<img src="cp-screenshot-fremantle.jpg" width="350" alt="Browser Switchboard control panel screenshot on Fremantle">
</p>
-<p>Browser Switchboard (formerly browser-proxy) is a program which allows
-you to choose which browser to use as the default browser on Maemo devices.
-It supports MicroB, Tear, Fennec/Mobile Firefox, and Midori out of the box,
-and can also be used to launch MicroB without having browserd running.</p>
+<p>Browser Switchboard is a program which allows you to choose which
+browser to use as the default browser. It supports MicroB, Tear,
+Mobile Firefox, Opera Mobile, and Midori out of the box, and can also be
+used to launch MicroB without having browserd running. A Control Panel
+applet to choose the default browser is provided.</p>
<h2>Current Release</h2>
-<p>Version 3.0rc1 (2009/12/18) (<a href="https://garage.maemo.org/frs/download.php/7081/browser-switchboard_3.0rc1-1_armel.deb">Diablo package</a>)</p>
+<p>Version 3.3 (2010/09/02) (<a href="browser-switchboard.install">Diablo one-click install</a>, <a href="browser-switchboard-fremantle.install">Fremantle one-click install</a>)</p>
<ul>
-<li>Release candidate -- not (yet) a stable release</li>
-<li>Add a control panel applet to help configure the UI</li>
-<li>Reimplement the core D-Bus proxy in C to improve speed and memory footprint</li>
-<li>Default to launching MicroB as the default browser if unconfigured -- if you were using Browser Switchboard to launch Tear, you need to explicitly set Tear as the default browser using the UI (or by configuring by hand)</li>
-<li><b>EXPERIMENTAL</b> Fremantle support (see <a href="https://garage.maemo.org/frs/?group_id=1159">download page</a> for source and packages). BACK UP before installing, and let me know how it goes!</li>
-</ul>
-<p>Version 2.2 (2009/12/14) (<a href="https://garage.maemo.org/frs/download.php/7038/browser-switchboard_2.2-1_all.deb">Diablo package</a>)</p>
-<ul>
-<li>Rename the package to browser-switchboard</li>
-<li>Move the config file to /home/user/.config/browser-switchboard, and
-fall back to the old location if no config file is found</li>
-<li>If no config file is found and Tear isn't installed, launch MicroB;
-this avoids breaking link opening on a system with a freshly installed
-browser-switchboard package and Tear not installed</li>
-<li>Package no longer depends on Tear; should make it easier for users of
-other alternative browsers to use Browser Switchboard</li>
-<li>substantial documentation update</li>
+<li>In the Control Panel applet, only offer browsers that are actually installed.</li>
+<li>Fall back to MicroB instead of silently failing if the configured default browser is not installed.</li>
+<li>[Fremantle] An overhaul of the MicroB launching process, which should greatly increase the robustness of Browser Switchboard with MicroB on Fremantle. When MicroB is selected as the default browser, the user experience should be identical to that when Browser Switchboard isn't installed; MicroB will still behave differently when another browser is selected as the default (see the known issues for details).</li>
+<li>Listen on the D-Bus system bus as well as the session bus, to accommodate applications (like some versions of Hermes and witter) which send link opening requests on the system bus. (Application developers: the system bus isn't for user programs, you should be using the session bus.)</li>
+<li>[Diablo] Continuous mode is now the default mode of operation.</li>
+<li>[Fremantle] Continuous mode is now forced on regardless of the setting of the config preference; this change is required to make sure applications can find us on the system bus.</li>
+<li>[Fremantle] Browser Switchboard is now started on startup; this change is required to make sure applications can find us on the system bus.</li>
+<li>[Fremantle] By default, MicroB is now prestarted on startup, and remains in memory even when no browser windows are open, if MicroB is the default browser. This behavior can be configured via a new autostart_microb preference.</li>
+<li>Update the package description to mention that there's a control panel applet in the package, to help out users who don't read documentation (and therefore won't find this thread). Thanks to Emanuele Cassioli for the suggestion.</li>
+<li>Rename the MicroB option in the control panel to "MicroB (stock browser)", as some have pointed out that the MicroB name isn't used anywhere and is therefore not familiar to many users. Better wording suggestions are welcome.</li>
+<li>Provide a command-line tool for configuring Browser Switchboard which can be used by browser developers to set their browser as the default. See the <a href="http://git.maemo.org/git/browser-switch/?p=browser-switch;a=commit;h=6ac42ed781a7735221de8aaa28a6647b32608049">commit message</a> for more information. This interface isn't set in stone, so if you have comments, please let me know.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Getting Browser Switchboard</h2>
-<p>Source code, packages for Diablo, and EXPERIMENTAL packages for Fremantle
-can be found on the maemo Garage
-<a href="https://garage.maemo.org/frs/?group_id=1159">download page</a>.
-Packages can also be installed from the maemo
-<a href="http://wiki.maemo.org/Extras-devel">extras-devel repository</a>
-(though don't blindly enable extras-devel and install/upgrade — see
-the linked page first!)</p>
+<p>The recommended way to install Browser Switchboard is via the Maemo
+<a href="http://wiki.maemo.org/Extras">Extras repository</a>,
+which is enabled by default in the Application Manager.
+You should find Browser Switchboard in the Application Manager catalog under
+the network category. Alternately, if you're viewing this page on your Diablo
+device, opening the <a href="browser-switchboard.install">one-click install</a>
+will install the package from Maemo Extras for you.</p>
+<p>Source code and packages can also be found on the Maemo Garage
+<a href="https://garage.maemo.org/frs/?group_id=1159">download page</a>.</p>
<h2>Quick Start</h2>
+<p>Just open the <a href="browser-switchboard.install">one-click install</a> in
+a browser on your device and follow the instructions to install Browser
+Switchboard.</p>
+<p>If you want to install the package by hand:</p>
<ol>
<li>Download the binary package: browser-switchboard_X.Y-Z_all.deb
(where X.Y-Z is the version number, of course).</li>
-<li>Install the package using the Application Manager (on Diablo, open the
-Application Manager, then select Application->Install from file in the
-menu).</li>
+<li>Install the package using the Application Manager.</li>
</ol>
<p><img src="cpapplet-diablo.jpg" width=320 alt="Browser Switchboard control panel UI"><br>
applet in the Control Panel. Links in most applications, locally-saved
web pages opened from the file manager, and (for Maemo 4.x) entries in
the Web sidebar panel will open in the browser that you select as the
-default. If you don't configure a default browser, MicroB will continue
-to be used as the default browser.</p>
+default. Opening the "Web" menu entry and running "browser" from the
+shell will also cause your chosen default browser to open. If you don't
+configure a default browser, MicroB will continue to be used as the
+default browser.</p>
<p>No matter which browser you select as the default, MicroB can always be
-opened via the Web menu entry in the applications menu (for Maemo 4.x,
-located in the Internet menu by default), or by running "browser" from
-the shell. While MicroB is open, it will receive all links from other
-applications; closing MicroB will restore your chosen default browser.</p>
+opened via the MicroB menu entry in the applications menu (for Maemo
+4.x, installed in the Extras menu by default), or by running "microb"
+from the shell. While MicroB is open, it will receive all links from
+other applications; closing MicroB will restore your chosen default
+browser.</p>
-<p>Some users have reported that a restart may be necessary to ensure that
-Browser Switchboard is functioning. If you experience trouble after
-installing the package, try rebooting your device first.</p>
+<p>If you experience trouble after installing the package, try rebooting
+your device. If that fixes things, please report this as a bug.</p>
<h2>Documentation</h2>
<p>See the
-<a href="https://git.maemo.org/projects/browser-switch/?p=browser-switch;a=blob_plain;f=README;hb=HEAD">README</a>
+<a href="http://git.maemo.org/projects/browser-switch/?p=browser-switch;a=blob_plain;f=README;hb=HEAD">README</a>
for further instructions on how to configure and use Browser Switchboard.</p>
<h2>Support</h2>
<p>You can email your question to the maintainers (see below), or you can take
it to the
-<a href="http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=28539">Tear thread</a>
+<a href="http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=38273">Browser Switchboard thread</a>
on the talk.maemo.org forums.</p>
<h2>Development</h2>
git clone https://git.maemo.org/projects/browser-switch
</pre>
<p>from a shell. You can also
-<a href="https://git.maemo.org/projects/browser-switch/?p=browser-switch;a=summary">browse the repository</a> using gitweb.</p>
+<a href="http://git.maemo.org/projects/browser-switch/?p=browser-switch;a=summary">browse the repository</a> using gitweb.</p>
<p>Bug reports and patches can be emailed to the maintainers, or posted on the
forum thread.</p>
projects / browser-switch / blobdiff