One of the best things to have ever happened to Linux was the release of Netscape Navigator in 1995. It convinced many people that Linux was a "real" operating system...
Despite all of it's features, Navigator/Communicator is not the ideal browser for many people: it's big, the Java implementation is anything but perfect, it chews up memory like it was going out of fashion and it requires X-Windows.
Fortunately, there are numerous other choices, mainly because some of the nice things about Linux are:
Want a browser that runs Python applets? A browser for your VT-100 terminal? A browser inside your text editor that you can extend with LISP? Or perhaps a simple, stable, no-frills browser that just does the job?
Here is a list of the many browsers currently available for Linux. Hopefully you will find something that suits your needs...
If you want a summary of browsers on other platforms, try BrowserWatch.
Note 1: Updates, additions and corrections are more than welcome!
(My e-mail address is at the bottom of this page).
Note 2: This list does not include 'dead' projects such as MidasWWW
or Dancer.
Arachne is a DOS-based graphical web browser, and a Linux port has
been announced. It will be SVGAlib-based, with a Gtk (or Qt) frontend possibly
being developed in the future.
The DOS version can run under DOSEmu - and there is a
HOWTO
explaining how to do this.
Microsoft has indicated that a port of MSIE for Linux will eventuate (there are already releases for Solaris and HP-UX).
A Unix version of the VOL browser (aka Tiber) is reported to be in development - no news on a Linux-specific version though.
A simple browser, Chimera 2 supports multiple windows and better HTML support.
Express is a web browser for the GNOME project, is based on the GTK toolkit and aims to be a lightweight browser with plug-in capabilities to extend the browser's functionality.
An open source, pure-Java browser that is HTML 4.0 compliant.
A new web browser for KDE, that will be released as part of KDE 2.0. Konqueror has Java support and a plug-in component architecture for extending the browser.
Originally a testbed for W3C (see Amaya below), Arena has been taken over by
Yggdrasil who are slowly developing it into a general use web browser
Has CSS support and supports the <MATH> commands, which is very useful
for mathematicians and scientists.
Armadillo (formally known as Gzilla) is a free browser, based on GTK.
Python-based, so the performance is noticeably slower than C-based browsers, but you can embed Python applets and easily extend the browser.
HTML 2.0-compliant browser, implemented in Objective CAML. Has in-built support for CAML applets.
Mnemonic is based on GTK, and is still a bit rough (no table support yet, for example).
The so-called 'Opera Project' is aiming to fund low-cost versions
of the Opera browser for MacOS, BeOS, X-Windows and other platforms.
A Linux version of Opera
(using the Qt toolkit)
is in development, with an anticipated release in late 1999.
WebMap is the PAD++ (a "zoomable" graphical interface) web browser.
It is available for most Unix platforms as well as Windows 95/NT systems.
Skate is a Java-based browser for Linux and MS-Windows, offering full HTML 3.2 and Java support.
A tcl/tk web browser (similar to Plume) with HTML editing capabilities.
The W3C testbed, complete with an editor (with CSS and XHTML support).
Similar to Arena in that it was designed for experimentation rather than
general web browsing.
A simple web browser, based on the Athena widget set, that is ideal for
small memory systems.
Limited graphics capabilities and no table, frames or Java support.
See http://hasse.mathematik.tu-muenchen.de/~nikl/chimera-1.65p/ for an improved version of 1.65, aka Chimera 1.70.
An extensible web browser, written in OTcl, with HTML 3.2 support of
images, tables, forms, etc.
Does not yet support printing.
The browser for everyone's favourite editor...
Text-based, but supports images under XEmacs; also supports tables, CSS
stylesheets and frames.
Sun are not officially supporting HotJava on Linux, but there is an unofficial generic release, which lacks the Java runtime environment and SSL support.
The KDE file manager, with in-built web browsing support.
Has support for tables and Javascript, but the POST method (for forms) is
not yet fully implemented.
Excellent text-based web browser - fast, with partial table and frames support.
Multicasting and Java support are the two major updates on this variant of
Mosaic.
Still Motif-based, but will build with
lesstif.
The free source code release of Netscape Navigator.
No-frills browser lacking support for frames and Java and has only limited
table support.
NCSA Mosaic is no longer being actively developed by the NCSA, but a number
of spin-off versions are being developed.
Navigator is a stand-alone web browser, while Communicator includes a number of other applications, including e-mail and a news reader.
A Qt-based version of Netscape Navigator.
Supports SGML & style sheets; uses the Qt toolkit.
A tcl/tk based web browser, Australian developed.
A text browser, similar to Lynx, but with frame support (some screenshots can be found at http://www.instinct.org/~pgl/w3m/.
Commercially available through the purchase of the 'official'
RedHat 4.2 Intel distribution.
Lacks Java & Javascript support; has support for 1, 8 and 24bpp displays,
but not 15/16bpp.
Status: No longer being developed.
One of the first X-Windows web browsers.
Status: No longer being developed.
The original WWW browser: line-based (rather than screen based) and
really only useful for those with teletypes?
Status: No longer being developed.
Thanks to the following people for their help in compiling this list:
Compiled by Graeme Cross (<gcross@netspace.net.au>)
Version 1.70 - updated: 12 December 1999