13.5. Web Browsers

Epiphany, the web browser in the GNOME suite, uses the WebKit display engine developed by Apple for its Safari browser. The relevant package is epiphany-browser.

Konqueror, the KDE file manager, also behaves as a web browser. It uses the KDE-specific KHTML rendering engine; KHTML is an excellent engine, as witnessed by the fact that Apple's WebKit is based on KHTML. Konqueror is available in the konqueror package.

Users not satisfied by either of the above can use Iceweasel. This browser, available in the iceweasel package, uses the Mozilla project's Gecko renderer, with a thin and extensible interface on top.

Figure 13.7. The Iceweasel web browser

CULTURE Iceweasel, Firefox and others

Many users will no doubt be surprised by the absence of Mozilla Firefox in the Debian Jessie menus. No need to panic: the iceweasel package contains Iceweasel, which is basically Firefox under another name.

The rationale behind this renaming is a result of the usage rules imposed by the Mozilla Foundation on the Firefox™ registered trademark: any software named Firefox must use the official Firefox logo and icons. However, since these elements are not released under a free license, Debian cannot distribute them in its main section. Rather than moving the whole browser to non-free, the package maintainer chose to use a different name.

The firefox command still exists in the iceweasel package, but only for compatibility with tools that would try to use it.

For similar reasons, the Thunderbird™ email client was renamed to Icedove in a similar fashion.

CULTURE Mozilla

Netscape Navigator was the standard browser when the web started reaching the masses, but it was progressively left behind when Microsoft Internet Explorer came around. Faced with this failure, Netscape (the company) decided to “free” its source code, by releasing it under a free license, to give it a second life. This was the beginning of the Mozilla project. After many years of development, the results are more than satisfying: the Mozilla project brought forth an HTML rendering engine (called Gecko) that is among the most standard-compliant. This rendering engine is in particular used by the Mozilla Firefox browser, which is one of the most successful browsers, with a fast-growing user base.

Last but not least, Debian also contains the Chromium web browser (available in the chromium-browser package). This browser is developed by Google at such a fast pace that maintaining a single version of it across the whole lifespan of Debian Jessie is unlikely to be possible. Its clear purpose is to make web services more attractive, both by optimizing the browser for performance and by increasing the user's security. The free code that powers Chromium is also used by its proprietary version called Google Chrome.