K-Meleon
K-Meleon is a free and open-source, lightweight web browser for Microsoft Windows. Unlike cross-platform browsers, it uses the Windows API to create its user interface. Early versions of K-Meleon render web pages with Gecko, Mozilla's browser layout engine. The Firefox web browser and the Mozilla Thunderbird email client also use Gecko. K-Meleon became a popular browser for Windows. It was available as an optional default browser in Europe. After Mozilla deprecated embedding Gecko, K-Meleon continued to use it for several years. K-Meleon 76 uses the Goanna layout engine. Goanna is a fork of Gecko created for the Pale Moon browser.
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| File:K-Meleon 76.5.G on Windows 10.png K-Meleon 76 on Windows 10 | |
| Developer(s) | Christophe Thibault, Sebastian Spaeth, Brian Harris, Jeff Doozan, Mark Liffiton, Rob Johnson, Ulf Erikson, Jordan Callicoat, Dorian Boissonnade, Roytam, et al. |
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| Initial release | August 21, 2000 |
| Written in | |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows |
| Available in | 7 languages |
| License | GPL |
| Website | http://kmeleonbrowser.org |
K-Meleon began as a competitor to Mozilla's original internet suite. It had the goal of being faster and lighter. Until 2011, K-Meleon embedded Gecko in a stripped-down interface. Throughout its lifespan, K-Meleon has required small amounts of memory. K-Meleon 76 uses the Goanna fork. It supports platforms no longer supported by Mozilla after their Gecko rewrite. K-Meleon supports older computers and older computer software. It maintains active support for Windows XP and Windows Vista.
Customization is another primary design goal of K-Meleon. Users can change the toolbars, menus, and keyboard shortcuts from text-based configuration files. Besides conventional extensions, K-Meleon also supports macros. Macros are small, human-readable extensions. Users can examine, write, or edit them in a text editor. K-Meleon's custom configuration files can trigger macros. Because it is adaptable, experts recommended K-Meleon for internet cafes and libraries in the early 2000s.
Screenshots
K-Meleon 76 on Windows 10, French language
K-Meleon 74 on Windows XP
K-Meleon 1.5.4 on Windows 8, German language
K-Meleon 0.8 on Windows XP, Polish language
K-Meleon 0.2 on Windows XP
K-Meleon 76, using the same K-Meleon theme and different Windows themes
K-Meleon Media
K-Meleon 0.7 with a simple "Hello World" macro, the optional Tango theme, and several NPAPI plugins installed
References
- Blanco, Elena. Open source and the web browser (1 March 2005)OSS Watch. Retrieved 2011-11-08.
- Blasko, Larry. K-Meleon: Lean, mean Web browser. USA Today (6 December 2001). Retrieved 14 March 2022.
- Boissonnade, Dorian. K-Meleon Changelog. Retrieved 29 August 2022. (Version 1.0–75.1)
- Boswell, David. Creating Applications with Mozilla (September 24, 2002)O'Reilly Media. p. 7. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
- Doozan, Jeff. Definition Files. K-Meleon 0.6 (2001).
- Erikson, Ulf. K-Meleon User's Guide and Reference Manual (2002)K-Meleon Documentation Project. Retrieved December 22, 2022. (Version 0.7)
- Foley, Mary Jo. K-Meleon browser part Mozilla, part IE. ZDNet (22 August 2000)ZDNet News. Retrieved 2022-03-05.
- García, Rocío. Sin instalación y para llevar: Los mejores programas portables (in es) (9 March 2022). Retrieved 3 September 2022.
- Kohler, Klaus. K-Meleon 1.x Reference (9 May 2007). Retrieved 9 February 2023.
- López, José María. Navegadores web minimalistas y ligeros para ordenadores viejos (in es) (10 March 2022). Retrieved 29 August 2022.
- McCracken, Harry (March 2007). "For Browsers, the Best of Times is Now". PC World: 15. "Right now, more viable options are angling for your attention than at any time since the browser wars of the mid-1990s. [...] Tempted to leave IE? Firefox and Opera, the powerful browser from Norway, are far from your only options. These days, in fact, they’re part of the old guard. Newer alternatives abound: Flock, for instance, offers built-in blogging, and K-Meleon is snappy even on low-end hardware.".
- Mutch, Andrew. Does Your Library Need a Different Browser?. netConnect (2002-07-15)Library Journal.
- Orlowski, Andrew. Galeon zips while Mozilla slips. The Register (26 November 2001)Situation Publishing. Retrieved 9 September 2022.
- Schofield, Jack. EU drops Microsoft browser charges with agreement on 'ballot screen'. The Guardian (16 December 2009). Retrieved 9 September 2022.
- Serea, Razvan. K-Meleon 75 Beta 1. Neowin (26 November 2014). Retrieved 21 December 2022.
- Roytam. K-Meleon 74 on Goanna 2.2 (palemoon-26.5) for Win2000 (14 August 2021). Retrieved 22 December 2022.
- Roytam. K-Meleon 76.4.7 on Goanna 3.5.0 (2023). Retrieved 5 January 2023.
