Min
Version: 1.5.1 Web: https://github.com/minbrowser
There are many approaches in creating alternative web browsers, and the number of projects is constantly growing. We came across another attempt to deliver the ‘simplest ever’ browsing experience.
Min is a recent application based on Electron and NodeJS, and therefore uses the built-in Chromium engine for rendering pages. Few people will be surprised after hearing that another Chromium- driven browser is here, but it’s what’s on the outside that makes Min different.
In brief, Min to Chromium is what Focus Writer is to Lib re Office Writer. It’s features a non-distractive, minimalistic and clean interface that complies to the trendy Material Design guidelines from Google. Most of the browser’s default view is empty, but once you click the top bar, you can type an address or search something. While you’re browsing the Internet, Min paints the top bar according to the current page design – something that we’ve already seen in the proprietary Vivaldi browser.
The top bar also hosts the list of opened tabs: just press the convenient Ctrl+T sequence to create new empty tab. Apart from the expected ‘cross’ sign that closes the tab, there’s also the icon with an aligned stack on the opposite side of the tab header. Click it to go to the ‘reading’ mode that eliminates all extra design elements on the page and formats it for better readability, so that you can concentrate solely on the text.
Min features even more tools for working with content, such as Focus Mode (under the View menu) that hides away nearly everything other than the current page, and also Tasks. The latter is the way of grouping tabs and organising the workflow. After you name a task, all pages that you’ll visit after that will belong to that task. Min enables you to drag and drop tabs between tasks – a very handy feature!
The Min website only has binary packages for macOS and Ubuntu, but we didn’t have any trouble in running the browser on less-popular operating systems. You’ll only need Nodejs with the NPM package manager and the Grunt package, and then Min runs as a client of the Electron framework.
“Min paints the top bar according to the current page design.”