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Qutebrowser – A keyboard-driven, Vim-like browser based on PyQt5

202 points by tomxor 8y ago

hultner 8y ago
Used this regularly for a couple of years but stopped at some point, had it as my default browser for opening links but it never became my main browser, mainly because it didn’t integrate with password managers and some things didn’t quite work. Haven’t used it for a good year and a half now so it might have improved.
- jgkamat 8y ago
  You may want to try some of the password filling userscripts available. The best support is for pass, but theres userscripts for lastpass and keepass too. https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/blob/master/misc/userscripts/ https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/blob/master/misc/...
  - ReverseCold 8y ago
    The word userscript makes me think that it injects js onto the page? If that's the case, couldn't existing js hijack that? Sounds unsafe.
    - c22 8y ago
      It looks like they're written in python.
      - The-Compiler 8y ago
        Not necessarily - any language which can read environment variables and write into a file should work. Most existing scripts are using either Python or Bash though.
    - kungtotte 8y ago
      Qutebrowser userscripts aren't in-page JavaScript at all. They're external scripts run by the browser to control its behaviour. http://qutebrowser.org/doc/userscripts.html http://qutebrowser.org/doc/userscripts.html
    - The-Compiler 8y ago
      Yeah, the name is a bit unfortunate - it's coming from dwb[1] which I think also invented that concept, and was the main inspiration for qutebrowser. [1] https://portix.bitbucket.io/dwb/ https://portix.bitbucket.io/dwb/
      - hultner 8y ago
        Interesting, might give it a try again.
- Evidlo 8y ago
  See passmenu (pass) or passhole (KeePass) for password autotypers that work with any program. Disclaimer: I wrote passhole. https://github.com/cdown/passmenu https://github.com/cdown/passmenu https://github.com/purduelug/passhole https://github.com/purduelug/passhole
kodablah 8y ago
QtWebEngine, like CEF and other Chromium lib distributions, doesn't come with proprietary video/audio codecs compiled in. This is for obvious legal distribution reasons and can be compiled by the user manually. I hope as more browser downloads come about without proprietary codecs, more websites start providing formats like webm.
- jgkamat 8y ago
  It does if you install qtwebengine from the sources of most distributions (eg: debian, ubuntu). The one from pip does not come with it though, which the win/mac releases are compiled with.
dmos62 8y ago
The "Similar projects" section [0] contains a concise list of similar browsers, like luakit and surf. Although I've used these two extensively, I always eventually came back to Firefox or Chrome, due to some obscure inconveniences. I hope others are having better luck. I'd sure like to one day see a true variety of popularly used browsers. [0] https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser#similar-projects https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser#similar-projects
- saurik 8y ago
  I honestly clicked the link in your comment hoping to read a compiled list of obscure inconveniences that have prevented you from using alternative browsers. Any hope we can learn some of these issues? ;P
  - jgkamat 8y ago
    I actually have the opposite list, the reasons why I can't use traditional browsers with plugins: - Keybinds are lost when page is loading or on special pages, which is a huge break in flow - Some keys cannot be bound (eg, unbinding Ctrl-q, binding Ctrl-w) - Lack of options when customizing the UI (I can't get my nyan fix, can't move tabs to the bottom/right of the screen) - The omnibar (firefox, chrome, vimium) feels extremely slow, especially compared to lighter weight history searches. - (sometimes) lack of an insert/passthrough mode, to send keys to js running on the page - Inability to integrate cleanly with the rest of my system (:spawn mpv {url}, qb userscripts) - Much harder to hack on the browser itself
    - bovine3dom 8y ago
      Integration with your system is easy with native messaging. I don't know why more extensions don't use it. Customising browser interface is possible with userChrome.css on Firefox, and there's something similar for Vivaldi but it's actually supported. I'm not sure if anyone has bothered releasing a Vim add-on for it though.
      - 8y ago
fliesblackflags 8y ago
I'm impressed by how readable the code is. I also miss dwb, I just haven't had time to re-adjust to the keybindings.
- The-Compiler 8y ago
  Still not sure whether it was a good idea to (mostly) copy dwb's keybindings - some of them are a bit weird and inconsistent...
Foxboron 8y ago
Been using qutebrowser as my daily browser quite happily since summer 2017. I still have chromium as a backup browser in case of wierd webpage/embedded banking apps decides to dislike qutebrowser. Quite happy honestly, and the progress on the project itself is going steadily forwards. A plugin API seems to be in the works with a recent announcement; https://lists.schokokeks.org/pipermail/qutebrowser/2018-September/000514.html https://lists.schokokeks.org/pipermail/qutebrowser/2018-Sept...
dang 8y ago
Url changed from https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser to the project page, which seems like the canonical URL for this project.
- mindB 8y ago
  Could you change the title please? The project is called "qutebrowser". No dash and no capitalization.
  - dang 8y ago
    Will two thirds do? It's a convention to keep the first letter of an HN title capitalized.
    - mindB 8y ago
      Sounds good to me. Thanks!
JJseiko 8y ago
Installed qutebrowser last week. Can definitely recommend it!
busterarm 8y ago
Anybody want to voice their preferences for post-Firefox 57 based plugins like this? There seem to be a lot of options...
- michaelmrose 8y ago
  Tridactyl. Vs saka or vim vixen it has its native messenger feature which lets it interact with the host OS. Example press a key to edit the current input box in your editor or hit a key and show hint keys and open the selected link in mpv.
- mcjiggerlog 8y ago
  I used vimium on Chrome for years and since web extensions became available on Firefox have started using it there too. Gets my vote. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/vimium-ff/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/vimium-ff/
  - jaaames 8y ago
    Lack of Vimium stopped me from even attempting to switch back from Chrome to Firefox. Can't live without Vimium.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - dbdjfjrjvebd 8y ago
      Did you not know that the old Firefox had much more functional vim emulation add ons?
      - bovine3dom 8y ago
        I think it's unfair to describe Vimium as less functional. They do less but they do it well with a modern looking UI.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
yosefzeev 8y ago
Used it for awhile then had it stop working for certain needs. Switched over to palemoon and pentadactyl. Happier with that combo.
- michaelmrose 8y ago
  Palemoon is forever stuck with a version of Firefox that is older, less secure, and slower that going forward will be incapable of taking their project forward or even finding and plugging security holes. Also they assert the right to decide how bsd/linux distributions package their work on pain of lawsuit. https://github.com/jasperla/openbsd-wip/issues/86 https://github.com/jasperla/openbsd-wip/issues/86 Their behavior was tactless and poorly considered. I wouldn't trust them to make me a ham sandwich let alone maintain my browser. Just install tridactyl which is about feature complete compared to pentadactyl by now.
  - shakna 8y ago
    That issue was... Insane. Toxic behaviour, misunderstandings of how BSD works, and no interest in working with people doing the hard work for Palemoon. They demand their own patched versions get included with their browser... With no consideration that they may not even run on BSD.
  - timwaagh 8y ago
    it is a regrettable episode but they had their reasons. i would also wish this would not be used against this great project. everyone knows how territorial we can be as developers. people make mistakes. i have been using it and pentadactyl ever since vimperator stopped working and i love it. it gets updated frequently and fairly recently had a rebase to a newer ff build. also their theming support is really nice and their logo isnt as obtrusive. give it a chance and you won't regret it.
    - michaelmrose 8y ago
      Why would I not regret moving from Firefox 64 to a version based on a several year old version thats less responsive. Its like your Ford pintos awesome stereo wouldn't work with a car with abs and airbags so you drive a decades old pinto. There are good stereos that don't involve driving a pinto.
igneo676 8y ago
I wish I could have the best of all worlds here - a minimal browser like qutebrowser but also built on the latest Chromium (or whatever engine you prefer, something built on Servo would be cool) but sadly even the qt5-webengine backend is stuck back in Chromium 65.X which was released at the very beginning of this year To be fair, I've not done enough research to KNOW whether or not that poses any real security risk but it's still a concern. There's also the FOMO that I'm missing some modern browser features that I can only test out in other browsers :/ It's OSS though, so I should probably shut up and roll up my sleeves
- tomxor 8y ago
  > but sadly even the qt5-webengine backend is stuck back in Chromium 65.X which was released at the very beginning of this year Good shout, I did not realise this, however the last release (5.11.2) was relatively recently in June... however I can't find release details for qtwebengine, where are you getting your release information from RE chromium? This was the main reason I was attracted to this browser because the old webkit2 based vim-like browsers were hopelessly out of date to point of being very dangerous.
  - igneo676 8y ago
    Yeah, they don't call out what version they're on without some digging. I had to actually download the browser and check manually > This was the main reason I was attracted to this browser because the old webkit2 based vim-like browsers were hopelessly out of date to point of being very dangerous. Same here. I had to forgo other browsers I quite like because of their older versions of webkit
    - tomxor 8y ago
      If the user-agent string is to be trusted the latest version released in June is still based on chrome 65.x like you said... :/ it's not terrible but not great either. However they do claim to backport security patches on their front page so it should technically be secure. I suppose it would take a lot of repetetive effort going through the same process to pull apart chromium each major release, so perhaps they settle on backporting patches in between larger breaks.
Aelius 8y ago
One of the things that can really make or break a project for me is how its developers behave towards the users. The developer of this project is a really upstanding, responsive, kind human being. I think his project deserves all the attention it can get. I have used qutebrowser as my primary browser on Linux for years. I have no complaints. In fact, qutebrowser runs smoothly on some of my older machines where Firefox struggles to run. Unfortunately, I also use Windows a lot. QTWebEngine builds for Windows do not have some codecs most of the internet expects you to have, and some js laden sites seem to perform poorly on the Windows builds. Both of these problems are with the qtwebengine project and there's nothing qutebrowser can do about that. Even so, I would recommend Windows users give it a try anyway.
- spindle 8y ago
  I'm so pleased that this is the top-voted comment! (And I totally endorse it.)
- kabacha 8y ago
  Props to TheCompiler, even before Qutebrowser I remember him helping people out on freenode#python. I've backed his latest kickstarter and there were plenty of updates and cool swag. He's also very active reddit, irc and mastodon. Not sure where he finds so much time and affords to do what he does living on one of the most countries in the world (Switzerland) but dude is truly inspiring! I truly hope he doesn't ever leave FLOSS.
  - The-Compiler 8y ago
    Thanks! On the flip side, I sometimes feel like I never really have time for coding because I'm putting a lot of effort into community things, for better or worse :) As for affording it: I still live with my mother (I'm 25 and a full-time student), so that works out well so far. Not sure yet what'll happen after the studies, from how things look like now I might end up moving to my girlfriend's place in Vorarlberg (Austria, but close to the Swiss border) where things are cheaper, and try to live off qutebrowser donations and some freelancing gigs. We'll see!
timwaagh 8y ago
the main reason i dont use it is the hints work differently from pentadactyl. you cannot type characters of the link and have to use the letters that appear on the hint. so i'm still on pale moon+pentadactyl. but i think qutebrowser has great potential.
- hjek 8y ago
  Have you tried out the new tridactyl[0] webextension? [0]: https://github.com/tridactyl/tridactyl https://github.com/tridactyl/tridactyl
  - timwaagh 8y ago
    i have. in addition to not launching on startup, it seems to have this same issue. i like that in pentadactyl i can just start typing out the text of a link. or use a number. so im not a fan, but it can work if you insist on a major browser.
    - OvidNaso 8y ago
      Vimium has this option. Check the box on the options screen " Use the link's name and characters for link-hint filtering"
      - hjek 8y ago
        Thanks for the tip! Probably makes more sense than typing random characters.
- The-Compiler 8y ago
  You can if you do :set hints mode number.
  - rflrob 8y ago
    Is that documented somewhere? I can’t find it on their website, but searching on mobile means the issue is just as likely to be me as the documentation.
bachmeier 8y ago
Wonder how this runs on old hardware. I have a 2009 dual core laptop with 4 GB of RAM that runs everything I throw at it without a problem, except a web browser. Web browsers are just too heavy. My solution is to use Textadept, with Lynx as a backend, as my "browser" on that machine. Works well (can even open YouTube videos in VLC) but I miss having a real browser.
- tomxor 8y ago
  I have pretty much the same type of machine, and while it's true browsers are hevier than they used to be, I suspect it's the rest of the software on your machine consuming too many resources to leave anything for the browser... With my x session and window manager my machine only uses about 300MiB RAM, browsing is not unlike using a modern machine. If you are using a big DE consider switching to something lighter and you might be surprised how little RAM you can use. (My anecdote is from using both Chromium, FireFox and qutebrowser more recently - I haven't noticed much performance difference in the latter but it wasn't struggling to beggin with)
wink 8y ago
Used this on Debian testing a year ago or so, worked quite well. I think I didn't get it to properly run on Ubuntu 16.04 for some reason, maybe time to reevaluate. One can never have too many browser to separate tasks out, although Firefox containers are a solid replacement oftentimes.
- The-Compiler 8y ago
  You won't be able to use the Qt version in the repos for Ubuntu 16.04, but if you're on x86_64, you can use a prebuilt PyQt which ships with Qt: https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/blob/master/doc/install.asciidoc#tox https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/blob/master/doc/i...
mig4ng 8y ago
It seems interesting, is is compatible in any way with BitWarden[1], it has a CLI[2] extension that can probably be used in Qutebrowser. Does anyone know if it is possible integrate? If so, how difficult would it be? [1] https://bitwarden.com/ https://bitwarden.com/ [2] https://github.com/bitwarden/cli/ https://github.com/bitwarden/cli/
- The-Compiler 8y ago
  You could probably write a qutebrowser userscript similar to the other password scripts which already exist: https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/tree/master/misc/userscripts https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/tree/master/misc/... Hopefully, things will also get easier in the future with the upcoming plugin API: https://lists.schokokeks.org/pipermail/qutebrowser-announce/2018-September/000051.html https://lists.schokokeks.org/pipermail/qutebrowser-announce/...
CuteBrowser 8y ago
As a vimperator user still on 52 ESR, this sounds great but any serious browsing requires me to use my add-ons, umatrix, ublock origin etc. Do we extensions work on this? Actually on second thoughts extensions probably don't have a relationship with layout engine but with browser GUI so maybe no.
- The-Compiler 8y ago
  No WebExtension support, and unless Qt implements support for them, I'm not sure that'll change: https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/issues/30 https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/issues/30 However, there's a built-in adblocker (which only blacklists hosts right now), and there are plans for something like uMatrix: https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/issues/28 https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/issues/28
jgresty 8y ago
I would really like to use this as my primary browser, unfortunately Atlassian's login flow doesn't work in this browser. I suspect it is actually Atlassian at fault here but since I am forced to use Jira for work I have no choice.
- The-Compiler 8y ago
  Can you try setting "content.cookies.accept" to "all" instead of the default "no-3rdparty"? If that doesn't help, can you set with --temp-basedir?
otabdeveloper1 8y ago
No, it's a Chromium browser skin that uses Qt.
- detaro 8y ago
  I think you are wrong, given that it is based on Webkit components. In what way does it use Chromium code?
  - tomxor 8y ago
    You're both a bit wrong. It can use either QTWebKit or QTWebEngine at runtime. The latter is the default and is essentially the engine of chromium extracted from chromium without any google services or binary blobs (uses system libraries)... this is quite far from a chromium skin, it's not a fork of chromium, and it lacks more than the front end, it completely removes all of the privacy invasive features that has been troubling everyone recently. This info on QTWebEngine is among the top comments on the page if you care to look.
- The-Compiler 8y ago
  It's not - QtWebEngine strips a lot of Chromiums sources (like the entire UI, and things like Google sign-in code) out.

202 points by tomxor 8y ago

Used this regularly for a couple of years but stopped at some point, had it as my default browser for opening links but it never became my main browser, mainly because it didn’t integrate with password managers and some things didn’t quite work. Haven’t used it for a good year and a half now so it might have improved.

jgkamat 8y ago
You may want to try some of the password filling userscripts available. The best support is for pass, but theres userscripts for lastpass and keepass too. https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/blob/master/misc/userscripts/ https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/blob/master/misc/...
- ReverseCold 8y ago
  The word userscript makes me think that it injects js onto the page? If that's the case, couldn't existing js hijack that? Sounds unsafe.
  - c22 8y ago
    It looks like they're written in python.
    - The-Compiler 8y ago
      Not necessarily - any language which can read environment variables and write into a file should work. Most existing scripts are using either Python or Bash though.
  - kungtotte 8y ago
    Qutebrowser userscripts aren't in-page JavaScript at all. They're external scripts run by the browser to control its behaviour. http://qutebrowser.org/doc/userscripts.html http://qutebrowser.org/doc/userscripts.html
  - The-Compiler 8y ago
    Yeah, the name is a bit unfortunate - it's coming from dwb[1] which I think also invented that concept, and was the main inspiration for qutebrowser. [1] https://portix.bitbucket.io/dwb/ https://portix.bitbucket.io/dwb/
    - hultner 8y ago
      Interesting, might give it a try again.
Evidlo 8y ago
See passmenu (pass) or passhole (KeePass) for password autotypers that work with any program. Disclaimer: I wrote passhole. https://github.com/cdown/passmenu https://github.com/cdown/passmenu https://github.com/purduelug/passhole https://github.com/purduelug/passhole

kodablah 8y ago

QtWebEngine, like CEF and other Chromium lib distributions, doesn't come with proprietary video/audio codecs compiled in. This is for obvious legal distribution reasons and can be compiled by the user manually. I hope as more browser downloads come about without proprietary codecs, more websites start providing formats like webm.

jgkamat 8y ago
It does if you install qtwebengine from the sources of most distributions (eg: debian, ubuntu). The one from pip does not come with it though, which the win/mac releases are compiled with.

dmos62 8y ago

The "Similar projects" section [0] contains a concise list of similar browsers, like luakit and surf. Although I've used these two extensively, I always eventually came back to Firefox or Chrome, due to some obscure inconveniences. I hope others are having better luck. I'd sure like to one day see a true variety of popularly used browsers. [0] https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser#similar-projects https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser#similar-projects

saurik 8y ago
I honestly clicked the link in your comment hoping to read a compiled list of obscure inconveniences that have prevented you from using alternative browsers. Any hope we can learn some of these issues? ;P
- jgkamat 8y ago
  I actually have the opposite list, the reasons why I can't use traditional browsers with plugins: - Keybinds are lost when page is loading or on special pages, which is a huge break in flow - Some keys cannot be bound (eg, unbinding Ctrl-q, binding Ctrl-w) - Lack of options when customizing the UI (I can't get my nyan fix, can't move tabs to the bottom/right of the screen) - The omnibar (firefox, chrome, vimium) feels extremely slow, especially compared to lighter weight history searches. - (sometimes) lack of an insert/passthrough mode, to send keys to js running on the page - Inability to integrate cleanly with the rest of my system (:spawn mpv {url}, qb userscripts) - Much harder to hack on the browser itself
  - bovine3dom 8y ago
    Integration with your system is easy with native messaging. I don't know why more extensions don't use it. Customising browser interface is possible with userChrome.css on Firefox, and there's something similar for Vivaldi but it's actually supported. I'm not sure if anyone has bothered releasing a Vim add-on for it though.
    - 8y ago

fliesblackflags 8y ago

I'm impressed by how readable the code is. I also miss dwb, I just haven't had time to re-adjust to the keybindings.

The-Compiler 8y ago
Still not sure whether it was a good idea to (mostly) copy dwb's keybindings - some of them are a bit weird and inconsistent...

Foxboron 8y ago

Been using qutebrowser as my daily browser quite happily since summer 2017. I still have chromium as a backup browser in case of wierd webpage/embedded banking apps decides to dislike qutebrowser. Quite happy honestly, and the progress on the project itself is going steadily forwards. A plugin API seems to be in the works with a recent announcement; https://lists.schokokeks.org/pipermail/qutebrowser/2018-September/000514.html https://lists.schokokeks.org/pipermail/qutebrowser/2018-Sept...

dang 8y ago

Url changed from https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser to the project page, which seems like the canonical URL for this project.

mindB 8y ago
Could you change the title please? The project is called "qutebrowser". No dash and no capitalization.
- dang 8y ago
  Will two thirds do? It's a convention to keep the first letter of an HN title capitalized.
  - mindB 8y ago
    Sounds good to me. Thanks!

JJseiko 8y ago

Installed qutebrowser last week. Can definitely recommend it!

busterarm 8y ago

Anybody want to voice their preferences for post-Firefox 57 based plugins like this? There seem to be a lot of options...

michaelmrose 8y ago
Tridactyl. Vs saka or vim vixen it has its native messenger feature which lets it interact with the host OS. Example press a key to edit the current input box in your editor or hit a key and show hint keys and open the selected link in mpv.
mcjiggerlog 8y ago
I used vimium on Chrome for years and since web extensions became available on Firefox have started using it there too. Gets my vote. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/vimium-ff/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/vimium-ff/
- jaaames 8y ago
  Lack of Vimium stopped me from even attempting to switch back from Chrome to Firefox. Can't live without Vimium.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - dbdjfjrjvebd 8y ago
    Did you not know that the old Firefox had much more functional vim emulation add ons?
    - bovine3dom 8y ago
      I think it's unfair to describe Vimium as less functional. They do less but they do it well with a modern looking UI.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]

yosefzeev 8y ago

Used it for awhile then had it stop working for certain needs. Switched over to palemoon and pentadactyl. Happier with that combo.

michaelmrose 8y ago
Palemoon is forever stuck with a version of Firefox that is older, less secure, and slower that going forward will be incapable of taking their project forward or even finding and plugging security holes. Also they assert the right to decide how bsd/linux distributions package their work on pain of lawsuit. https://github.com/jasperla/openbsd-wip/issues/86 https://github.com/jasperla/openbsd-wip/issues/86 Their behavior was tactless and poorly considered. I wouldn't trust them to make me a ham sandwich let alone maintain my browser. Just install tridactyl which is about feature complete compared to pentadactyl by now.
- shakna 8y ago
  That issue was... Insane. Toxic behaviour, misunderstandings of how BSD works, and no interest in working with people doing the hard work for Palemoon. They demand their own patched versions get included with their browser... With no consideration that they may not even run on BSD.
- timwaagh 8y ago
  it is a regrettable episode but they had their reasons. i would also wish this would not be used against this great project. everyone knows how territorial we can be as developers. people make mistakes. i have been using it and pentadactyl ever since vimperator stopped working and i love it. it gets updated frequently and fairly recently had a rebase to a newer ff build. also their theming support is really nice and their logo isnt as obtrusive. give it a chance and you won't regret it.
  - michaelmrose 8y ago
    Why would I not regret moving from Firefox 64 to a version based on a several year old version thats less responsive. Its like your Ford pintos awesome stereo wouldn't work with a car with abs and airbags so you drive a decades old pinto. There are good stereos that don't involve driving a pinto.

igneo676 8y ago

I wish I could have the best of all worlds here - a minimal browser like qutebrowser but also built on the latest Chromium (or whatever engine you prefer, something built on Servo would be cool) but sadly even the qt5-webengine backend is stuck back in Chromium 65.X which was released at the very beginning of this year To be fair, I've not done enough research to KNOW whether or not that poses any real security risk but it's still a concern. There's also the FOMO that I'm missing some modern browser features that I can only test out in other browsers :/ It's OSS though, so I should probably shut up and roll up my sleeves

tomxor 8y ago
> but sadly even the qt5-webengine backend is stuck back in Chromium 65.X which was released at the very beginning of this year Good shout, I did not realise this, however the last release (5.11.2) was relatively recently in June... however I can't find release details for qtwebengine, where are you getting your release information from RE chromium? This was the main reason I was attracted to this browser because the old webkit2 based vim-like browsers were hopelessly out of date to point of being very dangerous.
- igneo676 8y ago
  Yeah, they don't call out what version they're on without some digging. I had to actually download the browser and check manually > This was the main reason I was attracted to this browser because the old webkit2 based vim-like browsers were hopelessly out of date to point of being very dangerous. Same here. I had to forgo other browsers I quite like because of their older versions of webkit
  - tomxor 8y ago
    If the user-agent string is to be trusted the latest version released in June is still based on chrome 65.x like you said... :/ it's not terrible but not great either. However they do claim to backport security patches on their front page so it should technically be secure. I suppose it would take a lot of repetetive effort going through the same process to pull apart chromium each major release, so perhaps they settle on backporting patches in between larger breaks.

Aelius 8y ago

One of the things that can really make or break a project for me is how its developers behave towards the users. The developer of this project is a really upstanding, responsive, kind human being. I think his project deserves all the attention it can get. I have used qutebrowser as my primary browser on Linux for years. I have no complaints. In fact, qutebrowser runs smoothly on some of my older machines where Firefox struggles to run. Unfortunately, I also use Windows a lot. QTWebEngine builds for Windows do not have some codecs most of the internet expects you to have, and some js laden sites seem to perform poorly on the Windows builds. Both of these problems are with the qtwebengine project and there's nothing qutebrowser can do about that. Even so, I would recommend Windows users give it a try anyway.

spindle 8y ago
I'm so pleased that this is the top-voted comment! (And I totally endorse it.)
kabacha 8y ago
Props to TheCompiler, even before Qutebrowser I remember him helping people out on freenode#python. I've backed his latest kickstarter and there were plenty of updates and cool swag. He's also very active reddit, irc and mastodon. Not sure where he finds so much time and affords to do what he does living on one of the most countries in the world (Switzerland) but dude is truly inspiring! I truly hope he doesn't ever leave FLOSS.
- The-Compiler 8y ago
  Thanks! On the flip side, I sometimes feel like I never really have time for coding because I'm putting a lot of effort into community things, for better or worse :) As for affording it: I still live with my mother (I'm 25 and a full-time student), so that works out well so far. Not sure yet what'll happen after the studies, from how things look like now I might end up moving to my girlfriend's place in Vorarlberg (Austria, but close to the Swiss border) where things are cheaper, and try to live off qutebrowser donations and some freelancing gigs. We'll see!

timwaagh 8y ago

the main reason i dont use it is the hints work differently from pentadactyl. you cannot type characters of the link and have to use the letters that appear on the hint. so i'm still on pale moon+pentadactyl. but i think qutebrowser has great potential.

hjek 8y ago
Have you tried out the new tridactyl[0] webextension? [0]: https://github.com/tridactyl/tridactyl https://github.com/tridactyl/tridactyl
- timwaagh 8y ago
  i have. in addition to not launching on startup, it seems to have this same issue. i like that in pentadactyl i can just start typing out the text of a link. or use a number. so im not a fan, but it can work if you insist on a major browser.
  - OvidNaso 8y ago
    Vimium has this option. Check the box on the options screen " Use the link's name and characters for link-hint filtering"
    - hjek 8y ago
      Thanks for the tip! Probably makes more sense than typing random characters.
The-Compiler 8y ago
You can if you do :set hints mode number.
- rflrob 8y ago
  Is that documented somewhere? I can’t find it on their website, but searching on mobile means the issue is just as likely to be me as the documentation.

bachmeier 8y ago

Wonder how this runs on old hardware. I have a 2009 dual core laptop with 4 GB of RAM that runs everything I throw at it without a problem, except a web browser. Web browsers are just too heavy. My solution is to use Textadept, with Lynx as a backend, as my "browser" on that machine. Works well (can even open YouTube videos in VLC) but I miss having a real browser.

tomxor 8y ago
I have pretty much the same type of machine, and while it's true browsers are hevier than they used to be, I suspect it's the rest of the software on your machine consuming too many resources to leave anything for the browser... With my x session and window manager my machine only uses about 300MiB RAM, browsing is not unlike using a modern machine. If you are using a big DE consider switching to something lighter and you might be surprised how little RAM you can use. (My anecdote is from using both Chromium, FireFox and qutebrowser more recently - I haven't noticed much performance difference in the latter but it wasn't struggling to beggin with)

wink 8y ago

Used this on Debian testing a year ago or so, worked quite well. I think I didn't get it to properly run on Ubuntu 16.04 for some reason, maybe time to reevaluate. One can never have too many browser to separate tasks out, although Firefox containers are a solid replacement oftentimes.

The-Compiler 8y ago
You won't be able to use the Qt version in the repos for Ubuntu 16.04, but if you're on x86_64, you can use a prebuilt PyQt which ships with Qt: https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/blob/master/doc/install.asciidoc#tox https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/blob/master/doc/i...

mig4ng 8y ago

It seems interesting, is is compatible in any way with BitWarden[1], it has a CLI[2] extension that can probably be used in Qutebrowser. Does anyone know if it is possible integrate? If so, how difficult would it be? [1] https://bitwarden.com/ https://bitwarden.com/ [2] https://github.com/bitwarden/cli/ https://github.com/bitwarden/cli/

The-Compiler 8y ago
You could probably write a qutebrowser userscript similar to the other password scripts which already exist: https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/tree/master/misc/userscripts https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/tree/master/misc/... Hopefully, things will also get easier in the future with the upcoming plugin API: https://lists.schokokeks.org/pipermail/qutebrowser-announce/2018-September/000051.html https://lists.schokokeks.org/pipermail/qutebrowser-announce/...

CuteBrowser 8y ago

As a vimperator user still on 52 ESR, this sounds great but any serious browsing requires me to use my add-ons, umatrix, ublock origin etc. Do we extensions work on this? Actually on second thoughts extensions probably don't have a relationship with layout engine but with browser GUI so maybe no.

The-Compiler 8y ago
No WebExtension support, and unless Qt implements support for them, I'm not sure that'll change: https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/issues/30 https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/issues/30 However, there's a built-in adblocker (which only blacklists hosts right now), and there are plans for something like uMatrix: https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/issues/28 https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/issues/28

jgresty 8y ago

I would really like to use this as my primary browser, unfortunately Atlassian's login flow doesn't work in this browser. I suspect it is actually Atlassian at fault here but since I am forced to use Jira for work I have no choice.

The-Compiler 8y ago
Can you try setting "content.cookies.accept" to "all" instead of the default "no-3rdparty"? If that doesn't help, can you set with --temp-basedir?

otabdeveloper1 8y ago

No, it's a Chromium browser skin that uses Qt.

detaro 8y ago
I think you are wrong, given that it is based on Webkit components. In what way does it use Chromium code?
- tomxor 8y ago
  You're both a bit wrong. It can use either QTWebKit or QTWebEngine at runtime. The latter is the default and is essentially the engine of chromium extracted from chromium without any google services or binary blobs (uses system libraries)... this is quite far from a chromium skin, it's not a fork of chromium, and it lacks more than the front end, it completely removes all of the privacy invasive features that has been troubling everyone recently. This info on QTWebEngine is among the top comments on the page if you care to look.
The-Compiler 8y ago
It's not - QtWebEngine strips a lot of Chromiums sources (like the entire UI, and things like Google sign-in code) out.