A new stable release of KDE web-browser Rekonq is available for download.
Billed as being ‘light, fast, and clean’, the QtWebKit-based browser offers up a nimble, feature-rich browsing experience, albeit one without much in the way of distinguishing features when compared against Google Chrome, Firefox or Opera.
So what’s new in version 0.8? A fair bit, most notably
- Support for ‘Third Party’ AdBlock rules
- “Do Not Track” feature
- Ctrl+Num shortcuts for ‘favourite’ sites
- Option to restore a tab’s browsing history.
Further details of this release can be read in a blog post by KDE developer Andrea Diamantini.
Performance
Stability seems marginally better than in previous releases. I only experienced a single crash during a 30 minute browsing period. This isn’t a scientific benchmark by any means, but previous builds were often far worse.
All of the sites I visited loaded quickly, but were a handful of seconds slower than the same pages visited in either Google Chrome or Firefox 7 – Kubuntu 11.10’s default browser.
Install Rekonq 0.8 in Ubuntu
Rekonq 0.8 can be installed in Ubuntu via a number of methods.
Source packages (which require compiling) are available via the project’s SourceForge page.
A user-maintained PPA containing Rekonq 0.8 for Ubuntu 11.04 and 11.10 users is also available.
Users wishing to install from this PPA should note that it also contains the development snapshots of Amarok, Clementine and DigiKam – which will also be upgraded should you add it.
- ppa:hrvojes/kde-goodies