Midori (web browser)

Midori
DevelopersChristian Dywan, Nancy Runge, Astian Foundation
Release16 December 2007 (2007-12-16)
Stable release(s)
Android3.5.15 Edit this on Wikidata / 14 July 2025
Preview release(s) [±]
9.0 (July 29, 2019; 7 years ago (2019-07-29)) [±]
Written inoriginally in C & GTK2, rewritten completely in Vala & GTK3
Engine
  • Gecko
Edit this at Wikidata
Operating systemLinux, Android, Windows, macOS
PlatformIA-32, AMD64, x86
Available in30 languages
TypeWeb browser
LicenseLGPL-2.1-or-later
Websiteastian.org/en/midori-browser/
Repositorygithub.com/goastian/midori-desktop github.com/midori-browser/core

Midori (Japanese: 緑, lit. 'green') is a free and open-source web browser. In 2019, the Midori project was acquired by the Astian Foundation. After the acquisition, the project became a derivative of the Firefox browser.

History

Midori began as a lightweight web browser using the WebKitGTK rendering engine and the GTK widget toolkit. Midori was part of the Xfce desktop environment's Goodies collection of applications and followed the Xfce principle of "making the most out of available resources". It was the default browser in the SliTaz Linux distribution, Trisquel Mini, Artix Linux, old versions of Raspbian, and wattOS in its "R5 release". It was the default browser in elementary OS "Freya" and "Luna", and Bodhi Linux. Midori was part of the standard Raspbian distribution for the Raspberry Pi ARMv6-based computer, while Dillo and NetSurf are also in the menu.

Midori passed the standard compliance Acid3 test. In March 2014, Midori scored 405/555 on the HTML5 test. In July 2015, Midori 0.5 on Windows 8 scored 325/555 on the updated HTML5 test.

In June 2024, Astian's CEO announced Midori would launch their own open source VPN service. The VPN service became available in February 2025, though not yet integrated within the browser.

In March 2025, Astian released version 11.5.2, the first version to support macOS. It also announced plans for making Midori available on iPhone and iPad.

Features

Midori featured:

Reception

The former Midori was recommended by Lifehacker due to its simplicity. The major points for criticism are the absence of process isolation, the low number of available extensions and occasional crashes.[citation needed]

Nick Veitch from TechRadar included Midori 0.2.2 in his 2010 list of the eight best web browsers for Linux. At that time he rated it as "5/10" and concluded, "while it does perform reasonably well all-round, there is no compelling reason to choose this browser over the default Gnome browser, Epiphany, or indeed any of the bigger boys".

Himanshu Arora of Computerworld reviewed Midori 0.5.4 in November 2013 and praised the browser's speed and uncluttered interface, while additionally underlining the private browsing mode which uses a separate launch icon and displays the mode's differences on the home tab.

Victor Clarke from Gigaom praised the former Midori's minimalism in 2014 stating: "Midori will satisfy your humble needs without slowing down your PC.", despite stressing the lack of advanced functionality.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Dywan, Christian. "About : Christian Dywan (kalikiana)". Two toasts. Archived from the original on 11 April 2021. Retrieved 11 April 2021. Cris likes to cook. Add to that a passion for Chinese and Japanese tea. These days, kalikiana focuses on hacking on snapcraft, but is still fondly looking back to Midori, ElementaryOS and Ubuntu Touch.
  2. ↑ "midori – Midori is a lightweight web browser". git.xfce.org. 6 February 2008. Retrieved 5 February 2012. [dead link]
  3. ↑ "Web Browser Midori". 14 July 2025. Retrieved 1 November 2025.
  4. ↑ Dywan, Christian (29 July 2019). "Release". github.com. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
  5. ↑ Kalikiana (31 October 2018). "All for One, One for All". Midori Blog. Archived from the original on 28 July 2020. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
  6. ↑ "Translations: Midori". launchpad.net. Archived from the original on 22 June 2017. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  7. ↑ "Midori". midori-browser.org. Archived from the original on 1 February 2019. Retrieved 1 February 2019. In 2019, the Midori Browser project merged with the Astian Foundation to take development to new horizons, always respecting the pillars of the project.
  8. ↑ "Midori Web Browser". www.midori-browser.org. Archived from the original on 30 June 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  9. ↑ goastian/midori-desktop, Astian, Inc, 17 February 2024, archived from the original on 18 February 2024, retrieved 18 February 2024
  10. 1 2 3 Nick Veitch. "Midori and Epiphany: But which is the best Linux web browser of all?". Archived from the original on 29 April 2013.
  11. ↑ "Best Internet Browser – The Show Goes On!". 14 September 2009. Archived from the original on 26 August 2012.
  12. ↑ "projects:applications:start [Xfce Goodies]". goodies.xfce.org. Archived from the original on 21 October 2017. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  13. ↑ "About Midori". midori.com. Archived from the original on 7 October 2015. Retrieved 8 October 2015.
  14. 1 2 3 Spotlight on Linux: SliTaz GNU/Linux 3.0 Archived 15 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Linux Journal
  15. ↑ wattOS R6 Review – Go green with Linux Archived 5 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine. LinuxUser & Developer
  16. ↑ "Elementary OS Loki Has Arrived". linux.com. 9 September 2016. Archived from the original on 26 January 2017. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  17. ↑ Lightweight Bodhi 1.2 distro offers Enlightenment for the Linux masses[link removed]
  18. ↑ "Midori – the Little Browser that Just Might Surprise You". 8 October 2010. Archived from the original on 6 October 2015. Retrieved 2 October 2015. Midori – The Little Web Browser that Might Just Surprise You – Make Tech Easier
  19. ↑ "HTML5test – How well does your browser support HTML5?". HTML5test.com. Archived from the original on 1 March 2014. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
  20. ↑ "HTML5test – How well does your browser support HTML5?". html5test.com. Archived from the original on 5 July 2015. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
  21. ↑ "Midori will have its own VPN". Archived from the original on 21 August 2025. Retrieved 10 August 2026.
  22. ↑ "Astian, Inc - VPN Browsing in Midori? Yes, and it's close". Archived from the original on 11 February 2025. Retrieved 10 August 2026.
  23. ↑ "Midori Browser arrives on Apple devices". Astian, Inc. 14 March 2025. Archived from the original on 30 April 2025. Retrieved 19 May 2025.
  24. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Midori Web Browser Archived 12 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine. BeginLinux.com
  25. ↑ Midori 0.2.5 Released! Archived 29 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine. OMG! Ubuntu!
  26. ↑ Arch Linux and desktop adventures with the Raspberry Pi Archived 24 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine. greenhughes
  27. ↑ Midori Web Browser Gets an Update, Sets DuckDuckGo as Default Search Engine. UbuntuVibes
  28. ↑ Midori: One Of The Most Lightweight Browsers Around [Linux & Windows] Archived 16 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine. makeuseof
  29. ↑ Maemo Browsers Comparison: MicroB, Fennec, Midori, Tear Archived 30 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Arantius.com
  30. 1 2 Web-browser Midori Adds Unity Support and Neat 'Next Page' Feature Archived 16 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine. OMG! Ubuntu!
  31. 1 2 Himanshu, Arora (6 November 2013). "5 lesser-known browsers: Free, lightweight and low-maintenance". Computerworld. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
  32. ↑ Gordon, Whitson (2 October 2012). "The Best Web Browser for Linux". Lifehacker. Archived from the original on 3 October 2015. Retrieved 2 October 2015.
  33. ↑ "1 Month with the Midori Web Browser". the_simple_computer. 5 March 2014. Archived from the original on 18 September 2015. Retrieved 2 October 2015.
  34. ↑ Veitch, Nick (1 August 2010). "8 of the best web browsers for Linux". Gigaom. Archived from the original on 7 September 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  35. ↑ Clarke, Victor (24 August 2014). "Six alternative web browsers you should know about". Gigaom. Archived from the original on 2 October 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2015.