Pre-alpha Version of Chromium Available for Linux

Posted on March 20th, 2009 | No Comments »

chromium_logo_smallA post at Tombuntu uncovers the fact, for me anyway, that there is a pre-alpha version of Chromium already available for use on Linux.  The following is an excerpt of the author’s review:

Chromium for Linux is pre-alpha software, but farther along in development than I expected. The GTK-based Linux interface looks and works just like Windows interface. The browser rendered sites I tested it with just fine, and I haven’t been able to crash the it yet. Lots of features, such as bookmarks, the options window, and even the about window, are simply…not implemented yet.

The review goes on to say that the tab bar is also missing, making it difficult to do anything with tabbed web pages, but that, like on the Google Chrome Windows counterpart, each tab runs in its own process.

Apparently getting the pre-alpha build is as simple as issuing the following from the command line:

sudo apt-get install chromium-browser

You can read much more about the Chromium build(s) in question over at Chromium on Ubuntu.

Hap-tip to Lim Chee Aun.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Around the Browsersphere #12

Posted on March 7th, 2009 | No Comments »

Whoa.  Has it really been like eight months since the last time we went around the browsersphere?  Not good.  I guess we should do something about it…

General

Avant Browser

Camino

Chrome

Firefox

Flock

Internet Explorer

Maxthon

Opera

Opera Mini

  • Armenia, a country with around three million people, saw its Opera Mini usage grow by 2800% last year.  See this and other interesting statistics in the State of the Mobile Web report (via Choose Opera).
  • “Yahoo! is expected to begin distributing Opera Mini via Yahoo! Mobile and also as a standalone download from Yahoo!’s mobile Web sites in the near future.”

Orca Browser

Safari

SeaMonkey

Skyfire

There was a lot to cover this time around, and there’s much more I haven’t yet covered.  Hopefully that means we’ll see the 13th installment of “Around the Browsersphere” sooner than November. ;)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Digg Watch #5

Posted on December 31st, 2008 | No Comments »

Let’s take a look at what web browser news has surfaced over at Digg over the past month:

And now for some bonus coverage from Slashdot:

Happy New Year, everybody.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Around the Browsersphere #11

Posted on July 11th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Since my last installment of Around the Browsersphere was posted back toward the beginning of May, there’s simply way too much going on to get all caught up without breaking things up a bit.  Therefore, this eleventh edition will focus solely on the “minor players,” or the web browsers not named Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera or Safari.

Avant

Flock

Konqueror

Maxthon

SeaMonkey

Others

I’m hoping to catch up on the major players soon, so stay tuned.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Digg Watch #4

Posted on June 22nd, 2008 | No Comments »

It’s that time again.  Since the last update, major versions of both Opera and Firefox have been released.  Only one of the two has been dominating in terms of Digg presence, though.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Flock 2.0 Beta 1 is Available

Posted on June 17th, 2008 | No Comments »

Hot on the heels of Firefox 3 potentially being released, I noticed (via Twitter again) that the Flock team has made Flock 2.0 Beta 1, which is based off of the Firefox 3 codebase, available for download.  The key advancements being touted with the beta release are performance, security, the user interface, favorites management and general feature enhancements.

I’ve yet to give Flock a try myself, but this may be the time to do it.  Flock 2.0 Beta 1 is available for download for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Installing Opera 9.5 Beta 2 on Ubuntu Linux

Posted on May 26th, 2008 | No Comments »

This probably isn’t even worth a post here at Browsersphere, simply because it’s so easy, but I installed Opera 9.5 Beta 2 on Ubuntu tonight and figured I’d share how I did it.  Unlike installing most packages on Ubuntu, it wasn’t as simple as using something like sudo apt-get install opera, but it was still straightforward.

First, I downloaded Opera 9.5 Beta 2 directly from the Opera website.  That launched the Debian package manager, which informed me that two dependencies were required and allowed me to install the software with one button click.  Once the install was finished, I optimistically glanced at my Applications, Internet menu to see if a shortcut to Opera had been added automatically, but it had not.  I started looking around online to see what the easiest way to add it was, but then noticed in the menu manager that the Opera icon was already showing up.  Fearing that it had already been added but that the Ubuntu menus simply hadn’t been refreshed, I quickly logged out and back in, and voila, there was the shortcut to Opera, already available in the Applications, Internet menu.

So there you have it.  Installing Opera 9.5 Beta 2 on Ubuntu 8.04 is easy as pie.  If you’ve used the browser on Windows like I have, it’s very familiar on Linux.

Tags: , , ,

Review of Five Linux Browsers

Posted on May 19th, 2008 | No Comments »

Craciun Dan has written a decent review of five of the major, GUI-based web browsers on Linux, including Konqueror, Firefox, Opera, Epiphany and Galeon.  See which browser he ends up recommending over at Comparison Between Linux Web Browsers – Review of 5 Linux Browsers.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Around the Browsersphere #10

Posted on May 11th, 2008 | 5 Comments »

There are some rumblings in the browsersphere as of late with a Firefox 3 RC1 release right around the corner, news that the latest service pack for XP isn’t compatible with a pre-installed IE8 Beta 1, etc.  So let’s get caught up.

General

Avant

Firefox

Flock

Internet Explorer

Konqueror

Maxthon

Opera

Opera Mini

Safari

Minor Players

Web Standards

Holy cow.  That’s a lot of information.  The browsersphere is a bustling place.  Hopefully you found something useful in all that.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Firefox 3 Beta 4 Released

Posted on March 10th, 2008 | No Comments »

The following comes via MozillaZine:

Mozilla Firefox 3 Beta 4 has been released for testing. The fourth beta of the next major Firefox version offers over 900 bug fixes over Beta 3, including improvements in download manager, full page zoom, better integration with Vista, Mac OS X and Linux, and significant improvements in speed and memory usage.

A developer-focused list of new features is available at Mozilla Developer News, and you can go grab the download right now from the Firefox Beta Downloads page.

Tags: , , , ,