Test Driving Linux

Chapter 2. Surf the Web

Depending on how much time you spend on the Internet, your web browser may be one of the most important programs on your computer. Just a few years ago, Linux users had only one graphical web browser available: the venerable Netscape Communicator. But today, Linux users are treated to a wide selection of world-class web browsers, including two browsers based upon Netscape—Mozilla and the wildly popular Firefox—and a commercial offering called Opera.

The default web browser on the Move CD is Konqueror , a full-featured browser that is part of the KDE desktop environment. In fact, the technology behind Konqueror is compelling enough that Apple chose to base its own Mac OS X web browser, called Safari, on Konqueror's code. And because the Konqueror project is open source, Apple returned their improvements back to the community—their changes were added to Konqueror to make it even better.

Jack of all trades

The Konqueror file manager you'll learn about in Chapter 3 and the web browser covered in this chapter are one and the same. Konqueror is not just a program; it also provides a framework for running whatever programs its creators choose to embed into it. That includes programs such as FTP clients, terminal windows, PDF and image viewers, and even a tool for CD ripping and MP3 encoding.

These days, it's worth trying an open source web browser for security reasons alone. Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser has proven to be riddled with security holes that ...