAscript 262, can house Java applets, full CSS1 and partial CSS2, bidirectional scripts and SSL support. In full developement. It now supports tabs as well!
A Lightweight Web Browser. It does text, images, tables and soon forms. It doesn't do css, frames or scripting.
Yet Another Mozilla-based browser. Features very simple non-bloated GTK+ interface, familiar Netscape 4.x keyboard shortcuts, context menus, etc.. Based on mozilla.
THE original browser, by Tim Barners-Lee. Still under development, closely tied to libwww. Last independent release was 1995 though.
Links is text WWW browser with tables. There is also a Sourceforge page and an external development path called elinks available.
Very flexible text mode browser with many features (including SSL) but without table support. Most likely already installed.
The Minimo (Mini Mozilla) project is focused on code-size and runtime footprint reduction, and porting to small consumer devices. The primary focus of Minimo to date has been system with ~32-64 MB of RAM, running Linux and using the GTK toolkit. Other platforms and toolkits have been investigated as well.
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Browser for embedded systems, Gtk based, commercial. Basically a SDK for embedded applications (Phones, PDA).
A fast, small, free and nice web browser for Unix. Requires qt 2.2.2; based on konquerer engine.
Netrik is the ANTRIK Internet Viewer/Browser/Explorer/Navigator/whatever than is able to run in pure text mode.
Netscape Navigator/Communicator. Version 3.01can be run using em86. Please note Netscape 6.x/Mozilla below.
The open-sourced/freed development version of Netscape 7, called Mozilla. Version 1.0 is really nice. See also Aphrodite. If you have a small device, have a look at minimo.
Opera is a commercial browser currently available as beta for Linux/Intel, Linux/PPC and Linux/Sparc, more platforms are to be followed. A text based version is planned. Opera aims to be fully W3C standards compliant but yet to remain a low memory footprint; latest version however do have a larger memory consumption. Note that this is a commercial browser distributed as shareware (30 days trial) or free but with mandatory advertisments shown.
Tcl/TK-Browser for downloading special content (TV-programms).
CVS
Pyleon is an extensible GTK+ web browser written in Python, with support for both Mozilla and GtkHTML. Non-core browser features are implemented as modules so power users can load only their desired features, and programmers can easily add their own.
retawq is an interactive, multi-threaded network client (web browser) for text terminals on computers with Unix-like operating systems. It is written in C, fast, small, nicely configurable, and comfortable.
SkipStone is a Gtk+ Web Browser that embeds Mozilla's rendering component Gecko. It aims to be light and fast with few dependencies.
This office-suite can also be used to surf the web. Note that the next version is developed as Open Source on http://www.openoffice.org/.
The ViewML Browser is an open source project aimed at producing a small memory footprint, high-quality web browser for the rapidly growing embedded Linux market. The ViewML Browser is based on KDE's kfm (kde file manager), and FLTK (fast light tool kit).
Q
A svgalib web browser -- an early version yet. Emphasis is on high quality picture display. Currently requires lynx, the author intends to merge with links in the future. wb0 itself is no longer under developement.
Small text based browser (originally a pager) with support for tables. Works on Alpha.
A variant of w3m with support for multiple character encodings.
X-Smiles is a Java based XML browser. It is intended for both desktop use and embedded network devices and to support multimedia services. The main advantage of the X-Smiles browser is that it supports several XML related specifications (including XHTML) and is still suitable for embedded devices supporting the Java environment. And yes, it runs on alpha using SableVM.
Initially a web browser for the Linux framebuffer, using the library named oFBis, now extending to other frontends as well. Zen is a long term project, and will take an unspecified amount of time to write.
Older Browsers
Name
State
Brief description
Gtk-based browser, formerly called Gzilla (see below). Does not compile, no longer maintained. See dillo above.
The old reference browser of the W3C. Development continued by Yggdrasil. Latest changes from March, 1997.
OMRON Corporation has developped to extend Arena to be able to display Chinese, Korean and Japanese characters in one page. OMRON's Arena supports both ISO-2022 and UNICODE. It guesses ``charset'' automatically, if ``charest'' paramter isn't specified in Content-Type field..
Browser developed specifically for local documentation as part of an office-suite. The original site has been removed and I haven't found a mirror yet.
?
Enhanced version of Chimera 1.x. Unfortunately the link no longer works. I contacted the authors. They are working on a new version and provide a link as soon as possible.
Complete rewrite of Chimera 1.x.
A free web browser written completely in Common Lisp. The GUI is based on CLUE. The browser is in alpha state. Generally the underlying core (HTTP, SGML, HTML, CSS) is stable. The UI is lacking.
debris is a free (see GPL) text mode HTML browser package. It provides tables, forms, a secure environment and is small (only 25% of lynx).
Emacs/W3 is a full-featured web browser, written entirely in Emacs-Lisp, that supports all the bells and whistles you will find in use on the web today, including frames, tables, style sheets, and much more. An emacs version 20.x or greater is recommended. Currently a modular rewrite is being done.
A browser tailored for embedded devices based on x86 (Pentium+) and PowerPC machines. The link currently does not work.
Express is written for the Gnome desktop project. It aims to be a full-featured web browser; however it will do this with extensive plugin support, so it is basically as lightweight as needed.
Gzilla is a web browser written in the Gtk+ framework. It's still in early alpha. It does not compile and is no longer maintained. Please note Dillo above.
Pure Java based browser for HTML 4.0.
Midas is very old (1993!), unsupported, crashes if it encounters pages with tables (there werent any tables in 1993) and is basically of no more than historic interest.
MMM is a WWW browser implemented in Objective Caml using its CamlTk41 interface to Tcl/Tk. Supports HTML 2.0, most of HTML 3.2 and frames. Last modified December 1997.
Based on NCSA Mosaic (see below). Supports Table, one level frame and IPv6/IPv4. The project aims to have a multicasted browser (hence the m). This project has been abandoned.
Apart from HTML 4.0, Mnemonic will support the W3C standards XML and CSS. There will also be support for mathematics typesetting in the form of MathML and TeX. Currently a GTK-- based version is available, but a text-only interface is expected in the near future. Compiling on Alphas is done internally at irregular intervals. The project is in a terminal coma currently.
One of the first browsers available. Development was discontinued 1996. Please note mMosaic above.
netomat(TM) is a meta-browser. Requires Java 1.1.6 (or later) virtual machine. The download is now focused on Windows and Mac.
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Tcl/TK-Browser from Australia. The host seems no longer to exist but you can find Version 0.6.2 and Version 1.0 mirrored by A. Caldwell.They can post HTML forms for CGI scripts and can do HTML tables but not frames. With the IMG extension for Tk, they can do most image types found on the web. He also provides a version for Agenda VR3.
A general SGML-parser. No new version since end of 1997.
?
This browser was distributed with RedHat 4.2, Intel. There seems to be no information available about it anymore.
Skate Browser is simply an implementation of the iceBrowser bean from iceSoft. Can be used with Uncle Georges JRE.The webpage seems to be no longer available.
Description of the state-column for Linux/AXP:
B: Binary (usually as .tgz) is available
R: (Red-Hat)-RPM is available
S: SuSE-RPM is available
D: Debian-deb-Archive is available
Q: Only source available (if you compile this browser successfully, please mail link to kreutzm@itp.uni-hannover.de. Thanks.).
H: Written in a scripting high level language or a language with dynamic translation, e.g. Java, OTcl, Python or Lisp.
E: Intel binary can be run via em86
T: A True64 binary exists which (possibly) can be run using the appropriate libraries.
?: Browser cannot be executed on Linux/Alpha. If you know otherwise, please send me an email to kreutzm@itp.uni-hannover.de. Thanks.
I would like to thank the following persons for feedback:
Gerhard Niklasch
Dan Frasnelli
Christian Weisgerber
Charles E. Taylor IV
Christopher Palmer
Alexander Caldwell
Verna Chaykowski
Jari Aalto
Barbara E. Irwin
List of almost all browsers (though no longer activly maintained)
These pages may be reproduced as long as each copy carries a clear reference to this site (http://www.itp.uni-hannover.de/~kreutzm)
Last modified: 27.Oct.2005
You can reach me under
mailto:%20kreutzm@itp.uni-hannover.de
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