Low hardware requirements have long been claimed as a key advantage for Linux, and it's true that with a skinny window manager and lightweight apps, it can perform quite well on underpowered hardware. One area that can benefit from lightweight applications is web browsing; and while text-only tools like Lynx / Links run quickly on just about anything, the web just isn't the same without pictures..
There's a fairly wide variety of graphical browsers now available for Linux users. These range from super-lightweight apps like Dillo and Links-Graphic at the lower end of the scale, up through BrowseX, Opera, Firebird and Galeon in the middle, and then finally the Mozillas and Konquerors and so on that are big on features but also have quite a big footprint. We'll take a look at some of the lightweight versions ...
Dillo - This is a nice looking, fast browser. (Screenshot) Downloading Dillo shouldn't take too long; source is only 365kb while binaries are a tiny 265kb. It has a conventional navigation bar with the usual buttons and address box, so there is really no learning curve involved. Configuration is done by editing a simple text file in your home directory. Dillo currently has no support for frames, java or javascript. It also lacks ftp capability. The lack of frame support isn't too big a deal, as it provides links to the individual frames whenever it encounters a framed page. I found the occasional rendering glitch, though none of the pages I tried it on were badly mangled. It did however, seem to have more trouble displaying certain text characters than the others, though on the whole it's quite usable. Dillo starts up almost instantly, and generally performs very well.
Links-Graphic - Another exceptionally speedy browser, this one available as source or binary packages. The binaries are about 4mb in size. It has a minimalist interface, with no buttons, navigation bar or even address box (Screenshot). In fact the only controls permanently on show are a small back arrow at the top of the window, and a scrollbar. Clicking anywhere on the top bar brings up a set of menus with all the usual options, though once you become familiar with the key bindings you'll find yourself getting around more quickly this way rather than mousing. Links-Graphic supports frames, tables and also javascript. While not as pretty or conventional looking as Dillo, it did render pages quickly and clearly, and it seemed to display images exceptionally well. Most people will probably run it under X, but it can also be used in SVGAlib mode as well, which might be a handy feature for some. Overall, a very good performer.
BrowseX - An interesting project, BrowseX is written in tcl/tk and is a 4mb download. Unpacking and installing results in a single executable file that contains everything needed. It has a fairly conventional appearance, (Screenshot) and contains a few extras that the others don't; a simple email client and an editor for example. Unfortunately the email client had trouble retrieving mail from my ISP's mail server, which is a shame because it appeared to be a good, simple html capable email tool otherwise. It also includes a handy web search facility and rudimentary javascript support. One thing I did like about BrowseX was the cache searching feature. Startup time seemed to be a little longer than the others, though still only a few seconds. General performance was quite good, and there were few rendering quirks. On the downside, it had trouble connecting via certain links, and while its memory usage was much lower than with the full-sized browsers, it was higher than that of Dillo or Links-Graphic..
Arachne - This is an adaptation of a DOS based project that has been around for quite a few years now - Caldera had a version known as WebSpyder. It is an SVGAlib app. and so will run from a console - no X required. Dependancy problems (that I was too lazy to fix) prevented me from trying this one under Linux though I'm sure it could be made to run with a little fiddling. I have however used Arachne quite a bit on a 486 under DR-DOS, and it did run quite well. The interface is easy to use, customizable, and fairly conventional. It includes a nice, simple email client and some other basic utilities.
Limitations - These browsers all have some limitations when compared to the heavyweights. Support for common plug-ins like Flash is generally unavailable, as is support for style-sheets. Java and javascript support is usually patchy at best, if available at all. There are often no built in search tools and other niceties. The limitations might make these browsers totally impractical for some, or they may be completely irrelevant, depending on the type of sites you frequent. Personally, I find these browsers are fine with nearly all the sites I visit, but then again you (or others that share your computer) could have different results. All these browsers have usable bookmarks, but you won't necessarily be able to import your existing bookmarks.
Browser Size vs. Available Resources - Apart from their quicker startup, there's really no reason to run these lightweight browsers on modern hardware. In other words, these apps. outperform their fullsize counterparts easily on slower boxes, but the situation is reversed on more powerful hardware. What's the crossover point? I don't know exactly, but I'd guess it's somewhere around the 200-300mhz/64mb mark.
So which one would I recommend? I'd have to go for either Dillo or Links-Graphic. Both of these are impressively fast, and light on memory usage. Dillo has the advantage of a more conventional interface, while Links-Graphic has support for frames and javascript etc. Anyway, both are only small downloads, so try them yourself and make up your own mind. BrowseX is an interesting tool, and is quite usable, but was just a little too quirky for my tastes. It also tended to eat a fair bit of memory after prolonged use.
One thing these lightweight tools are great for is browsing local html files. Why wait for Mozilla or Konqueror to show html documentation when something like Dillo can display it almost instantly? And even if you find that they can't cover all your browsing requirements, you might choose to run one as your everyday browser, only firing up a heavyweight to do the things (like online banking, for example) that the others can't handle.
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Last modified June 14, 2003
A more-or-less complete listing of the Linux-related stuff that I've written can be found at my homepage.
Copyright (c) 2003 by John Murray. This material may be distributed only subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Open Content License, v1.0 or later (the latest version is presently available at opencontent.org).