Iceweasel Replacement or complete removal

[VastOne]

I am sick of Iceweasel / FF / Mozilla to the point of no return

Ice cannot handle flash anymore, it stays at 33-50% cpu all the time and has memory leaks that never get solved

It is old and archaic and takes up MORE than 1/3 of the ISO and then runs like shit! 

I want ideas and thoughts for a replacement ONLY for access to the web from the Live-CD... I have no issue at all telling new users it is their responsibility to install a browser  as a first duty after vsido-welcome.  I can also make it a choice there, but I want feedback first

I have tolerated Iceweasel til now because Debian does, but no longer! 

Regards from a pissed off VastOne....

[jedi]

Good riddance to bad rubbish!

Hate to admit it, but I've been using Chrome the last couple of months.  Being able to watch Netflix was the initial draw, but as I've used it more and more, I've noticed that it's handling of memory and cpu use is much more efficient than Iceweasel.  With Adobe no longer updating Flash for Linux, I'd think Mozilla will continue to go backwards.

Has anyone tried Opera?  Perhaps for the LiveCd it would be alright.  Looks pretty small.  I agree with the thinking of letting it be a choice after installation for the user when choosing a browser.  Looks to be a ton of different 'small footprint' Linux web browsers out there to choose from...

[PackRat]

I haven't tried Opera in a while - they stopped the linux version for a while, but I think they make a current version now. I always liked it, but I just checked and it is not in the repos. Installing the deb package from their site, use to add a repo, maybe it still does.

Any of the WebKit based browsers would be suitable for the live CD, all have a small foot print and there are specialty ones for privacy etc .. Midori is probably the most common one; it's in the repos but looks to be at least one release behind. The FAQ page for Midori has some quick fixes to get it looking right for gtk3, and flash enabled. Xombrero is built for privacy and has a following - it's interface is kind of shitty and it didn't seem particularly intuitive.

There is also dillo (also in the repos) that has a small footprint and is popular with the Puppy Linux derivatives. The interface is a bit retro in a Win95 way, but I think it's a QT app derived from the KDE 3.5 browser so it's not so appealing in gtk3.

Have not tried Sea Monkey in years- still being developed? Edit - it is, beta 3 of upcoming release, but based on current Firefox. I thought it was an independent fork from Netscape.

They have a small footprint, but I never really liked uzbl or surf; in part because I can't write the code to extend their capabilities.

[PackRat]

Extending this discussion a bit- or just going off on a tangent  - which browser fits your design philosophy?

Probably don't want to fall into the trap of having a hodge podge of minimalist and "bloat" packages.

[VastOne]

Something that works but does not require 200 MiB to run. Practical but not minimal... Does that make sense? All I care is that you can access the internet and YouTube works without grinding the CPU to a halt.

[PackRat]

Probably want to go with Midori set up for flash/youtube - which is easy enough to do; I did it when I was running SalixOS. Then we users can decide if we want Firefox, Chromium, or Opera, etc ....

Don't know if you ever used it, the interface is pretty straight forward, does all the basics.

Did an install of Chromium and Opera - both come in around 225 MiB sitting idle on vsido.org and around 500 Mib with a youtube video (Santana with Michelle Branch) going in a second tab. About what I get with Firefox. HP laptop with i3 and intel graphics.

And opera does create an entry in the /apt/sources to keep it updated; they split out the mail though so it's just a browser now. Didn't realize how much of it is based on Google Chrome now.

[VastOne]

I need to clarify my 200 MiB statement... I do not care how much memory or CPU any app uses as along as it does not take captive the CPU or has mem leaks that keep going even after you stop the app

I was speaking of space on the ISO with that statement... that and the required garbage that goes along with installing IW or Chromium

I get it, the thing everyone uses the most is a browser, no question about it.  But the sacrifice is getting too damned extreme

I will look at Midori first as the replacement

[PackRat]

It would satisfy both; although I just tried it and it's memory use is getting up there. Runs smooth though.

[VastOne]

Midori is working with flash OOTB, most likely using flash that I have installed for Iceweasel... but everything is blue, all skin and faces. (makes porn interesting! like an xrated Avatar)

I know the fix used to be to turn off hw acceleration, but even though I have the option to do that with a right click on the youtube video, nothing seems to work turning it off

[PackRat]

And, of course, turning that off cranks up the CPU usage.

[VastOne]

I am worrying too much about flash and youtube video playing...

VSIDO's job should be to get you to the internet and how you setup video / flash etc from there is your issue

I did confirm that Midori does look for and use the same /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so file that Iceweasel depends on...

... so it is in the same long term failure that situation IW is in, eventually it is going to break

The other side is that the VSIDO's default multimedia player (smplayer) is setup and can pull in youtube videos so that option is covered ... it has a fantastic search engine for videos and just works

I am prepared to rip out everything Mozilla and flash and go with Midori with no options for flash on Live-CD or first boot (except for smplayer) and then leaving it to the user to replace Midori with their choices

I can setup vsido-welcome to do this but honestly, why?  A lot of ppl will choose google-chrome and I will not put that as an option (even though I use it)... it just is not open as we all covet and apt-get is easy for anything else

What say you VSIDO'ns?

[ozitraveller]

From the Midori site

Midori ships with Flash disabled by default

Chrome is my goto browser, and have looked into this issue for my live-build. As of the latest build I'm using IW, but that will change for the final release. I have tried Midori before, and as my requirements are small it suits me quite well.

My initial reason for my live-build was to create a basic desktop with a small selection of applications, then it's up to the user to decide what they want.

[PackRat]

I am prepared to rip out everything Mozilla and flash and go with Midori with no options for flash on Live-CD or first boot (except for smplayer) and then leaving it to the user to replace Midori with their choices

That should work. Lynx is installed as a text based browser as well so using apt-get or getting to a site and downloading a browser of choice is not an issue.

[VastOne]

Good to know Ozi... thanks for the input

Midori only uses and must have libflashplayer.so to play flash whether it be a direct install or the nspluginwrapper which also installs libflashplayer.so

I can find no settings in Midori regarding flash at all... it is assuming you know what to do to get flash working.

I am not going to worry about flash at all and Midori does fit the bill

[VastOne]

FYI I have turned off all flash and am using Midori and it is quiet and small... cpu below 5% (normal) mem at 671 with 5 apps and 3 tabs open... this is way lower (by a gig) than IW or Chrome

(Need to enable spellcheck plugin)