Surf the Web in style on your Linux box.

On today's show we'll review the state of the art in Linux Web browsing. We'll examine the Konqueror, Mozilla, Opera, and Netscape browsers. You may not know that you can use any one of about 50 browsers with Linux, but many are experimental or immature. Older browsers such as Netscape are still available.

All of the major browsers support exciting features that make browsing pleasurable in ways that have escaped many non-Linux users. For example, both Mozilla and Konqueror let you disable pop-up ads, something missing in IE and Netscape. It's smart about how it does it too; the browser detects when the user clicks on a link that will open up in another window and allows that kind of action, while denying the ability of a webpage to open its own window without user interaction.

Linux browsers were the first to offer true page scaling, allowing for the viewing of a site on small-format PDAs and the scaling up so that a page can be comfortably read in a 1600x1200 pixel screen. I'll be showing Opera on the Linux-based Zaurus PDA, rendering a site on its teeny screen.

Mozilla
Mozilla is probably the most advanced Linux browser, considering the way that Red Hat has configured it in Red Hat 7.3. Everything works and works well. You can bet that most sites will work with Mozilla.

Download Mozilla

Konqueror
Konqueror has many great features if you know how to look for them. For instance, if you browse an Audio CD in your machine, Konqueror can automatically rip tracks from CDs while surfing them. Konqueror comes with a lot of plug-ins for odd image formats too, but I think that it's a little frustrating to have to install Java and Flash all over again.

Download Konqueror

Plug-in support
You'll have problems with some plug-ins being supported only via an emulator such as the CrossOver plug-in.

QuickTime comes to mind as being the plug-in I miss most when surfing under Linux. That said, QuickTime never worked right under Windows for me anyhow.

Other browsers
The Linux browser landscape is rich and highly compatible and is worth the time to examine. Here are some other Linux-compatible browsers:


Chris DiBona is the director of special projects for OSDN. DiBona has posted a frequently asked questions list on the Web.