Grab a Qup ;) of QupZilla!
by
Dan
Admit it, you laughed.
A reader and starter of this Ubuntu forum thread alerted me to the existence of a (relatively) new browser with the pun-proliferating name QupZilla. Since it's a good idea to have at least two web browsers on your system, and since Midori seems to be having difficulties lately, I'm on the lookout for a second browser to complement Iceweasel. And being a webkit browser, QupZilla seems to fit the bill.
So is it any good? Upon first opening it, it looks familiar, very much like Firefox from the pre-Australis days. This isn't the eccentric interface of Midori which was developed to the interests and needs of its author rather than a general audience. With QupZilla there are no surprises, but there are many features. This isn't one of those minimalist webkit browsers, either. Besides the usual bookmark, password, and cookie management, there are also built-in features that are rather like some popular Firefox and Chrome extensions. So it comes with AdBlock, FlashBlock, and Greasemonkey as well as Speed-Dial, an RSS reader, and Videoner, which opens video links in an external program.
Its performance on Linux is practically indistinguishable from Iceweasel. They use almost identical amounts of memory and I didn't perceive any differences in page loading times.
Additional features let you link to an external download manager if you want more than the built-in one, and enable user agent management either globally or on a site-by-site basis. There's also a web inspector, so this is a mature browser even though it's relatively new on the block.
Overall, I have to say I'm really impressed. The only downside for me is the lack of a NoScript-like feature, but maybe if we cross our fingers and email the developer they'll make our wish come true.
QupZilla is in the Debian Jessie repository with a newer version in Sid, so go give it a look!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Thanks for mention! The browser is really good and at least from my use not as cpu intensive as firefox. I only wish the would add more plugin support like for gecko-plugin. It is so much better than gnash. That with the viewtube greasemonkey script are a great combination.
ReplyDeleterican-linux
While I'm sure this is a good browser, I question the choice of "rican-linux" to use Ubuntu 12.04, the slowest and most bloated Linux on earth, as their OS. This tells me they aren't too interested in efficiency.
ReplyDeleteI use iceweasel and luakit under Debain LXDE (stable), and want for nothing with that browsing setup.
Bloat has no place on PowerPC, not even on a quad G5.
While I won't be using this, I'm sure others will find it a good browser, as long as they're not running Ubuntu.
@zen I just recently switched to Debian as my OS. At first I I tried MATE as my desktop then I decided to try LXDE based on what you have said in previous post. I have completely come around to LXDE. I was very impressed with the performance even when the CPU was highly utilized.
ReplyDeleterican-linux
I'm glad to hear/read that you found Debian. You were running it in Ubuntu anyway, but with a lot of Canonical bloat piled on top, and the existence of retail apps and spyware; a big cultural no no in Linux.
DeleteMost people start Linux on Ubuntu though; I did also, but I soon saw the way out when I experienced the horrendous performance lags. On a G4 400MHz it was using 40-50% CPU just sitting idle of user tasks. Just wow.
After tolerating Unity for less than a day, I installed GONME, and although faster, the performance was still hideous. After that I played with Lubuntu for a few months, which was a lot faster, but still buggy as hell. After trying all of the PowerPC Linux I settled on Debian LXDE.
After I tried them all, the only two that were truly well coded and sound were Debian and Gentoo. Debian won out because of better usability (personally), and slightly better stability. Gentoo is about the most DIY Linux of all, as it's all largely based around the concept of compiling everything yourself.
For over 20 years I was pretty much all BSD and Mac OS, but when it came to helping PowerPC people use a secure OS in the modern world, I already knew Linux was far more user accessible, so I started using it heavily just before I started this blog. My BSD/UNIX skills have been a massive help, and helped me over every hurdle so far.
The main point I'm trying to make here is that we need to learn things for ourselves as much as from other people. I know Ubuntu is slow and bloated because I used it, as did you, so we both know from experience now.
As to my first comment... the only point I was making is that if you use Ubuntu, and you used it, then you likely wouldn't have performance in mind.
I assume you're running Debian testing as opposed to sid, yes? The main reason I have to abstain, at least for now, is that I only have a stable install at the moment. I don't mess with my stable install whatsoever.
By the way... thanks to Dan for posting about it.
I have been using Mac OS for about 8 years. The PowerBook G4 was my first machine I bought from a friend. I love how it was UNIX based and more elagant and usable than my windows machine. I had Macports installed so have some more FOSS apps to play with and I also learned how to compile from source (I still consider myself a extreme newbie in that area).
DeleteWhen apple switched to Intel I bought a MacBook Pro 5,5 in 2009. I did try back in 2007-2008 running linux on my PowerBook but I really did know what I was doing and crashed my machine. I was replace the RAM reinstall OS X. I used both for a while OS X on the PowerBook just was not performing as well as my MacBook. In time wifi would be intermittent and Safari was so slow to load. So I kept it but barely used it. Until I tried again to load Linux on it. By this time I learned to be more patient and actually do research before I try things. So this time around my experience has been so much better. Finding your's and Dan's blogs has been a great help to me.
rican-linux