Editing Galeon (section)

== Development history ==
The project was started by Marco Pesenti Gritti with the goal of creating a web browser that would be fast and consistent with the [[GNOME]] desktop environment. The first public version (Galeon 0.6) was released in June 2000.<ref name="galeon-history" />

=== On the rise ===
The first releases of Galeon were criticised for lack of such basic features as [[HTTP cookie|cookie]] and [[HTTP proxy|proxy]] support,<ref name="looking-at-the-galeon" /> though the browser added some features with every release.{{Citation needed|date=September 2014}} Version 1.2 of Galeon introduced many new features that drew attention of the general public.<ref name="galeon-history" />{{Failed verification|date=September 2014}}

At the time of Galeon's creation, the most popular [[Linux]] browsers, including [[Netscape (web browser)|Netscape]] and [[Mozilla Application Suite|Mozilla]], were large multi-functional programs. This made them slow to start and often impractical due to their high memory usage and processor requirements.<ref name="lt-valliere-review" /> [[Opera (web browser)|Opera]] was somewhat faster, but it was [[proprietary software]] distributed in [[trialware]] and [[adware]] versions, both of which lacked some of the functionality of the [[Microsoft Windows]] version.<ref name="opera-linux-ml" /><ref name="re-opera-linux-ml" />

Galeon was widely seen as one of the best Linux browsers available.<ref name="lt-valliere-review" /><ref name="browser-comparison" /> The polls revealed the substantial usage share of Galeon,<ref name="osnews-gecko-poll" /> though its popularity was regarded as owing to lack of stability evident in [[Mozilla]]'s browsers.<ref name="firefox-won-me" />{{Failed verification|date=September 2014}}

=== Split of the development team ===
{{Main|GNOME Web}}
With the release of new version of the [[GTK+]] widget toolkit, which was used to construct the user interface of Galeon, the team decided to write a new version of Galeon from scratch. At the same time the GNOME project has adopted its new [[human interface guidelines]], which promoted simplicity and uniform design.<ref name="ghig" /> The Galeon team had differing opinions on the new guidelines. The author and lead developer, Marco Pesenti Gritti, endorsed them and saw the rewrite as an opportunity to make Galeon simpler. Many other developers believed that reducing the number of preferences and simplifying the user interface would harm the project.<ref name="galeon-history" /><ref name="FSM" />

In November 2002,<ref name="galeon-history" /> as the result of several discussions on the topic Gritti made the decision to cease his work in Galeon and [[Fork (software development)|fork]] the project and started development of a HIG-compliant web browser he called ''Epiphany'' (now known as [[GNOME Web|Web]]).<ref name="FSM" /><ref name="mozillazine-epiphany-fork" />

=== After the split ===
As Gritti no longer controlled the development of Galeon, the previous functionality was restored in subsequent releases and some new features were added,<ref name="interview" /> though development got slow after the split.<ref name="galeon-history" /> At the same time the rising popularity of Firefox, its status of the default browser in major distribution and the overwhelming number of [[List of Firefox extensions|its extensions]] led to decline of Galeon's user base.<ref name="firefox-won-me" /><ref name="FSM" />

Eventually the Galeon developers announced plans to halt development of Galeon, saying "the current approach is unsustainable" regarding the resources required to maintain it. Instead, they planned to develop a set of extensions for Epiphany to provide similar functionality.<ref name="FSM" /><ref name="future-of-galeon" />

===Persistence===
Even after development ceased in September 2008, the browser remained popular and in December 2011 was still available in some [[Linux distribution]]'s repositories, such as [[Debian version history|Debian 6 Squeeze]],<ref name="Debian6packages" /> although it was not part of [[Debian version history|Debian 7 Wheezy]].<ref name="Debian7packages" />