Eolie, install or compile the code of this web browser for Gnome

about aeolie

In the next article we are going to take a look at Eolie. Cedric Bellegarde, the developer behind the popular music player Lollypop  come back with this Web navigator that promises a lot.

This is a web browser for the GNOME desktop environment. While all other browsers abandon their developments quite a bit in favor of the Firefox and Chrome tenors, I was curious to try this alternative. Especially to know what was going through the head of its developer to embark on a project like this.

General characteristics of Eolie

To be a first one-man developed version In just three months, he really amazes at the work done. Both for the number of options it offers us and for the stability of the set, both in normal and private browsing. The author still does not recommend using on a daily basis, but as a project it promises good things in future versions.

Tab management

eolie windows

The first thing that catches your eye is the tab bar. In this case it is not at the top of the screen, you have moved it to a column on the left. This bar is not limited to showing only the names of the different sites, is going to offer us a preview of each tabs as thumbnails.

The right mouse click In the tab bar we will have the possibility to choose between three modes: thumbnail preview, which is the default option, the name of the site and favicon or a minimalist panel that is limited to favicons. The last option will allow us easily view several dozen tabs on a Full HD screen. Beyond that, we can scroll through the list with the mouse wheel or using the search function to filter the results.

Address bar

As for the address bar, it won't show us the URL if we don't hover the mouse over it. Instead we will show the name of the site. It is likely to be more aesthetic than useful, since by hiding such information it can make us fall victim to phishing if we are not careful on the network.

History

eolie track record

Continuing with the interface, I came across the history window that looks like the one in Firefox. Keep in mind that this browser is supported by Firefox Sync. In this way, it is possible to authorize the sharing of the pages saved as favorites, the history between the two browsers and their synchronization on different machines.

Technical characteristics

From a technical point of view, the browser has been developed with python and use the WebKitGTK + rendering engine (which is developed in C ++). The developer has thus decided to focus on the interface without worrying too much about the Web page rendering engine. For those asking the question, each tab performs its own process, allowing you to get the most out of modern multi-core processors. This also helps if one tab crashes, the rest of the browser can continue to work no problem.

Password and identifier management

The management of the identifiers and passwords of the various sites is done through the Seahorse and gnome keychain.

Extensions

eolie extensions

Another important topic in a browser is extensions. Eolie for now, it does not allow any easy way to install them. However, it should be noted that the browser offers a ad blocker enabled by default.

These are just some of the features of this browser. To consult them all together with their dependencies, you just have to access the following link.

Eolie Compilation

eolie bareback

For whoever wants a flatpak pack. In the example at hand, I chose to download the source code from here Once the source code has been downloaded, and the folder unzipped, we open a terminal and get into it. Next we have to write in the terminal the generic steps to compile the code of a program.

We will start by setting the configurations using the command:

./configure

Once established, it is time to compile the code, for this we write the following commands one by one:

make

make install

If everything has gone as it should, we can launch the web browser by typing:

./eolie

You can consult the source code and its characteristics on the page of GitHub of the project.


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