Featherweight and lightweight browsers
Getting to use the Raspberry Pi Model B from 2012 in a graphical mode again makes it feel like I'm coming back full circle back to 2010 and looking for lightweight Graphical programs to do my computing in any platform I want, independently of how many resources I have there.
This time, it's up to browsers. Going command-line only for a week did teach me that it's possible to survive there, but sometimes seeing other colors and images does add to the whole experience. So here's a quick list summarizing my findings about lightweight graphical browsers:
- Dillo: lightest graphical browser ever that supports some CSS and tabbed browsing. This has been a favorite of mine since at least 2011, and is great to read Wikipedia, etc on the Pi.
- Netsurf: more complete and compliant than Dillo, I've only recently started using it, and I'm already pretty surprised. Tabbed browsing means the experience is similar to Firefox, etc. Unfortunately, might be too heavy for the Pi (CPU-wise).
- Links2: best described as "elinks in graphical mode with pictures." Not sure if it qualifies as a GUI browser, but can do the trick since at least the images are rendered. I'd use it only in case dillo was not available, as it's probably the lightest of all, but has no tabbed browsing.
More to come in a future post!