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

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2021-06-23 15:55:46 UTC
Modified: 2021-06-23 15:57:45 UTC

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. [Ã¢Åâ] org.freedesktop.Platform             x86_64 19.08  flathub 189.0 MB / 238.5 MB
 2. [Ã¢Åâ] org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default  x86_64 19.08  flathub  89.1 MB / 89.1 MB
 3. [Ã¢Åâ] org.freedesktop.Platform.Locale      x86_64 19.08  flathub  16.7 kB / 318.3 MB
 4. [Ã¢Åâ] org.freedesktop.Platform.VAAPI.Intel x86_64 19.08  flathub   8.7 MB / 8.7 MB
 5. [Ã¢Åâ] 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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