It may not be as fast, featured or famous as the big-name browsers but GNOME’s ‘Web’ is quietly emerging from the sidelines as a competent, compelling alternative.
The latest release of the browser, which is also known as ‘Epiphany’, underlines this growing maturity by adding polish, refinement and, most impressively, a notable under-the-hood change.
No One Tab To Rule Them All
Per-tab process support is the headline feature of Web 3.11.4. Each tab now runs independently, rather than, as before, in a single, collective process. Along with improving overall performance, segmenting of tab processes should help ensure that when one tab goes rogue the whole browser doesn’t crash with it.
Sifting through previously visited sites is made easier with a redesigned ‘History’ window and new options to sort entries by date or page title.
Elsewhere, popup windows now respect window settings, and header bars are enabled on browser dialogs.
The changes featuring in Web 3.11.4 will arrive as part of GNOME 3.12 due for release in early April. While Ubuntu 14.04 LTS will ship with GNOME 3.10 a PPA containing the newer release will be available for those wishing to use it.