Trilight Zone

[digital8]

By Shiv Chadha <shiv@columnist.com>
Posted: ( 2001-06-15 07:29:29 EST by )
In this article, we look into what kind of a browser Galeon is, how it functions and some of its salient features.

One of the most popular uses of the Internet is plain old browsing. The World Wide Web has been around for over a decade now and the number of new Websites continues to grow. The Web has grown from the `text only' days of browsers like lynx to the GUI-based `point and click' browsers like Netscape that display Websites in text, images and often sound.

Netscape went on to gain an incredible amount of popularity and remains one of the most popular GUI browsers around. Available on several major platforms including Linux, it continues to have a substantial fan following. After releasing Netscape 4 Communicator the company began working on its successor, Netscape 5. The source code of that eventually was thrown open and formed a part of the Mozilla project.

The Mozilla project developed the Gecko engine, a browser engine that would power the next generation of Netscape browsers. Mozilla evolved into a fairly complete product and finally nearly 3 years after the release of Netscape 4, Netscape released an upgrade, Netscape 6. Based on Mozilla code and equipped with the powerful Gecko engine, it was a compelling new browser. However there were some problems. The Gecko engine was used to power not only page rendering but also the browser interface. While Gecko is a great rendering engine, on older computers it does not always make the best of interface engines. Simply moving around the menus can be an exercise in patience. Enter Galeon.


About Galeon


Galeon is based on two classic philosophies: "Do one thing and do it well" and "Don't re-invent the wheel". Unlike Mozilla or Netscape, Galeon is just a browser and not an Internet suite. With an interface built with GTK and the Gecko browsing engine, it truly combines the best of both the worlds--a light interface and a fast browser. Since they don't bother with re-inventing the wheel, i.e. writing a page-rendering engine, they have been able to come with an extremely attractive alternative to Netscape/Mozilla. As they use the highly standards compliant and developed Gecko engine, Galeon can view sites in all their glory, something which can't always be said for the alternative browsers out there.

Getting Galeon is fairly simple. Just go over to the Homepage of Galeon. In order to get it working you need to have two pieces of software - one is Galeon itself and the second is Mozilla. As mentioned earlier, Galeon is based on the Gecko engine that forms the core of Mozilla. In addition to these you will also need to have Gnome and GTK support libraries installed on your system. The Galeon homepage will help you figure out what you need to download for your distribution. Once you get the files, install Mozilla and then install Galeon. If you are using Gnome, Galeon will create a link for itself in your Launcher menu, otherwise you can always start it by running the file /usr/bin/galeon. Now that you've got Galeon up and running, lets see what its all about.


Functions


Galeon has a simple but very functional interface. You can move around the toolbars to suit your tastes, for instance we have moved our URL toolbar onto a separate line (the default option has it stuck with the navigation buttons). Galeon works just like any other browser, so type in your favourite site and browse away. (See image below)




A really nifty feature that you'll find on the toolbar is the zoom level, which is normally set at the default 100 percent. If you ever come across sites with really small fonts, just zoom in and things will be much more readable. It works the other way as well - zoom out is also supported.


Bookmarks


Like any browser worth its salt, Galeon comes with robust bookmarking facilities. There is a whole pull down menu for bookmarks, which lets you do everything from importing Netscape/Mozilla bookmarks to starting the feature packed Bookmark editor. Galeon stores previously browsed sites for you in what it calls the Automatic Bookmarks section. It's a useful feature in case you forget to bookmark an interesting site and later can't remember the URL. You can use the bookmark editor to pull it out of Automatic Bookmarks and continue working. (See image below)




Browser changes


Galeon is a fairly customisable browser. Besides the toolbar modification mentioned earlier in the article, changes to several other aspects of the browser can be done quite easily. Simply go to the preferences section, which you'll find under the `Settings' menu. Here you can edit all aspects of the browser, right from the fonts used to things like proxy server settings. The settings structure vaguely resembles Netscape's, so if you have tweaked Netscape in the past, then you should be able to figure out how to get Galeon working easily. (See image below)




Adding plugins


Adding plugins to Galeon, although fairly straightforward, is a little tricky, largely due to the fact that most Linux versions of popular browser plugins do not have streamlined installation programs. Generally, to install a plugin you'll have to login in as root and then copy it to /usr/mozilla/plugins. Check the documentation that comes with the plugin to see if you need to do anything more specific. Galeon is compatible with Netscape and Mozilla plugins so getting plugins will never be much of a problem.

To conclude


Our experience with Galeon has been fairly good; we love its small footprint and fast page rendering speed. GTK is a nice change from the motif-based interface of Netscape 4. Galeon is fairly stable, although it does crash more often than we would like. Galeon though is very helpful with these crashes, the next time you start; it allows you to recover your previous session. The occasional crashes should not deter you, because for the most part this browser will serve you well.
Galeon is like a good sports car, not ultra luxurious but capable of dazzling raw performance. So go and get the browser that's meant for the Web!