I'm sure this has been asked a gazillion times on this forum, but my knowledge is limited to Mozilla. Does K-Meleon mess with Mozilla in any way, like how Netscape 6.x can (i.e. can the two co-exist flawlessly)?
Also, what kind of performance differences between the two browsers can I expect to see? What about K-M vs. Opera 6?

I used to have Moz, NS6 & KM on my machine. I ditched NS6 recently since I only had it for compatibilty testing. KM doesn't mess with Moz config at all so no problems there. Only thing they share in my setup is cache folder. I figured since they're both family they can as well keep their cache together.

Speed-wise performance is about twice that of Mozilla. It's more tangible on slower machines.If your mainly need a browser (for browsing only, not email client, not fancy i-got-this-and-this-and-this browser) then you might give KM a try. If you need hundreds of configuration options (like 20-30 per menu) then Opera is for you.

On the other hand - we're expecting greatly enhanced macro capabilities for new version of KM for all those do-it-yourself type of guys out there

I also had Netscape Communicator 4.7, Mozilla, and K-Meleon. They don't mess with each other, as far as I know. One thing, though. My Communicator kept stealing K-Meleon's file associations when it is run. I can't find the setting to turn it off. Now I had it uninstalled. I can use some megs of disk space that was taken by Communicator. :-)As for Opera, I don't like the idea of browsing while looking at the ads. So, unless you want to pay....

Thanks for the quick replies. Agreed, N6.x is still garbage (although N7 might be acceptable)...I'm a hardcore Mozilla tester/user but I'm kind of curious as to the performance difference between the two (and also I'd like to see how fast a fairly unbloated Gecko can render). BTW...there are many ways to get Opera 6.x for free without ads, you've just got to look...not that I've tried In any case Mozilla kills it in a second.