Midori: Extremely Fast and Standards-Compliant
Midori is a lightweight GTK web browser which uses the popular WebKit rendering engine. I installed it on my Eee PC netbook to see if it could replace Firefox for light browsing.
Midori seems to be stable. I haven’t had it crash yet, which is a large improvement over last time I tried it out.
Because Midori uses a similar WebKit rendering engine to Apple Safari and Google Chrome, it has few problems with website compatibility. I tried a few web applications, and all of them worked fine with the exception of Google Talk in Gmail, which seems to have a layout issue with Midori.
Not only does Midori score a perfect 100⁄100 the acid 3 test web standards test, it beats Firefox by a significant margin in the SunSpider Javascript benchmark. Midori scored 2.8 times faster than Firefox 3 and 1.7 times faster than Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 on my system:
| Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 | 1914.6ms +/- 6.2% |
| Firefox 3 | 3082.8ms +/- 0.2% |
| Midori 0.1.4 | 1111.4ms +/- 1.2% |
One feature missing from Midori is customization of the toolbar. If you’re
working on a netbook with a small screen, you may want the toolbar to be
smaller. However, you can do this by telling GNOME that you only want icons
in toolbars and no text. Open Update: Andrew in the comments pointed
out that Midori has this setting built in
(System->Preferences->Appearance->Interface, and
select Icons only in the Toolbar button labels drop down box. Note that this
will effect all GTK applications.Edit->Preferences->Interface->Toolbar Style).
Another missing feature that would be nice to have on netbooks is a fullscreen mode which, like Firefox, autohides the toolbar and tabs.
Midori is available from the WebKit Team PPA for Ubuntu 9.04, 8.10, and 8.04. Follow the directions on the PPA page to add the repository, and then install Midori from the package midori (click the link to install), or by running the command below in your terminal:
sudo apt-get install midori
Midori isn’t as polished or have as many features as Firefox, but it is very fast and standards-compliant. I wouldn’t use Midori as my main desktop browser yet, but it is definitely very well suited for use on a netbook.
I’m looking forward to more WebKit-based browsers becoming available and stable on Linux!
Archived Comments
kernel_script
Nice tip. I sort kept track of Midori’s evolution, it becoming a really good lightweight browser alternative.
Recently a changed from Firefox to Swiftfox, that one are stunning fast, i recommend a try.
By the way, please, could you say what are the GTK/Metacity theme you’re using? The one from the screenshot. Looks amazing, slick and elegant.
kernel_script
Oh! I just found the theme on GNOME Look Org, it is called Shiki-Colors right?
Tom
Yep, that’s it.
BCK
It is unpolished (I find myself doing ctrl+click to auto enter http:// and .com all the time in it) but its come a long way since when I first tried it and had it crash on quite a few sites.
bigbrovar
Another cool thing i love about midori is the rendering speed which beats anything that FF3 has to offer.. it really remains me of what FF was…before it decided to take over the world with every feature under the sun.
Casper H.
I tried it multiple times, always crashed after a few minutes, usually Flash-related.
Andrew
Sorry Tom, I don’t know what version of Midori you are using, but the one I am using (Midori 0.1.4 in abotu dialog) has fullscreen, has customization of toolbar.
Fullscreen - F11
Customization - Preferences > Interface > Navigationbar > Toolbar style
Tom
Thanks Andrew! I didn’t notice those toolbar style settings before. However, when I mentioned customizing the toolbar I was thinking of moving buttons around as well as the style settings.
I know that there’s a fullscreen mode, but it doesn’t autohide the toolbar and tab bar like Firefox does.
Jarko
Does it support Flash yet?
Tom
Yes, Midori detected Firefox’s Flash and it works fine.
bluebyt
It is very fast but it crash on me after 2 minutes, on devaint art website!
Mohan
Midori is very nice but like you said it’s not to be used as a main browser yet. I crashes too much. But I do look forward to it.
Christer Edwards
I’ve been using Midori on my Arch Linux installation (v0.1.3-1), which has been very stable. The only issue I have with it is the lack of a plugin architecture. Those mozilla folk sure knew how to lock us in to their browser when they designed that!
I would totally switch to Midori–I’m sick of Mozilla–if only it allowed the same plugins I’ve grown so accustomed to.
steven
Hi Tom, nice to see you again :) Where have you been ?
I’m looking forward always your article.
Anyway I’ve installed the midori, as you said that Midori never crash in your
system. But in my system it always crashed :(
For instance: when you open www.manutd.com and choose one of the news it will be
crash. What happened ?
thanks
monkey
Nice to see you back on form writing prolifically again…
What happened did she dump you? lol
Vadim P.
It’s page loading speed it slower (devs said “dns lookup is slower”), and not that polished for my use.
So I use epiphany for lightweight browsing. Much more feature-complete.
Esparta Palma
It crash all the time after minutes of browsing, sometimes with flash site, some times with extreme javascript sites (web 2.0)… but plain HTML just lovely :D
Han
Lightning fast, but not very stable and lack of a tools for importing bookmarks from Firefox (I don’t like the idea of uploading my bookmarks to Google via the plugins in FF). If these two problems are addressed, I’d like to use it as my main browser.
Kabatology
Fireofox apart, i often use ioswiftfox and a feather weight portable browser called MozSwing -> http://www.kabatology.com/09/10/mozswing-a-smart-browser-built-on-xul-and-java-swing/
anonymous
pardon my french but your article is mostly a lie, all the things you claim to be missing aren’t, some are even better than firefox’s (ie, you can hide the tool/menu/status/tabbar even in normal windows, not just fullscreen), it is indeed a bit crashy as some comments have mentioned before but that’s mostly due to the plugins but overall far better than you make it sound (that or you’re using a terribly old version)
with that said i wish there was better doc covering the extensions mechanism since i’d like to port a few things i miss (emacs keybindings, keyboard link navigation a la conkeror/LoL, noscript/extended adblock)
jus10
Have you tried Arora? Similar to midori but on the qt side. Though I’m a gnome-head, I use it as my primary browser. Nice, small, very functional.
In intrepid and jaunty although jaunty has a newer engine with qt4.5.
Sara
For those complaining of Midori crashing or not crashing, it really depends on what version of webkit that you’re using. If you’re less up-to-date, you might be using an older version that makes Midori crash more.
Ramkre
I’m trying to install Midori on my EeePC with Xandros and I’m not having any luck.
Please list the steps to make it work.
Thanks
MonkeyBoy8000
I like midori a lot. The only thing preventing me from using it as my primary browser and finally ditching Firefox is usable extension for keyboard navigation.
Anonymous
midori segfaults every time… very fast indeed :)
hybrid-kernel
It always segfaults for me after several minutes of browsing =/. If it didnt crash and had adblock, it would be my main browser.