Resources ⮞ The Browsers

This gives an overview of browsers past and present.

This page covers:  Apple Safari,  Brave,  Google Chrome & Friends (Brave, Opera, Vivaldi, etc.),  iCab,  Konqueror,  Lynx,  Microsoft Edge,  Microsoft Internet Explorer,  Mozilla & Friends (Firefox, SeaMonkey, Waterfox, etc.),  Opera,  Pale Moon,  Vivaldi,  Web/Epiphany

Apple Safari

Safari uses Apple’s WebKit, which is based in part on Konqueror’s KHTML browser engine. Originally for MacOS, Safari now runs on other platforms, including the iPhone. [get it⮞

Apple reportedly chose to base Safari on KHTML instead of Gecko because a KHTML was faster, b KHTML’s source code was smaller and cleaner, and c Apple did not need Gecko’s multi-platform support.

Version vec­tors

Apple uses 3 sets of version vec­tors for Safari:

• One set are the Safari version vec­tors listed above, i.e. 1.0, 1.2, 1.3, etc. These are the primary numbers Apple uses in its public documents, but the version vec­tors appear in Safari userAgent strings only in newer versions of Safari: when present they are in the userAgent strings following the substring “Version/”.
• A second set of numbers are Safari build numbers, e.g. 85.5, 85.8, 85.8.1, 100, 125.7, 312, 412: these are in the userAgent strings, following the substring “Safari/”.
• The third set are the WebKit (browser engine) build numbers: these are also in the userAgent strings, following the substring “AppleWebKit/”.

Apple updates the Safari version vector only with major updates. Apple usually (but not always) updates the Safari build number when it fixes bugs, and sometimes (but not always) updates the WebKit build number when it fixes bugs. Apple used to have a page listing how the various version vec­tors related to each other, but a brainless idiot at Apple removed the page: it’s therefore very difficult now to determine the Safari version vector by examining the userAgent string; the major WebKit versions are reported by Wikipedia, but it’s not known how up-to-date and how authoritative this is; a simplied list of WebKit and Safari versions is also available, on this site.

DOCTYPEs and Safari

Safari renders pages differently for different DOCTYPEs [more⮞.

References

Wikipedia

Brave

Brave offers a browser for desktops and cellphones, using Chrome’s Blink browser engine. [more⮞.

Google Chrome

Google makes the Chrome browser [get it⮞.

Chrome is available as a “final version”, and as betas and developer previews: its betas are akin to betas or late alphas of other software; and its developer previews are akin to alphas or early alphas. Chrome is available for Android, Linux, MacOS, and Windows.

Chrome uses the Blink browser engine, also used by other browsers: see sidebar.

Chrome has a minimalist user interface, and offers few user options. For example, it offers no option to disable JavaScript, to select alternate stylesheets, or to select the default CSS fonts.

Chrome automatically updates itself. This makes it impossible to retain old versions of Chrome for comparison testing. On the other hand, it ensures that users have up-to-date versions of Chrome.

“about” Pages

Chrome has a set of built-in pages whose names begin with chrome://. Some of these built-in pages are listed by the page named about:about.

References

Wikipedia

iCab

Alexander Clauss makes two browsers:

• iCab for MacOS: this was available as a free beta for a long time, and has a small number of loyal users. It is free, but paying for it will flip it into Pro mode. Version 3 is available for older editions of MacOS, and version 5 is available for modern editions of MacOS. [get it⮞
• iCab Mobile: this is currently available from the AppStore for iPhone and iPod Touch mobile devices.

iCab likely will never be widely used, as it competes with other highly standards compliant browsers made by organizations with much greater resources.

References

Wikipedia

Konqueror

Konqueror is a browser included in the open source KDE Desktop Environment for Unix and Linux systems. It is an HTML 4 browser that aspires to be fast and standards-compliant. It uses KDE’s KHTML browser engine.

Another major desktop environment for Unix and Linux systems is GNOME, for which Gecko-based browsers are available.

References

Wikipedia

Lynx

Lynx is the most popular text-only browser.

Lynx is updated at very rare intervals.

References

Wikipedia

Microsoft Edge

Microsoft has made several independent browsers. This discusses the two editions of Edge: Edge::HTML, and Edge.

Edge::HTML

Edge::HTML is a Windows 10 browser, using the Edge::HTML browser engine. The userAgent for Edge makes it easy for na­ïve brow­ser snif­fers to mistake it for Chrome, Opera, or Safari. A Microsoft document cites a user agent as:

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/42.0.2311.135 Safari/537.36 Edge/12.<OS build number>.

The userAgent for Edge has a substring which makes it appear to be (in this example) Edge 12.

Edge::HTML was terminated in 2021.

Edge

Edge is a later browser, using the same Blink browser engine as Google Chrome. It runs on Android, iOS, MacOS, & Windows 7+, The userAgent for Edge makes it easy for na­ïve brow­ser snif­fers to mistake it for Chrome, Opera, or Safari. An example of its user agent is:

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/80.0.3987.87 Safari/537.36 Edg/80.0.361.62.

The userAgent for Edge has a substring which makes it appear to be (in this example) Edg 80.

Microsoft Internet Explorer

Microsoft has made several independent browsers. This discusses its current flagship browser, Internet Explorer for Windows [get it⮞.

Versions

• Microsoft’s IE 5.0x: Microsoft supports IE 5.01, but not earlier versions.
• Microsoft’s IE 5.5x: Microsoft no longer supports IE 5.x. Microsoft’s decision to kill 5.5, but to keep supporting 5.01 was an act of incredible and inexplicible stupidity: 5.5 was a far better browser than 5.0.
• Microsoft’s IE 6: Microsoft released IE6 for Windows in Q3 of 2001.
• Microsoft’s IE 7: Microsoft released it on Oct 18 2006.
• Microsoft’s IE 8: Microsoft released it on Mar 19 2009. Microsoft claims it fully supports CSS 2.1.
• Microsoft’s IE 9: Microsoft released it on Mar 14, 2011. The 32- and 64-bit versions have different JavaScript engines, with the 32-bit engine being much faster.
• Microsoft’s IE 10:: Microsoft released it on Oct 26, 2012.
• Microsoft’s IE 11:: Microsoft released on October 17, 2013.

Internet Explorer’s Future

Support of IE will end in mid-2024.

DOCTYPEs and Internet Explorer

IE5//Mac and IE6//Windows (and up) render pages differently for different DOCTYPEs [more⮞.

“Mark of the Web”

When browsing a site on the “Local Machine”, e.g. on a test PC, a comment with a “Mark of the Web” may be put in the code to make the site work as it would at a specified URL, including any se­cu­ri­ty restrictions at that URL [more⮞.

References

Wikipedia

Mozilla & Friends (Firefox, SeaMonkey, etc.)

The Mozilla Group makes the open-source, highly standards-compliant Gecko browser engine, used by a diverse range of products on many platforms.

Mozilla Browser Products

Here are some current Mozilla browser products:

• Firefox: a browser for several operating systems. Note: Firefox is also the official name of Fennec browsers. Note: a Client Customization Kit is available for producing cus­to­mized versions of Firefox. Note: betas are available here.
• Firefox Focus (Mobile): edition of Firefox for mobile devices with focus on privacy.
• SeaMonkey: a browser suite for a variety of operating systems, replacing the defunct Mozilla suite.

Other Gecko-based browsers include Pale Moon, TOR, Waterfox, and Waterfox Classic.

DOCTYPEs and Gecko

Gecko will render pages differently for different DOCTYPEs [more⮞.

Designing for Gecko

Mozilla has info for designing pages for Gecko [more⮞.

“about” Pages

Firefox and SeaMonkey have sets of built-in pages whose names begin with about:, for example about:config, used to configure the browsers. Some of these built-in pages are listed by the page named about:about.

References

Wikipedia: Mozilla Foundation, Firefox, Camino, SeaMonkey, Gecko-based browsers.

Opera

Opera Software, owned by a Chinese consortium, makes the Opera browser for a wide variety of platforms. Opera is renowned as a browser that is small, fast, and standards-compliant. There are three major families of browsers:

• Opera for PCs [get it⮞
• Opera Mini for mobile devices [get it⮞
• Opera Mobile for more capable mobile devices [get it⮞
• Opera Touch for mobile devices [get it⮞

Opera for PCs

This used an Opera browser engine until Opera 15, when it switched to Chrome. At this point it appears to have stopped releasing matching versions for Free BSD.

Opera and Standards

To learn about Opera’s support of standards, see Web Specifications Supported in Opera 6, Opera 7, and Opera 8, and Opera 9.

DOCTYPEs and Opera 7

Opera 7+ will render pages differently for different DOCTYPEs [more⮞.

“opera” Pages

Opera has a set of built-in pages whose names begin with opera:, for example opera:config, used to configure the browser.

References

Wikipedia

Pale Moon

Pale Moon is a browser using a browser engine named Goanna and a JavaScript engine named SpiderMonkey which are derived from a Firefox engine prior to Firefox Quantum.

NB​: a Goanna is a type of lizard; the browser engine was likely named Goanna because the Goanna lizards are somewhat similar to Mozilla’s lizard logo.

Vivaldi

Vivaldi is a Blink-based browser for Windows, MacOS, and Linux made by Vivaldi Technologies. [get it⮞

News about updates is available here.

Web (Epiphany)

Web is the Linux Gnome browser, also known as Epiphany, also available for other versions of Linux.

The Web browser uses Apple’s WebKit Browser engine.

 

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