Ubuntu Wiki

• Launchpad Entry: https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+spec/epiphany-default-browser

• Created: Date(2006-04-19T13:11:54Z) by LionelDricot

• Contributors: LionelDricot

• Packages affected:

Summary

This spec is intended to track wheter or not it is worth changing the default Ubuntu browser from Firefox to Epiphany and, if yes, what must be improved and/or changed in Epiphany.

Rationale

As we ship GNOME, it seems logical, in order to have a more consistent environement, to ship GNOME browser, namely Epiphany.

Having the default GNOME browser would simplify a lot of things in the long run : security, support, translation, desktop integration, artwork. Also, Epiphany is more or less independant of the backend engine. If, in a not so distant future, anyone release another html engine, Epiphany could be ported in order to use it.

Given that now Epiphany can be compiled against XUL-runner (see http://blogs.gnome.org/view/epiphany/2005/11/20/0 ) and that Edgy is all about taking some risks, it's *the* release to test Epiphany as the default browser. If it's a disaster, we could always back to firefox on Edgy+1

Use cases

• Arthur has no computer experience. His friend installed Ubuntu and he want to "surf the web" like everyone is saying. He look for something named "surf the web". He expect it to be simple to learn and to use.
• Zaphod has little Windows experience. He knows that internet is the little blue icon named explorer. His friend, who installed Ubuntu, told him that, in Ubuntu, it's called "browser". Zaphod want his browser as simple and easy as the old explorer.
• Trillian is an advanced user. She likes to install Firefox on new Windows systems. She wants to install Firefox on her new Ubuntu system but she wants to do it herself because "Firefox is only for supreme power users like me and I like the feeling of installing it where average users don't even know about it !". This is also a good way to learn how to install software on Ubuntu.
• Marvin is a non-technical user but he likes to surf the web. He doesn't want to learn technical thing but he heard about "extensions to block popups", "extensions to blocks ads", "rss syndication". He want to use that but without learning more than "where must I check the corresponding box ?".

Scope

This spec is only for Ubuntu and all Gnome Ubuntu derivatives.

Design

Implementation

Code

Data preservation and migration

• If you are using Firefox in Dapper and you are upgrading to Edgy, will you be forced to use Epiphany unless you explicitely say it otherwise? Or, to the contrary, only fresh install of Edgy will show the difference.
• There must be a simple way (druid?) to import cookies, history, bookmarks, passwords from Firefox to Epiphany.

Outstanding issues

• Firefox has its own RSS managment. In epiphany we have four options:
  1. Disable the RSS extension by default
  2. Enable the RSS extension and install a compatible RSS reader by default (liferea)
  3. Create an extension to handle RSS the way Firefox does
  4. Create a separate "epiphany-rss" package that depends on liferea (which should also use XUL-runner as a backend), thus making RSS support both optional and simple to install.
• Tabs suddently disappear in a scary way in Epiphany, not very friendly to newbies or power users. That's a showstopper as far as I'm concerned.

  • https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/gtk+2.0/+bug/30749

  • http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=330676

  • http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=124068

    • An Unofficial extension called "Only One Close Button" at http://www.sstuhr.dk/epiphany-extensions/ fixes this, but also removes each tab's close button, which is probably not desired.

BoF agenda and discussion

A lot of discussions is available here : https://wiki.ubuntu.com/EpiphanyDefaultBrowserThoughts

* CelsoPinto: Choosing Epiphany as the default browser is a good thing because Epiphany supports ZeroConf bookmarks and Ubuntu is moving towards ZeroConf everywhere.

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