Nokia Browser Code Released

[adf]

handhelds.org linked to this article about nokia releasing the code for its web browser.  With opera 7, netfront 3 and konq embedded aging, minimo not being quite the thing on zaurus, dillo and the gpe browser being limited, and firefox being powerful but slow to load, might not a port of the nokia browser (by safari out of kde....making it a sort of bastard konqueror, I guess) be of use on the Z?  Is anyone working o it?

what do the 770 users have to say about it?

[bluedevils]

Ya I read a similar article on the register.co.uk.  The important thing to me is that nokia on the surface wants to be more open sourced.  I read that there are more nokia software they plan to release.  I think it was lardman or somebody who mentioned they were a little apprehensive about some of the closed source stuff on the 770.

I think it is too early for this news to have any impact as far as s60 being more powerful than our opera or net front.  If the s60 becomes widespread, then for sure it will be easier to find the latest plugins and more sites geared to it.

[adf]

You might be right about it being too early, and there is development going on elsewhere, but opera on the hasn't been upgraded i n ...what?  1 version/10 subversions?  Actual use aside, I was recently talking to a linux fan who was thinking of picking up a windows mobile device because he wanted opera, and opera was about dead on the Z.  His impression, based on that, seemed to be that windows was passing the Z/embedded linux by. I disagree, but you see why a "current" embedded browser on the Z might be more than just a means of viewing web sites, that "outdated" packages might tend to make the whole thing look like a might-have-been?  Mostly a PR issue, I guess, but an annoying one.

[kahm]

A good browser is a must if you're going to be using the Z as a handheld computer rather than "just" a PDA.  Opera is good, but old, and has its quirks. Firefox under PDAXRom was almost a Holy experience, but what other options do you have with PDAXRom when Firefox is too much? Dillo? Ugh.

It's getting bad enough that I had to convince a friend of mine, who started out on the 5000 and 5500, and has owned every Z model since the 860, not to give up and go to Windows.

[adf]

A good browser is a must if you're going to be using the Z as a handheld computer rather than "just" a PDA.  Opera is good, but old, and has its quirks. Firefox under PDAXRom was almost a Holy experience, but what other options do you have with PDAXRom when Firefox is too much? Dillo? Ugh.

It's getting bad enough that I had to convince a friend of mine, who started out on the 5000 and 5500, and has owned every Z model since the 860, not to give up and go to Windows.
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any signs of life in minimo? on pdax 1.1 it loads slowly, and lost its menus.  If you google linux web browsers, or open source web browsers, there are quite a few options, it would appear. both qt based and gtk base roms need a new fast secure businesslike browser to replace opera/dillo.  suggestions??  is this nokia thing portable?

How about viewml?  pyleon?  something??  I'll try to compile somthing this summer...  I hope others do as well. this really needs to be taken care of.

[desertrat]

A good browser is a must if you're going to be using the Z as a handheld computer rather than "just" a PDA.  Opera is good, but old, and has its quirks. Firefox under PDAXRom was almost a Holy experience, but what other options do you have with PDAXRom when Firefox is too much? Dillo? Ugh.

It's getting bad enough that I had to convince a friend of mine, who started out on the 5000 and 5500, and has owned every Z model since the 860, not to give up and go to Windows.

It has to be noted that Opera on mobile devices (Symbian, wince, Zaurus etc) is a very different beast to Opera on the desktop. Whilst the essentials are mostly there it's still a cut down version (NB this is based on my experience of using Opera on wince nearly a year ago - I won't mention my experience of Opera 3.x on Epoc machines years ago ).

In contrast Firefox may be slow to start (30secs to 1 minute) it is really quite snappy once loaded (much more so than Mozilla Communicator), and as it's the same as the desktop version the feature set is not compromised.

As for minimo, I know it's still in beta and there's a lot of work to be done on it, but last time I looked at it on wince (months ago, probably v 0.009 or something) I had trouble running it on my 128MB machine - it needs about 40MB free ram to start, rendering is inaccurate, it is slow (and crashes easily).

-- cheers

[adf]

Sure, firefox is great.  I use it continually, and monitor any posts on plugins and updates.  The slow load time, though, can be a pia.  A lesser browser, opera or dilloish that loads fast, but can also do ssl and javascript, and get on to one's bank account or through one's proxy at work in a flash would be an ideal companion to firefox.  My guess is, to make something like this that worked in gpe, pdfax, and charp/cacko/opie, something konqueror based might work?  or maybe just a new gtk browser might be a good idea? minimo was supposed to solve this, but gecko seems to be too big, maybe?


on pdax, a "background load" of firefox might do the trick.  I still think a second browser option would be a good idea.

[desertrat]

Sure, firefox is great.  I use it continually, and monitor any posts on plugins and updates.  The slow load time, though, can be a pia.  A lesser browser, opera or dilloish that loads fast, but can also do ssl and javascript, and get on to one's bank account or through one's proxy at work in a flash would be an ideal companion to firefox.

Dillo does SSL. As for Javascript, the only one worth using is Mozilla/Firefox. Javascript support in Konq is not quite there yet, a lot of javascript enabled sites don't work properly on Konq (Yahoo mail for instance) and also it eats a lot CPU cycles (compared to Mozilla)

My guess is, to make something like this that worked in gpe, pdfax, and charp/cacko/opie, something konqueror based might work?  or maybe just a new gtk browser might be a good idea? minimo was supposed to solve this, but gecko seems to be too big, maybe?

Konq on my desktop is noticeably slower than Mozilla/Firefox (but Konq is still my browser of choice on the desktop), and Konq running in pdaXrom is even slower

The best is to hope for Opera to release an updated "full" version for the Zaurus (they seem to have the ability to pack in the features and still keep the size down) but the chances of that happening don't look too good.

I still think a second browser option would be a good idea.

A combination of Dillo, Firefox, Mozilla, Links, Lynx does the trick for me

-- cheers

[stbrock]

A combination of Dillo, Firefox, Mozilla, Links, Lynx does the trick for me

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I guess that's what most of us are doing, but it seems more like "making do" than "doing the trick."

[adf]

A combination of Dillo, Firefox, Mozilla, Links, Lynx does the trick for me

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I guess that's what most of us are doing, but it seems more like "making do" than "doing the trick."
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Yeah, I'm using that combo too---hence the whining  
Also, dillo "kinda" does ssl, is more like it, isn't it?
Still, with the news about the development break in pdaxrom, and the pdax and  OE guys more concerned with fundamental system stuff just now, the outlook for a better browser looks bleak.  Maybe we should take up a collection and see how much a port of a new desktop opera would cost us.....

[Snappy]

Personally, I am glad that pdaXrom or OZ guys are working on making the respective roms more stable than trying to port more apps.

Not much point having many apps on a less than stable OS is it?

While Cacko / SHARP rom do not have all the fancy apps (or it does have some fancy ones too, just not all), it is somewhat more stable and I believe that is why many folks just keep returning to it after stints of trying out oz and pdaXrom.