General :
K-Meleon Web Browser Forum
Firefox is pretty much the only browser I ever used, besides IE when Netscape was around.
I'm used to a modern, open source, privacy oriented, customizable, all-around stable browser. Can K-Meleon deliver?
From what I read in FAQ and on these forums, K-meleon seems like a maintained modern browser that is using the Gecko engine.
Does the engine get updated regularly to its latest version?
In short, I consider this browser to be serious enough for me to make a switch, is there a catch that I may not be aware of yet and that might make me reconsider?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/2015 06:34PM by guenter.
Title should be "What should a Firefox user expect from a switch to K-meleon?".
No idea why it got cut.
1.) My first browser was IE, then I found that Netscape 4.7 was still around, that a new Netscape/Mozilla project had started and that Opera was also around...
I am what You'd call a browser aficionado ever since.
2.) K-Meleon can deliver all that if You leave "customer attitudes" behind.
3.) Yes. K-Meleon is a project based on the Gecko engine and it is older than FF.
4.) K-Meleon does not have Mozilla foundation or Google behind its back to finance the switch to the "latest" (You must mean GRE) version every other week.
There is more than one catch. You will not find a Firefox clone that can do all Firefox tricks and some of his own. Choosing to create a skinable GUI from the Windows platform native MFC widgets to embed Mozilla Gecko engine made some serious trade offs necessary. Most FF addons will thus not work.
K-Meleon does not cater much for the customer type. It has a steep learning curve to get to know it more fully.
People that got as far as me or further often stay.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/2015 07:07PM by guenter.
Why to expect catches?
Do not be concentrated on the engine aspect.
K-Meleon and Firefox are 2 different approaches to use Gecko. 2 different 'shells' for engine.
Firefox is a 'native' shell referring to the Gecko itself. K-Meleon is 'native' shell in regard to Windows OS.
Firefox is cross-platform browser with full support of native XUL developments being relatively heavy in terms of RAM load.
K-Meleon is Windows only browser with partial support for XUL (Firefox built-in features or extensions) but extremely light for OS.
In comparison with Firefox, K-Meleon will never get into this crazy 'update race'. We could expect that major or minor updates of K-Meleon would follow Firefox ESR development cycle. No any '6 week merry-go-round'.
Further, K-meleon has it's own expandability system through macrolanguage and macro-extensions in addition to partial support of FF add-ons.
Macros also make possible to integrate 3rd party tools into K-Meleon.
That's a scene for your choice at a glance.
Going further, you should try and make decision.
Think positive.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/2015 07:21PM by rodocop.
I'm fine with annual updates, no problem here.
I just don't want to end up using a browser that forked Gecko at some point and isn't able to stay updated anymore. This isn't the case, if I understand correctly now.
Thanks for the title fix, btw.
Well, I'm making kind of a big deal out of these because I tend to contribute to my default browser.
I maintain a featured addon on Mozilla's AMO so switching browsers would also mean shutting down further development of that popular addon.
Interesting info.
I think I'm getting a grasp of the whole system and the community around here.
I think I'm going to give it a try.
It's free, so it's not a major lifetime decision that needs a lot of pondering and researching until such a heavy decision is made, as if it were for buying a new car ;-) Also several browsers can be installed parallel, still no final decision necessary.
What I mean is, just try and see if it suits you.
No strings, nothing to loose, if it's not your cup of tea simply use another again.
But frankly I suspect, from your description, that you're quite happy with FF already and all it offers. Like constant updates of the engine. You'll not get this with KM, development is rather slow, with sometimes a year or two in between when nearly nothing happens. We have just one main developer who does it in his restricted spare time. And additionally Mozilla is twisting the engine constantly more tricky, so that awhile ago we forum members already lost hope and thought that was it, KM can't follow further, no way to work around those new engine twists again. But fortunately since a year KM development is going strong again.
Anyway, if you're happy enough with FF and not missing anything, if you like a bells-n-whistles browser with thousands of addons, you'll probably start missing a few things with the smaller KM. It's more suited for people who do prefer a smaller and leaner browser, and where a user has more freedom to customize e.g. buttons fully with cfg-files etc., incl. right-click-menus, but not via drag-n-drop, along those lines.
I tried it out, I read all about the features, it all looked good so far.
I came to forum because I was wondering about the "spiritual" state of the project ... you know, if the project is not something that is dead or will be dead soon.
I guess it's not, will give it a try.
The most common way of using last versions of K-Meleon is portable.
So no need to full switch from Firefox.
May be you'll be the one who starts new age in KM-extensibility with all your experience.
Be sure we'll help you as we can.
I have used Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, and Firefox. Indeed Firefox seems to be an eye-candy, and for most novice type user its the best.
To switch to K-Meleon, is to be a person who wants exessive customization, more control and not to depend on what-is-given-you-have-to-use-as-is, definitely, K-Meleon is for real power users.
I switched to K-Meleon 6 years ago, and since then I never used Internet Explorer, or Firefox except on very rare occassions.
Using, working, customizing with K-Meleon is not only a fun for me, but it gave me full confidence over it.
The macrolanguage? When I first confronted it, it amazed me. With the help of guys here, I am able to twist this lizard's neck whereever I want.
KM's native plugins and macros give me such a control that I would never have the same with Firefox.
Why somone else should switch? this is a wrong question IMHO. Every person is in his owns likes and tastes, the correct question would be "Why would a Power user must switch to K-Meleon?"
1.) Dorian IMHO wants to follow ESRs for updates. In the past there have been periods when we had semi official updates as often as Mozilla suite and we had dry periods when Dorian could not spare time for a GRE update between K-Meleon 1.7a2 / contemporary with FF 3.6 until FF ESR 24 - when he asked in Forum who still uses K-Meleon.
2.) That You maintain/contribute an addon for others is great news to this project and gives You great credit. You will find a List with Links to Firefox Addons that work for 74/75. Chiefly compiled (adapted and tested) by George Hall. Many macro ideas come from older works by disrupted.
Maybe Your addon is among them - if not - what addon is it? :drool:
K-Meleon has a history of using firefox addons unofficially since AFAIK back to 0.7 and officially back to 0.9.
Official ff addon install support came with 74.
There is however still no way to use Firefox addons that need or manipulate the Firefox XUL based GUI.
3.) A small tightly knit community that tries to help each other. No more.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/14/2015 02:59PM by guenter.
General discussion about K-Meleon
What should a Firefox user expect from a switch to K-meleon?
Posted by:
bluerandom234
Date: February 12, 2015 05:53PM
Firefox is pretty much the only browser I ever used, besides IE when Netscape was around.
I'm used to a modern, open source, privacy oriented, customizable, all-around stable browser. Can K-Meleon deliver?
From what I read in FAQ and on these forums, K-meleon seems like a maintained modern browser that is using the Gecko engine.
Does the engine get updated regularly to its latest version?
In short, I consider this browser to be serious enough for me to make a switch, is there a catch that I may not be aware of yet and that might make me reconsider?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/2015 06:34PM by guenter.
Re: What should a Firefox
Posted by:
bluerandom234
Date: February 12, 2015 05:54PM
Title should be "What should a Firefox user expect from a switch to K-meleon?".
No idea why it got cut.
Re: What should a Firefox user expect from a switch to K-meleon?
Posted by:
guenter
Date: February 12, 2015 06:54PM
Quote
bluerandom234
Firefox is pretty much the only browser I ever used, besides IE when Netscape was around.
I'm used to a modern, open source, privacy oriented, customizable, all-around stable browser. Can K-Meleon deliver?
From what I read in FAQ and on these forums, K-meleon seems like a maintained modern browser that is using the Gecko engine.
Does the engine get updated regularly to its latest version?
In short, I consider this browser to be serious enough for me to make a switch, is there a catch that I may not be aware of yet and that might make me reconsider?
1.) My first browser was IE, then I found that Netscape 4.7 was still around, that a new Netscape/Mozilla project had started and that Opera was also around...
I am what You'd call a browser aficionado ever since.
2.) K-Meleon can deliver all that if You leave "customer attitudes" behind.
3.) Yes. K-Meleon is a project based on the Gecko engine and it is older than FF.
4.) K-Meleon does not have Mozilla foundation or Google behind its back to finance the switch to the "latest" (You must mean GRE) version every other week.
There is more than one catch. You will not find a Firefox clone that can do all Firefox tricks and some of his own. Choosing to create a skinable GUI from the Windows platform native MFC widgets to embed Mozilla Gecko engine made some serious trade offs necessary. Most FF addons will thus not work.
K-Meleon does not cater much for the customer type. It has a steep learning curve to get to know it more fully.
People that got as far as me or further often stay.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/2015 07:07PM by guenter.
Re: What should a Firefox
Posted by:
rodocop
Date: February 12, 2015 07:20PM
Why to expect catches?
Do not be concentrated on the engine aspect.
K-Meleon and Firefox are 2 different approaches to use Gecko. 2 different 'shells' for engine.
Firefox is a 'native' shell referring to the Gecko itself. K-Meleon is 'native' shell in regard to Windows OS.
Firefox is cross-platform browser with full support of native XUL developments being relatively heavy in terms of RAM load.
K-Meleon is Windows only browser with partial support for XUL (Firefox built-in features or extensions) but extremely light for OS.
In comparison with Firefox, K-Meleon will never get into this crazy 'update race'. We could expect that major or minor updates of K-Meleon would follow Firefox ESR development cycle. No any '6 week merry-go-round'.
Further, K-meleon has it's own expandability system through macrolanguage and macro-extensions in addition to partial support of FF add-ons.
Macros also make possible to integrate 3rd party tools into K-Meleon.
That's a scene for your choice at a glance.
Going further, you should try and make decision.
Think positive.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/2015 07:21PM by rodocop.
Re: What should a Firefox user expect from a switch to K-meleon?
Posted by:
bluerandom234
Date: February 12, 2015 08:22PM
Quote
guenter
4.) K-Meleon does not have Mozilla foundation or Google behind its back to finance the switch to the "latest" (You must mean GRE) version every other week.
I'm fine with annual updates, no problem here.
I just don't want to end up using a browser that forked Gecko at some point and isn't able to stay updated anymore. This isn't the case, if I understand correctly now.
Thanks for the title fix, btw.
Quote
rodocop
Why to expect catches?
Do not be concentrated on the engine aspect.
Well, I'm making kind of a big deal out of these because I tend to contribute to my default browser.
I maintain a featured addon on Mozilla's AMO so switching browsers would also mean shutting down further development of that popular addon.
Quote
rodocop
Further, K-meleon has it's own expandability system through macrolanguage and macro-extensions in addition to partial support of FF add-ons.
Macros also make possible to integrate 3rd party tools into K-Meleon.
Interesting info.
I think I'm getting a grasp of the whole system and the community around here.
I think I'm going to give it a try.
What should a Firefox user expect from a switch to K-meleon?
Posted by:
siria
Date: February 12, 2015 08:28PM
It's free, so it's not a major lifetime decision that needs a lot of pondering and researching until such a heavy decision is made, as if it were for buying a new car ;-) Also several browsers can be installed parallel, still no final decision necessary.
What I mean is, just try and see if it suits you.
No strings, nothing to loose, if it's not your cup of tea simply use another again.
But frankly I suspect, from your description, that you're quite happy with FF already and all it offers. Like constant updates of the engine. You'll not get this with KM, development is rather slow, with sometimes a year or two in between when nearly nothing happens. We have just one main developer who does it in his restricted spare time. And additionally Mozilla is twisting the engine constantly more tricky, so that awhile ago we forum members already lost hope and thought that was it, KM can't follow further, no way to work around those new engine twists again. But fortunately since a year KM development is going strong again.
Anyway, if you're happy enough with FF and not missing anything, if you like a bells-n-whistles browser with thousands of addons, you'll probably start missing a few things with the smaller KM. It's more suited for people who do prefer a smaller and leaner browser, and where a user has more freedom to customize e.g. buttons fully with cfg-files etc., incl. right-click-menus, but not via drag-n-drop, along those lines.
Re: What should a Firefox user expect from a switch to K-meleon?
Posted by:
bluerandom234
Date: February 12, 2015 08:39PM
Quote
siria
It's free, so it's not a major lifetime decision that needs a lot of pondering and researching until such a heavy decision is made, as if it were for buying a new car ;-) Also several browsers can be installed parallel, still no final decision necessary.
What I mean is, just try and see if it suits you.
No strings, nothing to loose, if it's not your cup of tea simply use another again.
I tried it out, I read all about the features, it all looked good so far.
I came to forum because I was wondering about the "spiritual" state of the project ... you know, if the project is not something that is dead or will be dead soon.
I guess it's not, will give it a try.
Re: What should a Firefox user expect from a switch to K-meleon?
Posted by:
rodocop
Date: February 12, 2015 09:52PM
The most common way of using last versions of K-Meleon is portable.
So no need to full switch from Firefox.
May be you'll be the one who starts new age in KM-extensibility with all your experience.
Be sure we'll help you as we can.
Re: What should a Firefox user expect from a switch to K-meleon?
Posted by:
WASI
Date: February 14, 2015 03:06AM
I have used Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, and Firefox. Indeed Firefox seems to be an eye-candy, and for most novice type user its the best.
To switch to K-Meleon, is to be a person who wants exessive customization, more control and not to depend on what-is-given-you-have-to-use-as-is, definitely, K-Meleon is for real power users.
I switched to K-Meleon 6 years ago, and since then I never used Internet Explorer, or Firefox except on very rare occassions.
Using, working, customizing with K-Meleon is not only a fun for me, but it gave me full confidence over it.
The macrolanguage? When I first confronted it, it amazed me. With the help of guys here, I am able to twist this lizard's neck whereever I want.
KM's native plugins and macros give me such a control that I would never have the same with Firefox.
Why somone else should switch? this is a wrong question IMHO. Every person is in his owns likes and tastes, the correct question would be "Why would a Power user must switch to K-Meleon?"
Re: What should a Firefox user expect from a switch to K-meleon?
Posted by:
guenter
Date: February 14, 2015 09:44AM
Quote
bluerandom234
Quote
guenter
4.) K-Meleon does not have Mozilla foundation or Google behind its back to finance the switch to the "latest" (You must mean GRE) version every other week.
I'm fine with annual updates, no problem here.
I just don't want to end up using a browser that forked Gecko at some point and isn't able to stay updated anymore. This isn't the case, if I understand correctly now.
Thanks for the title fix, btw.
Quote
rodocop
Why to expect catches?
Do not be concentrated on the engine aspect.
Well, I'm making kind of a big deal out of these because I tend to contribute to my default browser.
I maintain a featured addon on Mozilla's AMO so switching browsers would also mean shutting down further development of that popular addon.
Quote
rodocop
Further, K-meleon has it's own expandability system through macrolanguage and macro-extensions in addition to partial support of FF add-ons.
Macros also make possible to integrate 3rd party tools into K-Meleon.
Interesting info.
I think I'm getting a grasp of the whole system and the community around here.
I think I'm going to give it a try.
1.) Dorian IMHO wants to follow ESRs for updates. In the past there have been periods when we had semi official updates as often as Mozilla suite and we had dry periods when Dorian could not spare time for a GRE update between K-Meleon 1.7a2 / contemporary with FF 3.6 until FF ESR 24 - when he asked in Forum who still uses K-Meleon.
2.) That You maintain/contribute an addon for others is great news to this project and gives You great credit. You will find a List with Links to Firefox Addons that work for 74/75. Chiefly compiled (adapted and tested) by George Hall. Many macro ideas come from older works by disrupted.
Maybe Your addon is among them - if not - what addon is it? :drool:
K-Meleon has a history of using firefox addons unofficially since AFAIK back to 0.7 and officially back to 0.9.
Official ff addon install support came with 74.
There is however still no way to use Firefox addons that need or manipulate the Firefox XUL based GUI.
3.) A small tightly knit community that tries to help each other. No more.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/14/2015 02:59PM by guenter.
English