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How to Install and Then Use NetSurf as a Web Browser for the User-Centric Web, Not 'GAFAMNet'

Video download link



Summary: Today we take a quick look at what it's like to actually install NetSurf (some distros, like some Xfce-based ones, are bundled with it); we then take it for a spin

Some months ago I began using NetSurf more and more. I fell in love. Suddenly the memory footprint of the Web browser just fell (decreased very sharply, almost tenfold), sites that I really needed still worked mostly fine, and NetSurf rarely bothered me with updates, crashes, and all sorts of other nuisance.



"So many operating systems are supported."Today, months later, I decided to do a quick and informal review, knowing that most people never even heard about NetSurf. It's grossly underrated.

As it turns out, installing it isn't as simple as one might hope. I ended up surprised by the need to get Flatpak files (here it is in Flathub). Nevertheless, eventually NetSurf installed OK:

flatpak install flathub org.netsurf_browser.NetSurf
Looking for matches…
Required runtime for org.netsurf_browser.NetSurf/x86_64/stable (runtime/org.freedesktop.Platform/x86_64/19.08) found in remote flathub
Do you want to install it? [Y/n]: Y



org.netsurf_browser.NetSurf permissions: ipc network fallback-x11 wayland x11 file access [1]

[1] xdg-download

ID Arch Branch Remote Download 1. [✓] org.freedesktop.Platform x86_64 19.08 flathub 189.0 MB / 238.5 MB 2. [✓] org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default x86_64 19.08 flathub 89.1 MB / 89.1 MB 3. [✓] org.freedesktop.Platform.Locale x86_64 19.08 flathub 16.7 kB / 318.3 MB 4. [✓] org.freedesktop.Platform.VAAPI.Intel x86_64 19.08 flathub 8.7 MB / 8.7 MB 5. [✓] org.netsurf_browser.NetSurf x86_64 stable flathub 2.3 MB / 2.3 MB

Installation complete.


One can then run:

flatpak run org.netsurf_browser.NetSurf


And off we go, I carried on recording after that:

Video download link



Details about download of the software can be found here. So many operating systems are supported.

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