WWW-Browsers for Linux

There are many browsers available for Linux. I did not find a listing which I thought to be complete, especially considering non-x86 platforms. This list tries to accomplish this task. I tried to include all browsers for web pages (i.e., no pure 3D browsers) which are available for Linux. If a browser is missing or the information given is incorrect, I would be very glad if you could give me the information via email at browser@helgefjell.de.

The list is limited to browsers for HTML/XHTML/XML. Some might do other Formats as well (VRML, WAP) but I will not list browsers which are limited to such a format/protocol.

The column state indicates if and how the browser can be run under Linux/AXP: Check below for a detailed description.

If your favorite web page insists on certain browsers, you have to fake the browser identification.

Since several browsers are either totally out of date or their web page is no longer available, I split the list into browser with recent development (i.e. those which are likely to display current web pages) and older browsers. If you think I misplaced a browser then please mail me.

If you like to use the table in your own work, you may do so under the GPL. I would be happy to receive proper credit, though.

Current Browsers
Name	State	Brief description
Brave	Q D	Brave claims to be a fast, privacy friendly browser with a reward system.
Chromium	Q	Chromium is an open-source browser project that aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all Internet users to experience the web. If you get it running on Alpha please let me know.
Dooble 2.x	Q	The new release offers a totally-new Web-browsing experience.
Edbrowse	Q D	Edbrowse is a combination editor, browser, and mail client that is 100% text based. The interface is similar to /bin/ed, though there are many more features, such as editing multiple files simultaneously, and rendering html. This program was originally written for blind users, but many sighted users have taken advantage of the unique scripting capabilities of this program, which can be found nowhere else. A batch job, or cron job, can access web pages on the internet, submit forms, and send email, with no human intervention whatsoever.
Eolie	Q	Web browser for GNOME
Epiphany (Web)	Q D	Epiphany is a GNOME web browser based on the Mozilla rendering engine; it aims for simplicity, standard compliance and GNOME integration (including the Human Interaction Guidelines).
Falkon	Q D	Falkon is a cross-platform Qt web browser previously known as QupZilla. It uses the QtWebEngine rendering engineFalkon is a cross-platform Qt web browser previously known as QupZilla. It uses the QtWebEngine rendering engine..
Firefox	Q D	Firefox is a redesign of the Mozilla browser component, similar to Galeon, K-Meleon and Chimera, but written using the XUL user interface language and designed to be cross-platform. It has a modularized design and user can install a large number of plug-ins (like googlebar; mouse gestures like in Opera) of the users' choice.
Gnome Help Browser (Yelp)	Q D	Yelp is the default help viewer for GNOME 2. It can read documentation in HTML or DocBook format.
Konqueror	Q D	Konqueror is the successor of kfm, the file manager and web browser in KDE 1.x. Besides browsing, it can be used as a file manager and universal viewer as well. HTML 4.0, ECMAscript 262, can house Java applets, full CSS1 and partial CSS2, bidirectional scripts and SSL support. In full development. It now supports tabs as well!
Ladybird	Q	Ladybird is a brand-new browser & web engine. Driven by a web standards first approach, Ladybird aims to render the modern web with good performance, stability and security. Ladybird is currently in heavy development. We are targeting a first Alpha release for early adopters in 2026.
Links(2)	Q D	Links is WWW browser for the console, for the frambuffer and for X, based on Links. It displays tables, frames, downloads on background, and features Javascript. In graphics mode it displays PNG, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, and XBM pictures, runs external bindings on other types, and features anti-aliased font, smooth image zooming, 48-bit dithering, and gamma and aspect ratio correction.
Lynx	D	Very flexible text mode browser with many features (including SSL) but without table support. Might already be installed.
Min	Q	Find anything instantly — Effortless tab management — Built-in ad blocking — Fast and efficient — Open-Source software
Mullvad	Q	The Mullvad Browser is a privacy-focused web browser developed in a collaboration between Mullvad VPN and the Tor Project. It’s designed to minimize tracking and fingerprinting. You could say it’s a Tor Browser to use without the Tor Network. Instead, you can use it with a trustworthy VPN.
Netsurf	Q D	NetSurf is a multi-platform lightweight web browser. Its aim is to provide comprehensive rendering of HTML 4 with CSS 2 in a small resource footprint while remaining fast.
Opera	?	Opera is a commercial browser currently available free of charge for Linux/Intel, Linux/PPC and Linux/x86_64 . Opera aims to be fully W3C standards compliant but yet to remain a low memory footprint; latest version however do have a larger memory consumption.
Otter	Q	Otter Browser aims to recreate the best aspects of the classic Opera (12.x) UI using Qt5.
Pale Moon	Q	Pale Moon offers you a browsing experience in a browser completely built from its own, independently developed source that has been forked off from Firefox/Mozilla code a number of years ago, with carefully selected features and optimizations to improve the browser's stability and user experience, while offering full customization and a growing collection of extensions and themes to make the browser truly your own.
Slimjet	Q	SlimJet integrates more features and functions than any other internet browser
Surf	Q D	surf is a simple web browser based on WebKit/GTK+. It is able to display websites and follow links. It supports the XEmbed protocol which makes it possible to embed it in another application. Furthermore, one can point surf to another URI by setting its XProperties.
Vivaldi	?	Browser for former users of Opera. Designed to be flexible in rich in functions. No statement of license on web page or (easily) available documentation, nor in the downloaded deb.
Waterfox	Q	Free, open and private. Inspired by the incredible open source projects that have made the World Wide Web what it is today, we wanted to contribute our part and make a web browser tailored for the power user.

Older Browsers
Name	State	Brief description
Amaya	Q	Amaya is intended to be a comprehensive client environment for testing and evaluating new proposals for Web standards and formats.
Arachne	?	There used to be a port from DOS to Intel-Linux in the works. Svgalib based, beta version available. Binary only.
Arena	Q	The old reference browser of the W3C. Development continued by Yggdrasil. Latest changes from March, 1997.
Arenai18n	Q	OMRON Corporation has developed to extend Arena to be able to display Chinese, Korean and Japanese characters in one page. OMRON's Arena supports both ISO-2022 and UNICODE. It guesses charset automatically, /if charest parameter isn't specified in Content-Type field.
Armadillo	Q	Gtk-based browser, formerly called Gzilla (see below). Does not compile, no longer maintained. See dillo above.
Arora	Q	Arora is a lightweight cross-platform web browser. It's free (as in free speech and free beer). Arora runs on Linux, embedded Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, Windows, Haiku, and any other platforms supported by the Qt toolkit. Arora uses the QtWebKit port of the fully standards-compliant WebKit layout engine. It features fast rendering, powerful JavaScript engine and supports Netscape plugins.
Atlantis	S	Atlantis is a lightweight Web browser based on GTK-WebCore.
Axene	T	Browser developed specifically for local documentation as part of an office-suite. The original site has been removed and I haven't found a mirror yet.
Barque	Q	Barque is a new web browser designed to be run on the G.N.O.M.E environment. It uses the GtkHtml component and is Bonobo enabled.
Beonex		A discontinued (security) enhanced version of Mozilla. Commercial support available.
BrowseX	Q	BrowseX is a free Open Source, cross-platform Web Browser, E-Mail Program, Talk/Chat client and more. There is a database interface, SQLite, and BrowseX is easily extensible via an API. BrowseX has been written primarily in C and Tcl. The homepage is no longer active.
Cheetah	Q	The cheetah web browser is a project that has been started to create a fully functional, light-weight, bloat-free web browser for Linux (and other free Unix clones) that is not dependant on KDE, GNOME or Mozilla.
Chimera 1.x		Chimera 1.x. Original home page (and of extended version) no longer working; secondary mirror down as well.
Chimera 2.0		Complete rewrite of Chimera 1.x. No current mirror known, was previously available at least in the Debian archive.
Cineast	H	HTML 3.2 capable browser (including several picture formats, tables, forms) capable of handling SSL. Written in OTcl. Development is currently frozen.
Closure		A free web browser written completely in Common Lisp. The GUI is based on CLUE. The browser is in alpha state. Generally the underlying core (HTTP, SGML, HTML, CSS) is stable. The UI is lacking.
Conkeror	Q	Conkeror is a Mozilla based web browser (requires Firefox to install) designed to be completely keyboard driven, no compromises. It also strives to behave as much like Emacs as possible. This means all the key bindings and to-die-for features of Emacs that can be imitated by a javascript/XUL web browser Just Work. See also this repository
debris	Q	debris is a free (see GPL) text mode HTML browser package. It provides tables, forms, a secure environment and is small (only 25% of lynx).
Dillo	Q D	Dillo is a small (less than 400 Kb), GTK+ based web browser project completely written in C. It is based on gzilla and armadillo (see below) and aims to be small, stable, developer-friendly, usable, fast and extensible.
Dooble 1.x	Q	The lightwight browser dooble offers many security features of its large counterparts while using minimal ressources.
Dwb	Q	dwb is a lightweight web browser based on the webkit web browser engine and the gtk toolkit. dwb is highly customizable and can be easily configured through a web interface. It intends to be mostly keyboard driven, inspired by firefox's vimperator plugin.
Emacs W3		Emacs/W3 is a full-featured web browser, written entirely in Emacs-Lisp, that supports all the bells and whistles you will find in use on the web today, including frames, tables, style sheets, and much more. An emacs version 20.x or greater is recommended. Currently a modular rewrite is being done.
Elinks	Q D	Elinks is text WWW browser based on Links and is actively developed. ELinks can render both frames and tables, is highly customizable and can be extended via Lua or Guile scripts.
embrowser	?	A browser tailored for embedded devices based on x86 (Pentium+) and PowerPC machines.
Encompass	Q	Encompass is a web browser for the GNOME Desktop. Currently being completely rewritten.
Express	CVS	Express is written for the Gnome desktop project. It aims to be a full-featured web browser; however it will do this with extensive plugin support, so it is basically as lightweight as needed.
Flock	?	A free, next generation web browser. When using Flock, people can easily discover, access, create and share videos, photos, blogs, feeds and comments across social communities, media providers, and popular websites.
Galeon	Q	Galeon is a GNOME web browser based on gecko (Mozilla rendering engine). It's fast, it has a light interface and it is full standards compliant. It requires current Mozilla sources to build.
Grail	H	Grail is an extensible Internet browser written entirely in the interpreted object-oriented programming language Python. Last release March 2000.
Gzilla	Q	Gzilla is a web browser written in the Gtk+ framework. It's still in early alpha. It does not compile and is no longer maintained. Please note Dillo above.
Hbro	Q	minimal KISS-compliant web browser
HotJAVA (generic)	H	Since Sun's direct support was limited to Solaris for SPARC, Windows NT and Windows 95, Linux users have to get the runtime environment separately and cannot use SSL. If you've tried it with Compaq's JDK (on alpha) I'd be glad to know the results.
Hv3	Q	Html Viewer 3 (hv3) is a powerful yet minimalist web browser that uses Tkhtml3 as a rendering engine and SEE (Simple ECMAScript Engine) to interpret scripts. The application itself is written in Tcl. See this LWN article for a description.
ICE Browser	H	ICEsoft's family of commercial Java-based browsers, browser toolkits, and related products is available for licensing on embedded devices or enterprise applications and contains a MathML pilot which can render MathML content based on Webeq 2.3. Trial downloads are available. If you've tried it with Compaq's JDK (on alpha) I'd be glad to know the results.
Jazilla	H	The Jazilla Project aims to create a Mozilla like Browser suite in Java, which is standards compliant and embedable. If you've tried it with Compaq's JDK (on alpha) I'd be glad to know the results.
jumanji	Q	jumanji is a highly customizable and functional web browser based on the libwebkit web content engine and the gtk+ toolkit. The idea behind jumanji is a web browser that provides a minimalistic and space saving interface as well as an easy usage that mainly focuses on keyboard interaction like vimperator does.
JoZilla	H	Pure Java based browser for HTML 4.0.
Kazehakase	Q	Kazehakase is a browser with gecko engine like Epiphany or Galeon and support for remote (Japanese) bookmarks.
KDE-Browser (kfm)		The KDE file-manager (kfm) is capable of browsing as well.
Kylie		A Lightweight Web Browser. It does text, images, tables and soon forms. It doesn't do CSS, frames or scripting.
Leechcraft	Q	LeechCraft is a free open source cross-platform modular live environment. LeechCraft has modules for everything: it allows one to browse the web, chat via instant messaging, listen to music, read RSS/Atom feeds, view documents, download files via BitTorrent and other protocols, automatically download, play or stream podcasts (and other media files) and much more. LeechCraft is a modular system, and by installing different modules you can customize the feature set and keep off the things you don't want.
Light	Q	Yet Another Mozilla-based browser. Features very simple non-bloated GTK+ interface, familiar Netscape 4.x keyboard shortcuts, context menus, etc.. Based on Mozilla.
Line Mode Browser (W3C)	Q	THE original browser, by Tim Barners-Lee. Still under development, closely tied to libwww. Last independent release was 1995 though.
Links	Q	Links is text WWW browser with tables. There is also a Sourceforge page and external development paths called elinks and links2.
Lobo		Lobo is an open source web browser that is written entirely in Java. It is being developed with the aim to support HTML 4, Javascript and CSS2. The general goal of the project is to produce a browser that is fast, easy to extend, secure and feature-rich.
Luakit	Q	Luakit is a highly configurable, browser framework based on the WebKit web content engine and the GTK+ toolkit. It is very fast, extensible by Lua and licensed under the GNU GPLv3 license. It is primarily targeted at power users, developers and any people with too much time on their hands who want to have fine-grained control over their web browsers behaviour and interface.
Maemo	The Minimo (Mini Mozilla) project is focused on code-size and runtime footprint reduction, and porting to small consumer devices. The primary focus of Minimo to date has been system with ~32-64 MB of RAM, running Linux and using the GTK toolkit. Other platforms and toolkits have been investigated as well.
Midas	Q T	Midas is very old (1993!), unsupported, crashes if it encounters pages with tables (there weren't any tables in 1993) and is basically of no more than historic interest.
MMM Browser		MMM is a WWW browser implemented in Objective Caml using its CamlTk41 interface to Tcl/Tk. Supports HTML 2.0, most of HTML 3.2 and frames. Last modified December 1997.
Midori	Q	Midori is a lightweight web browser featuring full integration in GTK+ 2; fast rendering with WebKit; tabs, windows and session management; flexible configurable web search; user scripts and user styles support; straightforward bookmark management and an customizable and extensible interface.
mMosaic	Q	Based on NCSA Mosaic (see below). Supports Table, one level frame and IPv6/IPv4. The project aims to have a multicasted browser (hence the m). This project has been abandoned.
Mosaic-CK	Q	An updated, independent port of NCSA Mosaic
Mnemonic	Q	Apart from HTML 4.0, Mnemonic will support the W3C standards XML and CSS. There will also be support for mathematics typesetting in the form of MathML and TeX. Currently a GTK-- based version is available, but a text-only interface is expected in the near future. Compiling on Alphas is done internally at irregular intervals. The project is in a terminal coma currently.
Navscape		The Navscape Navigator project.
NCSA Mosaic	Q	One of the first browsers available. Development was discontinued 1996. Please note mMosaic above.
netrick	Q	Netrik is the ANTRIK Internet Viewer/Browser/Explorer/Navigator/whatever than is able to run in pure text mode. It features a vi-like control.
Netscape 7/Mozilla	Q	The open-sourced/freed development version of Netscape 7, called Mozilla. Version 1.0 is really nice. See also Aphrodite. If you have a small device, have a look at Fennec.
NetFront	-	Browser for embedded systems, GTK based, commercial. Basically a SDK for embedded applications (Phones, PDA).
Netomat(TM)	H	netomat(TM) is a meta-browser. Requires Java 1.1.6 (or later) virtual machine. The download is now focused on Windows and Mac.
NetRaider	?	A fast, small, free and nice web browser for Unix. Requires qt 2.2.2; based on konquerer engine.
Netscape 3.x/4.x		Netscape Navigator/Communicator. Version 3.01 can be run using em86. Please note Netscape 6.x/Mozilla below and especially Firefox/Iceweasel above.
OSB-Browser	S	An example browser implementation which uses Gtk+ WebCore, Kjs, Khtml, KWIQ and NRCIT. Written in C and uses Gtk+ GUI-library.
Qupzilla	Q D	QupZilla is modern web browser based on WebKit core and Qt Framework. WebKit guarantees fast browsing and Qt availability on all major platforms. See Falkon above.
Skipstone	Q	SkipStone is a Gtk+ Web Browser that embeds Mozilla's rendering component Gecko. It aims to be light and fast with few dependencies.
Plume/SurfIt	-	Tcl/TK-Browser from Australia. The host no longer exists, also the mirrors from A. Caldwell are gone by now. It can post HTML forms for CGI scripts and can do HTML tables but not frames. With the IMG extension for Tk, they can do most image types found on the web. He also provided a version for Agenda VR3.
Prevue		Tcl/TK-Browser for downloading special content (TV-programs).
Pyleon	CVS	Pyleon is an extensible GTK+ web browser written in Python, with support for both Mozilla and GtkHTML. Non-core browser features are implemented as modules so power users can load only their desired features, and programmers can easily add their own.
qweb		A general SGML-parser. No new version since end of 1997.
Qt Web Internet Browser	Q	Lightweight, secure and portable browser having unique user interface and privacy features. QtWeb is an open source project based on Nokia's Qt framework and Apple's WebKit rendering engine (the same as being used in Apple Safari and Google Chrome). QtWeb is so compact and self-sufficient (not much dependencies).
Red Baron	?	This browser was distributed with RedHat 4.2, Intel. There seems to be no information available about it anymore.
Rekonq (also other languages, but not english)	Q	rekonq is (was) a KDE browser based on Webkit. Its code is based on Nokia QtDemoBrowser. It is the product of playing to be a programmer of the author, so the higher its quality is, the better he can play.. He has got lots of ideas to implement in it, so many features that he will like to have in his perfect browser. Anyway, rekonq is far from perfect. It needs a lot of love..
retawq	Q	retawq is an interactive, multi-threaded network client (web browser) for text terminals on computers with Unix-like operating systems. It is written in C, fast, small, nicely configurable, and comfortable.
Scamper		Scamper is a simple web browser which runs in Squeak. Enough is supported that you can browse around on the Web. Images with transparent backgrounds even look pretty cool.
Skate	H	Skate Browser is simply an implementation of the iceBrowser bean from iceSoft. Can be used with Uncle Georges JRE.The webpage seems to be no longer available.
SeaMonkey	Q	The SeaMonkey project is a community effort to develop the SeaMonkey all-in-one internet application suite. Containing an Internet browser, email & newsgroup client with an included web feed reader, HTML editor, IRC chat and web development tools, SeaMonkey is sure to appeal to advanced users, web developers and corporate users.
SRWare Iron (in German)	Q	Claimed to be The browser of the future — based on the free Sourcecode Chromium — without any problems at privacy and security.
Star Office	?	This office-suite can also be used to surf the web. Note that the next version is developed as Open Source on www.openoffice.org and LibreOffice.
Strata	?	The non-free browser Strata (free of charge trial version available) serves as a bridge between local data files, database management systems and data on the web. It can access data from local sources and across the web, mash it together, and then you can quickly work with it to gain new insights or create ad hoc reports to share with others.
Uzbl	Q	Uzbl follows the UNIX philosophy — Write programs that do one thing and do it well. Write programs to work together. Write programs to handle text streams, because that is a universal interface. It is component based and highly configurable, stressing keyboard control.
ViewML	Q	The ViewML Browser was an open source project aimed at producing a small memory footprint, high-quality web browser for the rapidly growing embedded Linux market. The ViewML Browser was based on KDE's kfm (KDE file manager) and FLTK (fast light tool kit).
Vimprobable	Q	Vimprobable is a lean stand-alone web browser optimised for full keyboard control (inspired by Vimperator).
w3m	Q D	Small text based browser (originally a pager) with support for tables. Works on Alpha.
w3mmee	Q	A variant of w3m with support for multiple character encodings.
wb0		A svgalib web browser — an early version yet. Emphasis is on high quality picture display. Currently requires lynx, the author intends to merge with links in the future. wb0 itself is no longer under development.
Woosh		Woosh is a minimalistic browser starting up very fast and optimised for small screens. It runs very well on the Neo Freerunner as well as on any netbook like the Acer One or Asus eeePC and features simple gestures for quick access to all important functions.
xsmile	Q	X-Smiles is a Java based XML browser. It is intended for both desktop use and embedded network devices and to support multimedia services. The main advantage of the X-Smiles browser is that it supports several XML related specifications (including XHTML) and is still suitable for embedded devices supporting the Java environment. And yes, it runs on alpha using SableVM.
XXXTerm		XXXTerm is a minimalists web browser. It strives to be vi-like for heavy keyboard users while maintaining traditional web browser behavior. It is ISC licensed. Newer versions are called xombrero.
Zen		Initially a web browser for the Linux framebuffer, using the library named oFBis, now extending to other frontends as well. Zen is a long term project, and will take an unspecified amount of time to write.

Description of the state-column for Linux/AXP:

B: Binary (usually as .tgz) is available
R: (Red-Hat)-RPM is available
S: SuSE-RPM is available
D: Debian-deb-Archive is available
Q: Only source available (if you compile this browser successfully, please mail link to browser@helgefjell.de. Thanks.).
H: Written in a scripting high level language or a language with dynamic translation, e.g. Java, OTcl, Python or Lisp.
E: Intel binary can be run via em86
T: A True64 binary exists which (possibly) can be run using the appropriate libraries.
?: Browser cannot be executed on Linux/Alpha. If you know otherwise, please send me an email to browser@helgefjell.de. Thanks.

I would like to thank the following persons for feedback:

Gerhard Niklasch
Dan Frasnelli
Christian Weisgerber
Charles E. Taylor IV
Christopher Palmer
Alexander Caldwell
Verna Chaykowski
Jari Aalto
Barbara E. Irwin
Max OrHai
Benjamin I. Williams
Olaf Larsen
Peter Tynan

Overview of browsers on Wikipedia

Some helpful information might also be found on the User Agent

Last modified: 31. Aug 2024

You can reach me under

browser@helgefjell.de