Lunascape Browser: Why Pick <i>Just</i> One Engine?

Get Lunascape here, Windows only.

Today I caught wind via Twitter about an interesting idea for a browser (NOTE: If you do NOT know what a browser is, see this video).

Typically a browser uses an underlying rendering engine that will manage displaying page contents from the code delivered to a page. Modern rendering engines have to manage tabs, memory management, Javascript (in most cases), HTML, CSS, XML, and allowing plug-ins. Each browser has it’s own traits, such as the extensibility of Mozilla (Firefox)’s engine, Gecko, in the use of it’s add-ons, or maybe the ActiveX components of IE providing compatibility from the ’90s, or Wekbit (Chrome, Safari)’s speed. Lunascape provides a unique product by that standard because it utilizes all three engines….

So let’s go over the features here (with video!):

Installable on Portable Drives (see install)
Themes
Browser Zooming
Install Gecko/Firefox add-ons

Let’s go over these bit by bit:

1. During the install (video here) you are able to select to install this on a portable (USB) drive. This means that you can put Lunascape on a USB memory drive and carry it with you while being able to use it on computers along the way without having to install the browser directly.

2. Themes: Similar to the addon and theme ecosystem that exists for Firefox, Lunascape has a wide variety of user-created themes. Personally I like The Orion (latest) theme the best.

3. Typically browsers “zoom” by enlarging text and sometimes image sizes, which messes up site design and distorts embedded objects, however Lunascape zooms in the best way possible, it zooms. When you zoom to a specific size it enlarges everything by a given percentage, which is particularly useful for screencasts.

4. Like I said earlier, Lunascape allows you to use Gecko (Firefox), Webkit (Safari, Konqueror, Chrome), or Trident (<IE6). When you use Gecko, which I found to be the most stable engine, you can use Firefox addons. For the Firefox extensions I tried, they all worked including FlashBlock, NoScript, Better Greader, and Better GMail. However, if you rely on extensions you should set your default engine to Gecko.

My thoughts:

I’ve been using Lunascape on a daily basis for the past 12 days and have found it to be on par with Firefox in stability and speed, which are the two biggest factors in a browser for me. *Note on November 27 Lunascape 6 Beta 2 has been released* and for “beta” software it seems very near release candidate or release. I have had it crash twice on me; 1) as I normally do with browsers I left it open and used it for five days without restarting it. With thirty-four tabs open while trying to make Flash (Youtube HD) go full screen it froze then died, but came right back up (sans my tabs). 2) I had TWiT Live (HQ) open for a few straight hours (overnight) and the next morning it had crashed and asked me to report the failure. I’m willing to bet that this was more Adobe’s fault, not Lunascape’s, as this happens about this much with Firefox.

I thought at the beginning that a built-in RSS reader, sidebars, and large UI would be a nice change from my usual Chrome [actually Chromium] (OS X) or Firefox on Windows (with minimal UI with themes and extensions to shrink it). But it wasn’t. This felt a lot like Flock or an older version of Opera, not that this is a bad or good thing… it was nice to have my bookmark bar back, and a status bar at the bottom, and toolbars; on smaller screens this may be an impedance.

I also took a look at the current version of Lunascape, Lunascape 5 “Genesis”, and will definitely make it clear that version 6 “Orion” is a big improvement. Version 6 behaves much more like a Windows application in the way that clicking, highlighting, and menus work.

In case you haven’t caught on earlier, because Lunascape can use Trident, it can also use ActiveX controls. This is a HUGE bonus as if your bank, company, or other site requires that you use ActiveX to work with them (a common one is a popular real estate site), then switch back to the more secure Gecko or Webkit.

My biggest issue with Lunascape is that your search results (whether by Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc…) are redirected through a Lunascape page. However this eliminates ads and seems to make the page lighter weight, it does bring up privacy issues and the fact that your [Yahoo/Live/Google] account won’t be on that page (with the typical links to your account stuffs). That was my biggest deal breaker, and is why I won’t continue to use it.

Bottom line: This is definitely worth a try, especially because you can use ActiveX controls, unless your considered about the functionality or privacy of the search feature. I give it 7.5/10.

The Good:

Can pick browser engine.
Can use ActiveX controls (in Trident mode).
Can use Firefox extensions (in Gecko mode).
Fast and reliable.
Built-in RSS and Podcast feed reader
Portable.
Zooms well.
Good password manager.

The Bad:

Search privacy issues.
Search functionality (if you use a Live, Yahoo, or Google account).
Uses a lot of memory.
A lot of interface.
Menus are complicated.

To Download:
Go to lunascape.tv
There are two download buttons; the one on the left gets you the current release, version 5 (not recommended by me) and the right gets you the latest beta (currently second beta as of November 27).