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Gecko-based K-Meleon 0.9 browser Released
Fylfot writes "After a long time in development, version 0.9 of the Gecko-based K-Meleon web browser for Windows has been released.
K-Meleon is the geekier, more configurable, lighter-weight (XULless), speedier twin of Firefox. When 1.0 comes out, Microsoft may have another reason to worry about Internet Explorer marketshare.
Also reported on Chip Online and MozillaZine."
I hardly consider something that tries to look like IE and that is Windows only to be geekier.
Why don't they just help support firefox? Firefox has taken the market by storm, if it can get 20% it's a huge dent. Giving other options doesn't help this at all. 2%, 5% and 1% means nothing, but if you combine it all together it becomes 8% which in browser terms, is huge!
Remember hitting a brick wall with a sledgehammer will knock it down, so smaller hammers can fix the holes. Hitting it with lots of little hammers chips it, but it still stands.
I like muppets.
Found this on the release page, a list of features:
Support for Bookmarks, Favorites and Hotlists
Hmm, nothing too special? It'll be interesting to see what form they take - whether the Safari-esque model of bookmark management (a page) or the standard pop-up organizer.
Layers(Tabbed Browsing)
Wooo... Kind of a necessity in today's brower 'market'.
Integrated search tools to search Google or configurable to use your favorite web resources
Neat. Still nothing revolutionary.. think Firefox.
Enhanced privacy and security features to protect against spyware and viruses - block pop-ups and web sites that try to change your home page or download spyware!
Anything like this is great.. Maybe this will start to hint Microsoft along those lines, and we can get real security that can keep my family's computer running (despite the naive endusers).
Unique right-click toolbar buttons allow quick access to additional features and settings
Now, right mouse button features are good but I feel they are a bit of a crutch for poor design and don't make it as accessible to the user. I suppose I fall into teh 'Apple' camp of one button computing.. the right button/scroll is handy, but not the end all/be all... certainly not something to trump as a unique feature.
Complete customization of all menus and toolbars
Now this is a great thing.. I love the way I can configure MS Office to my exact specifications, and this could be the real reason to switch over to K-Meleon 0.9 IMHO.
Configurable to use your mail and news programs
Hmm, wonder if this will take the form of just popping up my mail client when I click on something, or a news client when I click on something, or if it is something revolutionary?
Bit of a screed, I know, but just my two cents.
"There's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all."
- Bob Dylan
Last time I tried it, it was only single user, requiring administrator access to use it. Is it improved now?
Sounds like you have serious issues that I have never see exhibited before. You might try using the MOOX build of firefox. For one, it fixes the annoying ./ render bug.
http://www.moox.ws/tech/mozilla/
http://www.moox.ws/tech/mozilla/
This guy makes processor optimized builds of Firefox. He even provides some numbers of tests he did on an Athlon system. Anyway, if you use a moox build with some other minor tweaks (like pipelining), you will definitely notice a difference.
Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood. -- H. L. Mencken
TOO RIGHT!
This is the reason I'm stuck using Opera at work - it's the only browser that performs well. Time to DL the newest K-Meleon and give it a whirl.
I run K-meleon where. On my Latitude CS. Specs :
CPU 400Mhz
HD 7200rpm
RAM 386mb
OS Win2K.
Firefox is simply to slow on my system and eats most of my ram.
K-meleon is FAST and memory efficient.
BSD licensed software can't be stolen....
"Or should we code everything to an uber-efficient standard so the 1% of the market with 10 and 12 year old computers can run the applications?
Using a platform such XUL would allow me to put out quality code faster, which may or may not put more money in my pocket faster....and thats my perspective. thanks to the mozilla foundation."
If a program can do everything that another program can do runs in less memory and on a slower computer great!
Why not have a good Web browser that will run on lower power PC's? Shouldn't it be about choice. I would know more than a few people that would love to surf the web and get email but do not have $500 to throw at a PC. I have set a few of them up on old PCs that I get for free running Linux.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.