K-Meleon
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K-Meleon is a web browser for Microsoft Windows. Based on the same Gecko website rendering engine as Mozilla Firefox, K-Meleon uses the native Windows API to create the user interface instead of using the cross-platform XUL layer. This allows the browser to integrate more closely with the operating system, and makes K-Meleon less resource-intensive and more responsive to user input, which is important for users of low-end hardware. This approach is similar to that of Galeon and Epiphany (for GNOME), and Camino (for Mac OS X).
Development and specifications
K-Meleon is released under the GNU General Public License and runs on the Win32 platform. The release version of K-Meleon is 1.0, based on Gecko 1.8.0.5. It was made available for download on July 15, 2006.https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=14285 K-Meleon Project Latest File Releases The general announcement of its release on the K-Meleon home page is being delayed in the hope of offering more "localizations" (translations of the browser's menu structure into other languages).http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/forum/read.php?f=1&i=39938&t=39938#reply_39957 Re: K-Meleon 1.0 released?
The prior official release was 0.9.13, released on April 24, 2006.https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=14285&package_id=12235&release_id=412583 The layout engine for K-Meleon 0.9.13 was based on the Mozilla 1.7.13 build. Due to K-Meleon's small community of developers, updates have been irregular in the past, which means that security-related issues (which are mostly related to the Mozilla core engine) have tended to lag behind official Mozilla releases. The release of K-Meleon version 0.9.13 was primarily motivated by the desire to correct this by using the latest version of the Mozilla 1.7.x rendering engine. Unofficial development versions and derivatives of K-Meleon offered further updates to the program.
K-Meleon 1.0 is a major modification from the previous 0.9.x series builds. The most notable change is the main K-Meleon code being updated to accommodate the Mozilla 1.8.0.x rendering engine, as used in the latest release builds of SeaMonkey and Mozilla Firefox. The change of layout not only brings the browser up-to-date on the level of security, but on web page layout as well. Several other major improvements include support for favicons and multi-user environments. Themes and macros from version 0.9 are still compatible with 1.0, although the macro system has been updated.
Customizations
K-Meleon has a highly flexible interface design. All the menus and toolbar buttons can be customized using its configuration files. This feature can be very useful in an environment where the general public has access to the browser such as a library or Internet cafe.[Library Journal article on K-Meleon] Despite its usefulness, it may be intimidating to an end-user, as there is no GUI to customize the individual toolbars. A user must edit the toolbar configuration file to make any changes in the button layouts, although one can move around the toolbars by simply dragging their handles. [K-Meleon's official configuration reference page]
The use of Windows native interface means that K-Meleon does not support Mozilla-based themes. Compatibility with Mozilla extensions is also limited, with only a few extensions that can be integrated. However, K-Meleon has its own plugins[What do each of the default K-Meleon plugins do?] Official K-Meleon FAQ (called "kplugins") and browser themes[K-Meleon Themes Wiki page], which can extend the functionality and customize the appearance of the browser. There is also a macro plugin which allows users to extend the browser functionality without having to know the C programming language.[K-Meleon Macros library]
Derivatives
K-Ninja
K-Ninja is a modified version of K-Meleon with no menu-bar and a reduced number of toolbar buttons (one such button opening a menu that has all of the normal menu bar entries) to reduce the screen area used by the browser for functions other than rendering the website. An attempt was also made to expand and reorganize the right-click context menus for speed and effectiveness.
K-Ninja was originally developed by Mark Reaves at Mot Studios. When Mark left Mot Studios and founded LDIOS (the Linux Desktop Initiation Operating System), the Official K-Ninja Forum also moved to LDIOS. The LDIOS site has not functioned since Nov. 29, 2005 and Mark Reaves has not been available to maintain the project.
On June 29th, 2005, "TransitMan" [updated the K-Ninja rendering engine] to gecko 1.7.9beta, and since March 12th, 2006, "Al." has updated it further ([to gecko 1.7.13]) and is maintaining it on a new homepage as [K-Ninja "Samurai"]. On July 7th, 2006 Al. released "Preview Edition 5" of [K-Ninja v2.0] (a test version based on Rendering Engine: Mozilla GRE v1.8.0.5[K-Ninja v2.0 changelog], K-Ninja website).
Portable Versions
Some users have created modifications to enhance the portability of K-Meleon so they can run the browser on other Windows computers without having to install the software. [Douglas McFadzean's projects] are designed to "enhance the K-Meleon web browser, particularly its portability". These projects include Pocket K-Meleon, KMprof, KMVX, KMV (K-Meleon On The Move) and KM@. These projects focus on the ability to run K-Meleon from a USB flash drive or portable hard drive, leaving no trace of browsing on the host computer.
There have been some early attempts at making a version of K-Meleon which can run from a read-only device, such as a CD-ROM.[K-Meleon-ME1.7.12-mod-fromCD]
K-MeleonCCF
K-MeleonCCF is an unofficial version of K-Meleon 1.0 branch. The biggest difference between the latest CCF version and K-Meleon 1.0 is that the CCF version supports a real tab structure developed by Dorian Boissonnade. K-MeleonCCF and K-MeleonCCFME (a smaller, "minimum edition" of K-MeleonCCF) are developed by Hao Jiang (whose nickname is "coolwulf") and Dorian.[K-MeleonCCF homepage]
The K-MeleonCCF builds are also available in Chinese versions (and the latest versions are often announced [in Chinese] before being made available [in English])
See also
External links
- [K-Meleon Home Page]
- [K-Meleon Official Forum]
- [K-meleon Promotion Community]
- [Projects developed by Douglas McFadzean]
- [K-Meleon in spanish]
References
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