The newly-named Falkon web browser is now available for testing on Ubuntu and KDE Neon.
KDE Neon is adopting Snap packages as its containerised packaging format of choice (sorry Flatpak fans) and with Falkon now under the auspices of KDE its arrival as a Snap app was always a matter of when and not if.
“The browser formerly known as QupZilla has gained a better name Falkon and a better home, KDE. This bring quality web browsing back to native KDE software for the first time in some years. It’s a pleasingly slick experience using QtWebEngine and integrating with all the parts of Plasma you’d expect,” KDE Neon writes in a short blog post to publicise both Falkon and its Snap package.
Install Falkon on Ubuntu & KDE Neon
If you use KDE Neon — and you’re up to date — you should have the requisite KDE Frameworks platform Snap already installed.
If you don’t, or you’re reading from a regular Ubuntu machine, or you’re just not sure, you can install the KDE platform snap using this command:
sudo snap install kde-frameworks-5
The KDE Frameworks platform snap is a smidgen above 200MB in size so if you’re on a slow connection do be prepared for a little wait while everything is downloaded and mounted in to place.
Once the KDE frameworks snap is installed you can go ahead and install Falkon from the edge (development) channel of the Snap store. How? By running this command:
sudo snap install falkon --edge
Falkon is a modest 3.2MB in size as the bulk of its, well, bulk is provided by the KDE frameworks snap.
And that (all things going well) is that; you can launch Falkon from your app menu of choice, and use it just like a regular app. Admittedly theming won’t look too great on a regular GTK+ based desktop (as pictured) but those of you running it on the Plasma desktop should find that it blends in well.
Remember: this is a development snapshot of a browser that is will continue to be refined and developed under its new name over the coming months. Most of the internal links, branding, and so on you will find inside the browser still reference the old name, ‘QupZilla’.
If you take the Falkon snap app for a spin do pop back and let us know your thoughts on it. We’re fairly taken with it, not least because it’s swell to have a solid Qt-based web browser as an option.