Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

So I installed web browsers dillo, links and netsusrf to try them out. I guess I wanted to try some browsers outside of the ones based on code from others and the like.

Reasons, well it seems that chrome phones home and also, and firefox has alot of phone home stuff now which I don't like.

So I went through the steps to harden firefox because it is an excellent browser, fast and so on.

But I also wanted to try the alternatives so I tried netsurf, but that doesn't even work with this forum so not impressed.

I tried to install Dillo and Links, but they don't fire up. There are no icons for them added and I tried then to start them up directly from usr/bin, which also didn't work. Got them both from the PPM and pkgs.org.

Has anyone got these browsers up and running?

How did ya do it if so?

Is dillo not working with javascript? If so I assume it's use is limited. Experiences here?

Any other recommendations for independent browsers.

What Puppy do you have 32/64bit?
Maybe Dillo and Links are 32bit packages?
If yes you should load 32bit libraries sfs for your Puppy.

If an app doesn´t start, you can launch it in terminal and find out what is the problem or what is missing.

The question is what do you expect from the browser.
Dillo and Links are very light, good for general browsing of less demanding websites (Facebok, Youtbe and similar probably will not work properly if at all).
To harden Firefox is a good idea I think.
Or just use what fits you best with no worry about browsers independence, because nowadays it´s hard to tell who to trust or not.

I'm on a 64 bit machine.

And both the Dillo and Links I installed are 64 bit so that aint it.

Now it seems one has to start Links from the terminal they have a long read user manual it seems. So I got it started from terminal then it just stopped also couldn't load a page and when i tried graphical mode - g it didn't recognize the mouse, video and picture stuff or something on my computer and just crashed the whole OS.

Black screen wit buncha text on it (can't find this - video - mouse... yadayada). So if someone has any experience using it and can help put how to get it up and running, greatly appreciated...

Dillo and Links are very light, good for general browsing of less demanding websites (Facebok, Youtbe and similar probably will not work properly if at all).

Yes but how limited are they?

Does Links support CSS & javascript?

Same for Dillo?

Will this forum work? Links has video support has anyone tried like youtube or other video sites.

Yeah trust is an issue these day's but wasn't it allways the old amiga computers had a cia chip .

I think spying on users or collecting data is bad business practise. I mean for a company like facebook it kinda makes sense I suppose so that they can more easily have targeted advertising. But I see no reason for it in a browser as such.

But in the end I personally think this can be bad business and practise. Just the fact they put these spy possibilities in there could lead to people, institutions and companies looking for other solutions.

So I read here that firefox uses google analytics, hence share information with them (originally written in 2017, updated 2021):
https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/firefox.html

And then I read here that firefox removed google analytics in 2019:
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/goo ... hy/311471/

So does later versions of firefox use google analytics or not?

It would be good to know what version of Puppy you are using, so the members using the same version can help you.

E.g. in Fossapup64 the Dillo is built-in and starts without complaints.
Some time ago I temporarily installed the Links browser from the ubuntu repos and I remember that it worked fine.

I'm on a 64 bit machine.

The question is what specific version of Puppy are you using?
Yes it matters!

Until you give us that basic needed info, all you are going to get is a bunch of guessing.

You can not expect these small and light browsers to perform in the same way as the big browsers like Firefox and the Chromium derivatives. Many web pages these days involve all sorts of heavy and complex coding which is why the browser development has become so difficult and we have been left with relatively few to choose from. Links is really just for text and images although it can be run with a graphical interface. Dillo does not have JavaScript at all. NetSurf does have some JavaScript support (via something called "Duktape") if compiled with it in, but it is disabled by default so you have to go into Preferences and enable it. This forum displays in NetSurf-3.10 with some visual peculiarities. I have all three of these browsers working fine, but always within their limitations of functionality.

Hi Mike3

• links2 and Dillo do have menu entries

• Links 2 and Dillo do support CSS, but not with all features

• Neither of them supportr Javascript

• The forum.puppylinux.com website does not work with either of these browsers at the moment. It has to do with how phpBB works and is set up. I am working on getting sites like this working with Dillo.

Links2
On FossaPup64, you can get links2, which includes a GUI as well as CLI, from the PPM. Make sure you get links2_2.20.2-1. To access the GUI mode, you need the -g option. Such as

links2 -g http://google.com

Dillo
For Dillo, please see this link

Ok then, it seems that these browsers are not gonna work on enough sites for me to be bothered to set em up then, thanks for the info...

@Mike3 -- If your concern is privacy, here's what I do --

This article describes the conditions under which Firefox phones home. It tells you how to turn that off -- https://www.fudzilla.com/news/53669-fir ... to-mozilla. Basically all you have to do is go to Settings -> Search Panel and turn off Address Bar -- Firefox Suggest.

Here's how to configure the rest of Firefox for privacy --

In Settings, go to Privacy and Security. Turn on the feature that tries to stop fingerprinting. Turn off much of the history, predictive help, cookies, Firefox Suggest, and Firefox Data Collection.

Be sure to deny all web use of your device in the section Permissions (you must do this for each device).

Then install one or two anti-tracker add-ons like Ghostery, Ublock Origin, Ad Blocker Plus, etc.

Turn on HTTPS for all sites. This is important because even if you use a VPN, the VPN can still see your data. HTTPS solves this problem. My understanding is that the VPN will still know what sites you connect to but won't be able to see your data if you use HTTPS.

Current versions of Firefox you can enable HTTPS in the Privacy and Security settings, older versions you need to install an add-on like HTTPS-EVERYWHERE.

The other thing I'd do for privacy is read the reviews of all the VPNs and select the one that's best for that purpose. I'm no expert but personally I'd recommend ProtonMail and their VPN. They're based in Switzerland, if I recall correctly they keep no logs and have a good privacy rating.

Hope this helps.