Ubuntu Wiki

This page is an open discussion about whether or not to consider Epiphany as a default browser instead of Firefox. The proposed switch to Epiphany is not suggested for the Breezy Badger release, but is aimed at Breezy+1.

Note: This page is not endorsed by any Ubuntu developer and is only an open discussion. There is no official plan to replace Firefox by Epiphany.

Note: This is also not a discussion about what features should be added to Epiphany or Firefox.

What must be a default browser ?

A default browser must be simple enough and doesn't need a lot of features by default. (to complete)

What think the average Joe user about Epihany or Firefox ?

Most of average users don't care at all. In fact, they don't see any difference if you ask them.

In favor of Epiphany as the default

• Epiphany is well integrated with GNOME and follows the global theme and global options (like displaying text beside buttons, GNOME proxy settings, etc).
• Epiphany follows the GNOME release schedule making it easier to synchronize new releases of Epiphany with new releases of Ubuntu.
• Epiphany's tab handling is generally better than Firefox's (although this is set to change when Firefox 1.5 arrives, and is improved by some Firefox extensions)
• Epiphany has "session saving" built in - which means that if for some reason it does crash, it will ask "do you want to restore you previously open pages" when restarting. Although there is a Firefox extensions that does this, it is not installed by default.
• Epiphany follows the GNOME Human Interface Guidelines which helps it feel more consistent with the rest of the GNOME desktop. For example, the preferences dialog uses tabs and takes a more simple approach than that of Firefox.
• Epiphany seems to use less RAM, possibly because it utilizes GTK+ without the overhead of XUL. Lower resource requirements are important to keep in mind when trying to gain marketshare in countries where older computers are more common.
• Translations are easier because of Epiphany's I10n support.
• Epiphany adheres to freedesktop .org bookmarks standards (XBEL), which is also used in Galeon, Konqueror and some other browsers. There is a firefox "Bookmark Synchroniser" plugin that can import/export to this format.
• Bookmarks can be imported from Firefox/Mozilla, Galeon, or Epiphany to make retaining bookmarks easy. They can exported to Firefox/Mozilla if the user decides to use Firefox instead.
• On middle-config (between 600MHz and 1GHz), Epiphany is much faster and doesn't eat 100% of CPU when an adress is not responding

In favor of Firefox as the default

• Firefox is well known and has lots of "hype"

• Better handling when you have lot of tabs (see [http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=153792 Epi bug #153792])

• Having Firefox will help ease transition for users of Windows and MacOS, as Firefox is available on those platforms. However, Firefox has a few interface differences between platforms which can confuse users who expect Firefox on Windows to be identical to Firefox on Linux. (e.g. "Preferences" menu entry is under "Tools" in Windows but it is under "Edit" in Linux, clicking the URL entry area once in Windows selects all text but clicking once in Linux does not, etc.)

• Firefox extensions make it easy for users to really personalize their browser for a better surfing experience. Even if Epiphany currently has its epiphany-extensions package, Firefox has some widely-installed extensions that Epiphany has no equivalent for (yet). The most commonly referred-to one is Adblock - although Epiphany has a plan for an equivalent http://live.gnome.org/Epiphany_2fAdBlockExtension (This is, IMHO, not an argument since it's only a power user tool. You cannot provide by default a browser that alter the web like AdBlock! So, the extension is not to be installed by default and must not be considered, like many extensions, as an argument. Same apply to webdev extension (wich is very cool, but is a no necessity for the Average Joe) or the Gmail Notifier (which is only useful if you do use Gmail).)

General points

• Firefox contains more "power user" features, which could be argued as a good point by both sides.
• Firefox supports keywords in the address bar "google search term" (use google to search for "search term") or "dict word" (to look up "word" in an online dictionary), whereas in Epiphany "keymarks / smart bookmarks" appear as a dropdown menu from the address bar.

* Firefox has a search field in the toolbar, which can be configured to use different search engines. In Epiphany any 'smark bookmark' can be put into the bookmark bar, which creates an entry field - this allows users to have boxes for dictionary lookup, babelfish translation, etc.

Outstanding issues with Epiphany

• Epiphany currently depends on the Firefox packages, so to run Epiphany, Firefox needs to be installed. This could be dealt with by creating a seperate Gecko package, on which Firefox, Epiphany, Galeon, Mozilla, Thunderbird and all other Gecko-powered applications would depend on.

Related Links

• Epiphany-Firefox comparison on Epiphany site http://live.gnome.org/Epiphany_2fFirefoxComparision

• "Should Firefox be the default Gnome browser"? http://live.gnome.org/Epiphany_2fFrequentlyAskedQuestions#head-ba622057b4fb0e671c16b6d9868912f8af22bec0