Midori Browser

Condobloke

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I installed this last night, via its .deb file.....Thanks to @MikeWalsh for dropping a link to it in This topic

The Midori Browser

So far, I have found it to be extremely quick, and has a good solid feel to it
I am impressed.
I used the .deb download...installed in a flash.




I used the above link...clicked on 'Select linux Distro, and chose "Debian de 64 bits'....this opens a download which installs easily with Gdebi Package Installer in linux Mint etc
There are downloads there for Flatpak and tar.bz2 etc
 
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Well, I'm posting from Midori and wow, it's come a long, long way! Grabbed the upstream Appimage. Even in a VM and as an Appimage it's responsive (minus the initial mount). Not sure I like the sidebar, but I haven't gotten to customising it other than to add NoScript which is first order of business. I like the new logo, though IDK how the OpenSUSE folk art gonna take it since Midori's new logo is essentially the "cool version". Jokes aside, let's do first impressions, in realtime as I play with it and type this:

My Review:
When I first stumbled on this project, I thought it had great potential, but I saw it dying out. Usually my predictions ar right. In this case, I'm more than happy to be wrong. The project has matured into a fully-fledged AAA browser...

1. Responsivenes: 8/10
Midori's UI is very snappy and smooth, however, performing searches causes a delay no different from firefox.
2. Look and feel: 8/10
The UI is neat and compact. No quasi-Gnome window decorations, giving the user back their stolen vertical estate. It uses the old Firefox style combined with the new, and sadly I could've done without the latter. The sidebar is a pane (get it: it's a pain, but it's a side pane... nvm) but it goes away with one click. A very Edge-alike feature is that new tabs present the user with a pleasant scene on each newly opened tab, making it pleasant to use.
3. Resource consumption: x/10
This is hard to measure so early on, given it's and Appimage and given Firefox had more extras installed, but I will give this a proper bench when time permits. I will say that with 10 tabs open (including this one), running in Mint22 Cinnamon, in a VM, it's still very responsive, so I'd like to think it's either that the team stripped away all Firefox's bloat, or there's pretty good resource management added. Maybe both.
4. Effective performance. 9/10. Render times on pages are faster despite using Web Kit. Older site which can take seconds -- yes plural -- are rendered immediately with their HTML elements and we can watch them styled with CSS and positioned in realtime. And that's how it should be as opposed to spinning wait cursors, dots, and simply blank canvases. Input fields have no lag on backspace, and if anything, it's too responsive here. I'm so used to the ~250-500ms delay in other browsers, I've deleted entire lines twice writing this review. Scrolling is fast, and smooth. Animations are great, too.
5. Compatibility: 9/10
This here browser seems 100% compatible with Firefox. With access to all FF's plugins as well as profiles, Midori makes the transition for Firefox refugees as easy as a frsh Firefox install. Most of the UI internally matches FF, while ensuring that externally, it still presents that cleaner UI.
6. Trust/privacy rating: 7/10
My primary reason is that it's no longer in the Debian repos (last in Bullseye). I'm not sure why, but as someone wary of third-party software, I need to keep testing it in a VM for now. My second gripe is that Astian is the default search engine and there's quite a lot of product placement on the side panel. Maybe I've become too paranoid over the years, and based on if I find any telemetry, or if there are some extra privacy features, this rating may go up or down.
7. Functionality: 10/10
Yes, it works. No glitching, no scrolling issues, no rendering problems, and no freezes under load. So far it can display every site I've tried it on, from online shopping to the media-heavy stuff.

Final verdict: While I have no intention of moving from Firefox yet, Midori is most definitely the future, especially for Firefox users, even more so fo Linux users. It's also likely to be the last browser that Google hasn't tainted based on their current model (obviously all verdicts from the DoJ still pending). So whether you love it or hate it (and IDK why you'd hate it), it's going to make a serious impact. I suggest distros that did deprecate it revisit this browser as I have. It's come a long, long way, and it's going to make a big splash by Q4 2025 at the latest. This is one of those projects that leaps up and sucker punches you! In the longer term, I see it gaining serious traction, splitting the Firefox user base by at least 20% initially, but possibly more, based on Mozilla's actions. As for Chromium users who're Firefox ex-pats, I see this as their return ticket home from the Googlesphere. Oh yes, this browser is coming and headed for mainstream to succeed where others like Falkon have failed.
Of course, only time will tell, and the more I use it, the more praise or critiques I will have. For now, though, at a first ~20min glance, I think it's a wise idea to start preparing for the Midori Era because wave or tsunami, it's coming.
 
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Also:

https://www.itsmarttricks.com/how-to-install-midori-browser-on-ubuntu/ .....READ FIRST

sudo apt-get update (update packages and repositories)

and then:

sudo apt-get install midori
There's no install candidate on Debian 12 or Mint 22 (Ubuntu). I'm not sure why but it was removed (or they stopped maintaining it in Debian which affects everyone downstream). Flatpak and Appimages are available, and, as you mentioned, .debs. As I said in my review, I'm pretty sure it'll return to mainstream repos shortly given how damned impressive it is.
 
I have no idea how to install the flatpak....that may come later
 
@MikeWalsh said....... Midori ......"It's no longer the 'old', WebKit-based browser many of us had got used to. They've stripped-out a lot of the unnecessary, current FF crud that's responsible for much of its present 'bloat', with the result that it is BLAZINGLY fast on any half-way modern hardware......really, back to how FF used to be some years back."

He is certainly correct re the speed !

I am still trying to figure out how to open the initial page, maximised.........and how the hell to 'personalise' the new tab page

Early days !!
 
Midori has been around for years, but the project has stopped progressing a few times.

At one point it was in the default Debian/Ubuntu/Mint repos but it was removed because it wasn't being updated.

Alas, I love my extensions too much to use Midori for anything other than a tertiary browser.

Falkon has also been getting some decent development lately or had been the last time I looked.

I'm kind of a browser fan. Ah well...
 
I love my extensions too much to use Midori
What does that mean?

I have found there to be no shortage of extensions, thus far
 
I have found there to be no shortage of extensions, thus far

Midori now supports extensions?

Huh... I'll have to check it out again.

(That's a new thing since the last time I played with it.)
 
Ah, it's now a Firefox clone/fork.

See:


It isn't even based on Gecko anymore, so the article could use some updating. They have the last release at a pre-release in 2019. I think I last tried to find/use it in 2023 and there were no longer any downloads and there were new owners of the project.

(I wasn't crazy. LOL I just hadn't kept up as the project was dead for a long time.)
 
Give it a run, David....you may be pleasantly surprised
 
Give it a run, David....you may be pleasantly surprised

I did. It's not bad. It's Firefox with some more features, I suppose. I'm glad that it has come this far. At one point, Midori was even trying to use their own browser engine. They have a long and storied history, I suppose.

I recently revisited Brave and that's another browser that has come a long way. I recall the early beta versions and it's great to see what they've done - though I still don't need their 'rewards' stuff.
 
I have been using brave for quite some time...a few years

It has been consistently plagued with the 'the keyring was not unlocked...requires aithorisation etcetc"

I refused to lower linux's inbuilt security by disabling/deleting the keyring....
i knwo pretty much every workaround there is to bypass it.....but when update after update comes out and the situation is not resolved....regardless of me filing report after report and the u=internet showing it is quite common....it doesnt happen in Chromium...
Kapoof. brave gone

Enter Midori
So far so good
It doesnt open as a maximised page....I feel reasonably certain they will remedy that
 
@Condobloke :-

It doesnt open as a maximised page....I feel reasonably certain they will remedy that

Hm. Odd. It does for me, Brian.....in every Puppy I've thrown our 'portable' version of Midori at.

I am still trying to figure out how to open the initial page, maximised.........and how the hell to 'personalise' the new tab page

Well....while I can't help with the 'maximised page' issue (my guess is it's a Puppy thing; remember, our 'DE' is cobbled together from a file-manager extension and a featherweight window manager!) - the second one is simple enough.

Just click on the wee cog-wheel in the top right corner of the new tab page (it's not in the settings; it's actually embedded into the page itself). You can get rid of the news items, set the number of rows for previously-visited sites, etc. Thinking about it - correct me if I'm wrong - doesn't FF already do this on the new tab page? I don't use it often enough to have got all this down pat.....since I'm primarily a Chromium & 'clones' user.

Have been for a very long time.....most recently, it's been Opera for the last 3 years or so. It's fast, it does everything I want from a browser, and most importantly, it just 'works' for me.

Midori may well shake my routine up, however...!


Mike. ;)
 
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There is a bit of a problem with remembering settings.
I have tried opening Midori...maximising it.....the closing it with the x
That does not succeed.
I changed settings, eg news items etc by clicking on the cog etc....but the changes did not 'hold'

Anyway not a biggie. I'll send them a bit of feeback and in time they will fix that, I am sure

Thanks for the heads up there, Mike....it has filled the slot left by brave's departure very nicely
 
Thanks for the heads up there, Mike....it has filled the slot left by brave's departure very nicely
No worries. Glad to be of some small service.....and I'm glad you like it. Yes, it's still a bit 'buggy' in places.....but they're having to get to grips with what, for them, is an entirely new code-base, in addition to having completely re-written the thing from the ground up.

It WILL take time, but the Astian team have made a very impressive showing already. Be patient with 'em; every new release is fixing more & more glitches. They'll get there sooner or later, and, as things stand, they show no signs of losing interest in what they're doing yet.

Mike.
good.gif
 
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It has been consistently plagued with the 'the keyring was not unlocked...requires aithorisation etcetc"

Hmm... I have never experienced that. I use Lubuntu and Mint, more often than not.

they show no signs of losing interest in what they're doing yet.

I think that's what has plagued this project in the past. Midori isn't even remotely new and has had many iterations and project leads over the years. From what I can see, the current Midori shares pretty much nothing with the original project outside of the name.
 
Well, I'm posting from Midori and wow, it's come a long, long way! Grabbed the upstream Appimage. Even in a VM and as an Appimage it's responsive (minus the initial mount). Not sure I like the sidebar, but I haven't gotten to customising it other than to add NoScript which is first order of business. I like the new logo, though IDK how the OpenSUSE folk art gonna take it since Midori's new logo is essentially the "cool version". Jokes aside, let's do first impressions, in realtime as I play with it and type this:

My Review:
When I first stumbled on this project, I thought it had great potential, but I saw it dying out. Usually my predictions ar right. In this case, I'm more than happy to be wrong. The project has matured into a fully-fledged AAA browser...

1. Responsivenes: 8/10
Midori's UI is very snappy and smooth, however, performing searches causes a delay no different from firefox.
2. Look and feel: 8/10
The UI is neat and compact. No quasi-Gnome window decorations, giving the user back their stolen vertical estate. It uses the old Firefox style combined with the new, and sadly I could've done without the latter. The sidebar is a pane (get it: it's a pain, but it's a side pane... nvm) but it goes away with one click. A very Edge-alike feature is that new tabs present the user with a pleasant scene on each newly opened tab, making it pleasant to use.
3. Resource consumption: x/10
This is hard to measure so early on, given it's and Appimage and given Firefox had more extras installed, but I will give this a proper bench when time permits. I will say that with 10 tabs open (including this one), running in Mint22 Cinnamon, in a VM, it's still very responsive, so I'd like to think it's either that the team stripped away all Firefox's bloat, or there's pretty good resource management added. Maybe both.
4. Effective performance. 9/10. Render times on pages are faster despite using Web Kit. Older site which can take seconds -- yes plural -- are rendered immediately with their HTML elements and we can watch them styled with CSS and positioned in realtime. And that's how it should be as opposed to spinning wait cursors, dots, and simply blank canvases. Input fields have no lag on backspace, and if anything, it's too responsive here. I'm so used to the ~250-500ms delay in other browsers, I've deleted entire lines twice writing this review. Scrolling is fast, and smooth. Animations are great, too.
5. Compatibility: 9/10
This here browser seems 100% compatible with Firefox. With access to all FF's plugins as well as profiles, Midori makes the transition for Firefox refugees as easy as a frsh Firefox install. Most of the UI internally matches FF, while ensuring that externally, it still presents that cleaner UI.
6. Trust/privacy rating: 7/10
My primary reason is that it's no longer in the Debian repos (last in Bullseye). I'm not sure why, but as someone wary of third-party software, I need to keep testing it in a VM for now. My second gripe is that Astian is the default search engine and there's quite a lot of product placement on the side panel. Maybe I've become too paranoid over the years, and based on if I find any telemetry, or if there are some extra privacy features, this rating may go up or down.
7. Functionality: 10/10
Yes, it works. No glitching, no scrolling issues, no rendering problems, and no freezes under load. So far it can display every site I've tried it on, from online shopping to the media-heavy stuff.

Final verdict: While I have no intention of moving from Firefox yet, Midori is most definitely the future, especially for Firefox users, even more so fo Linux users. It's also likely to be the last browser that Google hasn't tainted based on their current model (obviously all verdicts from the DoJ still pending). So whether you love it or hate it (and IDK why you'd hate it), it's going to make a serious impact. I suggest distros that did deprecate it revisit this browser as I have. It's come a long, long way, and it's going to make a big splash by Q4 2025 at the latest. This is one of those projects that leaps up and sucker punches you! In the longer term, I see it gaining serious traction, splitting the Firefox user base by at least 20% initially, but possibly more, based on Mozilla's actions. As for Chromium users who're Firefox ex-pats, I see this as their return ticket home from the Googlesphere. Oh yes, this browser is coming and headed for mainstream to succeed where others like Falkon have failed.
Of course, only time will tell, and the more I use it, the more praise or critiques I will have. For now, though, at a first ~20min glance, I think it's a wise idea to start preparing for the Midori Era because wave or tsunami, it's coming.
I appreciate your words and review, I am part of the development team of Midori and Astian and well I would love to answer some points that some colleagues have already expressed here.

Midori in official distros: Yes Midori was in a very slow process of updates and maintenance until Astian took the leadership of the development, since 2019, we began to study it, and to see which was the best alternative, to reactivate it, Gecko was chosen because it allows cross-platform development with a single code, and therefore Midori is available for Windows, Linux, Android and hopefully soon Mac and iOS. Due to the fact that Midori was not updated for years in official repos like Debian, the packages are outdated and we hope that very soon they will be updated again with the support of the community.

Midori Browser & AstianGO did not want to be like other web browsers that sold themselves to the highest bidder and established an almost eternal alliance and depended that if that official search engine could disappear, we did not want to be like that, so we have developed our own search engine, eliminating any possibility of tracking, profiling users, selling information, storing searches and more, since our commitment is with the privacy of users.

Side Bars:

The sidebars are sidebars that include productivity tools, developed by Astian, Suite that has Notes, Calendar, Cloud, Contacts all to increase the privacy of users without leaving your favorite browser, the code can be found in our repository, even very soon will be available our own VPN service, managed by Astian without partnerships with third parties and the code is also available on Github.

Special Note:
We are very grateful to the PuppyLinux community users like nilsonmorales and josejp2424 have helped the reactivation of Midori in all distributions and a special thanks to them and the whole community.

Thank you.


 
Anyway not a biggie. I'll send them a bit of feeback and in time they will fix that, I am sure

Brian, on the maximisation persisting - which Mintie version are you using?

I have just put it on Linux Mint 22.1. Beta 'Xia' and it maintains the settings I set.

Chris
 

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