Does anyone here use Netsurf outside of RISC OS?

Hi,
My laptop is pretty low power (Celeron N3050, 2GB RAM) and Firefox is quite laggy on it, so I prefer to use Netsurf with it when I can since it’s a lot faster and more responsive.

I know a lot of people here use Netsurf on RISC OS, so I became curious, do you use it on other platforms as well?

I do. I use it on the Raspberry Pi 3 and Orange Pi PC in Linux (same executable for both). I also use it on the PC for lightweight browsing.

I definitely use it on my netbook.

NetSurf a good browser.

Last night I built nsgtk and nsfb for Armbian aarch64. Both worked fine. Then I built nsgtk using clang. Worked fine too. It’s what I’m using now.

NetSurf has really nicely written makefiles.

I did occasionally use it on my laptop (old Sony 600MHz boosting to 1.1GHz with 1GB RAM and Debian/OpenBSD).

I recently had to change the heatsink/fan in it and since rebuilding it (now with a compact flash card instead of a hard drive) I haven’t installed an X Windows server on there so just use Lynx to browse the web when I need to. I only use the laptop for writing or programming so don’t need anything graphical really.

When I am on a low power machine I tend to use Midori insted of NetSurf though.

My laptop is pretty low power (Celeron N3050, 2GB RAM)

By the way that to me is a very fast computer! Are you using Windows on it? A switch to some kind of Linux and an upgrade to an SSD would probably make it feel 100 times faster.

I use Firefox on a 1.0GHz desktop regularly (as well as having an IDE, several PDFs a text editor and a handful of consoles open) and it works really quite fast. Its running Debian Linux.

But back to the original topic—I have used it in the past but there always seemed to be a better option for my needs at the time.

I would love NetSurf to be my default choice no matter what platform but it does need some more work (security and JavaScript) before that becomes a reality.

By the way that to me is a very fast computer! Are you using Windows on it? A switch to some kind of Linux and an upgrade to an SSD would probably make it feel 100 times faster.

Yeah, I’m running Debian Linux on it (which I use on all my computers), and I have a simple/light setup with IceWM which boots very quickly and runs fast. It came with Windows 10 preinstalled, and with that it was very slow and not at all pleasant to use. (Though to be fair I only tried it for about an hour before I formatted it)

By the way, don’t get me wrong – my laptop is definitely fast enough for me as well, and I’m satisfied with it. The only time I notice lag is when using firefox, for example on sites like slashdot.org when loading the comments, it tends to become unresponsive for about 2 to 4 seconds at a time. I think we also probably have different tolerances for lag – maybe you wouldn’t notice a couple of seconds of lag, while I would notice it readily.

I would love NetSurf to be my default choice no matter what platform but it does need some more work (security and JavaScript) before that becomes a reality.

It would be cool if Netsurf became more fully featured. Though in a way, not having javascript is one of the things I like about it. Even on my main desktop computer, I sometimes load pages in Netsurf to avoid being harassed by scripts which pop up windows or make sounds, or complain about adblock, or stuff like that.

I just noticed that nsfb isn’t as monolithic as nsgtk. The start page doesn’t come along with it if I move the executable.

When I am on a low power machine I tend to use Midori insted of NetSurf though.

That’s interesting. I want to like Midori. I’ve always tried. I see people say it’s fast but no matter what it’s on I find it so infuriatingly slow. All I can think is it may have something to do with connection latency or something. I have a dnsmasq server set up pointing to Google’s DNS servers to speed up DNS queries (obviously), and avoid filtering. At least I don’t need it to avoid my ISP’s utterly retarded opt-out DNS error hijacking with advertisements anymore.

I’m a fan of ARM based devices for their architecture and low power use. A result of that is using a lightweight browser for most things. NetSurf seems to be the most capable I’ve found.

My PC stays unplugged unless I need it. Quick mental arithmetic tells me it costs more than 1AUD/day to leave it running, which is nontrivial over time.

I guess what I’m saying is browsers are generally horrifically bloated. Most software is these days. Lightweight is good.

I probably just use Midori because I came across it before I found out that NetSurf existed and its an old habit! I must admit that most of the time I just use Firefox and put up with a bit of slowness.

I think we also probably have different tolerances for lag

You are probably correct!

Yeah, I’m running Debian Linux on it

not having javascript is one of the things I like about it

In that case ditch your nasty graphical interface, install Lynx and Be Happy! (you can call out Gouranga too if you like…sometimes it helps I hear…)

On a more serious note, I wonder if the lag is due to memory—most modern browsers tend to be memory hogs and perhaps your particular machine has a particularly slow memory or something? Are you running with lots of tabs open, I think each tab is basically equivalent to a full browser so will multiply the memory usage. Next time things get laggy it might be worth running Top (or similar) to see how much Firefox is actually using. Also one more thing you can try is installing PaleMoon, I used it briefly and it seems to be a bit quicker than Firefox.

Its probably all a matter of perception though.

I guess what I’m saying is browsers are generally horrifically bloated. Most software is these days. Lightweight is good.

Well said!

If you want another option you should check out Dillo. I have just discovered that it was ported to RISC OS too..

If you want another option you should check out Dillo. I have just discovered that it was ported to RISC OS too..

In Linux and possibly misremembered, but I think I had success getting to the git download links on GitHub with dillo but couldn’t with NetSurf.
It’s actually part of my main gripe with GitHub. The way to access the git repo link is through a JavaScript button.
The other part of the gripe is the mobile version of GitHub. It doesn’t even offer the option. What if I want to copy paste the link to something for later? or I’m directly typing it in on the PC while reading it from a phone because of the js button issue. I can’t!

I thought I’d try compiling NetSurf for RO for myself while using the build of GCCSDK I have. It’s not going well. It fell over on libcurl. I tried building Curl before I went to bed. Checked this morning and saw it broke with a stack smashing error.
Admittedly I’m probably one of the very few people using GCCSDK on aarch64 so there’s probably some architecture related bugs lurking.

I thought I’d try compiling NetSurf for RO for myself while using the build of GCCSDK I have. It’s not going well. It fell over on libcurl. I tried building Curl before I went to bed. Checked this morning and saw it broke with a stack smashing error.

Did you ever get it to work? I managed to compile and fix a bug in NetSurf but that was probably 2 years ago now and I cannot remember the steps I went through to get it working. I know they are crying out for more developers (especially RISC OS ones) so if you do get it to work and can help out that would be fantastic!

Sadly I don’t really have the time I would like to put into NetSurf…

I used to use NetSurf on OpenBSD for a while (before I knew it was used on ROS) but ended up switching to links2 which is my browser of choice on the platform.

NetSurf is much prettier, but I am more of a hacker/modder and links was simpler to customise for me.