K-meleon . . . it's baaaack!

There's a new beta for K-meleon at BetaNews Forum. I'm running it now, even as I write this post. So far:

1- Very stable
2- Super fast
3- Lots of configs - mostly simple & mostly unneeded (the browser works great even with its defaults).
4- Very active support forum at HERE

P.S. It uses the Gecko browser engine, just like FireFox, but it's MUCH zippier than FF.

==> If you give the ole lizard a try, please let us know what you think.

 

Always liked this browser, thanks for the heads-up

 

I loved K-Meleon way back!

 

Websites I visited said, "You are using an outdated browser, please use a modern browser." Gmail, Hotmail wouldn't work with it. Scored 57 on the html5test.

 

Me too.. Let's see how the final release does... might be good.

 

I don't think I can wait that long, I don't think anyone can.

 

Haha... Yeah, maybe not.

 

Gmail & Hotmail wouldn't work? Oh Golly gee whiz!

I have not encountered the "outdated" issue in the websites I visit. In any event, I use MBAE, Shadow Defender, Drop My Rights, etc, so --- not to worry. Or . . .

 

I downloaded the beta off of Softpedia a week or so ago. Will try the link you posted. Thanks.

 

I hope it works out for you. If Kmel is faster for you, you might choose to use it for surfing & fun stuff, but use a "more established" browser for banking etc. For my banking I use Avast's SafeZone browser.

 

Curious, here:
K-Mel: 435
IE9: 128
Palemoon: 454

 

The link Softpedia had was to the old K-Mel. Using the new version Bellgamin posted got the same results as you did.

 

Here's the only site I've found it balks a bit at....easy bypass to just click through. Works with gmail now. My concern is it uses an outdated Firefox version which may have security holes.

 

It was a great browser, but it has suffered a bit from lack of development. It out-performed SeaMonkey IMHO but always seemed to have an older version of Gecko.

 

True.. I liked it for it's simplicity and speed mostly... Yet another alternative to Firefox or SM.

 

Used it around a year ago. Very fast ,very zippy indeed but it had a problem with youtube so it had to go.

Maybe this version has fixed this ?

 

Kmel does not use Firefox, per se. Instead, both FF & Kmel use the Gecko engine.

Kmel is faster than FF because FF aims to be cross-platform whereas Kmel does not. That is, FF will run on other OS besides Windows (such as Linux) whereas Kmel is only designed to run on Windows.

For this reason, FF's GUI is XUL-based (cross-platform but heavy). On the other hand, Kmel uses Windows system libraries (mono-platform but light). For an explanation of "XUL" see HERE. - - -> Further interesting info about reasons for Kmel's speed & lightness can be found HERE.

As to security, latest Kmel beta is 74 beta 4. It uses Gecko/20140105. Ergo, it is a few Gecko releases behind latest FF.

As to Kmel's security - - - I am a browser junkie. I have a LOT of browsers on my computer but I do not rely on ANY browser's integral security. It is no accident that we are discussing browsers here at a security forum. Based on what I have read in these forums, NO browser is totally safe from today's exploits, much less from the new or morphed exploits which the future will surely bring. That is why I use the paid version of MalwareBytes Anti-exploit (MBAE) for everyday web access with WHICHever browser I use, whether FF, Opera, Kmel, Iron, Slimboat, or whatever.

 

Plus it didn't ever suffer from the dreaded 'continually running throbber' bug that ails SM sometimes.

 

Do you still use Windows XP?

 

can anyone report on add-on compatibility ?

can anyone tell me if FF add-ons work with K-meleon ?

 

They do not work with K-Meleon as of 74 Beta 4.

 

Yes, I still use XP.

 

Hi, kameleonaires!
K-Meleon is my favourite so I'm completely happy about this resurrection!
About extensions: some FF ones can be adapted for K-Meleon - fully or partly.
Newsfox, Flashblock are integrated into the box. FireFTP and ScribeFire are adapted. And so on. There are also a number of unique km-extensions.

 

So how is the beta K-Meleon running? Still pretty smooth?
Also, for some reason I thought Firefox was switching away from Gecko to a chromium based browser...maybe it was just their default search engine though...anyone know for sure?

 

Verrry smooth!!!
It's fast, too.