Modern Web
Browsers for AmigaOS 4.1
When I first starting considering trying an Amiga NG system, the one
question I had was: is there a good web browser? More than any
other application the web browser has become the primary tool for most
users of personal computing devices today, especially in light of
increasingly useful web-based applications. For the Amiga platform to
succeed a good browsing experience is vital. Unfortunately for OS4
users the current crop of web browsers available is a bit of a mixed
bag. So I thought I'd sum up my experiences on my SAM and, as of July
2012, Pegasos II machines so far; perhaps it might be interesting to
users new to or considering a next-generation Amiga running AmigaOS
4.1u5:
The Past
IBrowse (v2.4)
Many moons ago the only real browsing experience possible on AmigaOS
was the venerable IBrowse. Commercially developed, having more features
than a pomegranate has pips, its inclusion with AmigaOS 4.0 was so
important that Hyperion commissioned a port of MUI to be included with
the basic system installation. And for good reason: although IBrowse is
no longer actively developed and is still a 68K application, IBrowse
remains an absolute wonder.
First, the browser experience: terrific. I have yet to see a more
feature-complete browser for nearly any platform. The download manager,
bookmark manager, preferences manager, customization possibilities, and
scripting support is second-to-none. It looks and feels like a true
Amiga application, not a port from another platform, and has all of the
nice touches you would expect in a commercial application.
Figure 1: Screenshot of
IBrowse
Second, it's fast. Really fast. To the point that it matches the
rendering speed of Firefox on much, much faster commodity PC hardware.
Unfortunately there is a reason for that speed: it's not actually
rendering very much. HTML5 support? No. CSS2 support? No. Modern
JavaScript engine? No. In fact it struggles with even the most basic
sites using reasonably recent standards, such as Google. This is a
terrible shame, because with a more up-to-date HTML parser, IBrowse
could be the perfect browser.
As such I only tend to use it for downloading files -- because of its
excellent Download Manager -- and browsing Amiga community websites due
to its rendering speed.
The Present
OWB (v3.32)
Based on the open-source WebKit engine, Joerg Strohmeyers's OWB was
until very recently probably the first point of departure for the
Interwebs on OS4. Stable, reasonably speedy and standards-compliant,
the OS4 version of OWB seems the ideal replacement for the venerable
IBrowse -- but that's only part of the story. You'll be able to work
with just about any site out there excepting those using Adobe Flash
and HTML5 video and audio. With excellent HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
support, Facebook, Google Apps, among others, render perfectly well and
akin to what you would find on a Windows, Mac OS, or Linux-based PC.
You have the comforts of tabbed browsing, context pop-up menus, and a
minimal, but beautiful, Reaction-based GUI. I'd been using OWB as my
main browser since firing up my SAM for the first time and it never let
me down as a web <i>viewer</i>. As a complete browsing
experience, though, it leaves much to be desired.
For starters there is no download manager, no preferences manager
(you'll be editing what few options there are as tooltypes in the OWB
icon information pane), no printing support, no password management, no
history display, no way to manage cookies or indeed any privacy
settings, in short, very little in the way of functionality people have
become accustomed to since the earliest days of Netscape Navigator and
Internet Explorer. Even the most basic of bookmarks management is in
reality a separate utility.
Figure 2: Screenshot of OWB
v3.32
There is a very good reason this browser isn't terribly
feature-complete: it wasn't meant to be. Joerg was kind enough to
create the OS4 version as OWB primarily as a stopgap measure with the
planned coming of Timberwolf, the OS4 port of Firefox. Timberwolf is
finally here in its first incarnation, but unless you're running on an
AmigaOne X1000, you'll probably find performance to be a tad lacking
(more on that later). Nonetheless OWB become the default browser
on OS4. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, since as said before it
works beautifully. It's just feature poor as an application. As a
viewer into the Interwebs it succeeds brilliantly. It also
happens to be one of the most responsive -- from a user-interface
perspective, not HTML rendering -- browsers available.
Of course not everyone felt that way, and Joerg has been pummelled with
feature requests and other RFEs from users throughout the Amiga
community, and sometimes couched in not so-appreciative language.
Eventually Joerg just had enough, and said so. His OWB port is no
longer under development, at least officially. This is sad on many
levels, and so, to close, I would simply say that the existance of OWB
for OS4 was a primary requirement for my entrance into the Amiga
community; had it not existed, I never would have bothered purchasing a
SAM. 'Mad props' to Joerg for his work on this in the past. The
last available version, v3.32, is still available on Joerg's
web site.
MUIOWB (v1.9)
Although I would rather have had Joerg decide to renew OWB development
again, thanks to the work of several community members, the MorphOS
version of OWB was ported over to OS4 some months ago. Just like
Joerg's version it retains terrific standards compliance, but it also
brings a much more complete browser experience, including all of the
'missing' features of our current OWB listed earlier. Features like a
useful download manager, network manager (for managing specific
connections associated with elements in a web page), cookie manager,
excellent and extensive preferences, the ability to 'weed out' graphics
from advertising providers, and very nice and well-integrated
history management.
It's also a speedy devil. Although my SAM certainly doesn't have the
power of anything close to modern PCs -- or even PCs from nearly a
decade ago -- MUIOWB actually makes web browsing enjoyable again on my
Amiga rather than feeling like a chore. Javascript support so far has
proven excellent, and I haven't detected any specific rendering issues.
Since moving mostly over to my Pegasos, the browsing experience is even
better. Without a doubt, this is probably the most complete web browser
AmigaOS users have ever had. And it is my, and many others',
browser of choice on AmigaOS systems.
Figure 3: Screenshot of
MUIOWB
In a way I still don't like it as much as Joerg's on some levels. First
off the default MUI-based interface elements just look unpleasant. Of
course that's a subjective call; others may differ on that point. And
as it is only in its first release on our platform, stability is an
issue. I've gotten a couple of freezes at random, something which I've
never experienced with the 'older' OWB; and there are odd little
interface issues as well, like replacing fonts in certain interface
elements with a tiny size at random. Scrolling speed on most
pages is very sluggish as well, certainly more so that any other
browser I've used on my SAM to date, although it's better on the
Pegasos as one might imagine; and, finally, the font rendering looks
poor in comparison with what I see on other applications, including OWB
v3.32 and Netsurf v2.9. This hasn't changed since its initial
release, but the porting team have been granted access to the latest
source build from the MorphOS version, so hopefully things will get
cleaned up soon.
That said, it really is the best thing out there at the moment for
almost every user, and my criticisms above really are nit-picking. It
also represents a very nice cross-platform effort, something which is
rare given the animosity between certain elements of the AmigaOS and
MorphOS user base. Go ahead and download it from
os4depot and give it a
whirl. You'll end up using it as your default, no doubt.
Netsurf (v2.9)
Ah, now at first this seems more like the browser I've been looking
for. Like OWB for OS4, Netsurf includes a Reaction-based GUI, so it
looks and feels like a native OS4 application. It has a status window
for downloading files, a preferences manager, a bookmarks manager
(called a hotlist manager), and support for the AREXX scripting
langauge. It even has rudimentary printing support -- which doesn't
sound all that important until you want to print out a boarding pass
for an airline flight and find printing support is missing. Netsurf
also doesn't suffer from being a one-off or a product from a long-gone
company: it actually comes from a multi-platform, open-source project
in which the Amiga platform is an equal among many, not just an
afterthought. And it is supported by Unsatisfactory Software, authors
of well-known and popular AmigaOS software. When it iconifies onto the
Workbench, the icon is even a preview of the page you had been viewing,
which is a very nice touch.
I like Netsurf; I like it a lot. I like that fact that it can be
themed, I like the fact that is open-source software and the developers
are easily accessible and supportive of their users, and I like the
speed. It feels faster than MUIOWB on many sites, but like IBrowse,
there is a reason for that perceived speed: lack of function. In this
case no support for JavaScript. At all. In the late 1990s that didn't
matter too much. It probably didn't even matter that much a few years
ago. But today, if the web is considered a modern application platform
as much as an amorphous collection of static pages, JavaScript is the
engine that allows for that. So no Google Docs, no Facebook (well, that
could actually be considered a plus), and half-functionality on most
modern sites out there.
Figure 4: Screenshot of
Netsurf
A modern JavaScript interpreter is planned, but it will probably be a
very long time before it sees the light of day. That being said the CSS
support is excellent, as is modern HTML support -- so chances are if
you're trying to view a static page it will render just fine. So does
that mean that Netsurf should be your main browser, using OWB or MUIOWB
when JavaScript is needed?
Yes. Although it had suffered from stability issues on my SAM with past
versions past, now with v2.9, it's been rock-solid on both my SAM and
my Pegasos boxes. I'd like to see a more complete Download Manager
integrated at some point, and it still needs a better progress
indicator while downloading and rendering page elements. Scrolling
performance also dropped off starting with v2.9 -- but it's still darn
speedy. Chris is a tremendous guy steadily working on future
versions and this is a product which will no doubt improve with time.
If you haven't used Netsurf in a while, try it. You'll be surprised
just how good it is.
The Future
Timberwolf
For a great many years, starting with the AmiZilla project and ending
with the Timberwolf bounty, Amigans have yearned for a version of a
mainstream browser on their NG hardware. Ported by the incredibly
talented Frieden brothers as a private project, Timberwolf is a native
version of Mozilla Firefox for AmigaOS. It is by far the most feature
complete browsing experience available on any NG platform -- except
when it comes to Amiga-specific features. There are no Amiga
menus; there are no Amiga interface gadgets or scrollbars; there is no
printing support. This is a port and it
really feels like one.
Moreover the release candidates (the latest as of this writing) have
been painfully slow: slow to launch, slow to render, sluggish in
use. Now it should be pointed out that the Friedens know this,
and, more to the point, have made it as clear as humanly possible that
the first version's goals are stability and feature-completeness.
Performance and Amiga-specific functionality comes later. So everyone
should just hold their belly-aching for the moment.
I suppose I can't fault them: it is the right path to go, and after
such a long delay, it's nice to finally have something we can run on
our systems at long last. And on the AmigaOne X1000 it is very
performant indeed. I don't know why the performance differential
is bigger on other machines, but on the A1X1K, it really shines.
Firefox uses technologies which are also the basis for a host of other
applications sponsored by the Mozilla Organization, so having it on
AmigaOS helps to future-proof the platform somewhat as well as
demonstrate that the modern Amiga platform can take nearly anything you
throw at it.
I really think this is the browser of the future, the one we'll be
using in 2013 and years to come. But for the moment, unless you
have the latest Amiga NG machine, I can't really recommend it unless
there are Firefox plugins that are absolute requirements for you.
For me, I'll be anxiously waiting the next major release. It
should be terrific.
So what to use?
Ideally we'd have a performant, hardware-accelerated Timberwolf now,
resplendent in a native Amiga GUI. But for now, we wait. In the interim
there are three 'modern' browsers available. Leaving aside the issue of
interface 'beauty' issues, MUIOWB is probably the most feature-complete
option currently available. But what about performance? To answer this
I tried a few web sites with our three current choices. All times are
in seconds, they include everything from the moment the 'return' key is
hit until every element is downloaded and renders, and all caches were
cleared. The first set of numbers is from the original article,
running on a SAM440ep-flex machine at 667MHz:
MUIOWB RAOWB* Netsurf*
amigaworld.net 5.2 10.9 6.8
amiga.org 12.4 13.5 7.0
amigans.net 5.9 8.7 7.1
cnn.com 21.6 25.2 15.1
bbcnews.com 36.4 42.4 15.4
osnews.com 8.7 15.3 6.8
facebook.com 31.9 24.6 n/a
* these benchmarks were performed with previous versions
of RAOWB (v3.31) and Netsurf (v2.7)
The next set of numbers are from the latest builds available on a
Pegasos II system with a 1GHz G4 processor and 1GB of memory:
MUIOWB RAOWB Netsurf Timberwolf
amigaworld.net 3.6 3.6 4.6 9.8
amiga.org 7.8 8.0 6.5 9.8
amigans.net 5.5 7.6 3.4 5.2
cnn.com 13.4 25.1 6.7 14.4
bbcnews.com 13.7 21.6 9.1 19.8
osnews.com 3.5 19.6 4.0 8.9
facebook.com 19.7 30.1 n/a 41.6
So from this we see that MUIOWB is still the clear performance leader
over OWB v3.32 and Timberwolf, and Netsurf is certainly no slouch. It
might appear that Netsurf wipes the floor with its competitors, but
remember there is no Javascript support. So keep that in mind. For the
present I have all of 'em on my systems, including Ibrowse OEM, and
will keep them for various uses until the next version of Timberwolf
arrives.
What have been your experiences in this field? I'm looking for
constructive feedback (no insults or baiting, please) on the current
crop of OS4 browsers from OS4 users. To comment on your browser
experience on Amiga NG systems, please visit the
comment thread on AmigaWorld.
Written by:
Eldee Stephens (a.k.a. 'eliyahu')
25/07/12