The new kid on the block - QupZilla

For about a month now I've been using 'QupZilla' as my default web browser and am using the development version. QupZilla is a new, fast and secure open-source WWW browser, and can be found at http://www.qupzilla.com/ and looks like this -

Figure 1

It has source files for most of the major distros, so you might well find it available for your distro.

With every version, QupZilla is trying to include new features. Currently QupZilla implements all standard web browser features. In addition to this, QupZilla provides a lot of interesting features like

  • Very fast startup - QupZilla is ready to use at lightning speed
  • Very fast browsing - with QWebKit core, QupZilla renders pages in a moment
  • SSL Certificate Manager - never lets you visit pages with bad certificates without notification
  • Search Engines Manager - with OpenSearch support and suggestions
  • Browser Themes - with themes support, you can easily make your browser look unique!
  • Speed Dial - access your favourite pages easily
  • Cross Platform - supports for all major platforms and allows to use it everywhere
  • Extensions - AdBlock, GreaseMonkey, Mouse Gesture, Access Keys Navigation and more

Some of its main features are -

1 Native look'n'feel

QupZilla is using native widgets style on major Linux Desktop Environments. It is also using icons from the active desktop icon theme. If you find native themes too boring or have some problems with it, you can always switch to other themes

2 Unified Library

QupZilla unifies bookmarks, history and rss reader in one well-arranged window. No more multiple windows, QupZilla uses just one!

With the integrated rss reader, you can stay up to date with your favourite sites. QupZilla can also import bookmarks from other browsers.

3 Integrated AdBlock

Are you bored of websites full of advertisements? Are they eating your bandwidth and time? The only thing you need with QupZilla is to update EasyList or maybe add your own rules and start browsing ad free.

4 Speed Dial

This popular extension is finally available for QupZilla users! You can now access your favourite pages as fast as you want on one page opened in new tab. Needless to say that it fully supports drag&drop and page thumbnail loading.

It is in active development and is currently at version 1.6.3 which was released on 14 February 2014.

You can also use a command line interface to interact with QupZilla.

Usage: qupzilla [options] URL

QupZilla options:
-h or --help = print this message
-a or --authors = print QupZilla authors
-v or --version = print QupZilla version

-p=PROFILE or --profile=PROFILE = start with specified profile
-ne or --no-extensions = start without extensions

Options to control running QupZilla:
-nt or --new-tab = open new tab
-nw or --new-window = open new window
-pb or --private-browsing = start private browsing
-dm or --download-manager = show download manager
-ct=URL or --current-tab=URL = open URL in current tab
-ow=URL or --open-window=URL = open URL in new window

Example: qupzilla http://www.google.com
will run QupZilla with google.com page
(or add tab with google.com if already running)

The changelog can be found at https://github.com/QupZilla/qupzilla/blob/master/CHANGELOG

If you want to use the development version, currently at 1.7.0, you could get it downloaded, and auto-built using this script, which places the executable in /usr/local/bin

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#!/bin/bash
set -e
#: Title            : qzbuild
#: Date             : 1 April 2014
#: Version          : 1.0
#: Description      : to automate the downloading and building of QupZilla
#; Requirements     : none known

# Copyright (C) 2014  Sharon Kimble 
#
# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
# with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
# 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
#
####################################################
log=~/logs/qzbuild.txt
exec > > (tee -a $log) 2>&1
echo "$(date +%Y-%m-%d\ %H:%M:%S)" >> $log

cd ~ ;
mkdir -p ~/.temp-qupzilla;
cd ~/.temp-qupzilla;
git clone 'git://github.com/QupZilla/qupzilla.git';
cd ~/.temp-qupzilla/qupzilla;
export QUPZILLA_PREFIX="/usr/local"
qmake;
make;
sudo make install;
cd ~ ;
rm -R ~/.temp-qupzilla; echo

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