Midori (web browser)
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 Midori v11.0 (November 2023)
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| Developer(s) | Christian Dywan, Nancy Runge, Astian Foundation | ||||||||
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| Initial release | 16 December 2007 | ||||||||
| Stable release(s) | |||||||||
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| Preview release(s) [±] | |||||||||
| 9.0 (July 29, 2019) [±] | |||||||||
| Repository |
github gitlab |
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| Written in | originally in C & GTK2, rewritten completely in Vala & GTK3 | ||||||||
| Operating system | Linux, Android, Windows, macOS | ||||||||
| Platform | IA-32, AMD64, x86 | ||||||||
| Available in | 30 languages | ||||||||
| Type | Web browser | ||||||||
| License | LGPL-2.1-or-later | ||||||||
| Website | astian |
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Midori (Japanese: 緑, romanized: midori, lit. 'green') is a free and open-source web browser. In 2019, the Midori project merged with the Astian Foundation, then Midori Browser, switching from WebKitGTK to using Gecko and Floorp browser.
History
Before the merge, Midori was a different browser. It was a lightweight web browser, used the WebKitGTK rendering engine and the GTK widget toolkits. This past Midori was part of the Xfce desktop environment's Goodies component and was once developed to follow the Xfce principle of "making the most out of available resources". It was the default browser in the SliTaz Linux distribution, Trisquel Mini, Artix Linux, old versions of Raspbian, and wattOS in its "R5 release". It was the default browser in elementary OS "Freya" and "Luna", and Bodhi Linux. It featured:
- Support for integration with GTK2 and GTK3
- WebKitGTK rendering engine
- Tabs, windows and session management
- Configurable web search engine
- User scripts and user styles support
- Bookmark management
- Customizable and extensible interface
- Extension modules can be written in C and Vala
- Support for HTML5
- DuckDuckGo as a default search engine
- Internationalized domain names support
- Smart bookmarks
- Extensions
- Adblock
- Form history
- Mouse gestures
- Cookie management
- RSS Feed panel
- Maemo integration for mobile devices
- Speed dial
- 'Next Page' feature
- Support for Ubuntu Unity
- Private browsing
- Tab backup for the next session by default Midori was part of the standard Raspbian distribution for the Raspberry Pi ARMv6-based computer, while Dillo and NetSurf are also in the menu. Midori is being packaged with Manjaro Linux and Trisquel Mini as their default web browser as well and it even was the default web browser in elementary OS and Bodhi Linux at one time.
Midori passed standard compliance Acid3 test. In March 2014, Midori scored 405/555 on the HTML5 test. In July 2015, Midori 0.5 on Windows 8 scored 325/555 on the updated HTML5 test.
The former Midori was recommended by Lifehacker due to its simplicity. The major points for criticism are the absence of the process isolation, the low number of available extensions and occasional crashes.
Nick Veitch from TechRadar included Midori 0.2.2 in his 2010 list of the eight best web browsers for Linux. At that time he rated it as "5/10" and concluded, "while it does perform reasonably well all-round, there is no compelling reason to choose this browser over the default Gnome browser, Epiphany, or indeed any of the bigger boys".
Himanshu Arora of Computerworld reviewed Midori 0.5.4 in November 2013 and praised the browser's speed and uncluttered interface, while additionally underlining the private browsing which uses a separate launch icon and displays the details of this mode on the home tab.
Victor Clarke from Gigaom praised the former Midori's minimalism in 2014 and stated that it will "satisfy your humble needs without slowing down your PC", despite stressing the lack of advanced functionality.
See also
- GNOME Web – a similar web browser based on GTK and WebKitGTK
- List of web browsers for Unix and Unix-like operating systems