• Registered: 2009-07-13
  • Posts: 23

Topic: Sleeker web browser? Problems with Epiphany

Not so much an actual problem as a sticking point of style

Having just downloaded CrunchEEE on my EEEPC 900A, I've been hunting for an especially sleek web browser to compliment the otherwise perfect economy of this little system. Firefox was close, but there was so much "extra" functionality I found it ultimately unappealing. I next tried Opera, which though is FAR less sleek comes with a mailreader/feed reader/chat client built in, so I could remove those apps and have everything in one place. However, the problem with that is the interface. It becomes incredbily crowded real fast on this tiny 9" screen, not to mention it doesn't use the default GTK+ theme, which bothers me for some reason.

I was initially attracted to Midori or Arora, and I like the idea, but too manys serious bugs in bot for me to consider using it (especially given the need for Arora to install numerous dependency packages!)

To make a long story short, right now I have come across Epiphany, and so far I love it. It seems to be midori/arora without the problems they present. My one PROBLEM with it is that because it is designed to work with gnome, the packages end up being huge because of all the gnome libraries, larger even than opera, plus it's pretty slow starting up, too. Now even on this tiny 4gig drive space is not really an issue: it's just a matter of principle. How can I justify installing 30mb of epiphany, a minimal browser with an inordinately long startup time, when I can install the much faster-booting Opera, a browser with superlative extra functionality for a measly 22mb.

Now I saw that older versions of #! had epiphany preinstalled, and was wondering if there was any way of making Epiphany work a bit sleeker than it does when downloading it from the linux repositories. I mean, if it's designed to run in openbox/gtk it shouldn't need all these libraries, am I right? I could be totally up my ass but I feel like there's a workaround here.

Failing that, does anyone have a recommendation for some type of minimal web browser? I mean MORE so than firefox. Again, something like epiphany, midori, or arora without the aforementioned problems is what I am looking for. I want a bare bones BROWSER, that lets me BROWSE THE WEB. Not something that will pipe bittorrented mp3s into my head to lull me to sleep at night. In fact I only plan to use this browser to view image heavy stuff when I'm not on elinks.

Any help'd be appreciated

  • Registered: 2008-12-13
  • Posts: 1,480

Re: Sleeker web browser? Problems with Epiphany

well if your just using it for graphics have you looked into using links2 in graphical mode?

edit: forgot to mention how to run it, just do "links2 -g" from a terminal to run it, and ESC will open the menu. It's very minimal but does display images and works pretty good.

Last edited by iggykoopa (2009-07-15 19:19:37)

I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may.
  • Registered: 2009-07-13
  • Posts: 23

Re: Sleeker web browser? Problems with Epiphany

A good idea. Only have two problems with it:

Even with graphics enabled there are some things links just can't do. Certain sites don't support it, and depending on who you ask it either can't play embedded media or it's a thousand headaches to get it to. The point is I'd like a fully capable browser to live somewhere in this machine. Links is a good tool if you are perfectly content with text based browsing and only need to look at a few pictures now and then, but I can stand to have it be a little more robust.

Of debatably less importance is that links in graphics mode looks like crap. It won't take the GTK theme and it often displays pages worse than the text-based one. Whenever I run it it feels like I'm putting a snowplow on a ferrari.

I just feel like there's GOTTA be something, though I suppose it is more than likely there ain't hmm

Last edited by airship (2009-07-15 22:43:57)

  • Registered: 2009-07-13
  • Posts: 23

Re: Sleeker web browser? Problems with Epiphany

hm, on some further investigation it looks like opera wasn't as sleek as I thought (still damn small for what it does, though. If I had a nice, lavish desktop setup opera'd be ideal). And other supposedly sleek programs like galeon are even more bloated with dependencies...ah well, i suppose I can just use Epi while I wait for Midori to get polished up

  • From: Lincoln, UK
  • Registered: 2008-11-20
  • Posts: 4,244

Re: Sleeker web browser? Problems with Epiphany

I use Kazehakase on my Eee PC. It is fairly small/lightweight and I really quite like it. I found it a bit quirky to begin with, but there is no doubt that it performs better than Firefox on my Eee. It can be installed via the repositories:

sudo apt-get install kazehakase

smile

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  • Registered: 2009-02-18
  • Posts: 581

Re: Sleeker web browser? Problems with Epiphany

iggykoopa wrote:

well if your just using it for graphics have you looked into using links2 in graphical mode?

edit: forgot to mention how to run it, just do "links2 -g" from a terminal to run it, and ESC will open the menu. It's very minimal but does display images and works pretty good.

wow! links2 seems 1 mln km a head of elinks! And it supports polish signs wink
Thanks iggykoopa! It's fast as Speedy Gonzalez big_smile and very light also.

My major browser is still Opera (with e-mail client), but for reading stuff (blogs etc) links2 seems perfect (what a timesaver!)

Once again, thnaks (actually, this post is posted from links2 wink )

  • Registered: 2009-07-13
  • Posts: 23

Re: Sleeker web browser? Problems with Epiphany

...well I'll be buggered by a bear

Yeah this about does it. Any idea how to customize it further? I'd like to get rid of icons and the bookmarks bar.


Thanks corenominal! Thought let's see if there's any other problems. In my experience it's about the time of my celebration that things go awry

  • From: Nagoya, Japan
  • Registered: 2009-01-07
  • Posts: 1,722

Re: Sleeker web browser? Problems with Epiphany

For fast basic stuff it's hard to beat Dillo. For me it comes up as fast as a terminal window and it's excellent for browsing through doc files or a quick google search. The new 2.1 version has added some css support, which is something I could have done without, but I'll live with it I guess. Maybe the .dillo/style.css file can be tweaked...

Last edited by johnraff (2009-07-16 05:18:23)

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  • From: Florida
  • Registered: 2009-03-27
  • Posts: 20

Re: Sleeker web browser? Problems with Epiphany

corenominal wrote:

I use Kazehakase on my Eee PC. It is fairly small/lightweight and I really quite like it. I found it a bit quirky to begin with, but there is no doubt that it performs better than Firefox on my Eee. It can be installed via the repositories:

sudo apt-get install kazehakase

smile

Thanks  Corenominal....that's not bad!

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  • Registered: 2009-02-05
  • Posts: 18

Re: Sleeker web browser? Problems with Epiphany

my choice is netsurf

sudo apt-get install netsurf

it's light and simple


other option swiftfox, it's a  port of firefox

http://getswiftfox.com

it has especific builds for each CPU so it fits better in your system like it says in his website:
Optimized Mozilla Firefox Build for Linux
also you can use firefox add-ons

Last edited by butelo (2009-07-16 09:29:59)

  • DJiNN
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  • From: UK
  • Registered: 2009-04-23
  • Posts: 70

Re: Sleeker web browser? Problems with Epiphany

+1 for Dillo. Just installed the latest version & it's superb!  Also downloading Kazehakase (which i really like but haven't used for ages) just to compare the two. But Dillo rocks!  Has tabs too! smile

  • Registered: 2009-07-13
  • Posts: 23

Re: Sleeker web browser? Problems with Epiphany

I...like the interface, to a point. But I'm afraid the lack of java and flash is a pretty solid dealbreaker.

Kazehakase's doing okay. Working in fullscreen mode with the keyboard shortcuts works okay. I'd say this is a pretty good solution.

If I can squeeze some extra help anyone know where I can find a list of the dependencies for Epiphany? There's still 12mb of gnome libraries lurking somewhere and it digs at me.

  • From: Lincoln, UK
  • Registered: 2008-11-20
  • Posts: 4,244

Re: Sleeker web browser? Problems with Epiphany

airship wrote:

If I can squeeze some extra help anyone know where I can find a list of the dependencies for Epiphany?

http://packages.ubuntu.com/jaunty/epiphany-gecko << dependencies are listed with red bullets.

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  • Registered: 2009-07-15
  • Posts: 77

Re: Sleeker web browser? Problems with Epiphany

Has anyone used Midori recently, I believe there is an Ubuntu PPA available for it as well to get the lastest.

  • Registered: 2008-11-25
  • Posts: 4,363

Re: Sleeker web browser? Problems with Epiphany

Midori 0.1.7 that is available at the ppa is much more stable than the version currently available in jaunty. I rate it highly as a lean fast browser smile

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  • From: Asia
  • Registered: 2009-02-02
  • Posts: 934

Re: Sleeker web browser? Problems with Epiphany

Midori's definitely lean. I'm posting this from Midori on a Nokia Tablet (ARM processor - v last generation).

  • Registered: 2009-07-13
  • Posts: 23

Re: Sleeker web browser? Problems with Epiphany

I was a fan of midori but there were too many just plain unforgivable bugs: most notably failing to load previous pages once the "back" button was pressed, and for some reason it had no "stop" function (keyboard or nav buttons). Midori so far is my favorite but it's just too damn broken sad

  • Registered: 2008-11-25
  • Posts: 4,363

Re: Sleeker web browser? Problems with Epiphany

^Did you try the version available in the Midori ppa?