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. ⬆

Recent Techrights' Posts

Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS): The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army': Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released: Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days: It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe: Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025: IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity: They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt: Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed: Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again: Links for the day
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power: Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel: What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Microsoft is Losing Europe: Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary: New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN: Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025: IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash: XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday: A day later he speaks in Sweden
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025: Links for the day
Slopwatch: Plagiarism, Fake Articles, and FUD About Linux: not a day goes by without Google News feeding FUD from slopfarms
Gemini Links 01/10/2025: Chat Control and End of Life: Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: Long Covid Risk Reiterated, "Bitcoin Queen" Caught: Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks": Links for the day
Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies: The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen): Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product: The core goal should be freedom
Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics: Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good: users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance: IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025: IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development: In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD): These slopfarms help misplace blame
Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected: Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October