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{{short description|Minimal, lightweight web browser}}
[[Image:dillo-wikipedia-20050226.png|thumb|Wikipedia as seen in Dillo 0.8.4]]
{{otheruses}}
{{Update|date=May 2021}}
{{Infobox Software
| logo = Dillo-icon.png
| screenshot = Dillo Web Browser 3.0 showing en.wikipedia.org.png
| caption = Dillo 3.0 displaying the [[English Wikipedia]]
| collapsible =
| author = Jorge Arellano Cid
| developer =
| released = {{Start date and age|1999|12}}
| latest release version = {{wikidata|property|preferred|reference|edit|Q754064|P348|P548=Q2804309}}
| latest release date = {{start date and age|{{wikidata|qualifier|Q754064|P348|P548=Q2804309|P577}}}}
| latest preview version = {{wikidata|property|preferred|reference|edit|Q754064|P348|P548=Q51930650}}
| latest preview date = {{start date and age|{{wikidata|qualifier|Q754064|P348|P548=Q51930650|P577}}}}
| programming language = [[C (programming language)|C]] and [[C++]]
| operating system = {{nowrap|[[Linux]], [[Berkeley Software Distribution|BSD]], [[macOS|OS X]], [[FreeDOS]]}}
| platform =
| language = English
| genre = [[Web browser]]
| license = [[GNU General Public License|GPL-3.0-or-later]]
| website = https://dillo-browser.github.io/
}}
'''Dillo''' is a minimalistic [[web browser]] particularly intended for older or slower computers and [[embedded system]]s.<ref name="infoworld" /> It supports only plain [[HTML]]/[[XHTML]] (with [[Cascading Style Sheets|CSS]] rendering) and images over [[HTTP]] and [[HTTPS]]; scripting is ignored entirely.<ref name="infoworld">{{cite web|last=Wayner|first=Peter|title=Top 10 specialty Web browsers you may have missed|url=http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/top-10-specialty-web-browsers-you-may-have-missed-026?page=0,3#dillo|publisher=[[InfoWorld]]|access-date=28 October 2010|page=3|date=19 October 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT7153264029.html|title=Introducing Dillo, a lightweight embeddable browser|author=Arellano Cid, Jorge|publisher=LinuxDevices.com|date=1 July 2002|access-date=14 February 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090309064233/http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT7153264029.html|archive-date=2009-03-09}}</ref> Current versions of Dillo can run on [[Linux]], [[Berkeley Software Distribution|BSD]], [[macOS|OS X]], [[IRIX]] and [[Cygwin]].<ref name="compatibility">{{cite web|url=http://www.dillo.org/Compatibility.html|title=Dillo Web Browser :: Compatibility|publisher=[[University of Bremen]]|date=16 November 2008|access-date=13 February 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110824073658/http://www.dillo.org/Compatibility.html|archive-date=24 August 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> Due to its small size, it was the browser of choice in several space-conscious [[Linux distribution]]s. Dillo is [[free software]], released under the [[GNU General Public License|GNU GPL-3.0-or-later]].<ref name="Home Page">{{cite web|url=http://www.dillo.org/|title=Dillo Web Browser :: Home Page|publisher=[[University of Bremen]]|date=7 December 2008|access-date=12 February 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070528175406/http://www.dillo.org/|archive-date=28 May 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref>


Chilean software engineer Jorge Arellano Cid conceived the Dillo project in late 1999,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dillo.org/jcid/|title=Personal info for Jorge Arellano Cid|author=Arellano Cid, Jorge|access-date=12 February 2009|archive-date=24 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151124224150/http://www.dillo.org/jcid/|url-status=dead}}</ref> publishing the first version of Dillo in December of that year.<ref name="changelog">{{cite web|url=http://hg.dillo.org/dillo/file/tip/ChangeLog|title=dillo:ChangeLog|last=Nieradzik|first=Tim|publisher=Mercurial|date=19 April 2009|access-date=21 April 2009|archive-date=6 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106190905/https://hg.dillo.org/dillo/file/tip/ChangeLog|url-status=dead}}</ref> His primary goal in creating Dillo was to democratize access to information. Arellano Cid believed that no one should have to buy a new computer or pay for broadband in order to enjoy the [[World Wide Web]].<ref>{{cite web
'''Dillo''' is a small and very fast [[web browser]] written in [[C programming language|C]] using the [[GTK|GTK+]] toolkit. It is particularly suitable for older computers and [[embedded system]]s.
|url=http://www.tux.cl/ver_entrevista.php?id=06#s2
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030413045914/http://www.tux.cl/ver_entrevista.php?id=06#s2
|title=Cuál sería el principal uso de Dillo?
|author=Arellano Cid, Jorge
|publisher=tux.cl
|language=es
|date=December 2002
|archive-date=13 April 2003
|access-date=13 February 2009
}} [http://www.dillo.org/interview.html English translation] available.</ref> To this end, he designed Dillo to be small, fast, and efficient, capable of performing well even on an [[Intel 80486]] CPU with a [[dial-up Internet access]].<ref name="infoworld" /><ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.tux.cl/ver_entrevista.php?id=06#s1
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030413045914/http://www.tux.cl/ver_entrevista.php?id=06#s1
|title=Básicamente, de que se trata el proyecto Dillo?
|author=Arellano Cid, Jorge
|publisher=tux.cl
|language=es
|date=December 2002
|archive-date=13 April 2003
|access-date=13 February 2009
}} [http://www.dillo.org/interview.html English translation] available.</ref>


==Development==
Dillo, as of release 0.8.4, has no support for [[Cascading Style Sheets|CSS]], [[JavaScript]] nor [[java platform|Java]]. Support for [[Framing#Websites|frames]] is very limited: Dillo makes each frame a link, then shows the NOFRAMES portion of the page in question. There is no support for [[Tabbed browsing|tabs]] and encoding selection in official releases, but these features are available in third-party patches.
Dillo was originally written in the [[C (programming language)|C programming language]] with the [[GTK+]] [[Widget toolkit|GUI toolkit]]. The first versions were based on an earlier browser called ''Armadillo'', hence the name.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sourceforge.net/p/dillo/mailman/message/4410836/|title=Home page (ASCII version)|author=Arellano Cid, Jorge|publisher=[[SourceForge.net]]|date=31 December 1999|access-date=21 April 2009}}</ref>


Dillo 2 was written with both C and [[C++]] components and the [[FLTK|Fast Light Toolkit]] (FLTK),<ref name="changelog"/> and was released on October 14, 2008.<ref name="Home Page"/> Text [[Spatial anti-aliasing|antialiasing]], support for [[Character encoding|character sets]] other than [[ISO/IEC 8859-1|Latin-1]], [[HTTP compression]] capability, and improved page rendering were all added.<ref name="changelog"/> The move to FLTK from GTK+ also removed many of the project's dependencies and reduced Dillo's [[memory footprint]] by 50%.<ref name="Home Page"/>
As of early [[2005]], the current version is 0.8.4


In 2011, Dillo-3.x was released, using FLTK-1.3. According to the Changelog, this change was prompted in part by the lack of an official release of FLTK-2, which stopped Dillo-2's inclusion in lightweight distributions for which it would otherwise have been suitable.
Dillo is available for [[Unix|UNIX]] platforms, including [[Linux]], [[BSD]] and [[Mac OS X]].


Jorge Arellano Cid is still Dillo's lead developer today.<ref>{{cite web
Dillo is released under the [[GNU General Public Licence]].
|url=http://www.dillo.org/D_authors.html
|title=Dillo Web Browser :: Project team
|publisher=[[University of Bremen]]
|access-date=13 February 2009
}}</ref> Dillo is funded by private donations;<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.dillo.org/donations.html
|title=Dillo Web Browser :: Donations
|publisher=[[University of Bremen]]
|date=14 October 2008
|access-date=13 February 2009
}}</ref> efforts to obtain public grants and corporate sponsors have been unsuccessful.<ref>{{cite web
|url = http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS6109819427.html
|title = Embeddable browser project hits milestone release, seeks funding
|publisher = LinuxDevices.org
|date = 19 February 2004
|access-date = 13 February 2009
|url-status = dead
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090216082242/http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS6109819427.html
|archive-date = 16 February 2009
}}</ref> Lack of funding led to a slowdown in development in 2006, and a complete stop in 2007.<ref name="Home Page"/><ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.dillo.org/8years.html
|title=Dillo is eight years old!
|author=Arellano Cid, Jorge
|date=August 2008
|access-date=12 February 2009
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220002512/http://www.dillo.org/8years.html
|archive-date=2012-02-20
}}</ref> The project restarted again in 2008 and two months later received a €115 donation from [[DistroWatch]].<ref name="Home Page"/><ref>{{cite web
|url=http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20081201#donation
|title=DistroWatch.com News
|last=Martin
|first=Caitlyn
|work=DistroWatch Weekly
|date=1 December 2008
|access-date=13 February 2009
}}</ref>


==Features==
Due to its small size Dillo is also the main browser in many small linux distributions including [[Damn Small Linux]] and [[Feather Linux]].
Features of Dillo include [[Bookmark (World Wide Web)|bookmarks]], [[Tab (GUI)|tabbed browsing]], and support for [[JPEG]], [[Portable Network Graphics|PNG]] (including [[Alpha compositing|alpha transparency]]<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/pngapbr.html
|title=PNG-supporting Browsers
|last=Roelofs
|first=Greg
|publisher=[[SourceForge]]
|date=17 May 2008
|access-date=13 February 2009
}}</ref>), and [[GIF]] images.<ref name="Arndt">{{cite web
|url = http://linuxgazette.net/issue79/arndt.html
|title = Dillo--a Web Browser as Fast as Lightning
|last = Arndt
|first = Matthias
|date = June 2002
|access-date = 13 February 2009
|url-status = dead
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090215090123/http://linuxgazette.net/issue79/arndt.html
|archive-date = 15 February 2009
}}</ref> Partial support for [[Cascading Style Sheets|CSS]] was introduced in release 2.1. Settings such as the default fonts, background color, downloads folder, and home page are customizable through configuration files.<ref name="Byfield">{{cite web
|url=http://www.linux.com/feature/151983
|title=Dillo 2.0 is fast, but limited
|last=Byfield
|first=Bruce
|publisher=[[Linux.com]]
|date=5 November 2008
|access-date=13 February 2009
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.dillo.org/dillorc
|title=Sample dillo initialization file
|publisher=[[University of Bremen]]
|access-date=13 February 2009
|archive-date=26 December 2017
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171226160220/https://www.dillo.org/dillorc
|url-status=dead
}}</ref> [[HTTP cookie|Cookies]] are supported but disabled by default due to privacy concerns.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.dillo.org/FAQ.html#q8
|title=Q: How do I enable cookies?
|work=Dillo Web Browser :: Frequently Asked Questions
|publisher=[[University of Bremen]]
|date=15 January 2009
|access-date=11 February 2009
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509062517/http://www.dillo.org/FAQ.html#q8
|archive-date=9 May 2008
|url-status=dead
}}</ref> While most web browsers retain the [[web cache]] and history after the program is closed, Dillo automatically clears them to improve both privacy and performance.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.dillo.org/funding/advantages.html
|title=Dillo Web Browser :: Funding Presentation :: Advantages
|publisher=[[University of Bremen]]
|access-date=13 February 2009
}}</ref>

[[Image:Dillo's bug meter on www.nasa.gov.png|thumb|right|Dillo's bug meter reports errors Dillo encountered in the web page being viewed]]

A developer tool called the "bug meter" is provided in the lower-right corner. When clicked, it displays information about validation problems, such as unclosed [[HTML element|tags]], that Dillo found in the web page.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.dillo.org/help/bug_meter.html
|title=Dillo Web Browser :: About Dillo's Bug Meter
|publisher=[[University of Bremen]]
|access-date=13 February 2009
}}</ref> Unlike most browsers, Dillo does not have a [[quirks mode]] to improve compatibility with web pages that use invalid HTML. Instead, Dillo processes all web pages according to the published [[web standards]].<ref name="strange">{{cite web
|url=http://www.dillo.org/FAQ.html#q7
|title=Why do some pages look strange?
|work=Dillo Web Browser :: Frequently Asked Questions
|publisher=[[University of Bremen]]
|date=15 January 2009
|access-date=11 February 2009
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509062517/http://www.dillo.org/FAQ.html#q7
|archive-date=9 May 2008
|url-status=dead
}}</ref>

In 2003, two Linux enthusiasts successfully ran Dillo on an [[Intel 80486|Intel 486]] processor and demonstrated that even with such meager hardware, Dillo could render [http://news.bbc.co.uk/ Home - BBC News] in 10–15 seconds.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/486.html
|title=Dam(sic) Small Linux on retro hardware -- 486SX and 486DX2
|publisher=John Andrews
|date=19 October 2003
|access-date=24 May 2009
}}</ref> Furthermore, Dillo can run on a variety of [[Computing platform|software platforms]], including [[Linux]], [[Berkeley Software Distribution|BSD]], [[Solaris (operating system)|Solaris]], [[macOS|Mac OS X]], [[DOS]],<ref>[https://code.google.com/p/nanox-microwindows-nxlib-fltk-for-dos/downloads/list Downloads - nanox-microwindows-nxlib-fltk-for-dos - This project ports the Nano-X, Microwindows, NXlib and FLTK 1.3.0 libraries to the DOS operating system using DJGPP - Google Project Hosting]. Code.google.com. Retrieved on 2013-12-09.</ref> and some [[Mobile device|handheld devices]].<ref name="compatibility" /> However, Dillo's developers have made little effort to make the browser work on [[Microsoft Windows]]. Arellano Cid stated that Windows goes against Dillo's goal of democratization by artificially increasing hardware requirements and software costs.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.tux.cl/ver_entrevista.php?id=06#s8
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030413045914/http://www.tux.cl/ver_entrevista.php?id=06#s8
|title=El hecho de que Dillo este programado en C hace que sea portable a otros sistemas operativos, debería Windows ser su objetivo principal, ya que la "democratización de internet" tendría más impacto debido a la cantidad de usuarios de este s.o.?
|author=Arellano Cid, Jorge
|publisher=tux.cl
|language=es
|date=December 2002
|archive-date=13 April 2003
|access-date=13 February 2009
}} [http://www.dillo.org/interview.html English translation] available.</ref> Nevertheless, Dillo has been reported to work on Windows via [[Cygwin]].<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.hyperborea.org/software/dillo/cygwin.html
|title=Installing Dillo on Cygwin
|last=Vibber
|first=Kelson
|date=13 October 2008
|access-date=13 February 2009
|archive-date=4 June 2011
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604040758/http://www.hyperborea.org/software/dillo/cygwin.html
|url-status=dead
}}</ref> Additionally, [http://dillo-win32.sourceforge.net/dillo/ Dillo-Win32] was a project to port Dillo to Windows which is now defunct.<ref>{{cite web
|url = http://dillo-win32.sourceforge.net/dillo/status.php
|title = Project Status
|publisher = Dillo-Win32
|date = 5 December 2011
|access-date = 1 January 2012
|url-status = dead
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120315210553/http://dillo-win32.sourceforge.net/dillo/status.php
|archive-date = 15 March 2012
}}</ref>
D+ browser or Dplus continues where Dillo-Win32 left off, it's forked from the final Dillo-Win32 release (3.0p9) and does not attempt to maintain upstream compatibility with Dillo. Last version is 0.5b (Oct 15, 2013).
<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://dplus-browser.sourceforge.net/
|title=Official D+ Browser page
|access-date=5 December 2013
}}</ref>

Dillo does not support [[JavaScript]], [[Java (programming language)|Java]], [[Adobe Flash|Flash]], [[right-to-left]] text, or [[complex text layout]].<ref name="Arndt"/><ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.dillo.org/FAQ.html#q1
|title=Q: Internationalization and Localization (i18n & l10n)
|work=Dillo Web Browser :: Frequently Asked Questions
|publisher=[[University of Bremen]]
|date=15 January 2009
|access-date=12 February 2009
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509062517/http://www.dillo.org/FAQ.html#q1
|archive-date=9 May 2008
|url-status=dead
}}</ref> Support for [[Framing (World Wide Web)|frames]] is also very limited; Dillo presents a link to each frame to allow the user to view them one at a time.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/5847
|title=Dillo, the GTK Web Browser
|last=Krause
|first=Ralph
|publisher=[[Linux Journal]]
|date=26 February 2002
|access-date=13 February 2009
}}</ref>

=== Forks ===
The original<ref>{{cite web | url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220518060405/https://www.dillo.org/ | title=Dillo Web Browser :: Home Page }}</ref> domain had expired in June 2022.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602023156/https://www.dillo.org/|title=Dillo.org }}</ref> Developers had lost access to it and a [[Domain drop catching|Wordpress zombie lookalike]] is operating without their oversight ever since.

[https://github.com/w00fpack/dilloNG DilloNG] is a fork hosted on [[GitHub]] which moved the code from [[Mercurial]] while adding new features like a speed dial main page, support for opening videos in an external video player<ref>{{cite web |url=https://github.com/w00fpack/dilloNG?tab=readme-ov-file#browser-features |title=README - w00fpack/dilloNG}}</ref> and merged some previously published fixes. It was last updated in 2021.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://github.com/w00fpack/dilloNG/commits |title=Commits - w00fpack/dilloNG}}</ref>

A fork called Dillo-browser<ref>{{cite web |url=https://github.com/dillo-browser/dillo/ |title=Dillo, a multi-platform graphical web browser}}</ref> appeared in 2019 forked from the then-current version of DilloNG. It stalled until 2023 when its development resumed and is ongoing as of 2024.

Dillo+ ([https://github.com/crossbowerbt/dillo-plus Dillo-Plus]) started in 2023 based on Dillo 3.0.5 source code found in the OpenBSD 6.8 package.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://github.com/crossbowerbt/dillo-plus/commit/b1cfeb1e36c24de76976341e4ed5cfe7634f9e00 |title=Working base from OpenBSD 6.8 pkg, switched from autotools to plain Makefiles}}</ref> It had applied numerous patches from DilloNG and added support for rendering gopher, gemini and markdown pages, reader mode and extended CSS support.<ref>See [https://github.com/crossbowerbt/dillo-plus/blob/main/src/cssparser.cc] for coverage</ref> A new Python scripting system was introduced with modules for rendering RSS, Epub, public Telegram channel logs and zip file contents.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://github.com/crossbowerbt/dillo-plus#user-content-dls-scripts | title=Overview | website=[[GitHub]] }}</ref> It is still maintained as of 2024.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://github.com/crossbowerbt/dillo-plus/commits |title=Commits - crossbowerbt/dillo-plus}}</ref>

==Reception==
Reviews of Dillo have praised its extraordinary speed, but noted that this speed comes at a price.<ref name="Arndt"/><ref name="Kingman">{{cite web
|url = http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS6922044112.html
|title = Lightweight, Linux-compatible browser evolves
|last = Kingman
|first = Henry
|publisher = DesktopLinux.com
|date = 16 October 2008
|access-date = 13 February 2009
|url-status = dead
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090214230717/http://desktoplinux.com/news/NS6922044112.html
|archive-date = 14 February 2009
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.mlug.ca/static/35.htm
|title=Linux Web Surfing - Get Armed with Dillo
|last=Tatham
|first=Paul
|date=15 September 2002
|access-date=13 February 2009
|archive-date=3 March 2016
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303171507/http://www.mlug.ca/static/35.htm
|url-status=dead
}}</ref> The most visible cost is Dillo's inability to display complex web pages as they were meant to be. A 2008 review by [[Linux.com]] commented that Dillo's user interface may be "intimidating" for new users, and pointed out the scarcity of [[Plug-in (computing)|plug-ins]] for Dillo.<ref name="Byfield"/> In all, Dillo's global usage share is less than one hundredth of one percent.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://marketshare.hitslink.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=0
|title=Browser Market Share
|publisher=Net Applications
|date=January 2009
|access-date=12 February 2009
}}</ref>

Dillo is, however, the browser of choice in several space-conscious [[Linux distribution]]s, such as [[Damn Small Linux]],<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/applications.html
|title=Damn Small Linux, Featured Desktop applications
|publisher=John Andrews
|access-date=11 February 2009
}}</ref> [[Feather Linux]],<ref>{{cite web
|url = http://featherlinux.berlios.de/about.htm
|title = Feather Linux - About
|publisher = [[BerliOS]]
|access-date = 11 February 2009
|url-status = dead
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090127052745/http://featherlinux.berlios.de/about.htm
|archive-date = 27 January 2009
}}</ref> [[VectorLinux]],<ref>{{cite web
|url = http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS9866429696.html
|title = Lesser known "mini" Linux runs from RAM
|publisher = DesktopLinux.com
|date = 25 January 2007
|access-date = 13 February 2009
|url-status = dead
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090215050645/http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS9866429696.html
|archive-date = 15 February 2009
}}</ref> [[antiX]]<ref name="Kingman"/> and Mustang Linux.<ref name="Kingman"/>


==See also==
==See also==
{{Portal|Free and open-source software}}
*[[List of web browsers]]
*[[Comparison of web browsers]]
* [[Comparison of lightweight web browsers]]
* [[Comparison of web browsers]]
* [[List of web browsers]]
* [[List of web browsers for Unix and Unix-like operating systems]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}


==External links==
==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*[http://www.dillo.org/ Dillo homepage]
* {{Official website}}
* {{Freecode|dillo-web-browser|Dillo}}


{{Lightweight web browsers}}
[[Category:Free Mac OS software]]
[[Category:Linux web browsers]]
{{Web browsers|desktop}}
[[Category:Mac OS web browsers]]


[[Category:POSIX web browsers]]
[[de:Dillo]]
[[Category:MacOS web browsers]]
[[es:Dillo]]
[[Category:Web browsers for DOS]]
[[fr:Dillo]]
[[Category:Free web browsers]]
[[csb:Dillo]]
[[Category:Embedded Linux]]
[[hu:Dillo]]
[[Category:Free software programmed in C]]
[[ru:Dillo]]
[[Category:Cross-platform free software]]
[[fi:Dillo]]
[[Category:RISC OS web browsers]]
[[zh:Dillo]]
[[Category:Software that uses FLTK]]
[[Category:1999 software]]

Latest revision as of 18:21, 23 May 2024

For other uses, see Dillo (disambiguation).
Dillo
Original author(s)Jorge Arellano Cid
Initial releaseDecember 1999; 24 years ago (1999-12)
Stable release
3.1.1[1] Edit this on Wikidata / 8 June 2024; 15 days ago (8 June 2024)
Repository
Written inC and C++
Operating systemLinux, BSD, OS X, FreeDOS
Available inEnglish
TypeWeb browser
LicenseGPL-3.0-or-later
Websitehttps://dillo-browser.github.io/

Dillo is a minimalistic web browser particularly intended for older or slower computers and embedded systems.[2] It supports only plain HTML/XHTML (with CSS rendering) and images over HTTP and HTTPS; scripting is ignored entirely.[2][3] Current versions of Dillo can run on Linux, BSD, OS X, IRIX and Cygwin.[4] Due to its small size, it was the browser of choice in several space-conscious Linux distributions. Dillo is free software, released under the GNU GPL-3.0-or-later.[5]

Chilean software engineer Jorge Arellano Cid conceived the Dillo project in late 1999,[6] publishing the first version of Dillo in December of that year.[7] His primary goal in creating Dillo was to democratize access to information. Arellano Cid believed that no one should have to buy a new computer or pay for broadband in order to enjoy the World Wide Web.[8] To this end, he designed Dillo to be small, fast, and efficient, capable of performing well even on an Intel 80486 CPU with a dial-up Internet access.[2][9]

Development[edit]

Dillo was originally written in the C programming language with the GTK+ GUI toolkit. The first versions were based on an earlier browser called Armadillo, hence the name.[10]

Dillo 2 was written with both C and C++ components and the Fast Light Toolkit (FLTK),[7] and was released on October 14, 2008.[5] Text antialiasing, support for character sets other than Latin-1, HTTP compression capability, and improved page rendering were all added.[7] The move to FLTK from GTK+ also removed many of the project's dependencies and reduced Dillo's memory footprint by 50%.[5]

In 2011, Dillo-3.x was released, using FLTK-1.3. According to the Changelog, this change was prompted in part by the lack of an official release of FLTK-2, which stopped Dillo-2's inclusion in lightweight distributions for which it would otherwise have been suitable.

Jorge Arellano Cid is still Dillo's lead developer today.[11] Dillo is funded by private donations;[12] efforts to obtain public grants and corporate sponsors have been unsuccessful.[13] Lack of funding led to a slowdown in development in 2006, and a complete stop in 2007.[5][14] The project restarted again in 2008 and two months later received a €115 donation from DistroWatch.[5][15]

Features[edit]

Features of Dillo include bookmarks, tabbed browsing, and support for JPEG, PNG (including alpha transparency[16]), and GIF images.[17] Partial support for CSS was introduced in release 2.1. Settings such as the default fonts, background color, downloads folder, and home page are customizable through configuration files.[18][19] Cookies are supported but disabled by default due to privacy concerns.[20] While most web browsers retain the web cache and history after the program is closed, Dillo automatically clears them to improve both privacy and performance.[21]

Dillo's bug meter reports errors Dillo encountered in the web page being viewed

A developer tool called the "bug meter" is provided in the lower-right corner. When clicked, it displays information about validation problems, such as unclosed tags, that Dillo found in the web page.[22] Unlike most browsers, Dillo does not have a quirks mode to improve compatibility with web pages that use invalid HTML. Instead, Dillo processes all web pages according to the published web standards.[23]

In 2003, two Linux enthusiasts successfully ran Dillo on an Intel 486 processor and demonstrated that even with such meager hardware, Dillo could render Home - BBC News in 10–15 seconds.[24] Furthermore, Dillo can run on a variety of software platforms, including Linux, BSD, Solaris, Mac OS X, DOS,[25] and some handheld devices.[4] However, Dillo's developers have made little effort to make the browser work on Microsoft Windows. Arellano Cid stated that Windows goes against Dillo's goal of democratization by artificially increasing hardware requirements and software costs.[26] Nevertheless, Dillo has been reported to work on Windows via Cygwin.[27] Additionally, Dillo-Win32 was a project to port Dillo to Windows which is now defunct.[28] D+ browser or Dplus continues where Dillo-Win32 left off, it's forked from the final Dillo-Win32 release (3.0p9) and does not attempt to maintain upstream compatibility with Dillo. Last version is 0.5b (Oct 15, 2013). [29]

Dillo does not support JavaScript, Java, Flash, right-to-left text, or complex text layout.[17][30] Support for frames is also very limited; Dillo presents a link to each frame to allow the user to view them one at a time.[31]

Forks[edit]

The original[32] domain had expired in June 2022.[33] Developers had lost access to it and a Wordpress zombie lookalike is operating without their oversight ever since.

DilloNG is a fork hosted on GitHub which moved the code from Mercurial while adding new features like a speed dial main page, support for opening videos in an external video player[34] and merged some previously published fixes. It was last updated in 2021.[35]

A fork called Dillo-browser[36] appeared in 2019 forked from the then-current version of DilloNG. It stalled until 2023 when its development resumed and is ongoing as of 2024.

Dillo+ (Dillo-Plus) started in 2023 based on Dillo 3.0.5 source code found in the OpenBSD 6.8 package.[37] It had applied numerous patches from DilloNG and added support for rendering gopher, gemini and markdown pages, reader mode and extended CSS support.[38] A new Python scripting system was introduced with modules for rendering RSS, Epub, public Telegram channel logs and zip file contents.[39] It is still maintained as of 2024.[40]

Reception[edit]

Reviews of Dillo have praised its extraordinary speed, but noted that this speed comes at a price.[17][41][42] The most visible cost is Dillo's inability to display complex web pages as they were meant to be. A 2008 review by Linux.com commented that Dillo's user interface may be "intimidating" for new users, and pointed out the scarcity of plug-ins for Dillo.[18] In all, Dillo's global usage share is less than one hundredth of one percent.[43]

Dillo is, however, the browser of choice in several space-conscious Linux distributions, such as Damn Small Linux,[44] Feather Linux,[45] VectorLinux,[46] antiX[41] and Mustang Linux.[41]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Release v3.1.1". 8 June 2024.
  2. ^ a b c Wayner, Peter (19 October 2010). "Top 10 specialty Web browsers you may have missed". InfoWorld. p. 3. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
  3. ^ Arellano Cid, Jorge (1 July 2002). "Introducing Dillo, a lightweight embeddable browser". LinuxDevices.com. Archived from the original on 2009-03-09. Retrieved 14 February 2009.
  4. ^ a b "Dillo Web Browser :: Compatibility". University of Bremen. 16 November 2008. Archived from the original on 24 August 2011. Retrieved 13 February 2009.
  5. ^ a b c d e "Dillo Web Browser :: Home Page". University of Bremen. 7 December 2008. Archived from the original on 28 May 2007. Retrieved 12 February 2009.
  6. ^ Arellano Cid, Jorge. "Personal info for Jorge Arellano Cid". Archived from the original on 24 November 2015. Retrieved 12 February 2009.
  7. ^ a b c Nieradzik, Tim (19 April 2009). "dillo:ChangeLog". Mercurial. Archived from the original on 6 November 2018. Retrieved 21 April 2009.
  8. ^ Arellano Cid, Jorge (December 2002). "Cuál sería el principal uso de Dillo?" (in Spanish). tux.cl. Archived from the original on 13 April 2003. Retrieved 13 February 2009. English translation available.
  9. ^ Arellano Cid, Jorge (December 2002). "Básicamente, de que se trata el proyecto Dillo?" (in Spanish). tux.cl. Archived from the original on 13 April 2003. Retrieved 13 February 2009. English translation available.
  10. ^ Arellano Cid, Jorge (31 December 1999). "Home page (ASCII version)". SourceForge.net. Retrieved 21 April 2009.
  11. ^ "Dillo Web Browser :: Project team". University of Bremen. Retrieved 13 February 2009.
  12. ^ "Dillo Web Browser :: Donations". University of Bremen. 14 October 2008. Retrieved 13 February 2009.
  13. ^ "Embeddable browser project hits milestone release, seeks funding". LinuxDevices.org. 19 February 2004. Archived from the original on 16 February 2009. Retrieved 13 February 2009.
  14. ^ Arellano Cid, Jorge (August 2008). "Dillo is eight years old!". Archived from the original on 2012-02-20. Retrieved 12 February 2009.
  15. ^ Martin, Caitlyn (1 December 2008). "DistroWatch.com News". DistroWatch Weekly. Retrieved 13 February 2009.
  16. ^ Roelofs, Greg (17 May 2008). "PNG-supporting Browsers". SourceForge. Retrieved 13 February 2009.
  17. ^ a b c Arndt, Matthias (June 2002). "Dillo--a Web Browser as Fast as Lightning". Archived from the original on 15 February 2009. Retrieved 13 February 2009.
  18. ^ a b Byfield, Bruce (5 November 2008). "Dillo 2.0 is fast, but limited". Linux.com. Retrieved 13 February 2009.
  19. ^ "Sample dillo initialization file". University of Bremen. Archived from the original on 26 December 2017. Retrieved 13 February 2009.
  20. ^ "Q: How do I enable cookies?". Dillo Web Browser :: Frequently Asked Questions. University of Bremen. 15 January 2009. Archived from the original on 9 May 2008. Retrieved 11 February 2009.
  21. ^ "Dillo Web Browser :: Funding Presentation :: Advantages". University of Bremen. Retrieved 13 February 2009.
  22. ^ "Dillo Web Browser :: About Dillo's Bug Meter". University of Bremen. Retrieved 13 February 2009.
  23. ^ "Why do some pages look strange?". Dillo Web Browser :: Frequently Asked Questions. University of Bremen. 15 January 2009. Archived from the original on 9 May 2008. Retrieved 11 February 2009.
  24. ^ "Dam(sic) Small Linux on retro hardware -- 486SX and 486DX2". John Andrews. 19 October 2003. Retrieved 24 May 2009.
  25. ^ Downloads - nanox-microwindows-nxlib-fltk-for-dos - This project ports the Nano-X, Microwindows, NXlib and FLTK 1.3.0 libraries to the DOS operating system using DJGPP - Google Project Hosting. Code.google.com. Retrieved on 2013-12-09.
  26. ^ Arellano Cid, Jorge (December 2002). "El hecho de que Dillo este programado en C hace que sea portable a otros sistemas operativos, debería Windows ser su objetivo principal, ya que la "democratización de internet" tendría más impacto debido a la cantidad de usuarios de este s.o.?" (in Spanish). tux.cl. Archived from the original on 13 April 2003. Retrieved 13 February 2009. English translation available.
  27. ^ Vibber, Kelson (13 October 2008). "Installing Dillo on Cygwin". Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 13 February 2009.
  28. ^ "Project Status". Dillo-Win32. 5 December 2011. Archived from the original on 15 March 2012. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
  29. ^ "Official D+ Browser page". Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  30. ^ "Q: Internationalization and Localization (i18n & l10n)". Dillo Web Browser :: Frequently Asked Questions. University of Bremen. 15 January 2009. Archived from the original on 9 May 2008. Retrieved 12 February 2009.
  31. ^ Krause, Ralph (26 February 2002). "Dillo, the GTK Web Browser". Linux Journal. Retrieved 13 February 2009.
  32. ^ "Dillo Web Browser :: Home Page".
  33. ^ "Dillo.org".
  34. ^ "README - w00fpack/dilloNG".
  35. ^ "Commits - w00fpack/dilloNG".
  36. ^ "Dillo, a multi-platform graphical web browser".
  37. ^ "Working base from OpenBSD 6.8 pkg, switched from autotools to plain Makefiles".
  38. ^ See [1] for coverage
  39. ^ "Overview". GitHub.
  40. ^ "Commits - crossbowerbt/dillo-plus".
  41. ^ a b c Kingman, Henry (16 October 2008). "Lightweight, Linux-compatible browser evolves". DesktopLinux.com. Archived from the original on 14 February 2009. Retrieved 13 February 2009.
  42. ^ Tatham, Paul (15 September 2002). "Linux Web Surfing - Get Armed with Dillo". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 13 February 2009.
  43. ^ "Browser Market Share". Net Applications. January 2009. Retrieved 12 February 2009.
  44. ^ "Damn Small Linux, Featured Desktop applications". John Andrews. Retrieved 11 February 2009.
  45. ^ "Feather Linux - About". BerliOS. Archived from the original on 27 January 2009. Retrieved 11 February 2009.
  46. ^ "Lesser known "mini" Linux runs from RAM". DesktopLinux.com. 25 January 2007. Archived from the original on 15 February 2009. Retrieved 13 February 2009.

External links[edit]

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