From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jan 4 22:48:16 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B451E1065670 for ; Wed, 4 Jan 2012 22:48:16 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from kline@thought.org) Received: from thought.org (plato.thought.org [209.180.213.209]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8BD668FC15 for ; Wed, 4 Jan 2012 22:48:16 +0000 (UTC) Received: by thought.org (Postfix, from userid 1001) id E0515E804E0; Wed, 4 Jan 2012 14:30:46 -0800 (PST) Date: Wed, 4 Jan 2012 14:30:46 -0800 From: Gary Kline To: Peter Harrison Message-ID: <20120104223046.GB4332@thought.org> References: <20120104165405.GF8500@hemlock.hydra> <8C0EEF92-18FD-45A8-90EF-F26EC8762704@googlemail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <8C0EEF92-18FD-45A8-90EF-F26EC8762704@googlemail.com> Organization: Thought Unlimited. Public service Unix since 1986. Of_Interest: With 25 years of service to the Unix community. User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) Cc: Chad Perrin , questions@freebsd.org, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Browser X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 04 Jan 2012 22:48:16 -0000 On Wed, Jan 04, 2012 at 08:48:35PM +0000, Peter Harrison wrote: > Date: Wed, 4 Jan 2012 20:48:35 +0000 > From: Peter Harrison > Subject: Re: Browser > To: Chad Perrin > Cc: questions@freebsd.org, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org > X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1251.1) > > > On 4 Jan 2012, at 16:54, Chad Perrin wrote: > > > On Wed, Jan 04, 2012 at 07:17:47AM -0500, Daniel Lewis wrote: > >> Im running Free BSD 8.2 and was wondering whats a good web browser for > >> version 8.2? > >> Where and how would we install it? ( Im really new to unix) > > > > There are at least as many answers to this as there are browsers, and > > probably quite a few more answers than that. > > > > For minimalist browsers in the X Window System environment, I quite like > > Surf. > > > > For its incredibly rich extension system, I use Firefox (and extensions > > such as Pentadactyl, Perspectives, HTTPS Everywhere, and Scrapbook). > > > > For a combination of excellent GUI design, smooth built-in features, and > > stability (relative to Firefox), Chromium is a good choice (that's the > > open source project behind Google Chrome). > > > > For a relatively lightweight, modular design that offers an interesting > > alternative interface for people who prefer keyboard navigation rather > > than mouse navigation, there's Uzbl (though the Pentadactyl extension for > > Firefox offers some of the same benefits). > > > > For the most complete feature set of any console-based browser I've used > > (which means I don't necessarily need a running X Window System session > > to use it), there's w3m. > > > > Some OpenBSD people have started working on the xxxterm project, which > > looks quite promising to me, and I intend to give it a serious look very > > soon. > > > > There are others as well. Others have already mentioned Epiphany, > > Midori, and Opera. Lynx and Links are a couple more console-based > > browsers. In addition to Firefox, the Mozilla guys also offer SeaMonkey. > > Konqueror is the canonical choice amongst KDE users, I think, and Flock > > has a small but dedicated following. Conkeror, despite the similarity of > > its name to Konqueror, is not a KDE browser; instead, it appears to be a > > Firefox variant specifically designed for keyboard navigation (with a > > less vi-like set of default keybindings than Pentadactyl provides). I > > think NetSurf is a popular browser for the Haiku OS, but has been ported > > to other OSes such as FreeBSD. > > > > I don't have a favorite. All browsers I have encountered disappoint me > > in some way (though I hold hope for xxxterm when I get around to giving > > it a try). Each of the browsers I mentioned in their own paragraphs are > > browsers that I use at least occasionally, except for xxxterm -- which > > gets its own mention basically because it looks promising. For the > > negatives: > > > > Surf - It's so feature-minimal that I would need to build a bunch of > > custom scripts to interact with it and give me the functionality I need. > > I have not tried yet. > > > > Firefox - It's getting huge, bloated, and unstable for my purposes, and > > its recent rapid iteration model regularly breaks the very things that > > keep me using it at all: the extensions. > > > > Chromium - The extension system is (intentionally) brain-dead. > > > > Uzbl - It's a bit of a pain in the butt to configure to my preferences, > > and the extension "system" is very, very ad-hoc. I like some of the > > principles of the underlying architecture, but in practice I do not think > > it is as well executed as it should have been. > > > > w3m - I find its keyboard navigation capabilities somewhat less than > > convenient and, as a console-based browser, that's kind of a fatal flaw. > > It's still better than any other console-based browser I've used though. > > Then, of course, there's the fact that it lacks the conveniences of the > > major GUI browsers (plugin support, for instance). > > > > xxxterm - It's not in FreeBSD's ports system (yet), and I don't need a > > new custom software installation project this week. Beyond that, I don't > > know what I may or may not dislike about it. > > Chad, > > xxxterm is in ports - at least I have it installed on my netbook and although I can't remember how it got there, I never (ever) install stuff that's not in ports. > > I installed for exactly the same reasons you're looking at it - fast lean browser with good (vi-like) keybindings. > > Firefox runs like a dog on my atom processor, but I do still keep it around for some stuff although compiling to keep their release schedule is gradually turning me off. > > First impressions of xxxterm are that it's very good. The keybinding is quite as good as uzbl or vimperator on firefox, but it's live-able with, and it seems to have fewer performance or configuration downsides. > > i hope this isn't too far offtopic, but here's the situation: i need a tts reader to read text to me in some cases. i have been using one that is good-enough. but it's author says that this firefox 'addon' will not work with firefox-9. So: does anybody know of a browser with a builtin text-to-speech reader? i have searched ff and found no other such readers. in any case, great list of browsers:) --gk > -- Gary Kline kline@thought.org http://www.thought.org Public Service Unix Journey Toward the Dawn, E-Book: http://www.thought.org The 8.57a release of Jottings: http://jottings.thought.org Twenty-five years of service to the Unix community.