Web Browsers
Rendering Engines
There are many web browsers. However, all of them are based on a far smaller group of rendering engines. A rendering engine is software that takes the raw HTML code on a website and transforms it into a formatted document, usually with images and other elements. So while different browsers come with different features, the basic way in which they present web pages depend upon the engine they employ. The most popular engines are: Blink, Trident, Gecko and Webkit.
Blink is a fork of Webkit and is used by Google Chrome, Chromium and Opera. It is FLOSS.
Trident is used by Microsoft Internet Explorer. It is proprietary.
Gecko is used by Mozilla Firefox and the Tor Browser. It is FLOSS.
WebKit is used by Apple's Safari. It is FLOSS.
Why is this important to know? Because this is the most critical feature of a web browser. Say a certain website does not work well with Chromium. Then you'll probably want to give Firefox or Safari a try, because they use different rendering engines, but not Opera, because you'll likely get the same results, being as it uses the same engine.
The Web Browsers
There is no dearth of web browsers on GNU/Linux. Among your numerous options are:
- Mozilla Firefox is the leading browser on GNU/Linux.
- Google Chrome
- Chromium (the completely FLOSS version of Chrome),
- Opera (which is proprietary)
- Epiphany is GNOME's web browser.
- Konqueror is the KDE and original webkit browser. It serves double-duty as File Manager.
- Midori, a light & fast browser. It follows the Xfce philosophy.
- Dillo, made for those with older PCs.
- Tor Browser if you want to get serious about privacy.
- Also available are text browsers like Lynx.
Most of these will be available from your distro's Package Manager.
The Tor Browser is best downloaded directly from torproject.org.
