Brief: Google Chrome might rule the world of browsers but you don’t need to keep on using it. Here are some free and open source web browsers for Linux.
When Google first released its Chrome browser in the fall of 2008, nobody suspected how much it would change the landscape. Within a short time, this new and fresh browser surpassed older entities that had been fighting for market share in the browser wars.
With over 55% market share, Chrome became the reigning kings of browsers. Though it is not available in repositories, many Linux users still install Chrome and use it.
For some, this was unfortunate because it gave Google access to even more data on them. In this age, data is the most important thing and the so-called free web browsers are a way to get to your data.
You don’t believe me, check yourself how much a web browser knows about you:
7 Open Source web browsers for Linux that are free from Google
For those who don’t trust the data collection magnet that is Google, here are seven Open Source browsers for Linux that are not ‘infected’ by Google. Don’t consider it a list of best web browsers for Linux because it focuses on being Google-free and on Open Source aspect.
This list is not in any particular order.
1. QupZilla
QupZilla is a nice, lightweight browser built with C++ and the Qt Framework. It originally utilized the QtWebKit, but now uses QtWebEngine. It started as an educational project, but It’s grown into a full-fledged browser complete with tabs, bookmark manager, download manager, and built-in ad-blocker.
QupZilla also comes with a couple built in extensions including GreaseMonkey, the tab manager, and a reverse image search.
While it might not have as many features as the top three, QupZilla does what a browser should: display web pages competently and block ads. I like using QupZilla on low powered machines instead of Chrome or FireFox. It is available for Windows, Linux, MacOS, FreeBSD, Haiku, and OS/2.
2. Midori
Midori is another fast, lightweight browser. It is built with Vala and C and takes advantage of GTK. Midori uses the Webkit rendering engine. It has a spell checker and ad-blocker, but they have to be manually enabled. Private browsing and Unity integration are both supported. Midori can run on either Linux or Windows. To extend the browser’s capabilities, there are a small number of extensions and support for user scripts.
Even though it has a few more features than Qupzilla, Midori feels lacking. Maybe it has something to do with the layout. It’s meant to be sleek and clean, but I can’t help feeling that it looks empty.
3. rekonq
rekonq is a lightweight web browser for Linux that is part of the KDE project. It is written in C++ and Qt. Like Midori, rekonq uses the Webkit rendering engine. Obviously, rekonq only runs on Linux and is integrated into KDE. It comes with ad-block support. It also uses a system of web shortcuts to navigate the web using keywords.
rekonq takes advantage of KDE tools. Unfortunately, this means that it install a bunch of KDE dependencies, thus taking up more space than other browsers on this list. When I installed it on my Manjaro laptop from AUR, it installed 45 packages, many KDE specific.
rekonq has not bee updated since January 2014, so use at your own peril.
4. Tor Browser
The Tor Browser is a special version of the Firefox browser specially designed to use the TOR anonymity network. This network is used to avoid tracking and to get to information that is blocked. The Tor Browser does not use the regular Firefox browser as it’s base. Instead, it uses the Extended Support Release version. Unlike the typical Firefox release, ESR versions only receive security fixes and major stability releases instead of new features every six weeks. This allows it to be more stable.
Besides the browser, the Tor Browser includes a number of tools to ensure connection to the TOR network and total security. It’s not recommended that you install extra extensions because they could compromise the security of the browser. The Tor Browser installation is available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux.
5. NetSurf
While it may lack some features that we expect from modern browsers, the NetSurf browser is impressive in its own right. Originally released in 2007, NetSurf was created to fill a need in RISC OS. Since then it has been ported to Linux, BSD, Haiku, AmigaOS, Atari, and MacOS.
Unlike most of the other browsers on this list, NetSurf has its own layout engine. According to the project’s website, NetSurf can run on anything from “a modern monster PC to a humble 30MHz ARM 6 computer with 16MB of RAM”. While they might not have CSS3 or HTML5 support, the team behind it have done quite a bit.
If you have an old or aging computer, this is the browser for you.
6. Pale Moon
While it may look like a slightly older version of Firefox, Pale Moon is much more. Pale Moon is a fork of Firefox maintained by Dutch developer M.C. Straver, also known as Moonchild. Pale Moon’s goal is to “create a full-featured, optimized browser derived from the code behind the popular Firefox browser”. This is accomplished by removing support for older hardware and operating systems. Like NetSurf, Pale Moon has it’s own layout engine named Goanna, which is a fork of Gecko. Pale Moon is built with C and C++.
Pale Moon support Firefox extensions, but also provides its own themes and extensions. Moonchild is also developing a fork of the Thunderbird email client, named FossaMail. Pale Moon is available for Windows and Linux with a MacOS version in development.
7. GNOME Web
Next in our list of non-Google alternative web browsers for Linux is GNOME Web. It is a simple, clean browser built for the GNOME desktop environment. Originally called Epiphany, Web is the default browser for GNOME. It started out using the Gecko layout engine created by Mozilla but switched to WebKitGTK+.
Web is tightly tied to GNOME, using GNOME frameworks and settings. It also provides support for mouse gestures, GreaseMonkey, ad-blocker, and more. Web has a bare-bones look and feel, similar to Midori. It is only available on Linux.
What are your favorite non-Chrome browsers for Linux? Let me know in the comments below. If you found this article interesting, please take a minute to share it on social media.
I use surf :D it’s good and blazing fast on netbooks
Until alternative browsers are recognized by sites and not branded as out of date or unsecure none of these are viable real world options. Pale Moon is great. It reminds me of the early days of FFX when it actually was a good product instead of the bloated pig it is now. Gnome or Epiphany is useless. Anything Chromium based is just a UI attached to more or less the same browser and you get the added benefit of the out of date warning flags. Midori? redonk. all amateur hour. Where is the next FFX replacement that isn’t just a rehash of old code?
I would like to chime in on Palemoon.
I decided to use Palemoon on my home web-development system, with the eventuality of using it full time for web-surfing, when some of my favorite privacy and script-control plugins become available for it.
I have been a long-time FireFox user up until about version 60+. FireFox was a great browser in its early days, but seems to have seriously gone downhill with the new “Quantum” release versions. It seems that the developers are more interested in stuffing more bulky, unwanted features into it, rather than maintaining a sleek, efficient, and stable product.
What’s more, Mozilla’s choice in dropping support for several very useful features and capabilities has left many of its old-time fans feeling alienated, especially when many of these decisions were taken, unilaterally, without consideration of the effects they would have on the user experience. – One such change that has me very upset with them: MozDev has chosen to drop support for properly displaying XML files and RSS feeds. Therefore, RSS feeds will now, no longer display properly – even though many site still use them.
So, this list of alternatives is a breath of fresh air.
– Thank you for presenting them.
– Jim