This week, talking with colleagues about WSA, mentioned that it does not consume much RAM, and less if we compare it with a web browser with several tabs open at the same time. Browsers can work very well, but not all of them manage resources very well. In fact, they are devourers of resources, some more and others less. Among those who consume the least we have Epiphany, Project GNOME's web browser, and will soon be a better alternative.
The times that I have tried Epiphany I have had good and bad feelings. It's a limited browser compared to Firefox or any Chromium-based browser, but it worked better in all scenarios, so I used it as my primary browser for a while on a 10″ netbook. In a few months, the browser will support extensions, so you can install, for example, a password manager.
At the moment in tests on Epiphany 43.alpha
This new feature is already available for testing, but you need to install a preview version of Epiphany 43. Because this will come as part of the desktop coming in September, GNOME 43. According to the developer, "Epiphany 43.alpha supports the basic structure described […]. We are modeling our behavior after Firefox's ManifestV2 API included support with Chrome extensions where possible. ManifestV3 is planned to be supported alongside V2 in the future«.
Therefore it will be compatible with Chrome extensions, but through Firefox. So the store to visit to install extensions in GNOME Web will be the firefox. It will be necessary to activate the support for extensions from the terminal, and then install them by downloading and adding the .xpi files manually. A bit tedious for my liking, and nothing has been mentioned about this changing in the future, but it's not ruled out.
To test Epiphany 43.alpha, open a terminal and type:
all this is in alpha phase, which, by definition, should only be used by the developer and a select group close to him, and also that there will be more bugs than there will be when the beta and stable versions arrive. The last one will arrive from September, along with GNOME 43, and at that time we will have a real alternative to the most used browsers, or at least on low-resource computers.