Advise a small Linux in which you can install a browser? [closed]

Question

Engaged in web development. I want to have a virtual machine in VirtualBox of small size in which there will be only Firefox / Chrome / etc browser. All the rest is not necessary. Ubuntu takes gigabytes and pulls a lot of excess. I need an extremely compact and operational VM. What GUI will be is not important. No need for weighty GNOME, KDE ... The main thing that a modern browser worked.

These extra gigabytes of 50 rubles at current prices for hard drives will cost, and you will spend hours, if not days, on searches / settings.
True, the operating system is not there, but the size is very small.
@Qwertiy, the linux program / library has only api / abi, and in principle there are no gui / tui.
I answered the question about the choice of the version of this program.
If you want to test how the site looks in a browser on Linux, then install this version of Linux.
Otherwise, you will test how the site looks on this minimal version.
gnome / kde / xfce draws its own (or customized) font render and set of fonts.
Therefore, even on the same machine in different DE you can see the differently displayed site.

Accepted Answer · 2016-11-14T16:53:04

Alternatively, a lightweight Linux is to use your own Ubuntu-based docker image with a browser installed. It will not contain anything extra, except what you need. To build a docker image with the firefox browser installed, do the following:

Create a Dockerfile

FROM ubuntu:16.04 RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y firefox # Replace 1000 with your user / group id RUN export uid=1000 gid=1000 && \ mkdir -p /home/developer && \ echo "developer:x:${uid}:${gid}:Developer,,,:/home/developer:/bin/bash" >> /etc/passwd && \ echo "developer:x:${uid}:" >> /etc/group && \ echo "developer ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL" > /etc/sudoers.d/developer && \ chmod 0440 /etc/sudoers.d/developer && \ chown ${uid}:${gid} -R /home/developer USER developer ENV HOME /home/developer CMD /usr/bin/firefox

From the folder where you created the file, build the image
```
 docker build -t firefox . 
```

Run the container

 docker run -ti --rm \ -e DISPLAY=$DISPLAY \ -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix \ firefox

After launching the container, your firefox browser should start on the screen.

Also in the public repository of docker images there is a ready image with a pre-installed firefox browser. You can use it. Following the link, you will find the parameters for running this container. https://hub.docker.com/r/chrisdaish/firefox/

@Qwerty, who was interested, did not specify which host machine he was using.
There can be a similar trick and it is possible to turn under Windows.
Only in creating a new revision, there is often no need for this, since you can transfer some files to the ignore file that you do not want to track.
@abg, he writes wherever the cache is usually written in the firefox browser under normal Linux.
And after the image is stopped, without saving its image (revision), all data will be lost after the container is restarted.
You can mount the folder with the cache from the browser from the docker to any folder on the host using the -v parameter , thus your data will be stored on the host machine and there will be no need to take snapshots of docker images.
It is safe to just restart docker. All the necessary data you have stored on the host.
After the container is restarted, the container will automatically pick up this data from the host folder.
That is, a shared folder is a single information field between the host and the docker.

Answer 2 · 2016-11-14T14:29:14

BrowserLinux - 93MB.

Run from the ISO file (so-called LiveCD). Therefore, after creating a guest system in VMWare, all that is unnecessary, including the HDD, must be removed from its equipment.

About the freshness of the browser version

This live version of Linux allows you to upgrade your FireFox in two stages. In the window "About" we check the update and update from version 5.0 to 12.0, repeat the same steps and update from version 12.0 to 45.0.2. Then the browser is not updated, and gives a link to the explanation of "why." At the time of this writing, the latest version of FireFox 49.0.2

Considering that this distribution of the Live version is the only way to use such an updated version under VMWare, this is to suspend the guest system and then resume it. Otherwise, of course, all updates will be lost.

Not in the know - the author of the topic did not indicate the need.
But to put simply will not work, because this is the Live-version.
If you only understand yourself and try to rebuild the image.
From the question: "The main thing that the modern browser worked."
- there is the word "modern";) In general, testing a site for junk is more expensive.
And in general, I think, with the installation it is better that you can use a specific version.

Answer 3 · 2016-11-15T03:50:57

Put Arch linux on. It is pretty light and excellent in itself. The quote from Wikipedia is a «легковесный», простой и гибкий дистрибутив Linux, оптимизированный для архитектур i686 и x86-64, использующий последние стабильные версии программ и дополняемый поддерживаемым сообществом репозиторием AUR. Arch «будет тем, что вы из него сделаете», и рассчитан не на новичков, а на более опытных пользователей. «легковесный», простой и гибкий дистрибутив Linux, оптимизированный для архитектур i686 и x86-64, использующий последние стабильные версии программ и дополняемый поддерживаемым сообществом репозиторием AUR. Arch «будет тем, что вы из него сделаете», и рассчитан не на новичков, а на более опытных пользователей.

Try to write more detailed answers. Explain what is the basis of your statement? - Nicolas Chabanovsky ♦

Advise a small Linux in which you can install a browser? [closed]

Closed due to the fact that it is necessary to reformulate the question so that it was possible to give an objectively correct answer by the participants aleksandr barakin , user207618, αλεχολυτ , Kromster , Nicolas Chabanovsky ♦ 15 Nov '16 at 5:44 .

3 answers 3

More articles: