Midori 0.2.5 Released!

By , Published May 16, 2010

Just a few minutes ago, I received an email from Christian, the lead developer of Midori, letting me know that version 0.2.5 was just released. My instant reaction? “HOORAY!”

In case you hadn’t seen, I personally am a fan, and have set out discussing some of the good and the bad of Midori, and comparing it with Chrome. While my conclusion has been that Midori is not quite a replacement primary browser, this is one step closer to a brilliant and modern full GTK browser (Yeah, Epiphany just doesn’t cut it. For me, at least). Lets look at some of the areas I’ve pointed out as weaknesses in the past.

 Interface

While not much has changed in the interface, there are a few touch-ups that make me feel a bit more at home. SSL validation is now indicated in the location background color, as well as a fullscreen clock to keep users from loosing track of time. While there has not been much progression in the area of ease of customization of appearance, this is really a matter of implementation rather than feature, as there is already capability of customizing, just not in an easy drag and drop fashion. In addition, some small updates allow for better panel adaptation to system theme, and a new spinner widget! (Yes, I really am that excited about something so little. :D)


Browsing

Ease of browsing has been simplified in several ways. First of all, mouse gestures has been defaulted to right click, with possibility of changing back, and speed dial has been given the capability of responding to keyboard pushes.


Extras

First of all, as stated mouse gestures has been updated, as has colorful tabs, which now respond to the color of the icon in the tab. But bigger than little tiny changes, Vala support has been added for extensions. That is super awesome, and while there isn’t much built in available, experimental folk can get started on extending any which way they want.

You can read the full announcement here, as well as getting the download tar, and the full ChangeLog here.

Article originally appeared on omgubuntu.co.uk

Related posts:

  1. Midori 0.2.4: The good & the Bad
  2. Midori 0.2.3 Released
  3. Midori 0.2.0 Released
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  • Jon

    You, uh, forgot some spaces there.

    • Anonymous

      yeah, for some reason draft.blogger decided to delete them when I went back in to add tags. Its done it to me before, still not sure why. oh well. its fixed now!

  • Xorlathor

    I don’t mean to stamp on Midori, but I honestly don’t see why anybody would use it. It’s fast, granted, but it’s not significant enough over Chrome or even FF to switch. Other than that, there’s really not a single reason to use it, and I have no clue why someone would want to use such a ugly and feature-less browser over something established. Midori certainly has potential, but I’m not even considering using it again after my last test run until it overgoes a _major_ GUI update and a new unique feature set. The fact that you’re excited about something like a spinner widget probably means that a small little thing like that is significant, and that kinda proves that the GUI stinks.So yes, the guys working on Midori have done an excellent job creating the base or concrete foundation (speed and stability) for a browser, now all they need to do is make it pretty and fun to use!

    p.s. On the random note, FF 4 (or 3.7 or whatev) is going to have a sweet new look (https://wiki.mozilla.org/firefox/4.0_Windows_Theme_Mockups) and a improved Gecko engine, but anyone have a clue what it’ll look like in Ubuntu or if Canonical is switching to Chrome for the default browser?

    • Anonymous

      I want to use it because its native GTK. Thats reason enough for me. The fact that a tiny developer base has brought something as good as it is gives me a lot of hope for its future feature set. Right now they’re working a lot of behind the scenes stuff, rather then gui stuff.

      • Xorlathor

        Excuse me for being ignorant :P – what’s so good about native GTK? If I understand correctly, GTK is just a window manager, right? That’s not too different from window decorators like Compiz or Emerald, so what exactly does native GTK mean?

        • Anonymous

          basically, where firefox and chrome have their own themes and must be adjusted to match my current theme, midori is GTK, and so uses the same toolkit to draw its interface as the rest of my desktop. Thus, when I change my desktop colors, so will midori. Its a native app and will look native, instead of having to be altered to fit.

          • Xorlathor

            Well is there any efficiency issues when FF or Chrome adjust their themes to fit your current GTK, or is it simply about looks? Because Chrome seems to perfectly fit it once I change the option to fit GTK.

          • Anonymous

            not necessarily. but there are issues with both firefox and chrome operating on a different set of rules. they interact differently with other parts of the desktop and such. I honestly don’t have enough technical knowledge to explain it properly, but it does help to have things drawn under the same toolkit and with the same rules. browsers tend to be the one thing that doesn’t do this, so i personally think it would suit ubuntu better to have a native browser.

          • Xorlathor

            Okay, I get your point that the look could be messed up if it wasn’t drawn properly because it was sorta “faking” it due to not being a native app, but everything looks fine for me with Chrome on the GTK option – oh well. I think we can both agree Midori has a ton of potential and has a powerful, fast engine, I just happen to think it needs a GUI update before it’s worthy to be used. ;-)

            Anyway hope that GUI refresh isn’t _too_ far away!

          • Anonymous

            I don’t understand what you mean about a GUI refresh. There can’t really be much a GUI refresh because it uses GTK. Whatever you theme is, that is how it looks. If you don’t like the default toolbar configuration, customize it!

            But if you can put into words what you mean by GUI refresh, I’m sure Christian would want to hear it :)

          • Xorlathor

            GUI refresh means a modern look: Curves, transparency, clear-cut buttons and a sharp color tone that stands out but integrates with the desktop at the same time.

          • Anonymous

            yea lol. thats your GTK theme. You want round buttons? Use a theme with round buttons.

            Once again, Midori doesn’t draw custom widgets, it uses GTK.

          • http://cldx.blogspot.com/ Joern Konopka

            you really should spend an extended night at

            http://gnome-look.org ^^

            Or simply install the elementary stuff, its crazy awesome

            http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2009/12/elementary-theme-gets-ppa.html

        • Anonymous

          GTK is not a window manager, its a widget toolkit. So, buttons, scrollbars, tabs, entries, etc etc.

          There’s a lot of good things :) The most obvious one to the end-user is desktop integration. Midori respects your theme fully and behaves like the rest of your apps.

          In Firefox, you’ll often notice that some of the icons are inconsistent with the rest of the system. This is because Firefox ships its own custom Tango icons and doesn’t allow them to be themed.

          Also Chromium, for example, doesn’t use the standard GNOME printing stuff, so printing support in Chromium isn’t very good. If you can print in any other app, you can print in Midori.

          Also, unlike Chromium and Firefox, Midori (being GTK) is able to be used with the GlobalMenu applet. This is the new standard in Ubuntu Netbook Edition.

          These are just some of the more apparent advantages of it being a native GTK app. But there are other advantages, like it using the same libraries as the rest of your apps, ensuring that when you get an update the whole system (including your browser) feels it. Also, it takes up less memory and storage since you don’t need to load a whole different widget toolkit for one special app.

          All in all, native GTK is a MAJOR plus.

    • Seventh Reign

      The reason to use it: Facebook Flashgames under GNU/Linux. Most of them do not work, at all, with Firefox, Chromium, or Opera. They ‘used’ to work Flawlessly with Midori, and Arora.

      Recent changes to flash have made none of the browsers work, however I’m willing to bet Midori and Arora will be back to working normally before the other 3 work at all.

    • http://cldx.blogspot.com/ Joern Konopka

      GTK is not a Window Manager, its a ToolKit (not unlike WinForms), the Window Manager would be Metacity ;)How is Midori ugly? its not more or less ugly than any other GTK App. Its all about the Theme and sorry, but i care more about the Website im browsing than the Navigation having the nicer gradient or have Dropdown-Menus fade-in or slide down.Youre not really making a comparison between a small independently developed native browser and Google are you? Especially Extension-wise, fine, Google and FF might actually have 3 quadzillion Extension, how many of them are really useful? I use exactly ONE extension, its synching my Bookmarks. Done. Everything else is handled by my Desktop cause my Browser is NOT my Desktop ;)Having a native App is better cause:-Fundamental changes to the ToolKit or the DE are instantly transferred right to the EndUser-We dont use proprietary Libraries which ensures the Software will remain free now and in the future-We just love our native Apps and want to expand them instead of trading em in for Software we cannot control anymore.AND:Chrome cant tag Bookmarks, eat that! xD Why should anybody use this feature-less Crap?Youre running on a real harsh route here, but before bashing any Software for being crap you should ask yourself several questions:1. Could i do better with the given Time/Money/Environment?2. Isn’t contributing more productive than premature judgement?3. Will the Win7 FF Mockups ever translate to Ubuntu in a nice way?

      • Xorlathor

        “How is Midori ugly?”

        I think you answered that question yourself – “the Navigation having the nicer gradient or have Dropdown-Menus fade-in or slide down.”

        If you could think of those two things, I’m sure you could think of more. And nowadays, any app that wants to have a chance can’t just think of the Geeks among us, it has to think of the common user – and the common user doesn’t “care more about the website they’re browsing in,” I know many people who would choose their entire OS just because it “looked better” than the other options.

        Midori doesn’t really stay out of the way of the website you’re browsing like Chrome does, it takes a rather significant chuck of screen estate from the top. If it’s going to take up that much room, it better make it look nice.

        “Youre not really making a comparison between a small independently developed native browser and Google are you?”

        You obviously know much more about the technical details than I do when it comes to window management and the such, but yes, I am absolutely comparing them. It is unfair, a independent developer shouldn’t be compared to such giant companies as FF and Google, but I’m forced to. I (the consumer) am using what I think is best and I’m not going to categorize my options depending on how big the company or person behind them is.

        “Especially Extension-wise, fine, Google and FF might actually have 3 quadzillion Extension, how many of them are really useful?”

        Definitely not all 3 quadzillion of them, but alot more than that one bookmark syncing extension you’re using. And remember, the amazing thing about the huge database of extensions and addons for FF and Chrome is that the user has options. Whether they’re a gamer, office user, or average grandparent, there’s a 95% chance they’ll be able to find the right extension they need in that database – people have different needs and something completely ridiculous to you and me may be a necessity to someone else.

        “Everything else is handled by my Desktop cause my Browser is NOT my Desktop”

        These days are times of change. The differentiation between the desktop and browser is getting smaller and smaller. With Google’s Chrome OS coming out this year, giant pushes toward the capability of html5 by Apple, and gaming previously only available on Windows computers working on the web, the desktop as we know it may disappear completely and be replaced with the all-powerful browser.

        “Chrome cant tag Bookmarks, eat that! xD Why should anybody use this feature-less Crap?”

        Tagging is only for people that have way too many bookmarks than they can handle and don’t know how to organize them properly. =D

        “Could i do better with the given Time/Money/Environment?”

        If I watch the Olympics, am I allowed to criticize the competitors? Do I have to go through the same years of training they went through to do that? I didn’t think so. The same applies here, I can give suggestions and criticism without having to match who I’m giving feedback for. I live in America – freedom of speech is pretty awesome.

        “Isn’t contributing more productive than premature judgement?”

        Firstly, I’m a highschooler and am yet to learn coding – I’m planning to take classes soon. But yes, once I do, I would contribute, but only to what I see proper. And Midori may or may not qualify.

        “Will the Win7 FF Mockups ever translate to Ubuntu in a nice way? ”

        With FF getting a bunch of users through Ubuntu and the possible consideration for 11.04 to switch to Chromium, the FF people may push their support for FF 4 even more to try to get on the good side of the Canonical devs so that they’ll stay the default – But it’s all in the air now. So we should wait and see.

        Wow I seem to get crazy reactions wherever I open my big mouth of blogs! =D Sorry if I seemed judgmental or too critical, I know what I want and I’m not afraid to tell others what it is, but I don’t mean any harm. So great job Christian for creating such an amazing browser without almost any support, and thank you for all the commentators that have replied to me despite my sometimes-rather-stupid-or-snide-remarks. ;-)

        • http://cldx.blogspot.com/ Joern Konopka

          Wow, you took this way too serious at some points, but whatever, just be assured i didn’t mean to offend your knowledge or you as a person. But you shouldn’t be surprised you get some crazy reactions, you took Midori, chewed it up, spit it out, called it a piece of Trash and sodomized it in a single session Dude, what did you expect? xDBut seriously, im not an Ass, i just wanted to give you a little insight on how your critique is not valid in several points or at some other points could`ve been easily targeted towards evolving the Browser instead of just bashing it with a Needle Stick. And you know i was just playing with your own words on the Bookmark Tagging part right?Lets look at some stuff you pointed out, i’ll be humble i promise ;)”I know many people who would choose their entire OS just because it “looked better” than the other options.”- i pity them, it might be reality, but its really sad, anyhow, Ubuntu is an ever-progressing environment and as of late there have been some major improvements UI-wise and with RGBA around the corner we might get even more fancyness out of the box. But it should always remain functionality first, nice UI second. UI is changed quickly, bad core development can cost you months or valuable development time.”Midori doesn’t really stay out of the way of the website you’re browsing like Chrome does”-What are you talking about? If you disable the Menu like on Chrome its pretty much the same, with me Midori is even smaller, but that might just be me.”I’m not going to categorize my options depending on how big the company or person behind them is.”-Okay, fair enough, competition is a good thing, but come on, youre talking about a single program of an OS with less than 1% Marketshare (till NOW Google/MS/Mac!!) versus freakin Google Dev Base, i know i am pretty awesome but i usually don`t do the Kanye West, you dig? (Translation: I dont compare myself to the Allmighty..). Comparison is a good thing but we know what handicaps got invented for right? So we start from a fair point of view.”the desktop as we know it may disappear completely and be replaced with the all-powerful browser”-Umm, Google OS is not really a Browser in the traditional sense, its a full OS developed for small form-factors, i don’t see it take over any Workspaces, its more like a Netbook and GPad thing. We`re gonna be seeing usual Desktops for a long time to come with people actually really producing anything and not just comsuming. Don`t get me wrong, i love my Netbook, its such a lovely time waster, but use Inkscape on it? The Pain!Furthermore, if the Web comes right to the Desktop like on Google OS, isn’t it more like the Browser is dissappearing in favor of the Mixed Web/Local Content, than it is the OS dissapearing in favor of only Browser Content? ;) “Firstly, I’m a highschooler and am yet to learn coding”-Dont sweat it, im a complete GTK-Noob, i just know a bit more cause i used Ubuntu for a longer period of time, thats probably the whole story..i can code though, just not yet with GTK (im looking into Python a lot right now).For the FF Mockups, i just meant that they are probably gonna look a lot different on Ubuntu than they are looking for Win7 since we don’t have all that Aero look-n-feel and Transparency fancyness (yet).Stay cool.

    • Anonymous

      why dont you try the ff4 linux theme

      http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/01/get-firefox-4-theme-in-linux-now.html

      looks pretty sweet

      with the new ubuntu colors should look even better

  • bhm

    What’s so good about these colored tabs? What’s the use for them?

    I want to have crash on Midori, but not the other way.
    GTK/Webkit/Opera-like extensions, I’m in but please be more “website-compatible” and stop going Stephen Hawking, babe.

  • Anonymous

    if there was some way i could sync my google chrome’s bookmark with midori and it had some way of saving passwords i would use it more. to me currently its chrome>midori>opera>firefox>empathy when it comes to browsers in ubuntu.

    • Anonymous

      you mean epiphany right?

      because empathy is the chat client

      • Anonymous

        yeah thats what i meant lol

  • Anonymous

    i think the epiphany guys should drop it and use midori instead
    just like konqueror got the boot for Rekonq

    we’re getting some progress here

  • Anonymous

    Password manager and Auto-complete for fields needed :>
    Thanks for your extra fast browser

    • Anonymous

      Have you tried “Form history filler” extension?

  • KlavKalashj

    Great! I’m using 0.2.4 atm, waiting for the new one to hit the repositorys. There are some issues I’m hoping to be fixed, I’m excited! I really like midori, it’s great. It has almost all I need. Too bad it’s not very good with bookmarks…