desktop-web-browsers is a catalogue of 301 desktop browsers

A table, not a ranking

The nerdyslacker desktop-web-browsers repository is described as an extensive, curated and almost full list of all desktop web browsers, with a total count of 301 given at the top of the page. The structure is a set of Markdown tables grouped by the first letter of the browser name, with anchor links running from 0-9 through A to Z so you can jump to a section. The primary language of the repository is HTML, and the top level entries are minimal, consisting of a .github directory, the README.md and a website directory, with a published site at nerdyslacker.github.io/desktop-web-browsers. The important thing to understand about the format is what it is not. It is not a ranking and not a recommendation engine, and the header says so directly with a warning that not all browsers in the list are recommended for daily use. Each row is a factual record: browser name with a link, engine, operating system, and a one line description. The value is in the completeness of the enumeration and the consistency of the columns, not in the descriptions.

The engine column is where the real information is

Each entry records the rendering engine, and that column is what makes the list useful rather than merely long. The engines that appear across the table include Blink, WebKit, Gecko, Chromium, Trident, Electron, Goana, SpiderMonkey, Servo, QtWebEngine and Webkit2, which is a useful reminder of how many distinct code bases still ship desktop browsers. The lists are often plural, and that plural is informative. The 115 Browser is listed with Blink and WebKit, 360 AI Browser with Blink and Trident, Aloha Browser with WebKit and Blink, and Avant Browser with all three of Trident, Gecko and Webkit. 2345 Explorer carries Trident, WebKit and Blink, a combination that suggests a browser that has changed engine over its life rather than one that was built to a single engine. A few rows carry a hyphen instead of a name, for instance Argus on macOS, which tells you the author could not attribute it and chose to say nothing rather than guess. The repository topics name blink, gecko, webkit and chromium, so the engine dimension is the organising idea behind the catalogue.

Operating system support narrows most decisions immediately

The third column records which operating systems a browser runs on, and for most people that column ends the search faster than any other signal. The values are written in a mix of forms, which reflects how the entries were compiled rather than a formal taxonomy: Windows, macOS, Linux for the mainstream cross-platform entries, Windows and Mac for Avira Secure Browser, Mac OS X 10.6+ for Arctic Fox alongside Linux, BSD and Windows XP, Windows and Ubuntu for AMP Browser, and Linux, NetBSD, OpenBSD and FreeBSD for BadWolf Browser. The value formats differ too, with a comma separated operating system list in one column and the engine names in the next, so the table is a flat four column grid rather than a data model with normalisation. For a decision maker, the practical read is that the Linux desktop browser field is a different set of names from the Windows one, and that some entries in the list exist only for a platform that no longer exists, such as the Windows XP entry on Arctic Fox, which is a fork of Pale Moon 27.9.4.

Status markers: archived and discontinued

The list marks the condition of entries inline, and this is the part that determines whether a row is worth your attention. Beaker Browser, an experimental peer-to-peer browser on Blink, is flagged as archived. Bonsai, an Electron based browser, is also flagged as archived. Borneo Browser, a minimalist QtWebEngine browser on Windows, macOS and Linux, is flagged as discontinued. Those markers are the only editorial judgement the project makes, and they are the ones you should scan for first, because an archived or discontinued project is a dead end no matter how good its description sounds. A curious entry is Arctic Fox, a fork of Pale Moon 27.9.4 using the Goana and SpiderMonkey engines, which tells you the list reaches back into older forks as well as new ones. The archive and discontinued markers are inconsistent with the count of entries, since several of the 301 are listed at all despite being unmaintained, which confirms the header's warning in a practical way.

How the list reads as a snapshot of the ecosystem

Reading a few consecutive rows tells you what kind of ecosystem this is. Under A you have security-branded browsers from Adaware, Avast and AVG, ad blocking and privacy positioning from Adblock Browser and Agregore, sidebars and efficiency tools such as Airy, a set of privacy-first alternatives including Axonium with zero telemetry and a built-in ad blocker, and a scattering of regional and niche entries such as 360 AI Browser, 360 Secure Browser and 360 Extreme Browser from Qihu, Atom Browser from Mail.ru, and AMP Browser for Windows and Ubuntu. Under B the same pattern continues with BonBon, Bonsai and Borneo, Brave and its Origin variant, Blisk for web development, and BrowserBox with remote browser isolation offered as a web page. The list also includes browsers that are distributed as forks of other browsers and browsers that are essentially shells around an engine, which is why the engine column is more reliable than the descriptions. Some descriptions are marketing copy taken from the vendor, which is a limitation of the format and the reason the engine and platform columns carry the analytical weight.

Getting the list, and the maintenance picture

There is nothing to install. The catalogue is a README file in the repository, and the rendered version is published as a GitHub Pages site, so browsing the live site or reading the Markdown are the two access routes. The last push to the repository was on 2026-10-14, and the project publishes no GitHub releases, which is consistent with the shape of the artefact: a document that changes when an entry is added, corrected or marked as dead, not a versioned release with changelogs. The repository has a .github directory, so the list is maintained through the usual repository tooling. The licence field for the project is recorded as unknown, and the top level entries do not include a LICENSE file, so if you plan to reuse the content, for example to build your own table or feed it into a tool, you have no stated permission to copy from, and each linked browser's own terms and trademark apply to its name and description. That is a real constraint on a resource whose obvious use is redistribution, and it is worth resolving with the author before you build on it.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt desktop-web-browsers if you are choosing a browser for a specific platform and want the engine and operating system support of the candidates laid out in one table, or if you are tracing how a browser lineage forked from another. Do not adopt it as a recommendation list, because the project warns in its own header that not all browsers in the list are recommended for daily use, and entries include projects marked archived and discontinued. Verify two things before you rely on it: that the engine column is accurate for the browser you care about, since several entries list multiple engines and the list includes some whose description does not match a modern engine, and that the entry is not marked archived or discontinued, which the catalogue flags inline. The practical first step is to open the browser you are considering and check its row for the engine and platform columns, then follow the link in the entry to the vendor's own site rather than relying on the description text.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. nerdyslacker/desktop-web-browsers on GitHub
3. Project website
4. README