Flock - The new experimental web browser for Linux

Yesterday, I got a invitation via email for downloading and trying out Flock - the new experimental web browser. Flock is much more than just a web browser. It can easily import all your bookmarks from del.icio.us and more importantly sync your local bookmarks with your del.icio.us account. I was really surprised to find a slick editor for blogging. That is right - flock comes with an inbuilt editor which can be used to easily add content to your favourite blogs - be it a blogger account, livejournal, textpad or wordpress including wordpress.com. Here are a few screen shots to whet your appetite.

Fig: Flock Toolbar

Fig: Importing del.icio.us bookmarks (xterm output) - took a loooong time.

Fig: The blog editor (Quite slick)

Fig: Flickr photo bar

Fig: My del.icio.us bookmarks neatly categorized.

At this time though, there is no function to upload images from the editor to your blog. Importing my del.icio.us account took a very long time. Infact at one point of time, I was suspecting that something was wrong with the function of importing the bookmarks.

Installation of the browser is quite simple, the downloaded file is a compressed tar file. So all it takes is the command:

$ tar -xvzf flock-0.4.8.en-US.linux-i686.tar.gz

... and it will create a new directory by its own name and uncompress all the files there. Now you can start using the browser by moving into the just created directory and entering the command :

$ ./flock &

Advantages of Flock over Firefox

• Has new features lacking in Firefox
• Can synchronize your local bookmarks with your online del.icio.us account - really cool.
• Simple inbuilt blogging editor - has support for Livejournal, Blogger, Wordpress and Textpad for starters.
• Can just select some text on any webpage you are browsing , and publish it to your blog - which is just a right click away.
• Can view images by just entering the flickr username in the flickr bar (See figure above).
  
• Uses the Firefox codebase so inherits all the positive aspects of firefox.
• Can easily subscribe to newsfeeds.
  

Disadvantages of Flock over Firefox

• Still only a Developer 0.5 Pre version release.
• Took an awfully long time in importing my del.icio.us account bookmarks.
• Has to log on to the internet to view the documentation.
  
• Obviously has a bigger memory footprint.
  

If you are interested in trying out this web browser just visit this page and download it for your platform. The Linux version is around 8.0 MB in size.