For Windows Users: Will you try the K-Meleon browser instead of Firefox

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

mobobuff

Lifer
Apr 5, 2004
11,099
1
81
Originally posted by: acemcmac
it's not that I'm an IE fan. It's that IE/Windows Explorer makes TOO MUCH SENSE to just give up on a fad browser.

I certainly agree with that. Also, with IE I'm so used to being able to type 'about:atot' or 'about:mail' and other such phrases and having it take me directly to pages that otherwise have very long URLs.

As for K-Meleon, it seems to use available window space very efficiently for displaying page contents, that's definitely a plus. It renders pages quickly, but just as quickly or slightly slower than my IE. I love that it gives you very crucial option settings in menu drop-downs so you can change something with only a couple of clicks. The buttons are appealing, more pleasing than IE buttons, but I don't generally use my browser for the aesthetically pleasing buttons. If I did I'd probably still use Opera (which has a very snazy looking setup, I got my girlfried hooked on it, it's all she uses).

IE > Opera > K-Meleon > FireFox

 

kazeakuma

Golden Member
Feb 13, 2001
1,218
0
0
Originally posted by: episodic
Ahh, also notice this has mouse gestures by default. (I had not noticed this until now)

On by default too. I like the ideas this browser has, lots of cool options. (Display all links on a page is nice) But I think it's best waiting till a version 1.0 or something. The UI is horrid, I don't like the fact that there are options under the Edit:preferences menu (oldstyle netscape way), the View menu also has a couple of options (settable in preferences), and then there is the bloody Tools menu, with no less that 13 submenus on the damn thing. Put it in ONE place already.
 

Anubis

No Lifer
Aug 31, 2001
78,712
427
126
tbqhwy.com
Originally posted by: episodic
Originally posted by: Anubis
i just tested it for a bit, opera is still faster and more polished



Well, at least give it a tilt for being FREE and open sourced :)

no it is quite good, much like firefox, however unless they end up doing something better then the current 3 big browsers IE, FF and Opera, i dont see it doing much
 

JustAnAverageGuy

Diamond Member
Aug 1, 2003
9,057
0
76
Originally posted by: mobobuff
I certainly agree with that. Also, with IE I'm so used to being able to type 'about:atot' or 'about:mail' and other such phrases and having it take me directly to pages that otherwise have very long URLs.

The buttons are appealing, more pleasing than IE buttons, but I don't generally use my browser for the aesthetically pleasing buttons. If I did I'd probably still use Opera (which has a very snazy looking setup, I got my girlfried hooked on it, it's all she uses).

IE > Opera > K-Meleon > FireFox

You could always make it look ugly again. :)

Also, just use the NickName functionality

Loading bookmarks using nicknames

Platform: All platforms

An easy way to quickly load bookmarked documents is to use the nickname facility.

When you create a new bookmark (Ctrl+T), enter a one-character nickname, i.e. "n" for your favorite News site, or "s" for your favorite sports site. You can also use characters like ~, `, !. To retrieve that document, press Shift+F2 and "n". Your News Site will then be loaded.

You can also use words as nicknames. To retrieve a document click F2 and type your nickname, then press enter. You can have more nicknames this way, but it is not as quick as using only one character.

Linky (Linky2 if first one doesn't work.)
 

LordMorpheus

Diamond Member
Aug 14, 2002
6,871
1
0
never bothered with firefox, but I'm posting from this right now. It loads up and displays pages faster than IE, but thats probably my fault for not maintaining my system as well as I should. Its interest, I'll try it for a while.
 

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
17,484
33
86
Note: FF should have official optomized builds. JTW and Moox builds make FF very fast.
Speed-wise, this seems no faster than my JTW FF build. zdnet and slashdot are both limited by the network more than the speed of table rendering (and they take all of 2 seconds or so to load, anyway).

Strike 1 against K-melon: toolbars.
The back button should be on the window edge, and reasonably large. In FF this is so. That way if it is maximized, it is on the screen edge, making it an easier target.
I like being able to move toolbars around, but see no option to lock them in place, getting rid of the grippers.
Really, that's about it. Aside from the UI and IE favs sync, I see nothing over FF.
 

LordMorpheus

Diamond Member
Aug 14, 2002
6,871
1
0
Originally posted by: Cerb
Note: FF should have official optomized builds. JTW and Moox builds make FF very fast.
Speed-wise, this seems no faster than my JTW FF build. zdnet and slashdot are both limited by the network more than the speed of table rendering.

Strike 1 against K-melon: toolbars.
The back button should be on the window edge, and reasonably large. In FF this is so. That way if it is maximized, it is on the screen edge, making it an easier target.
I like being able to move toolbars around, but see no option to lock them in place, getting rid of the grippers.
Really, that's about it. Aside from the UI and IE favs sync, I see nothing over FF.

you can lock toolbars, but I don't think this is the new sliced bread or anything. Just a little speed improvement over my I.E. (I say mine because a "clean" I.E. is probably signifigantly faster than mine.)

I'll play with it until it either pisses me off or wins me over.
 

SSP

Lifer
Oct 11, 1999
17,727
0
0
I'm using it right now. Its a nice light browser, but the pages dont load as fast as FF or IE, but fast enough. It loads up hell of a lot faster then FF, so thats a plus (even with out the loader).
 

MrCodeDude

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
13,674
1
76
Is there a way so when I click on links with my scroller wheel, the page opens in a new window but leaves me looking at the page I clicked the link on. I hate how I can't click on multiple links at a time without having to switch between tabs on this new browser.
 

voodoochylde

Senior member
Feb 19, 2004
305
0
71
Not bad...I don't like some stuff about it:

1.)As MrCodeDude said - when you middle click on a link, it defaults to the last layer/tab...the options don't provide much to help this (and yes, I know about the View->Layers->Open Options bit...doesn't help)

and

2.)Nevermind...turns out the "junky mouse gestures" I was referring to was my own fault with a StrokeIt config error...whoops.

Not bad, all in all, but I'll stick with firefox for the most part. Still, I like it.
 

OulOat

Diamond Member
Aug 8, 2002
5,769
0
0
Um, how do I save cookie settings? I don't see a save or cancel button anywhere, and every time I do Tools>Privacy>Permissions>Cookies it looks like it didn't change anything. K-Meleon definitely needs a setting manager like everything else.
 

OulOat

Diamond Member
Aug 8, 2002
5,769
0
0
Okay yeah, K-Meleon is really underdeveloped. I just went and checked out the mouse gestures settings. They want you to manually type in each command? Couldn't they have copied a gui from one of the open sourced plugins for FF?
 

dak125

Golden Member
Jan 11, 2003
1,363
0
76
This uses HALF the memory usage of Firefox with two tabs open. Just a preliminary scan right now, liking it so far, thanks.
 

halik

Lifer
Oct 10, 2000
25,696
1
81
whats up with no file edit view menu on the top? (one of the screenshots)
Right click to access stuff is just plain stupid...apparently opensrouce guys have learned nothing from the failure or Gimp...