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What internet browser to replace iceweasel/firefox?

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edbarx
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What internet browser to replace iceweasel/firefox?

#1 Post by edbarx »

Since, the last policy changes by the firefox developer team, their famous browser and its functional replica, iceweasel, are expected as some threads on these fora explained, to require more powerful computers, I am creating this thread to discuss what alternative browsers exist, if any at all. Those who don't have high end hardware 'may' start to experience drops in performance of their favourite browser.

As my hardware is NOT the best on the planet boasting of eight or ten cores and my RAM is only a measly 2 GB, I am expecting that my long use of iceweasel may soon come to an end.

The crucial quesiton is: which existent browsers can effectively replace iceweasel for hardware that is not so recent?
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Re: What internet browser to replace iceweasel/firefox?

#2 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

qutebrowser is excellent, the spiritual successor to dwb
https://github.com/The-Compiler/qutebrowser

Unfortunately not in the Debian repositories but not a problem for a user of your calibre ;)
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edbarx
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Re: What internet browser to replace iceweasel/firefox?

#3 Post by edbarx »

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:qutebrowser is excellent, the spiritual successor to dwb
https://github.com/The-Compiler/qutebrowser

Unfortunately not in the Debian repositories but not a problem for a user of your calibre ;)
That looks like suggesting a donkey for a car as a means of transcontinental transport.

Debianizing the above is not that difficult provided the actual code does not need editing. To create a functional but primitive debian subdirectory in the source's tree, use dh_make while in the source's top directory. That should allow for using dpkg-buildpackage to work.
Debian == { > 30, 000 packages }; Debian != systemd
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It is hard to get away from CLI tools.

No_windows
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Re: What internet browser to replace iceweasel/firefox?

#4 Post by No_windows »

I'm still using Iceweasel but I also use Opera and Qupzilla.

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Re: What internet browser to replace iceweasel/firefox?

#5 Post by stevepusser »

Much of the blame rests on websites piling on loads of javascript and ads for no good reason except ad revenue.

Pale Moon is based on Firefox 25, if that's fast enough for you. I'm currently trying Slimjet, but that's based on current Chromium, so might still be too heavy for you.
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Re: What internet browser to replace iceweasel/firefox?

#6 Post by stevepusser »

edbarx wrote:
Head_on_a_Stick wrote:qutebrowser is excellent, the spiritual successor to dwb
https://github.com/The-Compiler/qutebrowser

Unfortunately not in the Debian repositories but not a problem for a user of your calibre ;)
That looks like suggesting a donkey for a car as a means of transcontinental transport.

Debianizing the above is not that difficult provided the actual code does not need editing. To create a functional but primitive debian subdirectory in the source's tree, use dh_make while in the source's top directory. That should allow for using dpkg-buildpackage to work.
It looks like qutebrowser is a Python3 program that uses its Qt5 bindings, so would have to be packaged in the python3 fashion---but you can directly run a Python program without compiling it, anyway. I can't say I like the recommendation to upgrade Qt 5 for Jessie from the experimental repository: https://github.com/The-Compiler/qutebro ... L.asciidoc

which seems like a recipe for disaster for many people.
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arabianights
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Re: What internet browser to replace iceweasel/firefox?

#7 Post by arabianights »

I use palemoon and xombrero

occasionally opera12

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Re: What internet browser to replace iceweasel/firefox?

#8 Post by Bulkley »

stevepusser wrote:Much of the blame rests on websites piling on loads of javascript and ads for no good reason except ad revenue.
Agreed. Blocking the crap as much as possible might help. Also, turn off Flash. Prefbar is an extension that lets you turn features on or off on the fly which is handy.

I've tried a number of browsers but keep coming back to Iceweasel. Speed and features are inversely related; the more features the worse the speed.

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Re: What internet browser to replace iceweasel/firefox?

#9 Post by edbarx »

Thanks to all those who made valid suggestions. I am trying palemoon as it is iceweasel from some time ago.

To All Interested:
Using palemoon is a matter of downloading the version for Linux and extracting it to your home directory. The palemoon executable is named 'palemoon'.
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Re: What internet browser to replace iceweasel/firefox?

#10 Post by kedaha »

Epiphany's my recommendation.
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Re: What internet browser to replace iceweasel/firefox?

#11 Post by stevepusser »

Pale Moon has a slight caveat for KDE users, it'll crash constantly in KDE if you have gtk2 applications in the KDE systemsettings set to use "oxygen-gtk", provided by gtk2-engines-oxygen. The workaround is to use some other theme, such as qtcurve.
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Re: What internet browser to replace iceweasel/firefox?

#12 Post by Wheelerof4te »

I agree, IW/FF v40+ are much more resource hungry than earlier versions. I blame it on new junk features (who needs volumeicon on their tabs?) and lots of buttons that do nothing.

Flashblock and NoScript extensions are good enough to speed things up. Avoid using Adblock on slow computers, as it eats up RAM like crazy. As for the alternatives, I don't see any ATM.

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Re: What internet browser to replace iceweasel/firefox?

#13 Post by n_hologram »

edbarx wrote:Thanks to all those who made valid suggestions. I am trying palemoon as it is iceweasel from some time ago.

To All Interested:
Using palemoon is a matter of downloading the version for Linux and extracting it to your home directory. The palemoon executable is named 'palemoon'.
How's it working for you? When I last tried it a few years ago on an underpowered system (1.6ghz, 2gb), it ran terribly.
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Re: What internet browser to replace iceweasel/firefox?

#14 Post by dasein »

stevepusser wrote:Pale Moon has a slight caveat for KDE users...
PaleMoon also has some nontechnical issues that some folks may or may not find worrisome.

- Certain FF extensions are deliberately rendered nonfunctional inside PM (AdBlockPlus being perhaps the most high-profile). I don't know if it's still true, nor which/how many extensions are affected, but folks who are serious about FOSS and the DFSG in particular may find such behavior troubling.

- When I went to install PM on my android phone, the mobile version wanted all sorts of permissions it had no business asking for (including and most egregiously, my "identity"). Any time an app asks for extraneous permissions, it sets off a "red flag" for me. I ended up installing Opera mobile.

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Re: What internet browser to replace iceweasel/firefox?

#15 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

edbarx wrote:That looks like suggesting a donkey for a car as a means of transcontinental transport.
Oh, OK, sorry to waste your time :(
edbarx wrote:Debianizing the above is not that difficult provided the actual code does not need editing. To create a functional but primitive debian subdirectory in the source's tree, use dh_make while in the source's top directory. That should allow for using dpkg-buildpackage to work.
Fascinating, thank you!
:)
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Re: What internet browser to replace iceweasel/firefox?

#16 Post by pylkko »

Epiphany comes with a built-in adblocker. No need for an extension. Used sucesfully on LXDE and GNOME. Works pretty fast and I have even run it with 512 MB RAM. Works on X or on Wayland. Based on webkit. Pretty basic though, but not as minimal (has more features than) as most minimal ones.

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Re: What internet browser to replace iceweasel/firefox?

#17 Post by ralph.ronnquist »

dasein wrote:Certain FF extensions are deliberately rendered nonfunctional inside PM (AdBlockPlus being perhaps the most high-profile). I don't know if it's still true
Reading this forum thread, I decided to give Pale Moon a try, and had so far only found it pleasant as a totally seamless replacement to Firefox. I hadn't even come as far as (re-)installing AdBlockPlus yet, so now I'll need to test that more thoroughly. It does install disabled, but offers enabling, which I did. We'll see whether it'll cause me grief, forcing me back to Firefox.

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Re: What internet browser to replace iceweasel/firefox?

#18 Post by roseway »

Pale Moon has its own replacement for Adblock Plus: Adblock Latitude - the link also explains the reason for it. I've been using Pale Moon for several weeks now, and I'm completely satisfied with it.
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Re: What internet browser to replace iceweasel/firefox?

#19 Post by ralph.ronnquist »

Fair enough; I'll change to use that. Note that for some reason, the search option in add-ons manager doesn't include it. This might be due to me "upgrading" to Pale Moon, or just a deficiency; the manager does advertise both add-ons sites, but it seems to only search Mozilla.

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Re: What internet browser to replace iceweasel/firefox?

#20 Post by sjukfan »

Do you really need to change? I know firefox uses 2GB ram here, but that might have to do with the 220 tabs I have open. If you go back to just a few tabs open at the same time I would assume it'd use less resources. With the usual adblocker and flashblock plugins. And a scriptblocker if needed.
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