Midori vs GNU IceCat
When comparing Midori vs GNU IceCat, the Slant community recommends GNU IceCat for most people. In the question“What are the best desktop web browsers?” GNU IceCat is ranked 8th while Midori is ranked 26th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Very fast
Midori is considerably fast. It starts up in no time and renders pages as fast as many other more well-known browsers.
Pro Lightweight
Incredibly lightweight with very little memory consumption.
Pro Allows using webapps as if they were desktop apps
Midori has a built-in functionality with which you can create web apps that can be launched from the desktop. For example, you can create a web app for the desktop to launch Gmail or YouTube or any other web app that you use.
Pro Available on several distributions
Midori is used as a default choice for a web browser for some distributions (like Elementary OS) and it's available for easy downloading for many other distros through their official repositories.
Pro Useful plugins are built-in
Some very popular and useful plugins are built-in and available out of the box. For example, there's an RSS feed reader plugin and an Adblocker built-in.
Pro All the benefits of Firefox, but with 100% free software
Pro LibreJS
LibreJS blocks proprietary JavaScript code, ensuring your user freedom.
Pro Protects your freedom, certified free by the FSF
Pro Extra security and privacy features
Pro Made by idealists
It is part of the GNU Project.
Pro No spyware
Pro Https-Everywhere by default
Pro SpyBlock
Blocks privacy trackers.
Cons
Con Development stalled
There have been no recent updates. Lags other browsers in supporting modern web standards. Many distributions have replaced it with other browsers.
Con Abandonned
Con Misbehaves with Google Web Apps
On some distributions Midori may not work very well for Google Web Apps. On openSUSE for example, Midori starts misbehaving when you are going through Google Drive's folder hierarchy.
Con Supports insecure cipher suites
This browser supports RC4 encryption which is known to be insecure compared to other encryptions such as AES.
Con Another bloatware as Firefox
It is described as a lightweight browser but it is just a bloatware. It crashes sometimes. It is a clone of Firefox which is said to be a RAM-eater.
Con Unfamiliar UI
The UI can take a little to getting used to because it's not very conventional or similar to other browsers. For example, it uses a trashcan icon to view recently visited links.
Con Too much bloat
The browser comes with 15 addons installed by default, most of which are useless or ruin one's browsing experience.
Con Mainly just an old Firefox
It is mainly a renamend older version of Firefox that comes preinstalled with some extensions.
Con Not up to date
Latest binary is still version 60.7 ESR and was last updated over a year ago
Con Requires too much unnecessary configuration to use
You have to manually delete all the bloated addons from your files (only for them to show up again when the browser is updated) and manually install some addons and themes that the browser labels as "corrupt".
Con Very slow boot time
It takes 10+ seconds for the browser to load up
Con Can't install some Firefox themes/addons
"Installation aborted because the addon appears to be corrupt".
Con Includes LibreJS by default with no way to remove it
Con Very slow boot time
It takes 10+ seconds for the browser to load up
Con Dependent on Mozilla
Since IceCat is based off Firefox, it's dependent on all of Mozilla's decisions.
Con Made by idealists
It is part of the GNU Project.