Vimb post Signed-off-by: Anirudh Oppiliappan <x@icyphox.sh>
Anirudh Oppiliappan x@icyphox.sh
Thu, 16 Jan 2020 22:13:46 +0000
4 files changed,
125 insertions(+),
2 deletions(-)
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@@ -12,8 +12,8 @@ # latest posts ([see all](/blog))
| | | | :-- | --: | +| [Vimb: my Firefox replacement](/blog/mnml-browsing) | `2020-01-16` | | [Five days in a TTY](/blog/five-days-tty) | `2020-01-13` | | [2019 in review](/blog/2019-in-review) | `2020-01-02` | | [Disinfo war: RU vs GB](/blog/ru-vs-gb) | `2019-12-12` | | [Instagram OPSEC](/blog/ig-opsec) | `2019-12-02` | -| [Save .ORG!](/blog/save-org) | `2019-11-23` |
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@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ ## Computers, security & computer security.
| | | | :-- | --: | +| [Vimb: my Firefox replacement](/blog/mnml-browsing) | `2020-01-16` | | [Five days in a TTY](/blog/five-days-tty) | `2020-01-13` | | [2019 in review](/blog/2019-in-review) | `2020-01-02` | | [Disinfo war: RU vs GB](/blog/ru-vs-gb) | `2019-12-12` |
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@@ -11,7 +11,65 @@ <link>https://icyphox.sh/blog/</link>
</image> <language>en-us</language> <copyright>Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0</copyright> - <item><title>Five days in a TTY</title><description><![CDATA[<p>This new semester has been pretty easy on me, so far. I hardly every + <item><title>Vimb: my Firefox replacement</title><description><![CDATA[<p>After having recently installed <a href="https://getkiss.org">KISS</a>, and +building Firefox from source, I was exposed to the true monstrosity that +Firefox—and web browsers in general—is. It took all of 9 hours to +build the dependencies and then Firefox itself.</p> + +<p>Sure, KISS now ships Firefox binaries in the +<a href="https://github.com/kisslinux/repo/tree/master/extra/firefox-bin">firefox-bin</a> +package; I decided to get rid of that slow mess anyway.</p> + +<h2 id="enter-vimb">Enter vimb</h2> + +<p><a href="https://fanglingsu.github.io/vimb/">vimb</a> is a browser based on +<a href="https://webkitgtk.org/">webkit2gtk</a>, with a Vim-like interface. +<code>webkit2gtk</code> builds in less than a minute—it blows Firefox out of +the water, on that front.</p> + +<p>There isn’t much of a UI to it—if you’ve used Vimperator/Pentadactyl +(Firefox plugins), vimb should look familiar to you. +It can be configured via a <code>config.h</code> or a text based config file at +<code>~/.config/vimb/config</code>. +Each “tab” opens a new instance of vimb, in a new window but this can +get messy really fast if you have a lot of tabs open.</p> + +<h2 id="enter-tabbed">Enter tabbed</h2> + +<p><a href="https://tools.suckless.org/tabbed/">tabbed</a> is a tool to <em>embed</em> X apps +which support xembed into a tabbed UI. This can be used in conjunction +with vimb, like so:</p> + +<pre><code>tabbed vimb -e +</code></pre> + +<p>Where the <code>-e</code> flag is populated with the <code>XID</code>, by tabbed. Configuring +Firefox-esque keybinds in tabbed’s <code>config.h</code> is relatively easy. Once +that’s done—voilà! A fairly sane, Vim-like browsing experience that’s +faster and has a smaller footprint than Firefox.</p> + +<h2 id="ad-blocking">Ad blocking</h2> + +<p>Ad blocking support isn’t built-in and there is no plugin system +available. There are two options for ad blocking:</p> + +<ol> +<li><a href="https://github.com/jun7/wyebadblock">wyebadblock</a></li> +<li><code>/etc/hosts</code></li> +</ol> + +<h2 id="caveats">Caveats</h2> + +<p><em>Some</em> websites tend to not work because they detect vimb as an older +version of Safari (same web engine). This is a minor inconvenience, and +not a dealbreaker for me. I also cannot login to Google’s services for +some reason, which is mildly annoying, but it’s good in a way—I am now +further incentivised to dispose of my Google account.</p> + +<p>And here’s the screenshot y’all were waiting for:</p> + +<p><img src="/static/img/vimb.png" alt="vimb" /></p> +]]></description><link>https://icyphox.sh/blog/mnml-browsing</link><pubDate>Thu, 16 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://icyphox.sh/blog/mnml-browsing</guid></item><item><title>Five days in a TTY</title><description><, and +building Firefox from source, I was exposed to the true monstrosity that +Firefox---and web browsers in general---is. It took all of 9 hours to +build the dependencies and then Firefox itself. + +Sure, KISS now ships Firefox binaries in the +[firefox-bin](https://github.com/kisslinux/repo/tree/master/extra/firefox-bin) +package; I decided to get rid of that slow mess anyway. + +## Enter vimb + +[vimb](https://fanglingsu.github.io/vimb/) is a browser based on +[webkit2gtk](https://webkitgtk.org/), with a Vim-like interface. +`webkit2gtk` builds in less than a minute---it blows Firefox out of +the water, on that front. + +There isn't much of a UI to it---if you've used Vimperator/Pentadactyl +(Firefox plugins), vimb should look familiar to you. +It can be configured via a `config.h` or a text based config file at +`~/.config/vimb/config`. +Each "tab" opens a new instance of vimb, in a new window but this can +get messy really fast if you have a lot of tabs open. + +## Enter tabbed + +[tabbed](https://tools.suckless.org/tabbed/) is a tool to _embed_ X apps +which support xembed into a tabbed UI. This can be used in conjunction +with vimb, like so: + +``` +tabbed vimb -e +``` + +Where the `-e` flag is populated with the `XID`, by tabbed. Configuring +Firefox-esque keybinds in tabbed's `config.h` is relatively easy. Once +that's done---voilà! A fairly sane, Vim-like browsing experience that's +faster and has a smaller footprint than Firefox. + +## Ad blocking + +Ad blocking support isn't built-in and there is no plugin system +available. There are two options for ad blocking: + +1. [wyebadblock](https://github.com/jun7/wyebadblock) +2. `/etc/hosts` + +## Caveats + +_Some_ websites tend to not work because they detect vimb as an older +version of Safari (same web engine). This is a minor inconvenience, and +not a dealbreaker for me. I also cannot login to Google's services for +some reason, which is mildly annoying, but it's good in a way---I am now +further incentivised to dispose of my Google account. + +And here's the screenshot y'all were waiting for: + +