What are some lighter/faster browsers than the included full-blown Firefox? [SOLVED]

[PiZZa3]

Hi all,

Very new to PuppyLinux and Linux in general.

My device is simply not up to running the full-blown Firefox install that is included with PuppyLinux. It is too slow to open and use for to be practical. The OS does not help by being fairly intensive. 512mb of RAM and Intel Atom Z510 with Intel GMA 500 graphics.

What are some lighter/faster browsers that can access sites normally, and how do I install them?

Thanks in advance.

[Kjellinux]

@PiZZa3

SeaMonkey, Pale Moon and Light Web Browser are three light browsers that work with Puppy Linux. Depending on your version of Puppy, they may be available in the Puppy Package Manager. If not, you may find them as portable applications created specifically to work with Puppy Linux. SeaMonkey and Pale Moon can also be downloaded directly from their respective home page (https://www.palemoon.org, https://www.seamonkey-project.org).

I have devoted quite some time the last couple of weeks to testing different Puppy versions on a laptop with similar specifications to yours (512MB RAM). You may find some useful information in two of my threads, "Best 32 bit version with support beyond 2023?" (viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3245) and "The mystery of BionicPup32's missing browser" (viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3276).

I tested 9 different versions of 32bit Puppy Linux, and my choice to continue testing was FocalPup32 (viewtopic.php?f=144&t=405). It comes with Light Web Browser preinstalled. On my computer, FocalPup32 uses around 90MB RAM when idling after a pristine install, and around 145 MB RAM with the Light Web Browser opened.

In the 4:th post on page 12 of "Best 32 bit version with support beyond 2023?", I summarised my results.

[PiZZa3]

@PiZZa3

SeaMonkey, Pale Moon and Light Web Browser are three light browsers that work with Puppy Linux. Depending on your version of Puppy, they may be available in the Puppy Package Manager. If not, you may find them as portable applications created specifically to work with Puppy Linux. SeaMonkey and Pale Moon can also be downloaded directly from their respective home page (https://www.palemoon.org, https://www.seamonkey-project.org).

I have devoted quite some time the last couple of weeks to testing different Puppy versions on a laptop with similar specifications to yours (512MB RAM). You may find some useful information in two of my threads, "Best 32 bit version with support beyond 2023?" (viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3245) and "The mystery of BionicPup32's missing browser" (viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3276).

I tested 9 different versions of 32bit Puppy Linux, and my choice to continue testing was FocalPup32 (viewtopic.php?f=144&t=405). It comes with Light Web Browser preinstalled. On my computer, FocalPup32 uses around 90MB RAM when idling after a pristine install, and around 145 MB RAM with the Light Web Browser opened.

In the 4:th post on page 12 of "Best 32 bit version with support beyond 2023?", I summarised my results.

You are truly superb, thank you for the help. Recall now the very good performance of Seamonkey with a version of Ubuntu custom made for my device. Not tried PaleMoon before, only heard of it, will have to see how it performs against Seamonkey.

As for Light Web Browser I have tried it before with one or two Linux distributions before, and found that it opened incredibly slow, and was very pitifully slow use to, so appears results may vary with that.

(P.S - 90mb of RAM usage by an OS? Sounds like something of dreams. Will definitely be testing FocalPup32 out, though it will most probably have the problem I am havimg with all Linux distributions, in that my device's touchscreen will not work correctly with it - currently working to resolve this with members of this forum in another thread)

[amethyst]

Light Web Browser is a cutdown of an old Firefox version (about 6 years old). You will have problems accessing some modern sites, so depending on your browsing needs it may turn out to be too outdated. I think most users of Puppy with older hardware use Palemoon which is also the easiest to get to run if you are using an older version of Puppy.

[JASpup]

Light browser is for pages like this forum.

It's not a full-blown browser.

I would recommend a distro with it, however, because the pre-installed Puppy browser loads to ram, and yours is sparce.

I'm typing in it. Mine doesn't run Youtube or Facebook.

My bottleneck right now is the machine that won't eclipse an average 9Mbps. I do not know why, but if you want reasons, hardware-related Internet speed can be one reason for hindered performance.

The only default Firefox I've run 32-bit is in Slacko. Everything else has Pale Moon or Light.

With 512mb I would use Pale Moon, boot with the NOCOPY switch, and use a swap file. I would also use Tahr. Less ram means more media file access.

Most all non-builtin browsers I run standalone or .sfs. Firefox-based browsers tend to run easily either method.

Performance is radically different with more robust hardware.

[PiZZa3]

Light browser is for pages like this forum.

It's not a full-blown browser.

I would recommend a distro with it, however, because the pre-installed Puppy browser loads to ram, and yours is sparce.

I'm typing in it. Mine doesn't run Youtube or Facebook.

My bottleneck right now is the machine that won't eclipse an average 9Mbps. I do not know why, but if you want reasons, hardware-related Internet speed can be one reason for hindered performance.

The only default Firefox I've run 32-bit is in Slacko. Everything else has Pale Moon or Light.

With 512mb I would use Pale Moon, boot with the NOCOPY switch, and use a swap file. I would also use Tahr. Less ram means more media file access.

Most all non-builtin browsers I run standalone or .sfs. Firefox-based browsers tend to run easily either method.

Performance is radically different with more robust hardware.

Do you mean Tahrpuppy? And how do you boot with nocopy and how do you set up a swat file up? (Sorry, complete newcomer to Linux).

[Kjellinux]

@PiZZa3

@mikewalsh put together a really helpful instruction video for me on the topic on how to use Gparted to format a USB including a swap partition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgPxRH6_VpQ&t=2s.

There is more on the topic in the thread I mentioned earlier.

[lizardidi]

@PiZZa3

which puppy version are you running? is it a full install or frugal install?

normally puppies doesn't come with firefox, the default is palemoon, which is quite responsive.

for creating swapfile in puppy, open terminal and type:

pupswap

then, select your desired swap file size, eg. 512mb, and select "Create pupswap.swp" button.

save your session, next time you boot, puppy will use your swap file.

[Clarity]

I am not sure about "faster" as lighter is NOT faster given that most browsers have a modular use in operation. But, I do agree that some mentioned here are lighter in their downloads, while others have a lighter footprint when idle in RAM.

Good references here, though.

[JASpup]

Do you mean Tahrpuppy?

Yes

And how do you boot with nocopy

It depends how you boot it. Normally, you get about 5 seconds booting Tahrpuppy to enter puppy pfix=nocopy on the command line. The easier way is to put it in the bootloader configuration file.

and how do you set up a swat file up?

http://wikka.puppylinux.com/SwapFile

[PiZZa3]

@Kjellinux FocalPup32 (From this link https://sourceforge.net/projects/zestyp ... o/download) to a black screen during boot and goes anywhere. Also, noticed your video is for a swap partition, this seems to be different to a swap file. Which is more advisable to create? Thanks

@JASpup TahrPuppy works aside from touchscreen which as expected does not. It took several minutes for things to speed up to be useable which was strange, not experienced this before with other PuppyLinux verisons. Would say that Palemoon performs about the same as Firefox in general usability, if anything a little worse because of how intensive the homepage is. Where can the bootloader configuration file be found please?

@lizardidi Thanks Will give this a try alongside nocopy. Only trying PuppyLinux copies live currently, since is pointless installing if my device's touchscreen does not work with them. This is an issue that is being resolved in another thread currently.

[amethyst]

I have a question with regards to Tahr606. Are the libraries upgraded, etc. so that one can run the latest browsers out of the box? I know that one can't with Tahr605.

[PiZZa3]

I have a question with regards to Tahr606. Are the libraries upgraded, etc. so that one can run the latest browsers out of the box? I know that one can't with Tahr605.

If you are asking me, I have no idea.

[Kjellinux]

@PiZZa3

FocalPup32 (From this link https://sourceforge.net/projects/zestyp ... o/download) to a black screen during boot and goes anywhere.

I downloaded from this page: http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/pu ... -20.12.htm

Also, noticed your video is for a swap partition, this seems to be different to a swap file. Which is more advisable to create?

I guess the shortest simplest answer to that question is it depends. Google "swap file vs swap partition" gives lot of suggested reading, among others this: https://serverfault.com/questions/25653 ... erformance

[mikewalsh]

@amethyst :-

I have a question with regards to Tahr606. Are the libraries upgraded, etc. so that one can run the latest browsers out of the box? I know that one can't with Tahr605.

Nic, AFAIK the main difference was the addition of the UEFI boot stuff - I think this was fairly new from WoofCE at the time - and maybe some changes in the initrd. I don't think any system stuff got upgraded.

606 MAY have been built from the "Trusty" 14.04.3 point release as opposed to the 14.04.2 one. I was running Ubuntu Trusty at the time, and from what I recall it was mostly about moving to new kernel series.....precious little else was addressed. Presumably Canonical were doing whatever they felt was necessary to keep an LTS as stable as possible (whatever that involved).

@PiZZa3 :-

@Kjellinux FocalPup32 (From this link https://sourceforge.net/projects/zestyp ... o/download) to a black screen during boot and goes anywhere. Also, noticed your video is for a swap partition, this seems to be different to a swap file. Which is more advisable to create? Thanks

As the author of said video, I can only speak from experience. I've never even tried swap-files.....always swap partitions. For me, these have always been dead reliable, and have never given any issues.

"If it ain't broken...", etc.

Mike.

[JASpup]

@JASpup TahrPuppy works aside from touchscreen which as expected does not. It took several minutes for things to speed up to be useable which was strange, not experienced this before with other PuppyLinux verisons. Would say that Palemoon performs about the same as Firefox in general usability, if anything a little worse because of how intensive the homepage is. Where can the bootloader configuration file be found please?

I don't use touchscreen in Linux, interested in that as one of my closest friends has arthritic hands, and I would too if I had been on computers for work consistently since we met.

I do use Android touchscreen & virtual keyboard in Puppy, sometimes just browsing and clicking characters. The one in regular TahrPuppy doesn't work for me, so I use a unique default one in X-Tahr, or Florence in Xenial.

Booting multiple puppies is no big deal once you get the hang of it, but making each usable to your comfort is a large time sink. Focus on the one the one that meets most of your needs, or try to limit to one Puppy per machine.

For god's sake, you don't have to use the default homepage. My homepage is a blog page with a bunch of URL links, an offline html file, or regular duckduckgo.com.

I like Pale Moon as much as Firefox, starting with the benefit of its smaller footprint, which is why it's used in Puppyworld in the first place. There are other benefits. It can be tricky to update if you use a builtin version, which doesn't seem to be your case if you're looking for it. Get in there and kick the tires.

This is an edited clip from my menu.lst file:

Code: Select all

title Tahr 6.0.5 
  kernel /tahr-6.0.5_PAE/vmlinuz   psubdir=tahr-6.0.5_PAE pmedia=ataflash pfix=fsck
  initrd /tahr-6.0.5_PAE/initrd.gz

On the second line, if I didn't want Puppy all in ram, it would read pfix=fsck,nocopy

[mikewalsh]

One of MY half-dozen or so boot entries looks thus:-

Code: Select all

title Xenialpup (sda2/Xenial32)
  find --set-root uuid () 0ee0f8be-07f3-4e5b-b3c3-2554fae39a3e
  kernel /Xenial32/vmlinuz  pdrv=0ee0f8be-07f3-4e5b-b3c3-2554fae39a3e  psubdir=/Xenial32 pmedia=atahd pfix=fsckp
  initrd /Xenial32/initrd.gz

Slightly modified to allow for the fact that this is a UEFI machine, although I still boot with Grub4DOS. The UUID & pdrv= parameter seem to help; it's a bit of a 'hack' from a typical boot-entry that was posted by someone in the 'DogHouse'. (I have all the 'Legacy'/'CSM' stuff enabled in the BIOS, along with SecureBoot & FastBoot being turned 'off'.)

Mike.

[xenial]

I have light browser which came preinstalled with focalpup and i have it configured to look like the old firefox i remember well when it was firefox until mozilla ruined it.

I also have peebees snap chromium package and it runs superbly even on my quite old laptop.

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