Comeback trail marred by junk browsers

Last Updated on September 30, 2010 by Dave Farquhar

Another browser. You’ve probably heard of Galeon, but have you heard of K-Meleon? Win32 browser, looks like IE, uses the Gecko engine. It’s missing a number of usability features, such as the only reasons I use IE (and the only reasons are the ctrl-enter autocompletion of URLs and the backspace key working as a back button, letting me reduce keystrokes). As soon as K-Meleon improves its arrow key support and adds ctrl-enter, I’ll be apt to change browsers again. Admittedly, I’ve entertained the idea of getting the source and taking a stab at adding the feature myself but I don’t know if I have a C compiler that’ll compile it. Since IE 5.5 makes my Win98 system bluescreen and run slow as a P100, I can’t wait. (Maybe I should run IERadicator to strip out IE entirely, then install IE5 without Active Desktop, but that’s a bit of effort. Hmm.
I’m bitter at IE5.5 because it bluescreened my system last night while I was downloading a rare live version of Aimee Mann’s “Long Shot,” which, while profane, is probably the best song she ever wrote. And wouldn’t you know it, when I came back online, poof, it was gone. But I want to end on a positive note, so I will. K-Meleon lets you create your own keyboard shortcuts. Want F1 to stop? Got it. F2 for your homepage? Got it. Backspace to go back? Got it. And it’s small (2.8 megs) and quick. Definitely a good prospect.

Thanks to the well-wishers. If I responded to each and every one, I’d probably be back where I started, so hopefully this will suffice.

And my inning is up.

If you found this post informative or helpful, please share it!