Which web browser 2008? Poll broken - Discussion

What features/apps/bugfixes needed in a future Puppy
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HairyWill
Posts: 2928
Joined: Fri 26 May 2006, 23:29
Location: Southampton, UK

#16 Post by HairyWill »

nutts4life wrote:The browser is the most important function of a distro these days. Once you can get on the net you can get to a whole host of apps online.
The web is broken (discuss)
Originally the web was used as a method of sharing information as hypertext. It has changed from this almost beyond recognition. Online applications depend on javascript a language originally created for doing small bits of automation on a web page. Using javascript and other AJAX technology to create an application creates a massive extra burden on the CPU because of all the data that is being packed, unpacked and transmitted back and forth across the net.

My personal opinion is that web applications sit poorly with the end of life computer that puppy purports to be good for. Imagine implementing a spreadsheet using shell scripts on two machines connected by a low bandwidth connection. Successful commercial use of low powered computers in a network environment has traditionally worked using thin client technology such as terminal server or X/Xvnc. In these situations almost all the processing is done by the server and the client provides human interface devices (screen,keyboard,mouse). Web applications cannot afford the cost of doing all the processing on the server so the client has to do the grunt work using a browser scripting language that is poorly suited to the task. Soon web browser extensions will be driving hardware requirements.

If your machine is going to have to do the processing anyway, you are better off doing it in compiled code rather than script.

Oh and don't get me started on the scary rights that you have to give to google docs to reuse your content however they want to [1] and security weaknesses that can allow anyone else to access them as well.

[1]Section 11. Content Licence From You
https://www.google.com/accounts/TOS?loc=GB&hl=en
Will
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magerlab
Posts: 739
Joined: Sun 08 Jul 2007, 20:08

#17 Post by magerlab »

i've installed midori browser via gslapt( needs to update repos first)
it uses webkit(as i understand it is a gtk port of konqueror's engine) and unicode support library
still in alfa stage but very promising project

some functions and icons are missing but it rans fast

now it's only for testing but i think it can be a good competitor to mozilla projects

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