K-Meleon: Lean, mean Web browser

By Larry Blasko, Associated Press

	K-Meleon
	K-Meleon

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.