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• The Web browser is essential, and to a growing number of users even more important than the operating system itself. As more tasks commonly associated with locally-installed applications are being accomplished using online services, the Web browser will only become more critical in the future. If Firefox seems like the de facto browser for Linux, that's because it is. However, Windows users will remember late last year when Internet Explorer security holes drove them en masse to Firefox, only to later discover similar exploits in Firefox. This incident drove home the need to have multiple browsers installed, if only for emergency backup use. To put these browsers through a quick (and admittedly unscientific) test, I utilized some of the Internet's most popular Web sites. For starters, I performed a few random searches on Google to gauge page-load speed. Next, I simply navigated to the Yahoo homepage. Believe it or not, that site doesn't support very many browsers. I navigated to my house using the maps at Microsoft's new Bing.com (why not test in unfriendly territory?). And finally, I played the current feature video on Hulu, and the same on YouTube. Mozilla Firefox (v. 3.0.11) Mozilla's Firefox is the undisputed king of Web browsers on the Linux platform. No matter what any given distribution has installed by default, the vast majority of Linux users rely on Firefox as their primary window into the World Wide Web. It's popularity is due in large part to the unparalleled number of custom add-ons and plug-ins available. If a feature exists on any browser, there's probably an add-on to enable it in Firefox. This browser is more stable and secure than Internet Explorer, while still performing similarly on Web site compatibility. With all this going for it, it's no wonder that Firefox holds almost one quarter of the entire Web browser market share. That means about twenty percent of current Windows users prefer it. If you don't already use this browser, regardless of your OS, you should. Opera (v. 9.64) For many years, Opera has been the third wheel at the browser party. Today, it's more like the fifth. Opera has had a long history of innovation, often including cutting-edge features before the competition. By including a thumbnailed bookmarks page, thumbnailed tab previews, and split-screen browsing (not as optional add-ons, but integrated into the default installation), the latest version of Opera is still ahead of it's time. One of the simple features that I especially like is the ability to have a separate entry in the search bar for each tab. For example, if you search for "fried chicken recipes" in one tab, and open a second tab to search for "cornbread recipes," the search bar in the second tab will not have "fried chicken recipes," but will be blank for a new search. If nothing else, Opera is a solid backup or secondary browser and is available for just about every operating system you can think of. BeOS stalwarts rejoice! SeaMonkey (v. 1.1.15) The first thing that you're sure to notice about SeaMonkey Navigator is the Netscape Navigator theme. Of all the browsers in this article, SeaMonkey was the biggest surprise. It is hands-down the best non-mainstream offering on the list, no question. This browser had no problem handling YouTube, Hulu, Yahoo, or even Microsoft Bing Maps. Apart from the theme, being an actual descendant of Netscape makes SeaMonkey very approachable to ex-users of Navigator. When you perform a search using the search bar, a pane appears on the left side of the screen displaying search results. This feature can come in handy if you have the screen real estate to spare on a wide-screen monitor. I really did not expect to find anything decent besides Firefox and Opera, but SeaMonkey is truly a great app; something that will remain installed on my machine long after this article is finished.

• Epiphany (v. 2.26.1) Epiphany is the default Web browser for the stock GNOME GUI. GNOME is the default GUI for popular distributions such as Ubuntu, Fedora, and Debian. While Ubuntu has Mozilla Firefox installed as the primary browser, until recently, Epiphany was also installed by default. Epiphany uses Mozilla's Gecko layout engine and therefore bears a striking resemblance to Firefox. The best feature of Epiphany is the all-in-one search/location bar, which is unparalleled at discerning the difference between a search term and the name of a Web site. This is a decent browser as far as site compatibility is concerned, and it correctly displays site elements. It is, however, noticeably slower than most of the other browsers; painfully at times. Overall, Epiphany is a decent, fully-featured secondary or backup browser. Galeon (v. 2.0.6) Galeon, like Epiphany, uses the Mozilla Gecko layout engine. It is actually the parent project from which Epiphany was formed. Galeon has a strange "myportal:" as it's default homepage, which gives you an error each time you open the app. Apparently it's supposed to create a shortcut page from your bookmarks, but it didn't. Galeon is not as slow as Epiphany, however it did have problems with the Yahoo homepage. If you don't use any Yahoo services and don't mind having to immediately set a new start page, this browser is just as good as Epiphany. Konqueror (v. 4.2.2) Konqueror is the default Web browser and file manager for the KDE graphical user interface. KDE is the default GUI for popular Linux distributions like openSUSE, Mandriva, and Kubuntu. Even though most modern distros use Firefox as their default browser, Konqueror is usually installed as a file manager and/or secondary  browser in the KDE distros. While Konqueror leaves quite a lot to be desired, it is a powerful and fully-featured file manager. One greatly-missed feature when running this browser in GNOME is the search bar. It is there, next to the location bar, when run from KDE. Konqueror would not play videos on Hulu, nor would it display the Yahoo homepage. It also got hung up during Google searches and would ignore my keystrokes in the search box. The program fetches pages from the Web slightly faster than Epiphany, but the actual program took quite a while longer to load than the others. To be fair, the last three problems were due to running Konqueror in Ubuntu's GNOME GUI instead of it's native KDE. So, if you're using KDE as your GUI, Konqueror won't be that bad in terms of performance, and higher on the list than Epiphany. Though it's occasionally nice to go from a local file to a Web page in the same app, Konqueror is not going to cut it as your primary browser by any stretch of the imagination.  Arora (v. 0.5) Arora is the last browser to make the cut, but that doesn't mean it's the bottom of the barrel. There are many, many more Web browsers for Linux that just didn't have enough usability to be featured here. Arora played Hulu and YouTube videos, but both experienced seemingly random errors that required a reload (and therefore a fast forward back to your position), which could become irritating quite quickly. It also experiences major "scroll-lag" if there is video or ad content on the screen. While this browser supports tabbed browsing, it seems to prefer opening a new window for links more often than not. On the bright side, the speed was excellent and the program loads quickly. Being based on QTWebKit makes this browser worth watching for diversity's sake. But for now, Arora is best as a secondary or even tertiary backup Web browser due to it's (currently) limited functionality and remaining bugs. Google Chrome? Google has said that Chrome would be available for all operating systems, yet right now it is only for Windows. So far, the Linux and Mac versions of the new browser are only available as pre-alpha developer releases, and only recommended if you absolutely cannot wait for, or want to aid in the development of Google Chrome. While many things do not work properly in the development version, it runs exceptionally fast. And due to it's underlying design, it should be the most secure and stable browser available. Recently, Google announced that the 64-bit version of Chrome will be released for Linux first. Unfortunately, we were told that a version would be released in the first half of this year, so I'm no longer holding my breath. Whenever it becomes available, Chrome will very likely move up on this list.

• Miro Internet TV (v. 2.0.3 r9307) Miro is a difficult app to define. It's a BitTorrent client, a download manager, a podcatcher, Internet video index, and an HD video player. All these aspects combine to make an app that is simply fantastic. Miro is a perfectly capable BitTorrent client with pause/resume and bandwidth throttling options. Though I wouldn't use it for heavy lifting (or content of questionable legality) due to it's limited options, it would make a great first BitTorrent client. Miro is also a fully-featured podcatcher for both audio and video podcasts. It will automatically download the latest podcasts in a feed, and then mark them as unread. The left pane lists your feeds, separated by audio and video. It lists the number of downloaded podcasts per feed in a blue bubble and the number of active downloads in orange. It will also display the number of unplayed feeds in a green bubble next to the feed, somewhat like email. Not only does Miro find and download many types of online media, but it also has a built-in HD video player. The player is actually a real surprise, since most built-in players are swill. Miro's can handle almost as many file types as the much-hailed VLC Media Player. There are no slowdown or lip-synching issues, even with many other applications running in the background (on the Linux client).  Myriad features aside, the Miro Guide, an index of online audio and video content, is the most unique feature in the application. The Miro Guide is an absolutely gigantic catalog of Internet television shows and channels divided by genre and all completely searchable. The technology section alone seems to go on forever. It really brings me back to the Internet TV channels from WinAmp, but in HD. There is also a nifty video search feature that searches the combined libraries of many popular online video sites, such as YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo Video, and more. After you've found a video you want to watch, Miro will download it like a torrent or podcast. That's right. Miro also acts as a download manager for Internet videos like YouTube and Hulu. Unfortunately, it currently does not support .swf files, but other file types can be downloaded to be enjoyed later, even if you lose access to the Internet. Podcatchers The podcatchers on this page are not readers, but simply aggregators. They do not play the podcasts. Instead, they utilize your system's default audio and video players for content playback, technically making them Internet apps and not audio/video apps. I used the RSS pages of TWiT to test audio podcasts and GameTrailers Reviews to test video podcasts. gPodder (v. 0.14.0) gPodder has a clean interface and starts with a selection of suggested podcasts, which makes this app very approachable. The left pane is a list of your podcasts. It automatically adds a cover picture for the feed if one is available. This makes distinguishing between feeds extremely easy, even if you have a ton of subscriptions. The right pane lists the podcasts available for each feed, along with icons that indicate if a podcast is downloading, has been downloaded, has been played or unplayed, and locked. However, locking or selecting Prohibit deletion on a podcast does nothing to stop someone from deleting the file using a file manager, or via the terminal. This simply adds an extra step so that users cannot accidentally delete podcatsts. To undo, simply select Allow deletion. If you want to see the details of a podcast as you would in a Web browser, right-click on one and choose Episode details. Another window will appear with the details. There is also a Downloads tab, from which you can see the speed of any active downloads, set bandwidth limits, or cancel transfers. gPodder, however, has no option to pause or resume downloads, and the progress bar always indicates 100%. PenguinTV (v. 4.0.0) PenguinTV has four different interface layouts to choose from under View in the menu bar. Unfortunately, switching between views usually locks or crashes the application. PenguinTV gives you the option to download or 'download and open' a podcast. You can also pause, resume, or cancel transfers. PenguinTV allows you to search your subscriptions for keywords to find a specific podcast, and, if you want, save those searches for later.