Politenessman.net

Web Browsers

So its time for me to go on a computer rant again. I’m running Linux and love it but with any OS there are issues. In this case, the thorn in my side is the web browser. Why is it so hard for to get a browser that works and works right? Why is that so hard - its just software for goodness sake!
Most of you by now are saying ‘Firefox!, Use Firefox!”
The problem with firefox is the bloat. Its so bloated and heavy that it takes ages to wake up, ages to load anything and I just don’t need all of those add ons and plug ins; all I need to do is surf and handle bookmarks - thats all. This should be a very lightweight program, but apparrently the software community believes otherwise.

So I have made it a quest to find the right browser for me. My main critera are:

1. Fast - its got to be fast, both in start up and page loading.

2. Excellent bookmark handling. Bookmarks are important to me - I use a lot of bookmarks, so the ability to handle, import, export and organize bookmarks is essential.

3. Compliance - it has to load and display pages correctly. I don’t care too much about flash support, java, shockwave or any of that extraneous crap that people feel is so necessary these days, but make sure the page looks right.

Which browsers am I looking at and what am I running this on?
I’m using an EeePC 900 - 2G RAM / 900MHz Celeron - not exactly fast, but with Eeebuntu standard based on Intrepid, its very usable.

FireFox:
Great bookmark handling, slow page loads, slow start up times and can become unresponsive. It has a million plug ins, most of which I would never use, and all of which are useless. Good for bloat thouogh.

Dillo:
Looks like is was designed by a 5 year old, and has trouble laying out pages correctly however, it is damn fast. Ability to handle book marks is atrocious however, it can’t import or export, neither does there seem to be any ability to organize them.

Galeon:
Worked great, it loaded pages pretty fast, and for the most part, layed them out correctly. It had great bookmark handling but would crash out on occassions. Sadly it has no been discontinued in favor of Epiphiny.

Epiphany:
Much like Galeon, it loads pages fairly fast, and lays them out ok. Seems to be a little prone to crash out every now and then, however, what really kills it is the bookmarks organization - its tag based! Thats great for searching, but sucks for organizing.

Midori:
Nice and clean, simple and fast. Its just a shame that the longest I’ve had it run for a few seconds, after which it crashes out. Can’t comment on its ability to handle bookmarks as I never got that far with it.

Opera:
Starts up fast, is flexible, has great bookmark handling. Seems to come with a lot of crap - its trying to be all things to everyone, and it can’t be, so don’t. Loaded pages lay out well, and load quickly, although not the fasted of the software tested. It also seems to be very stable.

There were couple of packages I didn’t try out - the various text based browsers, Chrome and some odd ones I hadn’t heard of. I’m not trying Chrome as I just don’t trust it yet.

I’m going to run with opera for a while I think, and see what happens. I’ve spent some time with Galeon and Epiphiny, and a little time with Firefox, and I know I don’t like those. I have used Opera before but that was on a Windows (XP) platform, and it was ok, but I really didn’t like the interface. I hope this time it will be different.