Web Browsers In Debian

To Install Addons in IceWeasel.

*MANY ADDONS SUCH AS ADBLOCK PLUS NO LONGER WORK IN IceWeasel 3.0.6. See the page about Debian-Backports*

Since this is the case, I no longer recommend addons for iceweasel/firefox, instead a "hosts" file which can be downloaded from http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm. Save to file as "hosts" without the ".txt" extension and copy it (as root/admin user) to your /etc directory. This negates the need for many of the addons that come with Mozilla based browsers. Also a hosts file works independently of your browser and will block all sorts of annoyances regardless of which browser you are using.

Iceweasel is the Firefox clone that comes with Debian. There is kind of a bug in IceWeasel and addons from Mozilla will not install with the default setup. To sort this issue start by typing "about:config" into the address bar, click on the "I'll be careful" button or just hit enter to get the config menu. In the filter bar type "ipv6" and it will bring up the network.dns.disableIPv6 option. The default is "false" and you need to double click on this to make it "true". Once this is done you can install Mozilla addons to your hearts content.

*If you use IceWeasel from backports.org, most of the above is irrelevant, however I do still recommend using a 'hosts' file.

SwiftFox

http://getswiftfox.com is a great option for browsing in Debian. Swiftfox works regardless of which branch of Debian you are using and the add ons from http://addons.mozilla.org will work without fuss. What you need to bear in mind is which build of swiftfox you run and making sure it is appropriate to your computer.

SRWare Iron

SRWare Iron is a browser based on googles chrome browser but it does not report to google.com at all. I have found it to be *extremely* quick compared to the Mozilla based browsers.

This browser is available from http://www.srware.net/en and follow your nose to download the code. Note that this browser will only work on Debian testing (currently) and Unstable. The libs in Lenny are once again too out of date.