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Re: Karsten's browser reviews (updated)



on Tue, May 15, 2001 at 11:20:50AM -0400, Noah L. Meyerhans (frodo@morgul.net) wrote:
> On Mon, May 14, 2001 at 08:34:22PM -0700, Karsten M. Self wrote:
> > 
> > I might add that I'm quite pleased with Galeon.
> > 
> 
> After reading your review and seeing the screeshot (are those tabs what
> I think they are???) 

If you think they're other windows that I'm browsing at the same time,
which I switch to by selecting a tab, yes, they are.

Actually, it's slightly nicer than that.

  - You can set default to open new tabs beneath current.  Makes it easy
    to open a series of links off a page and have them download in
    background.

  - You can open all bookmarks within a folder.  In tabbed mode, this
    opens a series of tabs with new windows.  My morning news fix is
    about 17 sites that I like to hit.  One click gets 'em all, I can
    then pick stories from the page, open these (backgrounded) and close
    them as I go through 'em.

Tabs are quite nice.

Skipstone has tabs, but not a tab lable width limit (bitch for long
titles) or the bookmark features.

> I decided I had to try it.  I changed my mind when I saw that it
> depends on GNOME crap.  Can't I install a browser without installing a
> fscking "desktop environment"?

Yes.  You can install Galeon without installing a desktop environment.

First, lets look at those deps.  I've listed GNOME libs below -- there
are no non-library GNOME components required.  Sizes in KB.  

  Package          Size  Description
  ---------------  ----  --------------------------------------------
  gconf            1084  GNOME configuration database system. (daemon
                         and tools)
  libgconf11        328  GNOME configuration database system libraries
  libgnome-vfs0    1824  The GNOME virtual file-system libraries
  libgnome32        131  The Gnome libraries
  libgnomesupport0   40  The Gnome libraries (Support libraries)
  libgnomeui32      961  The Gnome libraries (User Interface)
  libgnorba27        85  Gnome CORBA services
  liborbit0         572  Libraries for ORBit - a CORBA ORB
  libxml1           436  GNOME XML library
  liboaf0           168  The GNOME Object Activation Framework.
  oaf               564  The GNOME Object Activation Framework.
  libglade-gnome0    86  Library to load .glade files at runtime (Gnome
                         widgets support)
  libglade0         119  Library to load .glade files at runtime


That's abount 6.4 MB of tools, most of which are shared among other
applications, and several of which are not GNOME specific.   You should
be able to install Galeon w/o a full GNOME desktop installation (though
I've got GNOME installed largely of the purposes of testing and showing
off how GNU/Linux can appear).  My primary desktop is WindowMaker, and I
don't particularly care for either the GNOME or KDE environments.  I've
no need to run any Gnome apps or software (as opposed to library)
components.  Galeon doesn't call up any GNOME applications, it doesn't
do things behind my back, and I don't have to invoke GNOME apps to
configure it.   

What it provides is GNOME *enablement* without GNOME *dependency*, in
the sense of requiring the entire desktop environment be locked into
GNOME mode.

I've discussed GNOME deps with the Galeon developers previously.  I
don't believe that deep linking of functionality is a win, we've been
through this over the 1990s with Microsoft -- and I say as much in my
browser description page.

If you can stifle your revulsion of all things GNOME for a few moments,
I believe you'll find that Galeon really is quite the slick little unit.
While alternatives exist -- notably Mozilla, Konqueror, and Skipstone,
each carries its own cross.  Mozilla has its own broken
interdependencies, Konqueror is as much dependent on the base KDE
libraries (largely Qt) as Galeon is on GNOME.  Skipstone has neither the
bloat nor the dependencies, but it offers a small fraction of the
functionality.  TANSTAAFL.

> Guess I'll stick with mozilla.

Be my guest, but understand what you're missing.

-- 
Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com>    http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
 What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?       There is no K5 cabal
  http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/         http://www.kuro5hin.org

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