K-Meleon: Lean, mean Web
browser By Larry Blasko, Associated Press One of the nicest things about writing about computing
for the public is that you get the benefit of readers' knowledge. A mention of
Netscape's latest browser brought an e-mail from Noel Warner of Jacksonville,
Fla. He asked: "Have you taken the K-Meleon browser for a test drive? I found
this Mozilla-based program a few weeks ago, and was immediately impressed. It's
definitely browser-lite, as that is all it does. Small RAM footprint. No e-mail,
news-reader, etc. It is very stable, and lightning fast at loading pages. Good
cookie control, and best of all pop-up ad blocking! I am not sure I would
trust it for secure transactions, but I do very little shopping on the 'net." Warner
said he had no connection with K-Meleon other than being a satisfied user. So
a quick hop with the URL he provided and a 4-megabyte free download later, K-Meleon
installed itself. After a couple of days of surfing
with K-Meleon, I found Warner to be right on the money. The browser is small and
quick. And I haven't encountered a problem. Visually, it looks like a Netscape
Navigator that took up jogging and a diet. Same overall feel as Netscape without
some of the clutter. It displayed Web pages quickly
and accurately. In all, pretty nifty. The version downloaded
was Release 0.6 as of Oct. 29. And the system requirements are modest: Windows
95 or better and 32 megabytes of RAM. In case you are
wondering if Mozilla is the thing that periodically tries to eat Tokyo, my favorite
online encyclopedia revealed that Mozilla is: The code name for Netscape Navigator
and Netscape's first alligator-like mascot. It stood for "Mosaic Killer." Mosaic
was the Web browser that caused the Web to become popular, which was created by
the same people who later founded Netscape. When Netscape
became free in 1998 and the source code was available for developers, Netscape
created mozilla.org as a clearinghouse for improvements to the code. Now, Mozilla
is its own open-source Web browser, available from that site. The
other word that might throw you is GNU. You will be asked to agree with a GNU
license. Huh? GNU is an acronym for "Gnu's Not Unix".
It is maintained by the Free Software Foundation, a nonprofit organization that
promotes the development and use of "freely redistributable software." What that
means to users is that it's free, you can pass it on and even modify it, but you
can't sell it.
Copyright
2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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