Blocklist-Update.sh is a script that I wrote to manage blocklists from bluetack etc to be used in conjunction with Transmission torrent downloader in Linux/MacOS. The script can be taylored to work with Qbittorrent as well, but the placement of the blocklists means you'd have to redirect the blocklist to go somewhere locally manageable as Transmission uses its own blocklist directory in .config. I believe there are about 10 lists there now. It works well for my needs. It can be ran weekly using crontab in standard user profile. To download: blocklist-update.sh To download the others: Github
Epiphany was an open source browser started for the gnome project. It
utilizes the gnome desktop heavily and works best within the gnome
environment. That’s not to say it doesn’t work outside of gnome,
as it does run relatively well on xfce and others. Epiphany was
gnome’s answer for alternative and lightweight browser solution and
it was added to Raspbian in 2014 and was given the term as being
Raspberry Pi’s very own browser. Before it was added to Raspbian,
the ARM operating system didn’t really have acceptable choices in
terms of web browsers. Most web browsers were either lacking or were
too sluggish and bloated to serve the said ARM devices. Raspberry Pi
previously used Midori by default, but Midori is often unpredictable
now as it has not been updated in almost two or three years now.
Epiphany was elected to change all of that.
Epiphany was touted as bringing a host of features that Midori and
other browsers didn’t really offer. It was equally based on Webkit
as was Midori, but it was being updated, it offered Hardware
accelerated video decoding, improved Javascript support, faster
scrolling, better interactivity during page loading, also
ARMv6-optimized blitting functions.
But somehow, every other article I read about Epiphany(Gnome Web) was
met with dissatisfaction in something that the browser did or did not
do. Many people hit the Raspbian and other linux forums with
questions and many times there was no one quick fix and many left
with more questions. I’m assuming this was mostly during the Beta
and testing phases, however, when I was first introduced to Epiphany,
I was less than impressed with it, but it was an exceptional
idea and so I stuck with it for a while. Epiphany has grown so much
since. It now includes more adblocking capabilities, better
scrolling, multiprocess functionality and a firefox based syncing
feature. It once used Gecko, so it isn’t a huge surprise that they
would choose to use Firefox’s syncing functionality over Chrome’s.
Epiphany also offers a Full Screen Mode. Epiphany can also create
web apps in seconds. Web apps are one of the highlights of the
browser, they offer a smaller window to access certain mobile or
small sites which one accesses every day.
Gnome Web indeed offers a beautiful view of the web, it offers
bookmarks, yet they are out of the way of the user, the bookmarks and
address bar are both accessed along the same toolbar at the top, the
browser was built with a minimalist idea behind it, to stay out of
the user’s way. Nevertheless, the browser really does integrate
well with the desktop. The browser really is light in comparison with
the other bigger browsers. Epiphany is in a class all its own, but it
was never supposed to completely replace Firefox. It was never meant
to directly compete with it at all. In the beginning what it lacked
in HTML5 support, it did make up for in asthetics. Even now, there is
a need for a browser such as this, it allows the user full control,
but in a completely minimal way, there aren’t a whole boat load of
options as there is with Vivaldi, even Qupzilla has more options, but
as it stands, Epiphany does more with less.
Gnome Web’s roadmap page on the Gnome Web wiki is showing now that
they are currently working on a lot of neat, nifty features ahead
like; Blocking dangerous websites using a safe-browsing API, porting
the adblocker to the content blockers API, adding a reading list
improving on an already existing Httpseverywhere library
implementation, more.
The Front Page:
The future of the web browser looks ever so bright, I wonder if
anyone could see themselves switching from Firefox and Chrome now
that Gnome Web is useable and also features syncing?
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