K-Meleon - Definition and Overview

K-Meleon is a web browser based on Gecko, the layout engine written by the Mozilla Foundation. The aim of K-Meleon is to provide a light-weight browser running under Microsoft Windows using the Operating System's native interface for the application's toolbars and menus - similar to Galeon or Epiphany on Linux and other Unix-like operating systems, and Camino on Mac OS X. Because of the lower resource requirement, K-Meleon is more responsive than Mozilla Foundation's web browsers like Mozilla Suite or Firefox. This is important, especially for systems where the hardware is aged and system resources are limited.

K-Meleon also has a highly flexible design. All the menus and toolbar buttons can be completely customized using it's many configuration files. This feature can be very useful, especially in an enviroment where the general public has access to the browser, such as a library or Internet cafe.

K-Meleon is released under the GNU General Public License, and runs on the Win32 platform. The latest release is 0.9, released on January 18, 2005. K-Meleon was originally written and developed by Christophe Thibault (http://www.ronography.com/) in 2000.

As the Windows native interface is used instead of XUL, no Mozilla based themes and only a few Mozilla extensions can be installed into K-Meleon. This severely limits compatiblity between other Mozilla browsers. However, K-Meleon has its own set of addons like macros and skins, which can extend the functionality and customize the appearance of the browser.

See also

• List of web browsers
• Comparison of web browsers

External links

• K-Meleon home page (http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net)
• Library Journal article on K-Meleon (http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA232354)