# Lightweight web browser, a la Seamonkey



## JLAIP (Aug 5, 2022)

Two web browser questions:
1) Are there any current LIGHTWEIGHT gui-based web browsers, a la Seamonkey, that're still maintained?
uname -mrs = FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE i386
Pentium III w/512mb RAM and GeForce4 440 GPU

2) How to diagnose why every web browser (sans current/latest Firefox, which runs fine, but is much too resource hogging for this system) I install (e.g., Linux-Opera, Epiphany, Midori, Qutebrowser, Surf, et al) core dumps with "Illegal Instruction" when I try to run it? Doesn't seem to matter whether I install via pkg or compile from (current/latest) ports (at least those ports that don't error-out before completing), or whether run as user or root.


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## tOsYZYny (Aug 14, 2022)

Hi - cool, so you're using the i386 build, I would think that _should_ work for your CPU.  Illegal Instruction sounds to me like it's trying to do something the hardware doesn't support, but I would think i386 should be able to run on that.

512MB of ram is quite limited, I would expect a different error message though if the issue were indeed due to the lack of resources.


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## eternal_noob (Aug 14, 2022)

Way to little RAM to run a modern browser.

I'd hack my own, for example with webkitgtk:








						Example of using webkitgtk with gtkmm 3.0
					

I've searched a lot, but I wasn't able to find a good example explaining how to use webkitgtk with gtkmm 3.0.  Anyone knows about it? Is there some good tutorial, or sample code?  Thanks in advance!




					stackoverflow.com


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## JLAIP (Aug 14, 2022)

tOsYZYny said:


> Hi - cool, so you're using the i386 build, I would think that _should_ work for your CPU.  Illegal Instruction sounds to me like it's trying to do something the hardware doesn't support, but I would think i386 should be able to run on that.
> 
> 512MB of ram is quite limited, I would expect a different error message though if the issue were indeed due to the lack of resources.


Hi and thanks for your input.
I don't think the core dumps are resource-related either. Most likely, either missing/incompatible libraries or unsupported hardware. Trouble is that I've no idea how to identify/remedy either?
I'm trying to use this otherwise functional laptop and make use of BSD's reputation for running well on simple platforms without the need of Windows-style resource kitties.
Is there a functional alternative to SeaMonkey?


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## JLAIP (Aug 14, 2022)

eternal_noob said:


> Way to little RAM to run a modern browser.
> I'd hack my own, for example with webkitgtk:
> 
> 
> ...


 Sorry, I don't understand what this will do for me?


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## eternal_noob (Aug 14, 2022)

You wanted a lightweight browser which is still maintained. Hard to find with that system specs, so i suggested to write your own.

Btw. Did you try www/dillo2?


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## richardtoohey2 (Aug 14, 2022)

JLAIP said:


> make use of BSD's reputation for running well on simple platforms


BSDs/Linuxes will run on simple platforms but modern web browsers under modern GUIs is something very different.


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## JLAIP (Aug 14, 2022)

eternal_noob said:


> You wanted a lightweight browser which is still maintained. Hard to find with that system specs, so i suggested to write your own.
> Btw. Did you try www/dillo2?


I lack the skillset to write my own browser and I've never heard of dillo, but I see their website is gone. Do you know of a place I can find out more about it?
Update: I've done some poking around and it looks like dillo's too feature-limited (e.g., no javascript support), so even the likes of gmail isn't functionally accessible.
*Here's a link.*
But thank you for the suggestion!


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## JLAIP (Aug 14, 2022)

richardtoohey2 said:


> BSDs/Linuxes will run on simple platforms but modern web browsers under modern GUIs is something very different.


In general, I get your point. But Seamonkey's a gui-based web browser that runs fine on my laptop. Just looking for something else since Seamonkey's no longer maintained.


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## eternal_noob (Aug 14, 2022)

JLAIP said:


> Never heard of dillo, but I see their website is gone. Do you know of a place I can find out more about it?





			Dillo web browser home page
		


and








						Dillo - Wikipedia
					






					en.wikipedia.org


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## JLAIP (Aug 14, 2022)

eternal_noob said:


> Dillo web browser home page
> 
> 
> 
> ...


If you click the Changelog, it takes you to the webpage that's missing. Also, the latest release is from 2002, so I don't really think it's functionally useful as a web browser today.
But, again, thanks for the suggestion.


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## bsduck (Aug 14, 2022)

JLAIP said:


> Linux-Opera, Epiphany, Midori, Qutebrowser, Surf, et al


If not already done, you can also try:
* www/luakit (not very GUI-based but lightweight)
* www/falkon
* www/otter-browser

However, if the "illegal instruction" issue comes from the browser engine (www/webkit2-gtk3 [Safari's WebKit] or www/qt5-webengine [Chromium's Blink]) they won't work either and you're quite limited in your choice because most modern browsers apart from Firefox and its forks use one of those two. I wouldn't be surprised that browser engine developers dropped support for your hardware long time ago.

If that's the case, apart from Firefox and SeaMonkey, you may also try x11-fm/konqueror with its original KHTML engine (rather than its current default qt5-webengine) but although better than Dillo, it's definitely not up to modern standards and is on its way out (will be removed in KDE Frameworks 6).


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## JLAIP (Aug 14, 2022)

I tried the first two, but not otter or Konqueror. I'll give those a try.
Thank you!


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## hardworkingnewbie (Aug 14, 2022)

There is also Netsurf, which originally comes from RiscOS. Caveat is that it only supports HTML4.01, not more.


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## jmos (Aug 14, 2022)

SeaMonkey & lightweight… The unpacked source of the version 2.53.13 (released 5 weeks ago) has nearly 1.3 GB, a `pkg info -s seamonkey` of my package says its size is 158 MB, compiling it forces over 100 other ports, and just browsing this thread needs 2221760 VSZ and 753276 RSS; SeaMonkey is great, but since browsers aren't no more just for reading hyper text (but for playing games, going shopping, viewing videos, hearing radio, doing video conferences, viewing PDFs and much more other stuff) it's IMO impossible to have a lightweight web browser - they have to be monsters. Falkon, Otter and Firefox are my alternatives.


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## JLAIP (Aug 14, 2022)

Prior to my deciding to upgrade from BSD 12 to 13, whatever its flaws/limitations, Seamonkey was working just fine for me. Firefox runs, but it's too resource-intensive for the laptop I'm running. Falkon core dumps when installed via pkg and errrors-out when compiled from ports. I'll look into Otter, Konqueror and Netsurf (which I think I may've tried before and it didn't make the grade for some reason, but I'll check again).
My experience is there's almost always something out there that fits every bill. It just takes determination and time..


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## hunter0one (Sep 14, 2022)

What about www/dooble?


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