# Internet browser for Linux **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 19, 2004, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-browser-for-linux/280598 "2004-12-19T03:33:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-browser-for-linux/280598/1 "2004-12-19T03:33:41Z")
A built a server with White Box Linux for an app at work. It was a lot simpler than when I messed with Red Hat a couple of years ago. I’m considering a Linux client with an old PC. What’s a good browser? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-browser-for-linux/280598/2 "2004-12-19T03:37:51Z")
How about Firefox? That is what I am using now, most people seem to love it, and there are Linux versions. ---
**Author:** ![mike1dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@mike1dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mike1dog)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-browser-for-linux/280598/3 "2004-12-19T03:38:37Z")
What about [firefox?](http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/all.html) It shows a linux version. Just scroll down to English. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-browser-for-linux/280598/4 "2004-12-19T03:45:10Z")
Use Firefox, like most of the rest of the IE-Free World. Opera has made Linux versions of its browsers for years as well, and I used them before I switched to Mozilla. But Opera’s marketshare (and, therefore, web designer mindshare) has fallen, especially after the Firefox Revolution. That means fewer websites are really built with Opera in mind, which can have an effect on how good it looks. If you want something extremely simple that can still do graphics and tables, try [links](http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~clock/twibright/links/). But that’s not what most people want or need. If your machine is really low-end, however, you might not have the ability to run Firefox, in which case links is your only real option for graphical browsing. Really, get Firefox. ---
**Author:** ![RandomLetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8edcca/32.png) [@RandomLetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandomLetters)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-browser-for-linux/280598/5 "2004-12-19T07:56:19Z")
Ah, you might want to try “Firefox.” ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-browser-for-linux/280598/6 "2004-12-19T15:47:45Z")
Anybody mention Firefox yet? Personally though, I prefer Mozilla, the older browser that comes with their suite. I only use the browser, though. ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-browser-for-linux/280598/7 "2004-12-19T15:55:35Z")
- - - I use Mozilla for the small amount of time I use a Linux PC (when my main PC is defragging/cirus-scanning) but there are two things I hate about it–one is that the browser freezes and the page stays blank until the page has entirely loaded. The other is that I haven’t found how to get the mouse scrollwheel to move the damn scrollbar up and down, like it does by default in Windows. I have updated through a couple versions of Mozilla so I don’t think that’s the problem. Is there any way to get the mousewheel to scroll correctly? ~ ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-browser-for-linux/280598/8 "2004-12-20T14:05:23Z")
> [@DougC](#): > > the browser freezes and the page stays blank until the page has entirely loaded. The other is that I haven’t found how to get the mouse scrollwheel to move the damn scrollbar up and down, like it does by default in Windows. I have updated through a couple versions of Mozilla so I don’t think that’s the problem. Is there any way to get the mousewheel to scroll correctly? > ~ Well, I can tell you I had neither of these problems with Mozilla on either Mandrake or Red Hat. At least with the mouse issue, it sounds like a system setting might be incorrect. Dunno about the browser freeze thing, I’ve used broadband so long I guess it may be happening to me as well but I’m not noticing it because the pages load so quickly. ---
**Author:** ![SiouxChief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@SiouxChief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiouxChief)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-browser-for-linux/280598/9 "2004-12-20T15:54:34Z")
As others have said, Firefox is the best choice for a graphic environment. If you ever have a need to browse the web through a text interface, you can use [Lynx](http://lynx.isc.org/). It’s probably already installed on your system, and you can use it from scripts to automatically download pages from the web, should you need that capability. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-browser-for-linux/280598/10 "2004-12-20T20:27:49Z")
White Box comes with Mozilla and found the sound card. That, like the man said, is the easy part. Downloaded Firefox and not a .ZIP or an .EXE in sight. 🙂 What’s a good Linux for Newbies site? Thanks CP ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-browser-for-linux/280598/11 "2004-12-20T22:31:45Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > That, like the man said, is the easy part. Downloaded Firefox and not a .ZIP or an .EXE in sight. 🙂 Download the file that is named firefox-1.0.installer.tar.gz. When it’s downloaded into a directory (probably you want this in your home directory) unzip it by typing ‘tar zxf firefox-1.0.installer.tar.gz’ into a command line prompt (launch xterm), type ‘cd firefox-installer’ to get into the new directory, and type ‘./firefox-installer’ to begin the process. After the install is over, create an icon on your desktop (try right-clicking on the background) that will launch a program called ‘_your home directory_/firefox-installer/firefox’. There’s probably a more graphical way to do all this, but that’s how I like to do these things. > [@](#): > > What’s a good Linux for Newbies site? [linux.org is probably the best site for newbies](http://www.linux.org/). ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-browser-for-linux/280598/12 "2004-12-20T22:39:16Z")
> [@SiouxChief](#): > > If you ever have a need to browse the web through a text interface, you can use [Lynx](http://lynx.isc.org/). It’s probably already installed on your system, and you can use it from scripts to automatically download pages from the web, should you need that capability. I like to use wget to do that, although I’ll admit the rather complex command line options that program has are probably too much for the user new to the command line. To make a gross and largely unsupportable generalization, wget is to lynx as sed is to ed. 😉 On the plus side, a single wget invocation can sometimes replace a much more complicated script, if the script is mainly focused on crawing a directory or inserting delays between fetches. It might be worthwhile for someone to design a graphical frontend to wget. I’m thinking Tcl/Tk or Perl/Tk. ---
**Author:** ![snailboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/97f17d/32.png) [@snailboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snailboy)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-browser-for-linux/280598/13 "2004-12-20T23:55:56Z")
> [@DougC](#): > > - > - > - I use Mozilla for the small amount of time I use a Linux PC (when my main PC is defragging/cirus-scanning) but there are two things I hate about it–one is that the browser freezes and the page stays blank until the page has entirely loaded. The other is that I haven’t found how to get the mouse scrollwheel to move the damn scrollbar up and down, like it does by default in Windows. I have updated through a couple versions of Mozilla so I don’t think that’s the problem. Is there any way to get the mousewheel to scroll correctly? > ~ Your problem lies not with your Mozilla configuration but your XFree86 configuration. I’d rather not try to explain it as I may leave something out, so search for documentation on the ZAxisMapping option. Mozilla is my browser of choice. I’ve tried Firefox and others but Mozilla is the only one that lets me configure what moving the scrollwheel holding meta keys does. (For instance, I like for holding alt while scrolling to go through the browsing history. Most browsers set this combination to adjust the font size though, and Mozilla is the only browser I’ve found that can change this.) Yeah, it’s a small subtlety, but one that can be very annoying when you’re used to one way and are forced to use another. Of course at the CLI, I use Lynx. I run FreeBSD by the way, not Linux, but it has mostly the same software. ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-browser-for-linux/280598/14 "2004-12-22T10:44:26Z")
> [@](#): > > Your problem lies not with your Mozilla configuration but your XFree86 configuration. I’d rather not try to explain it as I may leave something out, so search for documentation on the ZAxisMapping option… - - - I don’t know which problem you are talking about. The mouse scroll wheel not working is really the larger problem. I have tried setting different mouse types but that doesn’t matter–and pressing the mouse scrollwheel works (sends a 3rd-button signal or whatever) but scrolling does nothing, the scrollwheel doesn’t work in any program. And the mouse is brand-new and works perfectly in Windows. ~ ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-browser-for-linux/280598/15 "2004-12-22T10:55:02Z")
- - - Well nevermind, I tried using the mouse directly in the USB port, and now it works right, even the scollwheel. But the speakers I was using need a USB port for power, there are only two USB ports on the machine and the keyboard was already a USB. So now I got no sound. Oh well… ~ ---
**Author:** ![Balduran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Balduran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balduran)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-browser-for-linux/280598/16 "2004-12-22T13:53:01Z")
> [@DougC](#): > > - > - > - I don’t know which problem you are talking about. The mouse scroll wheel not working is really the larger problem. I have tried setting different mouse types but that doesn’t matter–and pressing the mouse scrollwheel works (sends a 3rd-button signal or whatever) but scrolling does nothing, the scrollwheel doesn’t work in any program. And the mouse is brand-new and works perfectly in Windows. > ~ In most versions of linux, look at the file " etc/X11/XF86Config" ## for the scroll to work correctly, you should have something like: Section “InputDevice” # Identifier and driver ``` Identifier "Mouse1" Driver "mouse" Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2" Option "Device" "/dev/mouse" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" ``` ## EndSection somewhere for the scroll to work. it’s possible you aren’t using the IMPS/2 protocol or the ZAxisMApping ---
**Author:** ![Fuji\_Kitakyusho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@Fuji\_Kitakyusho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuji_Kitakyusho)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-browser-for-linux/280598/17 "2004-12-22T15:47:08Z")
I use Konqueror. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-browser-for-linux/280598/18 "2004-12-22T16:05:29Z")
> [@DougC](#): > > - > - > - I don’t know which problem you are talking about. The mouse scroll wheel not working is really the larger problem. I have tried setting different mouse types but that doesn’t matter–and pressing the mouse scrollwheel works (sends a 3rd-button signal or whatever) but scrolling does nothing, the scrollwheel doesn’t work in any program. And the mouse is brand-new and works perfectly in Windows. > ~ They’re saying that it’s Linux, not Mozilla, that’s troubling you. It’s working in Windows because Windows still has better automatic handling for such things; your mouse driver in Linux just ain’t configured right. Unless you get mousewheel action in other Linux programs and not in Mozilla, you should look around for info on configuring wheelmice - start with [http://www.linuxdoc.org/](http://www.linuxdoc.org/) which has info on a lot of stuff. Last time I installed Linux (it was a distribution of Mandrake IIRC) it configured the mouse automatically and worked perfectly. But your milage always varies from distro to distro. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-browser-for-linux/280598/19 "2004-12-22T16:49:25Z")
> [@Excalibre](#): > > They’re saying that it’s Linux, not Mozilla, that’s troubling you. Actually they’re saying it’s XFree86, not Linux or Mozilla, that’s troubling him. But don’t worry. XFree86 troubles everybody. ---
**Author:** ![Demo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demo/32/8472_2.png) [@Demo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demo)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-browser-for-linux/280598/20 "2004-12-22T17:25:47Z")
> [@DougC](#): > > - > - > - Well nevermind, I tried using the mouse directly in the USB port, and now it works right, even the scollwheel. But the speakers I was using need a USB port for power, there are only two USB ports on the machine and the keyboard was already a USB. So now I got no sound. Oh well… > ~ If you don’t feel like installing more USB ports, they do make USB to PS2 adapters that you can try for either your mouse or keyboard. Most USB mice and keyboards come with the adapters included these days. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-browser-for-linux/280598.md?page=2)