SRWare Iron web browser for Linux

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.

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. Note: Tork is a Tor controller software (alternative to Vidalia) which runs on KDE (available in the repositories with suggested other packages).

Note: Upon initial startup, SRWare Iron asks you to choose between Google, Yahoo, and Bing Search engines. Choose between them initially to get your SRWare Iron profile initialized and then change the default search engine to Scroogle SSL as described below.

The main English website is here.

Update: Iron/Chrome Extensions (English).

Note; I found the Iron (Note: the executable is named: 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.

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:

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).

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

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 (i.e. Kubuntu) with the Tork Tor controller) except the torkify command w/SRWare Iron is not recommended is:
$ polipo& (as a regular user)
$ sudo /etc/init.d/tor start
$ torkify <web browser>& (Note: I did not do this with SRWare Iron - gets Socks proxy error, but it is useful for other browsers like Firefox and its derivatives which has Socks Proxy capabilities)
$ tork via Start button>Applications>Internet>Tork

I presume if one runs Ubuntu instead of Kubuntu, then Vidalia would replace Tork as the Tor controller, and the torkify command above would be replaced by torify <web browser>.

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.

That;s all for now, I'll update my progress on the DNS leakage issue as I learn more.

Note: There are also SRWare Iron browsers for Windows and Mac OS X.

-- Tom

 

I tried it on debian squeeze about six months ago. It stalled or didn't load pages at all far to often for my liking, so I promptly removed it. I couldn't say if it's improved since then.

 

Hi Beavenburt,

I'm sure the newer version would be an improvent over 6 months ago - give it a shot if you have the time. I'd be interested to see what you think. It seems to be very responsive for me in a Linux Live CD environment w/Ubuntu 10.10 (4GB RAM, 3GB user available).

-- Tom

 

http://thoughtyblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/16/why-no-one-should-not-use-the-iron-chromium-fork/
It's almost a year old but has anything changed since then? More specifically, is there a difference in terms of privacy or features between Srware Iron and Chromium (which is available as stable, beta or nightly)?

I mean, seriously, rapidshare?

 

Hi katio,

Obiously, you didn't even care to answer you own questions and you depend on an out-of-date biased review. Your echoed complaint carries no weight unless you do your own homework. But, you knew that from the get go - didn't you.

You should try and do a reveiw on the merits of the software instead of someone else's opinion - regardless of whether you agree with it from the start - at least you will have done your homework!

-- Tom

 

Do you misunderstand me on purpose? I asked a genuine question, not a rhetorical one. The question was if that outdated review is still relevant. Of course I didn't answer my question or I wouldn't have asked it in the first place.

As far as homework goes, I only checked if they still host the source code on rapidshare. Note how this time it was a rhetorical question. Naturally I made sure that the implied statement was correct.

Instead of attacking my writing style (thanks, but you are not my English teacher) what about answering my question or at least providing some clues on why you have a different opinion, in other words, facts instead of condescendence?

 

It does not have "less" tracking than Chromium. Iron IS Chromium.

http://chromium.hybridsource.org/the-iron-scam
http://neugierig.org/software/chromium/notes/2009/12/iron.html