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Browsers on Linux. Stephen Fluin - 2010. What is a browser?. Browsers. Connect you to documents and applications remotely Use standardized (kind of) interface specifications Act as a platform for future applications. Browsers. Are Everywhere Smartphones (Android, etc) Desktops Laptops
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Browsers on Linux Stephen Fluin - 2010
Browsers • Connect you to documents and applications remotely • Use standardized (kind of) interface specifications • Act as a platform for future applications
Browsers Are Everywhere • Smartphones (Android, etc) • Desktops • Laptops • Applications
Browsers contain • Advanced rendering engines • Complex document parsers • Complete programming environment • Layered plugin-architectures • Tons of legacy support • Full media players
Who are the major players? • Internet Explorer • Firefox • Chrome • Opera Also • Safari • Lynx • w3m • everybody else
Linux Firefox Chromium (Chrome) Opera Internet Explorer Konqueror Epiphany
Differences Speed Functionality Style Compatibility
Speed Source: Jacob Gure, Six Revisions
Functionality Extensions and Plugins vs. Built-In Developer Tools Navigation Synchronization Process Isolation Crash Recovery Direct Rendering Protection and Safety
Style • Customization • Themes • General UI • Philosophy
Compatibility • Not 100% for anything on Linux • Netflix • Active-X • Firefox is Best
Compatibility Workarounds Firefox/Opera - User Agent Switcher Disable Javascript
Chrome vs. Chromium • Proprietary and Closed Source vs. BSD Open Source License • Extra tracking vs. Full Control • Be careful with defaults
Trying Them Out (On Ubuntu 9.10 or 10.04)
Firefox - ~12M • Ubuntu Default (3.5.8) • sudo apt-get install firefox • Latest Stable (3.6) • sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-stable • Bleeding Edge (Minefield) (3.7) • sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa
Chrome/ Chromium - ~13M Chrome • http://google.com/chrome Chromium • sudo add-apt-repository ppa:chromium-daily/ppa I haven't found sources for Chromium on Windows. In the past week or so, chromium-browser has been added to the Lucid Lynx packages.
Opera - 13.5 mb Official http://www.opera.com/browser/download/
The Future • Faster Browsers • More Support and Standards • Direct Rendering • The Death of Flash
HTML5 • Easier to develop • More innovations • More interactivity • GEO-IP • Video
Video <video></video>Native support for audio and videoHuge Battle - H264, Ogg/Theora, MP4, ?
Canvas and SVG Drawing like Flash Gaming and visualizations 1990s technology
Python Browser -A little bit of fun #!/usr/bin/env python importsysfrom PyQt4.QtCoreimport*from PyQt4.QtGuiimport*from PyQt4.QtWebKitimport*app = QApplication(sys.argv)web = QWebView()web.load(QUrl("http://penguinsunbound.net"))web.show()sys.exit(app.exec_())