Falkon

Falkon is a KDE web browser using the QtWebEngine rendering engine that works on Linux and Windows.

Falkon, formerly known as the Qupzilla web browser, is a free and open-source lightweight web browser available to Linux and Windows users. It has the typical features found in most web browsers, but it also has these features: built-in AdBlock plugin, builtin themes (Linux, Chrome Mac, and Windows themes), session manger that allows you to restore previous sessions, it has a cookie manager, it uses Duck Duck Go as the default search engine, it has a configurable toolbar, and much more. 

How to Install Falkon

If you are an Ubuntu/Debian user then I recommend installing the browser using the Ubuntu repositories.

Open your Terminal and enter the following:
  1.  sudo apt-get install falkon
  2. Press Enter and enter your password

You can also install the installation file for a variety of Linux distributions from pkgs.org. Windows users can download the browser from the Download page of the program's website.

You can also install the browser on your Linux systems by installing it using Snap. Using Snap allows you to install the browser on any Linux distro.

Open your Terminal and enter the following:
  1. sudo snap install falkon --candidate
  2. Press Enter and enter your password

You can find multiple ways of downloading and installing the browser from the Download section of the developer's webpage. Snapcraft also provides the instructions for installing the most current version on Linux Mint. 

When it finishes the installation process, it will add an icon to your menu.

You can access the Main Menu by clicking on the hamburger menu or three horizontal lines in the upper right corner.

It has a typical looking menu, but clicking on Preferences option allows you to customize the browser to meet your surfing needs.

Here's a quick look through the default Preferences settings.

You can select between four themes: Chrome, Linux, Mac, and Windows.

"Falkon does not use the same extension API as Firefox or Chrome/Chromium, and as such it has only limited support to extensions. However, some extensions are available by default, only having AdBlock active out of the box." "The current development version allows downloading more extensions. These can be downloaded from the Falkon Browser store."

There's a known bug for Falkon 3.1 not loading on some Linux systems. A solution found on AskUbuntu recommends to uninstall version 3.1 and install the older version 3.0. However, you can launch Falkon from the Terminal by entering the following: snap run falkon. You can then see what happens in your Terminal as the browser tries to load.

How to Remove Falkon

Open your Terminal and enter the following:
  1.  sudo apt-get remove falkon
  2. Press Enter and enter your password

If you installed via snap then enter the following:
  1.  sudo snap remove falkon --candidate
  2. Press Enter and enter your password

The Falkon browser has a very simple user interface. It's lightweight and looks decent.

If you installed Falkon using the Ubuntu repositories then it should use your system theme and have more Extensions.

Below is an example of the Extensions choices using the snap installation. Also, it doesn't use my dark theme.

I recommend that you enable the GreaseMonkey extension because it allows you to customize the way that web pages display and behave. You can find and downloads a variety of scripts from Greasy Fork. I downloaded and installed two scripts from GreaseMonkey:
  1. No more youtube ads! - Automatically Skips all youtube ads! with no waiting time.
  2. Auto Close YouTube Ads - Close and/or Mute YouTube ads automatically!
  3. Remove Google Ad - Greasemonkey script to remove Google Ads.  (From GitHub)

For more information on Falkon 3.1 check out the article called, The new version of the Falkon 3.1.0 web browser arrives.

Falkon - KDE Userbase Wiki

July 23, 2021