[whocares]

to those who don't know (obviously all of you), i'd like to say a few things:

first of all, if you are firefox fanboy(fanboy is someone who irrationally gets attached to something and refuses to listen to any kind of reason to persuade them that the item they are possesed with can be flawed) if you are fanboy, please stop reading here.

K-Meleon is neither an ie add-on or a firefox-knock out or a slimmed-firefox or firefox as it used to be.

k-meleon uses the gecko engine for rendering, that's similar to firefox, seamonkey, flock etc. but that's were the similarities end.

the main difference between firefox and k-meleon has nothing to do with it slimming down firefox or not. k-meleon uses native windows api (aka widgets) to make the interface (you know the buttons and menus) that's a similar approach to other platform-specific gecko browsers like camino for mac (uses cocoa) , galeon for linux(uses gtk+) while k-meleon uses something called cairo api.. this is the native windows widget where all your regular windows applications use to make their interface.

what does that mean in layman terms? k-meleon is integrated with your operating system and hence it is low on resources such as cpu cycles and memory usage.

how is that different from firefox? firefox draws the interface with xul..which is basically an html markup language.. unfortunately using a non core api will always cause a memory leak, there's no way around it.. you might restrain it a little but ultimately an xul application will end up using all your memory if it can.. this is undebatable fact. i know some might be stench firefox fanboys.. i don't care what browser you use or prefer..you're free to use whatever you like but facts are facts. but the fact is firefox has always used xul so k-meleon can never be firefox as it used to be or a slimmed down version because they are completely different concepts.

if xul is so bad why did mozilla choose it you might ask? there's a little bit of history in that question and a lot to learn. before phoenix(ex-firebird) was released circa 2002; there was quite a debate at mozilla labs whether to use native widgets(the k-meleon approach- and by the way, k-meleon is 3 years older than phoenix and technially the first browser built on the nglayout after netscape had outsourced it.. obviously you all don't know that, but k-meleon was released in 2000) anyway, the debate at mozilla labs was about using cairo api for windows and explore other native widgets for other operating systems and the majoirty sadly voted for xul.. the main reason for that.. even though the devs knew the limitations of such a poor choice but it's simply as easy way out for a programmer... since using xul allowed cross-platforming without any major programming, cross-platforming means writing same code that can run on any operating system.

phoenix was later released and that was lightweight (for those of you who like the term lightweight firefox..that was the one-not k-meleon) so the problems accompanied with the xul language were minimum and controllable.. , however even though it was cross platform.. it had little success on mac platforms which later made mozilla work on camino(cocoa) for mac but that's another story.

as the gecko engine advanced, the xul language started to choke with all the additions and patches.. after all there's a limit to what you can do with a pseudo interface.. and then the product started to show bigger leaks and awful resources usage (commonly know as bloated). technically there's nothing bloated about the latest firefox when compared with the very first phoenix..it's just that the gecko engine has gone too big for the xul interface to handle.

aren't mozilla folks aware of such a problem? ofcourse they are but since they chose xul from the beginning.. it's extremely hard to change courses now. if they want to use native api that will mean rewriting their products from scratch, getting new devs..firing half of their devs.. give up support ot many of the 'addons' and ultimately loosing user base.

are there other browsers that use xul for interface? apart from the usual mozilla derivatives (firefox, flock, seamonkey fennec etc); no

what about chrome and safari, they don't seem to use native api? actually they do but..those are skinned api's.. that means they do use native widgets but use bitmaps over them to give the browser a different look or appeal.. this is like the exact opposite of xul..where it tries to make its interface appear like native..the others try to make the native look like something else.

so firefox is a bad browser? yes.. it's a terrible browser, not just firefox but any xul application not just browsers..like songbird etc. this is from personal experience, i know a guy with a quite capable and new computer who got tired of the memory usage with firefox but he was so hooked on firefox and didn't want to use a diiferent browser, he decided to buy an extra gig of ram to accommodate firefox.. not suprisingly, ff started leaking into the extra ones too. a fanboy might tell you big deal..restart the browser..no, it's a big deal..a browser must be stable throughtout its entire session and shouldn't need to be restarted

how come it became so popular? well.. it's like the biggest rubbish in software history and the masses unfortunately bought it. at the time phoenix was released, there wasn't much browsers to compete with ie which people were getting tired of. k-meleon for windows was slow on development and actually fought by mozilla to end development. opera was shareware.. browsers for linux like galeon or epiphany were very raw.. so phoenix filled the gap perfectly for those looking for an alternative and more secure browser than ie
.

so what do you suggest mr. know-it-all? i don't endorse any browser.. i'm not a fanboy and i don't believe a browser should have a following like a cult..if you're comfortable with firefox..then stay with it. my advise to those who want a browser than respects their os and their hardware is this:
1- for windows, k-meleon, opera, chrome (in that order)
2- for linux, epiphany or galeon
3- if you're on a mac, you actually have a lot of choices, most of them are good. safari on mac is the best choice..if you like the gecko engine, go for camino.