Konqueror (Linux KDE)

Being a total Newbie to Linux, it's always a possibility that any bug we assign to Konqueror (Linux KDE) is actually something we haven't learned to tweak yet - Linux is the OS for people who like to tweak as you must  tweak it to get everything running 100%. The version we have (PhatLinux) is a variant on Redhat using a lot of Tuxedo (Tux) underpinning. We opted for a KDE version of an easy to install Linux as our logs show that about 1% of our surfers are Konqueror, the KDE embedded browser.

Overall, Konqueror is a very efficient, clean looking and clean running browser. Customizing it in any meaningful way is still beyond us, haven't even figured out how to set a different homepage in it yet, but the fact that it can reach across the Linux files to see DOS files is very nice. It even understands long (Windows style) filenames. This is a distinct improvement from the previous KDE browsers, which only understood DOS filenames - viewing a site with long filenames wasn't possible. It still has a few minor quirks with relative links, but every browser has those. It would be very nice if it could understand different relative local links. c:\\\~folder\file.htm is really the same as c:/~folder/file.htm is really the same as dos\~folder\file.htm - but we've encountered this inconsistency before, most recently in Opera 3. No doubt there's a special way to write local relative links that won't cause this. We'll add it in here once we discover it. Everything about it reminds us of a private-label Opera with a few exceptions, but these exceptions are annoying.

The bug that we believe is a bug (and not our Newbie Linux status showing) is that there seems no efficient way to add in new PlugIns. It says that it will add PlugIns from the Linux copy of NS 4.7 (note: the Linux build of NS 4.7 is really awful - avoid it, we've been told that the Linux build of NS 6 is very nice). When it encounters Flash or any exotic graphic or binary, a special placeholder covers the spot for the exotic graphic or binary file and says, "unable to scan NS plugin folder". As the PlugIns are present in NS, this is baffling. Equally baffling is why the PlugIn can't be installed directly to Konqueror. We're still figuring out how to install anything  in Linux yet, but this seems odd. Most browsers have an internal mechanism that allows you to visit a central site (or the site on file for a PlugIn) and install the PlugIn directly to the browser. No fuss, quick and efficient - but this isn't to happen in Konqueror. Hopefully after the much anticipated upgrade to PhatLinux (currently Version 4, soon to be Version 5), much of this will be taken care of in a soon to be released upgrade to KDE and Konqueror. 'Course this all could be just us not understanding Linux yet, but maybe not.

As for standards compliance, it is very good. We didn't notice a single important flaw in how Konqueror parses HTML 4.01 nor all the commonly used CSS statements. If Linux (and KDE) were more popular, Konqueror would be the browser to which all others are compared.

Mike