With the browser market dominated by Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer you could be forgiven for thinking that small browsers have little to offer.

But Qupzilla, a multi-platform Qt-based web-browser, is worth taking for a spin. It boasts features comparable to Chrome and Firefox, yet uses less resources than either.

The webkit wonder, developed by Czech Linux user David Rosca, doesn’t reply on any KDE dependencies – thus making it an ideal solution for the performance and space conscious.

Features

Qupzilla is more than able to hold its own against the market leaders when it comes to features, boasting: –

Native look + theme support

One window History, Bookmarks manager and RSS Reader

Integrated AdBlock support

Private browsing

Speed-dial

Configurable interface

Set your search engine

Chrome and Firefox bookmark importing

The speed-dial in particular is extremely well implemented, boasting drag n’ drop positioning, hover over controls, etc.

Bookmarking sites is very feels very ‘Chrome-like’. Just hit the star, edit the info and choose a place to save it to – including directly to the Speed Dial.

The preferences window is well stocked, with some fantastic privacy features included too.

Flawbacks

As much promise as Qupzilla shows it’s fair to say that it is has a number of ‘issues’. The biggest of which is crashing.

If I’m not able to use an application with confidence then, generally, I don’t use it at all. Qupzilla errs dangerously close to the cusp of acceptability with regards to this, but the good news is that with each update things get better – so I’m willing to ride my frustrations out.

How to install Qupzilla in Ubuntu

Adding Qupzilla in Ubuntu requires addition of the Qupzilla PPA.

To install Qupzilla in Ubuntu 11.10 run the following two commands in a terminal, or add the section in bold to your Software Sources before updating and installing ‘Qupzilla’ from the Ubuntu Software Centre.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nowrep/qupzilla

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install qupzilla

Bugs can reported over @ github.com/nowrep/QupZilla/issues