Secondary web browser?

T

tingo

In my workflow, I use two different web browsers. Currently (and it has been like this for some years now) Firefox is my main browser (it just means that it shoulders most of the work - has most windows and tabs). In addition, I have a secondary browser, used for other windows and tabs, as well as testing if browser differences are in play when errors crop up.

For a few years now, Iridium has been my secondary browser, after I found out that Chromium brought out a too heavy "load" penalty on my machines. I also tested a few other browsers (example Falkon), but either they didn't work with the websites I use, or they were removed from the ports tree.

Well, now iridium-browser has left the ports tree too (I'm guessing that the Iridium-browser project has plans to remove the Python 2.7 dependency, or already have fixed it, but I don't know if there are plans to get Iridium-browser back into the ports tree).

So any reccommendation or suggestion for a secondary web browser? Preferably one that is in the ports tree and will stay there for a long time (if we are lucky).
 
Browsers in ports:
www/otter-browser
www/vimb
www/qutebrowser
www/falkon

Lightweight browsers:
www/midori
www/surf-browser
www/netsurf
www/links
www/dillo

Browsers not in ports, but would be nice:
Seamonkey - https://www.seamonkey-project.org/
Palemoon - http://www.palemoon.org/
Basilisk - https://basilisk-browser.org/
Nyxt - https://nyxt.atlas.engineer/
Tor Browser -
Brave - https://www.brave.com/
Dissenter - https://dissenter.com/
Iridium - https://iridiumbrowser.de/
Wyeb - https://wyeb.org/
Dooble - https://textbrowser.github.io/dooble/ - Says it is available for FreeBSD, but can't find it in ports.
 
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qutebrowser is fully functional.

It takes 5-10 minutes to learn the keyboard shortcuts. I use it for everything (twitch, youtube, forums). It doesn't support google-safebrowsing (which is good imho). It is written in python, but the speed and memory footprint are still fine.
 
I hope we can see Dissenter sooner rather than later. It's based on Chromium / Brave, and the bigger idea is that it is not going to indulge in spooky censorship.
And I'm one of those people who does not like being told what I can view, read, post etc. It is available as a deb or rpm at the moment and is growing fast.
 
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I can't recommend anything, but I can share my workflow. I try to explain my reason for such arrangement, but it may sounds very personal:

I. Browser #1:

Type:
Chromium-base web-browser, preferably Chromium!

Usage:
1. Sign-in/regular sites: (FreeBSD, Outlook, LBRY, GitHub, etc).
2. Skype, Team, Telegram, mastodon, etc
3. Dev/BSD-related master bookmarks: forums|reviews.freebsd.org, man.openbsd.org, etc

Reason:
1. Some of them doesn't work on Firefox (Skype).
2. I want to use only one browser for Sign-in in different websites.
3. Many of activities on my bookmarks are interrelated (outlook -> skype -> etc).

Notes:
1. Optimal uBlock Origin settings.
2. I don't save passwords, forms, etc.

I'm not using it for:
1. Bank, biz, gov, registrar, and other important accounts
2. Searching the web!
3. Visiting alt/misc website (outside of bookmarks).


II. Browser #2:

Type:
Chromium-base web-browser, preferably Chromium on FreeBSD and Chrome on Windows.
Usage:
1. factory default setting for testing website/webapp projects.
Reason:
1. If you want to test a website/app you have to check it on Chromium-base browser.

III. Browser #3:

Type:
Firefox Profile.
Usage:
1. factory default setting for testing website/webapp projects.
Reason:
1. If you want to test a website/app you also have to check it on Firefox!

IV. Browser #4/#5/etc:

Then I have different Firefox Profiles for
I. Different purposes,
II. with different security policies,
III. and different uBlock Origin setting.

Profile 1: Banking, account, etc with restricted policy.
Profile 2: General browser for STFW (hard policy for uBlock).
Profile 3: Lockdown profile (script, font, etc) for suspicious sites.
Profile 4: Web developing profile for localhost (whitelisting localhost).
Profile n: One profile per website/app project: projects which I maintain (whitelisting and/or optimal script restriction for remote site).

V. Conclusion:
I use both Firefox and Chromium with multiple profiles.


Zagzigger said:
I hope we can see Dissenter sooner rather than later. It's based on Chromium / Brave, and the bigger idea is that it is not going to indulge in spooky censorship.
Click to expand...
What does censorship reveal? It reveals fear. -- Julian Assange
 
I've been a web developer for 17 years. I use Chromium all the time. I use Firefox for certain other things but feel guilty I don't use it all the time. With certain tests I also use Safari and Edge. For troublesome paywalls I use lynx or links. I have zero interest in anything else and don't see the need.
 
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nickednamed said:
Does that mean you have the web versions of both Skype and Teams working with Chromium (including webcam, microphone, etc.)?
Click to expand...
Yes.
1. I only tested Skype and Team for cam/mic.
2. I'm not sure about: WhatsApp. Apparently, It has beta version of mic/cam.
3. It's very important, that your setting (security, privacy, etc), both build-in and with extension, doesn't mess with RTC and other related setting.
 
My primary browser is Chrome (Chromium).

And then I use www/dillo2 for certain web sites. It’s a very simplistic browser that doesn’t support certain features, so it doesn’t work with all web sites. But it is exceptionally fast for those sites that are supported. It’s also rather secure because it doesn’t support the scripting stuff used by malware.

Other than that, my secondary browser is ftp/curl. ;)

PS: I hate Firefox, and I really don’t understand why so many people like it. I think it’s unbearable. But, well, your mileage may vary …
 
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One option is to dedicate a browser to a specific task. Both my online newspaper and my banking track the browser I use and get upset if a different browser accesses the account. For that I use firefox-esr.

If I'm watching youtube videos, debates, impreachment hearings etc., iridium/ungoogled-chromium/chromium depending on OS.

For my morning routine, news, weather, stock reports I use vimb with a local homepage
Code: 
# Homepage that vimb opens if started without a URI.
set home-page=file:///home/jsh/.config/hotlist.html
hotlist.html consists of numbered links to my favorite sites.

Code: 
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "//W3C/DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=en_US.UTF-8">
<title>Vimb</title>
</head>
<body>
<div style="float: left; width: 50%;">
<font size="4">
<ul>
<h3><u>BSDs</u></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.freebsd.org">1. FreeBSD</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.netbsd.org/">2. NetBSD</a></li>
<li><a href="http://cdn.netbsd.org/">3. NetBSD CDN</a></li>
<li><a href="http://pkgsrc.se/">4. NetBSD pkgs</a></li>
<li><a href="https://mirrors.sonic.net/pub/OpenBSD/">5. OpenBSD Sonic.net</a></li>
<li><a href="https://openports.pl/">6. OpenBSD Packages</a></li>
<li><a href="https://undeadly.org/cgi">7. OpenBSD Journal</a></li>
</ul>
......cut......
 
This is a pretty recent thread, but I don't see Iridium in ports... was it pulled recently?

With recent developments around chromium, I'd like to replace it as my secondary. I don't see anything close though. Falkon maybe, but it pulls in a mountain of KDE stuff that I don't want.

I found Opera in ports also, but it's too out of date.
 
chrbr said:
Yes, as far as I know because of a dependency on Python 2.x. May be it will appear again when the dependeny has been transfered to Python 3.x.
Click to expand...
Thanks. Oddly though Chromium is still stuck with some Python 2.x dependency too but was not pulled. Perhaps Iridium was more broken than just the EOL dependency?
 
Yeah chromium gives a messages after installation
Code: 
This port is deprecated; you may wish to reconsider installing it:

Uses Python 2.7 which is EOLed upstream.

It is scheduled to be removed on or after 2020-12-31.
 
phalange said:
Thanks. Oddly though Chromium is still stuck with some Python 2.x dependency too but was not pulled. Perhaps Iridium was more broken than just the EOL dependency?
Click to expand...
In addtion to scottro post, I am not sure why Iridium is no more in the ports tree. But sometimes I might be too stupid to use www.freshports.org. I am sure that there has been an Iridium clone at the time when Iridium itself has disappeared already. I do not find it anymore.
Chromium has been out for some time because the build time exceeded the time out of the builder tool. The browsers are monsters these days.
 
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