I think there's a need for a browser that's as full featured as possible and runs well on those quad-core Raspberry Pi's with less memory, particularly those models with 512MB (Zero 2W or 3a+), but also those models with 1GB (Pi 2, 3B, 3B+, 4, 5, and CM3/4). (I don't mean the single-core Model A or B or Zero.) By "well" I mean that it handles all pages within its remit correctly and that it's not noticeably sluggish doing so. By "as full featured as possible", I mean it can handle as many features from the modern web as possible, within the limits of the "no sluggishness" clause above.
People are bound to disagree about what should or shouldn't be included, but we can at least discuss the possibilities.
This search for a capable but resource-light browser is very much complicated by the fact that so many browsers are based on the same few engines, and those engines seem to be shooting for the greatest possible capability, at the expense of massive memory usage.
I've posted some stats here, about the memory usage of various browsers when looking at Raspberry Pi's own "getting started pages". I included some that are way too big for the task (chromium, falcon, firefox, conqueror, epiphany), one that isn't capable enough though very light (netsurf-gtk), and only one (basilisk) that might fit the bill. I would be happy to rerun tests if anyone has additional browser suggestions.
I come to this topic as someone who's been supporting a very lightweight kiosk-like system for many years. Long ago, I could run chromium on a Pi Zero (not a Zero 2W, an original zero!). I eventually moved to the quad-core 3A+ and Zero 2W for better performance, but eventually browser bloat made running chromium in that little memory impossible. I moved to midori, then to netsurf-gtk. Note: netsurf-gtk can handle my simple pages, but can't handle normal but more complicated pages like this forum, or the Raspberry Pi docs. I've posted stats that show huge memory usage from most browsers, EVEN on the tiny and simple html that my system produces - see here.
Is it even possible for a single browser to fill this space? Would we need two of them (light and lighter)?
Otherwise, I can't think of how to solve this, except creating a browser that can be compiled with different capabilities, a modular browser that only loads capabilities as needed at run time, or one that can be detuned via command line options.
I felt strongly enough about this that I even suggested that Raspberry Pi find a likely candidate and support it financially until it works.
Please weigh in...
People are bound to disagree about what should or shouldn't be included, but we can at least discuss the possibilities.
This search for a capable but resource-light browser is very much complicated by the fact that so many browsers are based on the same few engines, and those engines seem to be shooting for the greatest possible capability, at the expense of massive memory usage.
I've posted some stats here, about the memory usage of various browsers when looking at Raspberry Pi's own "getting started pages". I included some that are way too big for the task (chromium, falcon, firefox, conqueror, epiphany), one that isn't capable enough though very light (netsurf-gtk), and only one (basilisk) that might fit the bill. I would be happy to rerun tests if anyone has additional browser suggestions.
I come to this topic as someone who's been supporting a very lightweight kiosk-like system for many years. Long ago, I could run chromium on a Pi Zero (not a Zero 2W, an original zero!). I eventually moved to the quad-core 3A+ and Zero 2W for better performance, but eventually browser bloat made running chromium in that little memory impossible. I moved to midori, then to netsurf-gtk. Note: netsurf-gtk can handle my simple pages, but can't handle normal but more complicated pages like this forum, or the Raspberry Pi docs. I've posted stats that show huge memory usage from most browsers, EVEN on the tiny and simple html that my system produces - see here.
Is it even possible for a single browser to fill this space? Would we need two of them (light and lighter)?
Otherwise, I can't think of how to solve this, except creating a browser that can be compiled with different capabilities, a modular browser that only loads capabilities as needed at run time, or one that can be detuned via command line options.
I felt strongly enough about this that I even suggested that Raspberry Pi find a likely candidate and support it financially until it works.
Please weigh in...
Statistics: Posted by tinker2much — Thu Feb 12, 2026 9:22 pm — Replies 1 — Views 44