qutebrowser is a keyboard-centric browser
The release of the new version of the web browser qutebrowser 3.0, version in which the jump to the new 3.x branch is due to the added support for QT 6, in addition to the end of support for previous versions of Qt, PyQt, QtWebEngine and Python.
For those who do not know the browser should know that this provides a minimal graphical interface that is not distracting from viewing of the content, and a navigation system in the style of the Vim text editor, built entirely with keyboard shortcuts.
The browser supports a tab system, download manager, private browsing mode, integrated PDF viewer (pdf.js), ad blocking system, interface to view browsing history. Scrolling through the page is done using the «hjkl» keys, to open a new page you can press «o», switching between tabs is done using the «J» and «K» keys or «Alt-numeric tab»
Main new features of qutebrowser 3.0
In this new version qutebrowser 3.0, the change in the version number, in addition to what was mentioned at the beginning, is also due to the increased requirements, in addition to the browser now only supports Qt versions 5.15 and later and Python versions since 3.8, as well as support for compiling with QT 6, which is now used by default, but if QT 6 is not available, the ability to compile with Qt 5.15 is left.
Another change that stands out in the new version is that a recommendation system has been implemented which suggests a relevant replacement in case of a typo when entering a command.
In addition, we can find that have been added new options for menu generation to qutedmenu, because in this new version it has been added support for one-time passwords to qute-keepassxc to unlock a profile, as well as what added qute-1pass script which the 1password password manager uses when filling out forms with a password.
We can also find in qutebrowser 3.0, that the command “:prompt-fileselect-external» which has the function of calling an external dialog box to select a file name to load.
On the other hand, it is mentioned that the configuration “qt.chromium.experimental_web_platform_features» to improve compatibility with sites when using older versions of the backend (set by default when building with Qt5).
Removed support for platforms macOS earlier than version 11 and platforms Windows earlier than version 10-1607, In addition, support for 32-bit builds for Windows has been removed.
Of the other changes that stand out from this new version:
- Added built-in homepage «what://start«.
- Added setting "tabs.title.elide” to control the replacement of part of the title with the characters "..." in the name of the tab.
- renamed commands
- Added setting "Colors.webpage.darkmode.increase_text_contrast» to improve the quality of the dark style.
- Added the “ flag–all»To the commands«:bookmark-del" and ":quickmark-del" to remove all bookmarks.
- Proposed new widgets for the status bar: clock to display the current time and search_match to display match statistics when searching for text on the page.
Forbidden HTTPS to HTTP forwarding when uploading files.
Finally if you want to know more about it About this new version or about the browser, you can check the details on its official website. The link is this.
How to install Qutebrowser on Ubuntu and derivatives?
For those who are interested in being able to try this web browser, they should know that the installation in Ubuntu as well as its derivatives is quite simple, since the package is within the Ubuntu repositories
To install the browser, we simply have to open a terminal (you can do it with the key combination Ctrl + Alt + T) and write the following command in it:
sudo apt update
And now we can install the browser with the following command:
sudo apt install qutebrowser -y
And that's it, you can start using this browser on your system.
Another installation method and for those interested in being able to try the new version (since the newer packages take longer to be updated in the Ubuntu repositories)
We can install the browser from the source code which we can obtain from la releases page.
There we we will download the Source code (Zip) package and we will unzip it in our team. To run the browser, just enter the folder and run the following commands:
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends git ca-certificates python3 python3-venv asciidoc libglib2.0-0 libgl1 libfontconfig1 libxcb-icccm4 libxcb-image0 libxcb-keysyms1 libxcb-randr0 libxcb-render-util0 libxcb-shape0 libxcb-xfixes0 libxcb-xinerama0 libxcb-xkb1 libxkbcommon-x11-0 libdbus-1-3 libyaml-dev gcc python3-dev libnss3
And we can run the browser with the following command:
python3 qutebrowser.py