Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Software Issues and Discussion => Topic started by: Malakie on August 09, 2021, 06:02:41 PM
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Hi,
Are AWEB and Ibrowse the only options we have for internet browsers? Are either of them supported?
Many websites I try do not load correctly or at all in either... This website is one example. If these are the only two options, I have to admit I am very surprised no one has updated them or come up with a new working browser for Amiga use with all the other support out there.
Being that both Edge and Chrome are using the same engine back end now and of course there is Firefox as well, on PC, has no one considered porting any of those three to Amiga OS?
While I can always use a PC for internet, I actually really wanted to use my Amigas for some online things directly without the hassle.
Any info on this?
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For classic Amigas you don't really have a better solution as they are too weak do decrypt modern security protocols without timeout errors.
With PPC and AmigaOS4+ you can run Odyssey browser, on MorphOS you even have a quite modern port called Wayfarer.
There is an option to provide a special proxy with adapted protocols for the Amiga part of your home network however.
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For classic Amigas you don't really have a better solution as they are too weak do decrypt modern security protocols without timeout errors.
With PPC and AmigaOS4+ you can run Odyssey browser, on MorphOS you even have a quite modern port called Wayfarer.
There is an option to provide a special proxy with adapted protocols for the Amiga part of your home network however.
Which is why I said I was surprised no one has adapted the open chromium (Edge and Chrome base engine) stuff to Amiga.. While a 68000 processor may not be able to handle the encryptions without time out, a 68020 with FPU/MMU should be able to do so.. But someone would have to port things to the Amiga in the first place.
I don't have an Amiga that can run 4.1 from what I have read of the basics of the Amiga OS 4.x stuff... Or does that OS actually work on all Amiga systems and I misunderstood?
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For classic Amigas you don't really have a better solution as they are too weak do decrypt modern security protocols without timeout errors.
With PPC and AmigaOS4+ you can run Odyssey browser, on MorphOS you even have a quite modern port called Wayfarer.
There is an option to provide a special proxy with adapted protocols for the Amiga part of your home network however.
Which is why I said I was surprised no one has adapted the open chromium (Edge and Chrome base engine) stuff to Amiga.. While a 68000 processor may not be able to handle the encryptions without time out, a 68020 with FPU/MMU should be able to do so.. But someone would have to port things to the Amiga in the first place.
Still too slow, not to mention the memory requirements.
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A quick Google search of “Chromium minimum ram” leads to a response containing these lines:
“64 MB RAM is probably not enough. You will not be able to load GMail with that much RAM, for example. I think the browser itself needs at least 100 MB without even showing a page.”
That’s considering only RAM requirements and running Chromium (the open source version of Chrome, on which the new Edge is based). Few real Amigas have that much RAM. We haven’t even begun to talk about the CPU requirements for non CSS websites, let alone heavy-content or decryption duties. I would guess even a properly programmed-from-the-ground-up Amiga-optimised browser using a Vampire-accelerated Amiga would still perform relatively slowly as a result.
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You have unrealistic expectations of what 68k hardware can do.
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For all practical purposes, IBrowse is the only choice for 68K. It doesn't support all modern web standards, but it does support modern encryption (slowly) and is wrapped within a very mature/stable and configurable UI. And it's actively maintained!
AWeb has not seen an update in roughly a decade. It's very obsolete at this point, but is pretty zippy as an offline HTML documentation viewer.
There's also NetSurf (http://aminet.net/package/comm/www/netsurf_os3), which supports (most?) modern web standards, but the 68K port is very resource intensive and still very beta. I think this has the potential to become a really good browser, but core NetSurf development is quite slow and then the 68K port requires more work on top of that. The OS4 version is very good at this point, though.
There's another version of NetSurf (http://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2020-06-00061-EN.html) based on an SDL engine that is even more resource intensive.
The final traditional Amiga browser was Voyager, but that's decades old at this point. I'm not even sure where to find it anymore.
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Actually from what I understand, Voyager is now open source. Not being a coder I have no idea if it's updateable. Aweb structure i hear was not friendly and was not really upgradeable.
Chris
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Slightly off topic but web related - there is also Amigemini which utilises the gemini protocol. Get it on Aminet http://aminet.net/search?query=gemini (http://aminet.net/search?query=gemini)