Comparison of web browsers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Some information in this article or section has not been verified and may not be reliable.
Please check for inaccuracies, and modify and cite sources as needed.

The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of web browsers. Please see the individual products' articles for further information. This article is not all-inclusive or necessarily up-to-date.

Contents

[edit] General information

Basic general information about the browsers: creator/company, license/price etc.

Browser Creator Cost (USD) Open source Software license Current layout engine
Amaya W3C, INRIA Free Yes W3C ?
AOL Explorer America Online, Inc Free No Proprietary Trident
Avant Avant Force Free No Proprietary Trident
Camino The Camino Project Free Yes MPL, MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license Gecko
Dillo Arellano Cid, Geerken, Rota, et al. Free Yes GPL Gzilla
ELinks Baudis, Fonseca, et al. Free Yes GPL ?
Epiphany GNOME Free Yes GPL Gecko
Flock Flock Inc Free Yes GPL,MPL/LGPL tri-license Gecko
Galeon Marco Pesenti Gritti Free Yes GPL Gecko
IceWeasel GNU Free Yes GPL,MPL/LGPL tri-license Gecko
iCab Alexander Clauss Free,
$29 (Pro)		 No Proprietary iCab
Internet Explorer Microsoft,
Spyglass		 Free No Proprietary Trident
Internet Explorer for Mac (discontinued) Microsoft Free No Proprietary Tasman
K-Meleon Doozan, Erikson, Vallet, et al. Free Yes GPL Gecko
Konqueror KDE Free Yes GPL KHTML
Links Patocka, et al. Free Yes GPL ?
Lynx Montulli, Grobe, Rezac, et al. Free Yes GPL ?
Maxthon MySoft Free No Proprietary Trident, Gecko
Mosaic Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina, NCSA Free (non-commercial) No Proprietary built-in
Mozilla Mozilla Foundation Free Yes MPL, MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license Gecko
Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Foundation Free Yes MPL, MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license Gecko
Netscape (v.6-7) † Netscape Communications Corporation, AOL Free No Proprietary, MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license Gecko
Netscape Browser (v.8) † Mercurial Communications for AOL Free No Proprietary, MPL, GPL/LGPL tri-license Trident, Gecko
Netscape Communicator (v.4) † Netscape Communications Free No Proprietary ?
Netscape Navigator (v.1-4) † Netscape Communications Free No Proprietary ?
Off By One Home Page Software Free No Proprietary ?
OmniWeb The Omni Group $30 No Proprietary, LGPL WebCore (KHTML)
Opera Opera Software Free No Proprietary Presto
Safari Apple Computer Free No Proprietary, LGPL WebCore (KHTML)
SeaMonkey SeaMonkey Council Free Yes MPL, MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license Gecko
Shiira Happy Macintosh Developing Team Free Yes BSD WebKit
WorldWideWeb (Later renamed Nexus) Tim Berners-Lee Free Yes Public domain NeXTSTEP built-in
w3m Akinori Ito Free Yes MIT License ?
  • ↑  There are four different products which all carry the name Netscape: Netscape versions 1 to 4, properly called Netscape Navigator, was a browser based on the original Netscape engine. Netscape 4 also was available as an Internet suite, properly called Netscape Communicator. Netscape 6 and 7 was a new Internet suite based on the Gecko engine and the Mozilla Application Suite user interface. Netscape 8, properly called Netscape Browser, is a new browser based on Firefox that can use both the Gecko (Firefox) and Trident (Internet Explorer) engines. See Netscape for more info.

[edit] Release history

A brief overview of the release history.

Browser First public release First stable release Latest stable release version date Latest testing release version date
Date Version Date Version
Amaya November 14, 1996 0.9 November 14, 1996 0.9 9.53  (December 12, 2006) none  (n/a)
AOL Explorer June, 2005 1.0 July, 2005 1.1 1.2  (November, 2005) 1.5  (March, 2006)
Avant ? ? ? ? 11.0.21  (October 6, 2006) none  (n/a)
Camino February 13, 2002 0.1 February 14, 2006 1.0 1.0.3  (September 14, 2006) 1.1a1  (October 18, 2006)
Dillo December, 1999 0.0.0 December, 1999 0.0.0 0.8.6  (April 26, 2006) none  (n/a)
ELinks December, 2001 ? December, 2001 ? 0.11.2  (November 19, 2006) none  (n/a)
Epiphany December 22, 2002 0.4 September 8, 2003 1.0 2.16.1  (October 2, 2006) 2.17.3  (4 December 2006)
Flock October 24, 2005 0.4.9 - - not yet released 0.7.8 (Cardinal)  (November 10, 2006)
Galeon June, 2000 0.6 June, 2000 0.6 2.0.2  (18 September 2006) CVS  (Current)
iCab February 17, 1999 Preview 1.0 February 17, 1999 Preview 1.0 3.0.3  (August 18, 2006) none  (n/a)
Internet Explorer August, 1995 1.0 August, 1995 1.0 7.0  (October 16, 2006)† none  (n/a)
Internet Explorer for Mac January 23, 1996 2.0b April 23, 1996 2.0 Discontinued  (none)
K-Meleon November 26, 2000 0.2 November 26, 2000 0.2 1.02  (September 22, 2006) 1.1a2  (November 18, 2006)
Konqueror October, 2000 ? October, 2000 ? 3.5.5  (October 11, 2006) none  (n/a)
Links November 24, 1999 0.8 November 24, 1999 0.8 0.99  (December 23, 2003) none  (n/a)
Lynx July, 1993 ? July, 1993 ? 2.8.6  (October 11, 2006) none  (n/a)
Maxthon ?, 2002 0.1 (as MyIE2) September 8, 2005 1.0.0250 1.5.9 build 30  (November 28, 2006) 2.0.1.1276  (November 7, 2006)
Mosaic April 22, 1993 1.0 April 22, 1993 1.0 Unix: 2.6; Mac OS, Windows: 3.0  (Mac OS, Unix: 1996; Windows: 1997) Unix: 2.7b5; Mac OS: 3.0b4  (1996)
Mozilla December 7, 1998 "Preview" March 19, 1999 M3 1.7.13  (April 21, 2006) 1.8b1  (February 26, 2005)
Mozilla Firefox September 23, 2002 0.1 September 23, 2002 0.1 2.0  (October 24, 2006) 3.0a1  (December 8, 2006)
Netscape April 5, 2000 6 Preview Release 1 November 14, 2000 6.0 7.2  (August 17, 2004) none  (n/a)
Netscape Browser November 30, 2004 0.5.6+ May 19, 2005 8.0 8.1.2  (September 27, 2006) none  (n/a)
Netscape Communicator June, 1997 4.0 June, 1997 4.0 4.8  (August 22, 2002) none  (n/a)
Netscape Navigator October 13, 1994 0.9 October 13, 1994 0.9 4.08  (November 9, 1998) none  (n/a)
Off By One July 5, 2001 3.2a December 7, 2002 3.4 3.5.d  (January 2, 2006) none  (n/a)
OmniWeb 1994 0.5 March 17, 1995 1.0 5.5.1  (November 2, 2006) 5.5.2 beta 3  (December 14, 2006)
Opera September, 1996 2.1b1 December, 1996 2.1 9.10  (December 15, 2006) n/a  (-)
Safari January 7, 2003 0.8 June 23, 2003 1.0 2.0.3 (417.8)  (January 10, 2006)† none  (none)
SeaMonkey September 15, 2005 1.0a January 30, 2006 1.0 1.0.6  (November 8, 2006) 1.1b  (November 8, 2006)
Shiira ? ? ? ? 1.2.2  (March 14, 2006) 2.0b2  (December 6, 2006)
WorldWideWeb December, 1990 ? February 26, 1991 ? 0.17  (1994 ?) none  (n/a)
w3m 1995 ? ? ? 0.5.1  (April 28, 2004) none  (n/a)
  • ↑  As of August 2004, at least Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 is required to install the latest version of Internet Explorer for Windows. Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1 is the last version that supports Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0 SP6a, and Windows 2000.
  • ↑  Safari is included with Mac OS X and the latest version is always available only from the OS install or OS updates.

[edit] Operating system support

The operating systems the browsers have been compiled to run on without emulation; for the given browser/OS combination, there are seven possibilities:

  • No indicates that it does not exist or was never released.
  • Partial indicates that while the browser works, it lacks important functionality or is extremely unstable compared to versions for other OSs (that is to say it has roughly alpha or pre-alpha quality). It is still being developed however.
  • Beta indicates that while a version of the browser is fully functional and has been released, it is still in development (e.g. for stability).
  • Yes indicates that the browser has been officially released in a fully functional, stable version.
  • Dropped indicates that the latest stable version of the browser does not work on the operating system, although an older version is available that does. The number in parentheses is the last known stable version which was officially released for that OS.
  • Terminated indicates that while the browser works (e.g. Internet Explorer for Mac), development has ceased and no new versions will be released; the number in parentheses is the last known stable version.
  • Included indicates that the browser comes pre-packaged as part of or has been integrated into the operating system.

Please note that the list is not exhaustive, but rather reflects the most common OSs today (e.g. Netscape Navigator was also developed for OS/2 at a time when Mac OS X did not yet exist) but does not include the growing appliance segment (e.g.the Opera browser has gained a leading role for use in mobile phones, smartphones, the Nintendo DS and Wii, and Personal Digital Assistants, and is also used in Interactive televisions).

Browser Windows Mac OS X Mac OS 9 Linux BSD Unix
Amaya Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
AOL Explorer Yes No No No No No
Avant Yes No No No No No
Camino No Yes No No No No
Dillo Partial Yes No Yes Yes Yes
ELinks No Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Epiphany No Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Flock Beta Beta No Beta No No
Galeon No Yes No Yes Yes Yes
iCab No Yes Yes No No No
Internet Explorer (Trident) Included No No No No Dropped (5.0)
Internet Explorer for Mac (Tasman) No Terminated (5.2.3) Dropped (5.1.7) No No No
K-Meleon Yes No No No No No
Konqueror Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Links Partial Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Lynx Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Maxthon Yes No No No No No
Mosaic Terminated (3.0) No Terminated (3.0) Dropped (2.6) Dropped (2.6) Dropped (2.6)
Mozilla Terminated (1.7.13) Terminated (1.7.13) Dropped (1.2.1) Terminated (1.7.13) Terminated (1.7.13) Terminated (1.7.13)
Mozilla Firefox Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Netscape Terminated (7.2) Terminated (7.2) Terminated (7.2) Terminated (7.2) Terminated (7.2) Terminated (7.2)
Netscape Browser Yes No No No No No
Netscape Communicator Terminated (4.80) Terminated (4.80) Terminated (4.80) Terminated (4.80) Terminated (4.80) Terminated (4.80)
Netscape Navigator Terminated (4.08) Terminated (4.08) Terminated (4.08) Terminated (4.08) Terminated (4.08) Terminated (4.08)
Off By One Yes No No No No No
OmniWeb No Yes No No No No
Opera Yes Yes Dropped (6.03) Yes Yes Yes
Safari No Included No No No No
SeaMonkey Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Shiira No Yes No No No No
WorldWideWeb (NEXTSTEP only) No No No No No No
w3m Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes

[edit] Browser features

Information about what common browser features are implemented natively (without third-party add-ons).

Browser Bookmark managing Download managing Password managing Form managing Spell checking Search engine toolbar
Amaya Yes No No No Yes No
AOL Explorer Yes No No Yes No Yes
Avant Yes No Yes Yes No † Yes
Camino Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Dillo Partial No No No No Partial
ELinks Yes Yes Yes ? No No
Epiphany Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Flock Yes Yes Yes Yes No † Yes
Galeon Yes Yes Yes No No Yes
iCab Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Internet Explorer † Yes No Yes Yes No † Yes
Internet Explorer for Mac Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
K-Meleon Yes No Yes Yes No Yes
Konqueror Yes Yes † Yes Yes Yes Yes
Links Yes Yes No No No No
Lynx Yes No No No No No
Maxthon † Yes No Yes Yes No † Yes
Mosaic Yes No No No No No
Mozilla Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Mozilla Firefox Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Netscape Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Netscape Browser Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes
Netscape Navigator Yes No No No No No
Off By One Yes No No No No No
OmniWeb Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Opera Yes Yes Yes Yes † Yes † Yes
Safari Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
SeaMonkey Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Shiira Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
WorldWideWeb Yes No No No Yes No
w3m Yes No No No No No
  • ↑  Internet Explorer is the only browser to support the Component Object Model (popularly known as ActiveX) natively. The embedding of ActiveX into Internet Explorer can add functionality to the browser, however this can also lead to infection with computer viruses, trojans and spyware.
  • ↑  Spell checking can be added by installing an add-on like ieSpell.
  • ↑  For the download manager kdenetwork needs to be installed.
  • ↑  On Linux and Windows, Spell checking requires GNU Aspell to be installed.
  • ↑  Opera can auto-complete forms with your personal information and website usernames.

[edit] Accessibility features

Information about what common accessibility features are implemented natively (without third-party add-ons).

Browser Tabbed browsing Pop-up blocking Incremental finding Ad filtering Page zooming †
Amaya Yes N/A ? No Yes
AOL Explorer Yes Yes No No Yes
Avant Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Camino Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Dillo No N/A No No No
ELinks Yes No Yes N/A N/A
Epiphany Yes Yes Yes Partial † No
Flock Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Galeon Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
iCab Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Internet Explorer Yes Yes No No Yes
Internet Explorer for Mac No No No No No
K-Meleon Yes Yes Yes Partial † Partial
Konqueror Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Links No Yes No Yes No
Lynx No N/A No N/A N/A
Maxthon Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Mosaic No N/A No No No
Mozilla Yes Yes Yes Partial † No
Mozilla Firefox Yes Yes Yes Partial † No [1]
Netscape Yes Yes Yes Partial † No
Netscape Browser Yes Yes Yes Partial † No
Netscape Navigator No No No No No
Off By One Yes N/A ? ? No
OmniWeb Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Opera Yes Yes Yes Yes † Yes
Safari Yes † Yes † No Yes Yes
SeaMonkey Yes Yes Yes Partial † No [2]
Shiira Yes Yes No No Yes
WorldWideWeb No No No No No
w3m Yes Yes Yes No No
  • ↑  Page zooming is different from text resizing, as it resizes not only characters, but also multimedia objects and web page layout.  Not yet available in current Gecko (1.8, e.g. Mozilla Firefox 1.x/2.x: fixed by 'Web Developer' extension), but will be in Gecko 1.9 (2007, e.g. Mozilla Firefox 3)[3].
  • ↑  K-Meleon, Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape, and SeaMonkey support simple domain name-based blocking for images. More advanced regular expression-based Ad filtering for Mozilla and Mozilla Firefox can be added with external software such as the AdBlock extension. Selective CSS can also effectively hide ads.
  • ↑  Epiphany supports AdBlock as an official extension, in the epiphany-extensions package.
  • ↑  Opera 9 introduced a content blocker for webpages. [4]. Earlier releases support wildcard protocol/domain/path and filetype blocking using a filter.ini [5] file. More advanced Ad filtering for Opera can also be done with external software [6].
  • ↑  Tabbed browsing turned off by default in Safari.
  • ↑  Does not allow selective blocking of pop-ups—can only block all pop-ups, or none.

[edit] Accessibility features (cont.)

Information about what common accessibility features are implemented natively (without third-party add-ons).

Browser HTML access key Tabbing navigation Spatial navigation Caret navigation Mouse gesture Text-to-speech Voice control
Amaya ? ? ? Yes No No No
AOL Explorer Yes Yes No No No No No
Avant Yes Yes No No Yes No No
Camino Yes Yes No Yes No † Yes † No
Dillo No No No No No No No
ELinks Yes Yes No Yes No No No
Epiphany Yes Yes No Yes Partial † No No
Flock Yes Yes No Yes No No No
Galeon ? Yes ? Disabled Yes No No
iCab Yes No No No No Yes † No
Internet Explorer Yes Yes No No No † Partial No
Internet Explorer for Mac Yes Yes No No No No No
K-Meleon Yes Yes No Disabled Yes No No
Konqueror Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes † Yes † No
Links No No No Yes No No No
Lynx ? No No ? No No No
Maxthon Yes Yes ? ? Yes No No
Mosaic No ? No No No No No
Mozilla Yes Yes No Yes No † No No
Mozilla Firefox Yes Yes No † Yes No † No † No
Netscape Yes Yes No Yes No † No No
Netscape Browser Yes Yes No Yes No No No
Netscape Navigator ? Yes No No No No No
Off By One No Yes No No No No No
OmniWeb Yes Yes No No No † Yes Yes
Opera Yes Yes Yes No † Yes Yes Yes
Safari Yes Yes No No No † Yes † No
SeaMonkey Yes Yes No Yes No No No
Shiira ? Yes Yes Yes No Yes No
WorldWideWeb ? ? ? ? ? No No
w3m ? Yes Yes Yes No No No
  • ↑  Mouse gesture support can be added by installing extensions like CocoaGestures (works with Cocoa applications)
  • ↑  Text-to speech is available system-wide and is available from menu in web browsers.
  • ↑  Epiphany supports mouse gestures as an official extension, in the epiphany-extensions package.
  • ↑  Mouse gesture support is available system-wide in KDE
  • ↑  Text-to speech support depends on the kttsd application in the kdeaccessibility package
  • ↑  Mouse gesture support can be added by installing Easy Go Back add-on [7] or similar applications.
  • ↑  Doug Turner, the Minimo lead developer, has introduced spatial navigation to some special Firefox builds [8]. It may build as a default part of Firefox [9].
  • ↑  Mouse gesture support can be added by installing extensions like All-in-One Gestures (Firefox-only) [10] and Mouse Gestures [11].
  • ↑  Firefox works with a number of screen readers such as JAWS [12] and Microsoft SAPI 5 TTS [13] through extensions.
  • ↑  Caret-like navigation is available. [14]

[edit] Web technology support

Information about what web standards, and technologies the browsers support, except for JavaScript. External links lead to information about support in future versions of the browsers or extensions that provide such functionality.

Browser CSS2.1 † Frames Java XSLT XHTML 1.0 † XHTML 1.1 † MathML XForms RSS Atom SVG Web Forms 2.0 VoiceXML/X+V WML
Amaya Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes No No No Partial No No No
AOL Explorer Partial Yes Yes Yes No No No † No Yes Yes No No No ?
Avant Partial Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes Yes No No No ?
Camino Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Partial Partial Partial No No ?
Dillo No Partial † No No No No No No No No No No No No
ELinks Partial Yes No No No No No No No No No No No ?
Epiphany Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes † Yes † Partial † No † No No
Flock Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial No No ?
Galeon Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No ? No No ?
iCab Yes Yes Yes No No No No No Yes No No No No No
Internet Explorer Partial Yes Yes Yes No No No † No Yes † Yes † No No † No No
Internet Explorer for Mac Partial Yes Yes Partial No Yes No No No No No No No No
K-Meleon Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes ? No No ?
Konqueror Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No Yes † Yes † Partial No No No
Links No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No
Lynx No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Maxthon Partial Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes Yes No No No ?
Mosaic No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Mozilla Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Partial No No ?
Mozilla Firefox Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial No † No No
Netscape Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No
Netscape Browser Depends Yes Yes Yes Depends Depends Depends No Yes Yes No No No No
Netscape Navigator No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No
Off By One No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No
OmniWeb Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No No No No
Opera Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No † No Yes Yes Partial Yes Yes Yes
Safari Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No No No No
SeaMonkey Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Partial No No No
Shiira Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No No No No
WorldWideWeb No No No No No No No No No No No No No ?
w3m ? Yes No No Yes ? No ? No No ? No No No
  • ↑  CSS 2, a W3C recommendation since 1998, is the current stable version of CSS, nevertheless, CSS 2.1 corrects a few errors in CSS2 (the most important being a new definition of the height/width of absolutely positioned elements, more influence for HTML's "style" attribute and a new calculation of the 'clip' property), and adds a few highly requested features which have already been widely implemented. CSS 2.1 is derived from and is intended to replace CSS 2. Conformance criteria are detailed at at the W3C website. (CSS 3 is only in draft status at present.) For more detailed information please see comparison of layout engines (CSS).
  • ↑  XHTML is based on HTML but is an application of XML, which means that XHTML must be stricter than equivalent HTML code. XHTML is meant to be read by an XML parser but for backward compatibility reasons can also be parsed as HTML; this table only notes the browsers that are able to parse XHTML as XML. For more detailed information please see comparison of layout engines (XHTML).
  • ↑  Dillo displays frames as links that the user can click on.
  • ↑  Internet Explorer 7 only
  • ↑  Available with the MathPlayer plugin.
  • ↑  XForms is supported experimentally in nightly builds dated after January 28, 2005 [15]. Requires installation of an extension.
  • ↑  RSS and ATOM feed autodetection in Konqueror depends on the aKregator package which is installed with kdepim.
  • ↑  It is possible to use CSS to partially style MathML in Opera (see here for more). Since Opera 9.0 Technical Preview 2 (Opera 9TP2) it is also possible to use a user javascript method to support MathML (see here).
  • ↑  RSS and ATOM feed autodetection in Epiphany depends on the Newsfeed extension which is included with Epiphany-extensions.
  • ↑  Level of support for SVG depends on the version of the Gecko rendering engine that Epiphany was built with.
  • ↑  Web Forms 2.0 can be emulated in IE using DHTML behaviours, available from SourceForge.
  • ↑  Web Forms 2.0 functionality is currently being added to Gecko, there should be at least partial support for Gecko 1.9 (Firefox 3.0). See bug #344614.

[edit] JavaScript support

Information about what JavaScript technologies the browsers support. Note that although XPath is used by XSLT, it is only considered here if it can be accessed using JavaScript. External links lead to information about support in future versions of the browsers or extensions that provide such functionality.

Browser JavaScript ECMAScript 3 DOM 1 DOM 2 DOM 3 XPath DHTML XMLHttpRequest Rich editing
Amaya No No No No No No No No No
AOL Explorer Yes Yes Partial No No No Yes Yes Yes
Avant Yes Yes Partial No No No Yes Yes Yes
Camino Yes Yes Yes Yes No † Yes Yes Yes Yes
Dillo No No No No No No No No No
ELinks Partial Yes No No No No No No No
Epiphany Yes Yes Yes Yes No † Yes Yes Yes Yes
Flock Yes Yes Yes Yes No † Yes Yes Yes Yes
Galeon Yes Yes Yes Yes No † Yes Yes Yes Yes
iCab Yes Yes Partial Partial No No Yes Yes No
Internet Explorer Yes Yes Partial No † No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Internet Explorer for Mac Yes Yes Partial No No No Yes No No
K-Meleon Yes Yes Yes Yes No † Yes Yes Yes Yes
Konqueror Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial No Yes Yes No
Links Partial No No No No No No No No
Lynx No No No No No No No No No
Maxthon Yes Yes Partial No No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Mosaic No No No No No No No No No
Mozilla Yes Yes Yes Yes No † Yes Yes Yes Yes
Mozilla Firefox Yes Yes Yes Yes No † Yes Yes Yes Yes
Netscape Yes Yes Yes Yes No † Yes Yes Yes Yes
Netscape Browser Yes Yes Depends Depends No † Depends Yes Yes Yes
Netscape Navigator Yes Partial No No No No Yes No No
Off By One No No No No No No No No No
OmniWeb Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No
Opera Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial Yes Yes Yes Yes
Safari Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
SeaMonkey Yes Yes Yes Yes No † Yes Yes Yes Yes
Shiira Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
WorldWideWeb No No No No No No No No No
w3m No No No No No No No No No

[edit] Protocol support

Information about what internet protocols the browsers support. External links lead to information about support in future versions of the browsers or extensions that provide such functionality.

Browser HTTP E-mail † FTP NNTP (Usenet) † SSL IRC Gopher IDN data: URL BitTorrent
Amaya Yes No No No No No ? ? No ?
AOL Explorer Partial † No Yes No Partial † No Disabled No † No No
Avant Partial No Yes No Yes No No No No No
Camino Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes No
Dillo Yes No Yes No Partial No No No No ?
ELinks Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes
Epiphany Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes No
Flock Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes No
Galeon Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes ?
iCab Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No No
Internet Explorer Partial † No Yes No Partial † No Disabled Yes † No No
Internet Explorer for Mac Partial † No Yes No Partial † No Yes No No No
K-Meleon Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes No
Konqueror Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes † Yes Yes Yes
Links Yes No Yes No Yes No No No No No
Lynx Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes ? ? No
Maxthon Yes No Yes No Partial † No Disabled No † No No
Mosaic Partial † No Yes Yes No No Yes No No No
Mozilla Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes † Yes No
Mozilla Firefox Yes No Yes No Yes No † Yes Yes † Yes No
Netscape Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No † Yes Yes Yes No
Netscape Browser Yes No Yes No Yes No Depends Depends Depends No
Netscape Navigator Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No
Off By One Yes No No No Yes† No ? ? ? No
OmniWeb Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes No
Opera Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial † Yes Yes Yes
Safari Yes No Partial No Yes No No Yes Yes No
SeaMonkey Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes † Yes No
Shiira Yes ? ? ? Yes ? ? Yes ? ?
WorldWideWeb Yes No Yes Yes No No No No No No
w3m Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes ? ? No
  • ↑  Many browsers have purposely avoided support for e-mail and newsgroups, as these are reserved for their mail-client counterparts. For a comparison of such counterparts see comparison of e-mail clients.
  • ↑  IE fails to with some aspects 1.1, for instance, the RFC-mandated Pipelining support.
  • ↑  Mosaic reached only HTTP 0.9 compliance, and does not support secure communications in any way.
  • ↑  IRC support can be added by installing ChatZilla.
  • ↑  Gopher is supported through proxy servers.
  • ↑  Internet Explorer 7 supports IDN, [16]. IE6 IDN support can be added by installing VeriSign i-Nav Plug-In.
  • ↑  IDN domains are displayed as punycode by default for security reasons
  • ↑  Only with the SSL dll version.
  • ↑  Konqueror has full Gopher support when the kgopher KIO plugin is installed.
  • HTTP-Auth (Basic/Digest), WebDav and GZip info missing

[edit] Image format support

Information about what image formats the browsers support. External links lead to information about support in future versions of the browsers or extensions that provide such functionality.

Browser JPEG GIF PNG MNG TIFF † SVG † PDF † 2D Canvas
Amaya Yes Yes Yes No Yes Partial No No
AOL Explorer Partial † Yes Partial † No disable No No No
Avant Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ?
Camino Yes Yes Yes No No Partial † No No
Dillo Yes Yes Yes No No No No No
ELinks No No No No No No No No
Epiphany Yes Yes Yes No No Partial † † No Yes †
Flock Yes Yes Yes No No Partial † No No
Galeon Yes Yes Yes No No No No No
iCab Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No
Internet Explorer Partial † Yes Yes † No disable No No No †
Internet Explorer for Mac Yes Yes Yes No No No No No
K-Meleon Yes Yes Yes No No No No No
Konqueror Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No † Yes † No
Links Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No
Lynx No No No No No No No No
Maxthon Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No
Mosaic Yes Yes Yes No No No No No
Mozilla Yes Yes Yes Dropped † No No No No
Mozilla Firefox Yes Yes Yes No No Partial † No † Yes
Netscape Yes Yes Yes No No No No No
Netscape Browser Yes Yes Depends No No No No No
Netscape Navigator Yes Yes Partial No No No No No
Off By One Yes Yes Yes No No No No No
OmniWeb Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No
Opera Yes Yes Yes No No Partial † No Yes
Safari Yes Yes Yes No Yes No † Yes Yes
SeaMonkey Yes Yes Yes No No Partial † No Yes
Shiira Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? No ?
WorldWideWeb Yes Yes No No No No No No
w3m Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? No
  • ↑  Internet Explorer does not support progressive display of progressive JPEG.
  • ↑  Versions of Internet Explorer prior to version 7 support PNG images but are unable to correctly display images with alpha channel (for transparency), gamma correction or color correction. However, the alpha channel is supported in version 7 [17].
  • ↑  Support of MNG/JNG was dropped since June 6, 2003 [18] [19]. There are unofficial builds with MNG/JNG called Mngzilla [20].
  • ↑  Most browsers support TIFF by using a plugin installed by the user.
  • ↑  SVG here refers to SVG 1.1 Full. There are also two simplified profiles known as SVG 1.1 Tiny and SVG 1.1 Basic, which are intended for user agents with limited capabilities.
  • ↑  KDE has developed its own SVG plugin for Konqueror, known as KSVG [21]. KSVG1 development has ended, but work on the next-generation kdom-based KSVG2 has been very active [22]. KSVG2 is slated to be moved into the core KDE [23] meaning at some point KSVG2 should become part of Konqueror.
  • ↑  Firefox and SeaMonkey partially support SVG 1.1 Full. Modules that are implemented or not implemented and details of their implementation: [24].
  • ↑  Since version 8, Opera supports SVG Tiny. Opera 9 has partial support for SVG Basic.
  • ↑  KSVG2 has been ported into Safari's WebKit, meaning that eventually SVG will make its way into Safari [25].
  • ↑  Most browsers support PDF by installing an Adobe plugin which takes over the browser window. Listed here are browsers which also support inline PDFs within other hypertext documents (such as within HTML's <img/> tag). Note that PDF (in strictly speaking) is not an image format, but a scriptable rich text document format that can contain different types of multimedia content, including vector and bitmap graphics, audio, video, forms, intra- and inter-document hypertext links and a hierarchical contents listing. The format is also the native display format under Mac OS X.
  • ↑  Inline PDF viewing in Konqueror requires KPDF which is included in kdegraphics.
  • ↑  Internet Explorer can be made to emulate canvas using the script provided by Google.
  • ↑  Support for these features depends on the version of the Gecko rendering engine that Epiphany was built with.
  • ↑  With the addition of the new Cairo version in Gecko 1.9 it will be natively possible to save pages to PDF's but not read them. Whether this feature will be included in Firefox 3.0 or later has yet to be specified it is however possible with the new Cairo backend.

[edit] Internationalization

Most browsers are available in more than one language.

Browser Languages (Total)
Amaya English (en), French (fr), Finnish (fi), German (de), Italian (it), Portuguese (pt), Russian (ru), Spanish (es) (8)
AOL Explorer English (en), French (fr), German (de) (3)
Avant English (en)
Camino Chinese (Simplified and Traditional) (zh), Czech (cz), Danish (da), Dutch (nl), English (en), French (fr), German (de), Italian (it), Japanese (ja), Lithuanian (lt), Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk) (nb, nn), Portuguese (pt), Slovak (sk), Spanish (es), Swedish (sv) (17)
Dillo English (en) , Japanese (ja), Polish (pl), Russian (ru) (4)
ELinks Bulgarian (bg), Croatian (hr), Czech (cs), Danish (da), English (en), French (fr), German (de), Hungarian (hu), Italian (it), Polish (pl), Portuguese (pt), Slovak (sk), Ukrainian (uk) (13)
Epiphany Amharic (am), Arabic (ar), Azerbaijani (az), Belarusian (be), Bulgarian (bg), Bengali (bn), Bosnian (bs), Catalan (ca), Czech (cs), Welsh (cy), Danish (da), German (de), Dzongkha (dz), Greek (el), English (en), Spanish (es), Estonian (et), Basque (eu), Persian (fa), Finnish (fi), French (fr), Irish (ga), Galician (gl), Gujarati (gu), Hebrew (he), Hindi (hi), Croatian (hr), Hungarian (hu), Indonesian (id), Icelandic (is), Italian (it), Japanese (ja), Georgian (ka), Korean (ko), Kurdish (ku), Limburgian (li), Lithuanian (lt), Latvian (lv), Malagasy (mg), Maori (mi), Macedonian (mk), Malayalam (ml), Mongolian (mn), Malay (ms), Norwegian Bokmål (nb), Nepali (ne), Dutch (nl), Norwegian Nynorsk (nn), Oriya (or), Punjabi (pa), Polish (pl), Portuguese (pt), Romanian (ro), Russian (ru), Kinyarwanda (rw), Slovak (sk), Slovenian (sl), Albanian (sq), Serbian (sr), Swedish (sv), Tamil (ta), Telugu (te), Thai (th), Turkmen (tk), Turkish (tr), Ukrainian (uk), Vietnamese (vi), Walloon (wa), Chinese (zh) (68)
Flock Chinese (Simplified) (zh), English (en), German (de), Hungarian (hu), Polish (pl), Russian (ru), Slovak (sk), Spanish (es) (8)
Galeon Amharic (am), Azerbaijani (az), Belarusian (be), Bulgarian (bg), Bosnian (bs), Catalan (ca), Czech (cs), Danish (da), German (de), Greek (el), English (en), Spanish (es), Estonian (et), Basque (eu), Finnish (fi), French (fr), Irish (ga), Galician (gl), Croatian (hr), Hungarian (hu), Italian (it), Japanese (ja), Korean (ko), Lithuanian (lt), Latvian (lv), Macedonian (mk), Malayalam (ml), Mongolian (mn), Malay (ms), Norwegian (nb), Dutch (nl), Norwegian Nynorsk (nn), Norwegian (no), Punjabi (pa), Polish (pl), Portuguese (pt), Romanian (ro), Russian (ru), Kinyarwanda (rw), Slovak (sk), Slovenian (sl), Albanian (sq), Serbian (sr), Swedish (sv), Tamil (ta), Turkish (tr), Ukrainian (uk), Vietnamese (vi), Walloon (wa), Chinese (Simplified) (zh) (49)
iCab German (de), English (en), Japanese (ja), Danish (da), French (fr), Spanish (es), Russian (ru), Norwegian (no), Chinese (Simplified) (zh) (9)
Internet Explorer Arabic (ar), Brazilian (br), Bulgarian (bg), Catalan (ca), Chinese (Simplified) (zh), Chinese (Traditional) (zh), Chinese (Hong Kong) (zh), Croatian (hr), Czech (cs), Danish (da), Dutch (nl), English (en), Estonian (et), Finnish (fi), French (fr), German (de), Greek (el), Hebrew (he), Hungarian (hu), Italian (it), Japanese (ja), Korean (ko), Latvian (lv), Lithuanian (lt), Norwegian (nb), Polish (pl), Portuguese (pt), Romanian (ro), Russian (ru), Slovak (sk), Slovenian (sl), Spanish (es), Swedish (sv), Thai (th), Turkish (tr) (33)
Internet Explorer for Mac English (en)
K-Meleon English (en), German (de), Italian (it), Polish, (pl), Spanish (es) (5)
Konqueror Afrikaans (af), Arabic (ar), Bulgarian (bg), Bengali (bn), Bosnian (bs), Catalan (ca), Chinese (zh), Chinese (Simplified) (zh), Czech (cs), Welsh (cy), Danish (da), German (de), Greek (el), English (en), Esperanto (eo), Spanish (es), Estonian (et), Basque (eu), Persian (fa), Finnish (fi), French (fr), Galician (gl), Hebrew (he), Hindi (hi), Croatian (hr), Hungarian (hu), Icelandic (is), Italian (it), Japanese (ja), Mongolian (mn), Malay (ms), Norwegian (nb), Dutch (nl), Norwegian Nynorsk (nn), Punjabi (pa), Polish (pl), Portuguese (pt), Romanian (ro), Russian (ru), Slovak (sk), Slovenian (sl), Serbian (sr), Swedish (sv), Tamil (ta), Tajik (tg), Turkish (tr), Ukrainian (uk), Uzbek (uz) (39)
Links Belarusian (be), Brazilian Portuguese (pt-br), Bulgarian (bg), Catalan (ca), Croatian (hr), Czech (cs), Danish (da), Dutch (nl), English (en), Estonian (et), Finnish (fi), French (fr), Galician (gl), German (de), Greek (el), Hungarian (hu), Icelandic (is), Indonesian )id), Italian (it), Lithuanian (lt), Norwegian (no), Polish (pl), Portuguese (pt), Romanian (ro), Russian (ru), Serbian (sr), Slovak (sk), Spanish (es), Swedish (sv), Turkish (tr), Ukrainian (uk), Upper Sorbian (sb) (32)
Lynx Catalan (ca), Czech (cs), Danish (da), German (de), Estonian (et), English (en), French (fr), Hungarian (hu), Italian (it), Japanese (ja), Dutch (nl), Portuguese (Brazilian) (pt), Russian (ru), Slovenian (sl), Swedish (sv), Turkish (tr), Ukrainian (uk), Chinese (Simplified and Traditional) (zh) (18)
Maxthon Arabic (ar), Bosnian (bs), Belarusian (be), Bulgarian (bg), Chinese (zh), Croatian (hr), Czech (cs), Danish (da), Dutch (nl), English (en), Estonian (et), Persian(fa), Finnish (fi), French (fr), Frisian, Galego, German (de), Greek (el), Hebrew (he), Hungarian (hu), Italian (it), Japanese (ja), Korean (ko), Lithuanian (lt), Malay (ms), Milanes, Norwegian (nb), Piemonteis, Polish (pl), Portuguese (pt), Portuguese (Brazilian) (pt), Romanian (ro), Romano, Russian (ru), Serbian Cyrillic (sr), Serbian Latin (sr), Slovak (sk), Slovenian (sl), Spanish (es), Spanish (Argentina) (es), Swedish (sv), Thai (th), Turkish (tr), Ukrainian (uk) (42)
Mosaic English (en)
Mozilla Catalan (ca), Chinese (zh), Czech (cs), Danish (da), English (en), Finnish (fi), French (fr), German (de), Greek (el), Hebrew (iw), Irish (ga), Italian (it), Japanese (ja), Korean (ko), Lithuanian (lt), Macedonian (mk), Norwegian (no), Polish (pl), Portuguese (pt), Punjabi (pa), Romanian (ro), Russian (ru), Slovak (sk), Slovenian (sl), Spanish (es), Swedish (sv), Turkish (tr), Welsh (cy) (28)
Mozilla Firefox Afrikaans (af), Albanian (sq), Arabic (ar), Asturian (ast), Basque (eu), Bulgarian (bg), Catalan (ca), Chinese (zh), Czech (cs), Danish (da), Dutch (nl), English (en), Finnish (fi), French (fr), German (de), Greek (el), Gujarati (gu), Hebrew (iw), Hungarian (hu), Irish (ga), Italian (it), Japanese (ja), Korean (ko), Lithuanian (lt), Macedonian (mk), Norwegian (no), Polish (pl), Portuguese (pt), Punjabi (pa), Romanian (ro), Russian (ru), Slovak (sk), Slovenian (sl), Spanish (es), Swedish (sv), Turkish (tr), Welsh (cy) (37)
Netscape Chinese (zh), English (en), French (fr), German (de), Japanese (ja), Portuguese (br), Spanish (es) (7)
Netscape Browser English (en)
Netscape Navigator Chinese (zh), Czech (cs), English (en), Danish (da), Finnish (fi), French (fr), German (de), Greek (el), Hungarian (hu), Italian (it), Japanese (ja), Korean (ko), Norwegian (no), Polish (pl), Portuguese (br), Russian (ru), Slovenian (sl), Spanish (es), Swedish (sv), Turkish (tr) (20)
Off By One English (en)
OmniWeb Danish (da), Dutch (nl), English (en), French (fr), German (de), Japanese (ja), Swedish (sv) (7)
Opera Bulgarian (bg), Catalan (ca), Chinese (Simplified and Traditional) (zh), Danish (da), Dutch (nl), UK English (en-GB), US English (en-US), Finnish (fi), French (fr-FR, fr-CA), German (de), Greek (el), Hindi (hi), Hungarian (hu), Irish (ga), Italian (it), Japanese (ja), Korean (ko), Lithuanian (lt), Nynorsk Norwegian (no-nn), Bokmål Norwegian (no-bn), Polish (pl), Portuguese (pt), Portuguese (pt), Punjabi (pa), Russian (ru), Spanish (es), Swedish (sv), Turkish (tr) (25)
Safari Dutch (nl), English (en), French (fr), German (de), Italian (it), Japanese (ja), Spanish (es), Danish (da), Finnish (fi), Korean (ko), Norwegian (no), Portuguese (pt), Swedish (sv), Chinese (zh) (14)
SeaMonkey Basque (eu), Belarusian (be), Catalan (ca), Czech (cs), English (en), French (fr), Georgian (ka), German (de), Italian (it), Norwegian Bokmål (no-nb), Polish (pl), Russian (ru), Spanish (es), Swedish (sv), Turkish (tr) (15)
Shiira English (en)
WorldWideWeb English (en)
w3m English (en), French (fr), German (de), Italian (it), Japanese (ja), Spanish (es), Polish (pl), Portuguese (pt), Swedish (sv) (9)

[edit] Vulnerabilities

This comparison of unpatched publicly known vulnerabilities in latest stable version browsers is based on vulnerabilities reports by SecurityFocus and Secunia. See computer security for more details about the importance of unpatched known flaws.

Browser Known unpatched vulnerabilities
Secunia SecurityFocus
extremely critical (number / oldest) highly critical (number / oldest) moderately critical (number / oldest) less critical (number / oldest) not critical (number / oldest) (number / oldest)
Camino 0 0 0 0 0 0
iCab 0 0 0 0 0 3 †
December 10, 2004
Internet Explorer 6 0 0 4
November 17, 2004		 7
February 27, 2004		 7
November 7, 2003		 overflow
Internet Explorer 7 0 0 1
October 30, 2006		 2
October 19, 2006		 0 5
April 27, 2006
Konqueror 0 0 0 1
March 17, 2005		 0 1 †
July 14, 2006
Mozilla Firefox 0 0 0 1
November 22, 2006		 0 2
August 12, 2006
Netscape Browser 0 0 0 1
June 6, 2006		 3
December 9, 2005		 2 †
September 9, 2005
OmniWeb 0 0 0 0 0 1 †
April 16, 2005
Opera 0 0 0 0 0 0
Safari 0 0 0 1
November 30, 2006		 2
November 17, 2005		 4
July 5, 2006
SeaMonkey 0 0 0 1
June 6, 2006		 0 0
  • ↑  SecurityFocus does not currently contain a section for the latest version of iCab (3.0.3).
  • ↑  KDE Konqueror ReplaceChild Denial Of Service Vulnerability has been patched according to the KDE Bug Tracking System. SecurityFocus does not currently contain a section for the latest version of Konqueror (3.5.5).
  • ↑  SecurityFocus does not currently contain a section for the latest version of Netscape Browser (8.1.2).
  • ↑  SecurityFocus does not currently contain a section for the latest version of OmniWeb (5.5.1).

[edit] References

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../c/o/m/Comparison_of_web_browsers.html"