What is Floorp?#
Floorp is essentially a fork of Firefox with added customizations and features. It’s a free and open-source project with numerous contributors from Mozilla. You can explore the source code here.
A special thanks to Chris Titus for introducing me to Floorp.
Why not Firefox?#
I love Firefox; it’s excellent and the only true competitor for the Chromium-based browser monopoly. If the Floorp Project didn’t exist, I would definitely go back to using Firefox.
The Problem - VIM Navigation#
As they say, “Once you learn Vim, there is no going back.” I use Neovim as my primary IDE, and my Hyprland Window manager has Vim-like keybindings for selecting different windows. I wanted the same keyboard-centric navigation for my browser. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t hate using the mouse. I believe using both the mouse and keyboard together is optimal when needed, but some tasks can be performed faster with the keyboard.
I tried using an extension called Vimium (Chrome) or Vimium-FF (Firefox). This is a fantastic extension that provides Vim-like navigation in your browser:
- SHIFT+H - Go back
- SHIFT + (J, K) - Move between tabs
- O, SHIFT + O - Search on the current/new tab
And much more.
However, for some tabs in Firefox or Chrome, you can’t use these shortcuts.
The Solution - Floorp#
Floorp allows you to disable the built-in shortcuts and assign your own. This is perfect for my use case. Instead of relying on Vimium, I can use Floorp’s built-in shortcuts!
Floorp also has other cool features, such as a double sidebar, the option to move the toolbar and tab bar anywhere, or vertical tabs built into it. I’m not a fan of these features; I prefer the default layout, but they are good to have.
Finally..#
While Floorp might me just another browser for someone, it’s definitely the best one I have found.
Installation#
Linux#
Install from PPA
curl -fsSL https://ppa.ablaze.one/KEY.gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/Floorp.gpg
sudo curl -sS --compressed -o /etc/apt/sources.list.d/Floorp.list 'https://ppa.ablaze.one/Floorp.list'
sudo apt update
sudo apt install floorp
Install from Flathub
flatpak install flathub one.ablaze.floorp
flatpak run one.ablaze.floorp
Install from AUR with yay (For Arch Linux)
yay -S floorp
MacOS and Windows#
You can download .exe or .dmg from Floorp’s official website
Finally…#
While Floorp might be just another browser for some, it’s undeniably the best one I have found.