# SRWare Iron web browser for Linux



## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

Has anyone tried the SRWare Iron web browser? It is a derivative of the Chromium web browser (open source version of Google's Chrome browser from which Chrome is derived) which has less tracking information than Chromium.

Update: Note: The differences of SRWare Iron and Chrome are at the above SRWare Iron web browser web page under the heading: Differences from Chrome.

Update: ChromiumBrowserVsGoogleChrome.



> *Differences between Google Chrome and Linux distro Chromium*


There is an English web support forum for SRWare Iron (i.e. it is a German website). I had to visit the BableFish website to get a translation of their FAQ in English.

Looks very good to me. I suggest you modify the default search engine from Google to Scroogle SSL (for less tracking). It should be good to go with some other add-ons available, especially if you torkify it with Tor for anonymous browsing. Note: Tork is a Tor controller software (alternative to Vidalia) which runs on KDE (available in the repositories with suggested other packages).

The main English website is here.

Update: Iron/Chrome Extensions (English).

Note; I found the Iron user profile in ~/.config/chromium after installing and executing the Iron browser. You should be able to edit some of the defaults, like Google default search engine in the ASCII file I found there.

The latest version of SRWare Iron web browser is New Iron-Version: 7.0.520.0 Stable for Linux released on November 5, 2010 (based on Chromium 7). Version 8 is expected later this year after Chromium 8 releases. Note: Linux 32-bit and 64-bit Downloads are at this link.

Note: [Benchmark] Iron v7.0.520.0 VS Chrome v7.0.517.41.




























-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

I found the following infomation in the web forum at SRWare Iron's website on How to add Scroogle as the default search engine in the Iron browser.



> To add Scroogle as the default search engine, do the following:
> 
> - Go into Options and click on the Basics tab
> - In the Default Search section, click on the Manage button
> ...


however, to get the Scroogle SSL search engine, try using https://ssl.scroogle.org for the URL
I haven't tried it yet, but the last part in the URL with the "cgi-bin/nbbw.cgi?Gw=%s" after .org (without the quotes) may be necessary. However, I would change the Name to Scroogle SSL (if you use the SSL URL).

-- Tom


----------



## TRS-80 vet (Jun 18, 2005)

Does scroogle have problems loading any webpages?

Does Tork work in Gnome environment? Or only KDE?

Opera finished first in one test?   I tried Opera years ago, and it was a :










Only FF with Beagle Tracker ran slower...


----------



## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

TRS-80 vet said:


> Does scroogle have problems loading any webpages?
> 
> Does Tork work in Gnome environment? Or only KDE?
> 
> ...


Hi TRS-80 vet,

Tork does work in a Gnome environment! What it does is import the KDE packages required to make it work as Tork dependencies. Both the Tork and tork-data packages are required. Use Synaptic Package Manager if you use Ubuntu.

It was a new version of Opera, i.e. version 11.0 that finished first - hot off the press or in development - I don't know as it has been a while since I used Opera. However, Both Opera and SRWare Iron left the others in the dust!

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

Well, it looks like the Iron browser is only at present an http proxy browser, and consequently does not work with Tor which is a socks proxy technology, i.e. currently it does not have the feature set to set a socks proxy port afaik.

I am going to contact the authors of Iron via their forum and ask if that is a future capability they have planned or are considering and if not they could they please consider it. It looks like the perfect browser to use with Tor.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

Here is how I got the SRWare Iron web browser to use Tor - i.e. through the polipo proxy.

Just set the environment variable http_proxy to use the polipo listen port via the following command when running the polipo proxy for use with Tor:

$ export http_proxy=http://localhost:<port number>
where the port number is what you set in the browser settings for the HTTP Proxy network settings, i.e. in Firefox: Firefox preferences>Network tab>Settings>Manual proxy configuration for HTTP when Torbuttion is enabled is: HTTP PROXY 127.0.0.1 Port: 8118

Note: the sequence of software to run the scenario (on KDE with the Tork Tor controller) is:
$ polipo& (as a regular user)
$ sudo /etc/init.d/tor start
$ torkify <web browser>&
$ tork via Start button>Applications>Internet>Tork

I am going to report this information to the Tor project and the SRWare Iron forums, however, there may be an issue with DNS leakage - I do not know for sure yet, it may just be a false positive and I need to get some help debugging it from the Tor developers or maybe someone else will know about it (I got a warning message to the effect that there may be a DNS leakage without any detail). Perhaps I will have to run SRWare Iron in debugging mode if there is such a thing.

I checked out my actual IP address before bringing up SRWare Iron, and had a different browser (than SRWare Iron for Linux) that verified that it was using the Exit node's IP address and not my real one, and then when using the SRWare Iron browser with the http_proxy set, it also verified that the IP address was different from my real IP address.

-- Tom


----------

