Thread: Lightweight browser

  1. 12-01-2006 #1
    Mario F.
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    Lightweight browser

    Need your help good people,

    I'm looking for a lightweight, small footprint web browser. My laptop is aging considerably and I need to be able to pack a web browser (mostly for offline reading, but also online), SlickEdit, TakeCommand console, notepad++, SQLite Maestro and eventually other small apps without consuming all my memory.

    Of all those, the least efficient is no doubt the web browser. With a memory footprint around 50Mb, Firefox is excellent, but unnecessary when I just need to do small-time websurfing and consulting offline pages. I would love something around the 10Mb mark.

    I'm looking for them over the web, but if you know of a good one beforehand, I would appreciate if you shared.

    EDIT: for windows
    Originally Posted by brewbuck:
    Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.
  2. 12-01-2006 #2
    Salem
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    But there's so many...
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_browsers

    You could always use Lynx
    If you dance barefoot on the broken glass of undefined behaviour, you've got to expect the occasional cut.
    If at first you don't succeed, try writing your phone number on the exam paper.
  3. 12-01-2006 #3
    indigo0086
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    Quote Originally Posted by Salem
    You could always use Lynx

    Dos the download come with a cyanide pill coupon.
  4. 12-01-2006 #4
    Mario F.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Salem
    You could always use Lynx
    You aren't far. And it loads GNU, Boost, C++ Reference, C++ FAQ, and many of the websites saved on disk (which are mainly text) just perfectly.

    I'll probably be sticking with K-Meleon for now until I find something even better. K-Meleon is now on this exact forum webpage and it is consuming 30Mb less memory (21Mb over 52 from firefox). And it is built on top of the Gecko engine as firefox. So that's a big bonus.

    There was this one (not on that wiki list) that gave me a 15Mb footprint after rendering and displaying CBoards. M9 Surfer. But it was horrible. The URL on the address bar changed according to what was being loaded. After rendering I would be left with CBoards home page but with the URL in the address bar pointing to one of the ads.
    Originally Posted by brewbuck:
    Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.
  5. 12-01-2006 #5
    Salem
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    Firefox source code + big hack and slash to remove all the guff you don't need to give you a nice sleek browser all of your own

    Yay, Firecub is born
    If you dance barefoot on the broken glass of undefined behaviour, you've got to expect the occasional cut.
    If at first you don't succeed, try writing your phone number on the exam paper.
  6. 12-01-2006 #6
    Mario F.
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    I knew I shouldn't have searched for "firecub" on google
    Originally Posted by brewbuck:
    Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.
  7. 12-01-2006 #7
    CornedBee
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    You're right. You shouldn't have. And you shouldn't have posted about it.
    All the buzzt!
    CornedBee

    "There is not now, nor has there ever been, nor will there ever be, any programming language in which it is the least bit difficult to write bad code."
    - Flon's Law
  8. 12-01-2006 #8
    indigo0086
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    Guess where I'll totally NOT be Saturday night?
  9. 12-01-2006 #9
    joeprogrammer
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mario F.
    I knew I shouldn't have searched for "firecub" on google
    Curiosity killed the cub

    Oh yeah, and to get back on-topic, I think the best browser is the one you make yourself... (come on Mario, with those wicked C++ skills, stripping down Firefox should be a piece of cake!)
  10. 12-02-2006 #10
    twomers
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    >> (come on Mario, with those wicked C++ skills, stripping down Firefox should be a piece of cake!)

    Let me fill in Mario's response for that:

    Quote Originally Posted by future Mario. F
    I know next to nothing about programming
  11. 12-02-2006 #11
    Mario F.
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    I know next to nothing about programing

    EDIT: Wicked C++ skills, stripping down firefox, making my own browser... that was so funny
    Last edited by Mario F.; 12-02-2006 at 05:57 AM.
    Originally Posted by brewbuck:
    Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.
  12. 12-08-2006 #12
    Salem
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    How's about this?
    http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable

    In fact, try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Firefox and scroll down to "Portable versions"
    If you dance barefoot on the broken glass of undefined behaviour, you've got to expect the occasional cut.
    If at first you don't succeed, try writing your phone number on the exam paper.
  13. 12-12-2006 #13
    jafet
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    I use that regardless of whether I'm running Firefox off a USB drive or on my computer. I mean, just copy the entire Profiles folder and you've got your own complete browser prefs + plugins + themes + sessions that you can just drop into any other copy on any computer.

    Ok, let's quote some random guy here:
    Quote Originally Posted by some random guy
    "Convenient though it would be if it were true, Mozilla [Netscape 1.0] is not big because it's full of useless crap. Mozilla is big because your needs are big. Your needs are big because the Internet is big. There are lots of small, lean web browsers out there that, incidentally, do almost nothing useful. But being a shining jewel of perfection was not a goal when we wrote Mozilla."
    [?]
    Code:
    #include <stdio.h>

void J(char*a){int f,i=0,c='1';for(;a[i]!='0';++i)if(i==81){
puts(a);return;}for(;c<='9';++c){for(f=0;f<9;++f)if(a[i-i%27+i%9
/3*3+f/3*9+f%3]==c||a[i%9+f*9]==c||a[i-i%9+f]==c)goto e;a[i]=c;J(a);a[i]
='0';e:;}}int main(int c,char**v){int t=0;if(c>1){for(;v[1][
t];++t);if(t==81){J(v[1]);return 0;}}puts("sudoku [0-9]{81}");return 1;}
  14. 12-12-2006 #14
    Mario F.
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    Yep. I got the portable version. Fits into the type of web browsing I do these days. When the need arises, the full version is also there at a couple of clicks away.
    Originally Posted by brewbuck:
    Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.
  15. 12-13-2006 #15
    Jaqui
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    I would have suggested Dillo if you don't want all the bloat that is getting onto websites.
    it uses the same rendering engine as lynx, so no css support, no images, tables, frames, javascript, flash....

    but very small footprint and far FASTER than any bloated graphics rendering browser.
    and Dillo is a full GUI browser.
    Quote Originally Posted by Jeff Henager
    If the average user can put a CD in and boot the system and follow the prompts, he can install and use Linux. If he can't do that simple task, he doesn't need to be around technology.
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