digg

Join DiggAbout

Discover the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.

Konqueror: the Linux Killer App

desktoplinux.com — This short article introduces some interesting features of Konqueror that may have escaped the casual user's notice.

Bury
show profanity settings
expand all
  • btdown, on 10/12/2007, -67/+13You've got to be kidding....Konqueror is the best of example of why people DONT use KDE.
    • MikeCerm, on 10/12/2007, -2/+37There's nothing wrong with Konqueror, other than the fact that it's not Firefox. For a built-in browser, it's great, but Firefox suits my needs and most people's needs much better.
    • darkchild, on 10/12/2007, -6/+23@btdown
      [QUOTE]
      You've got to be kidding....Konqueror is the best of example of why people DONT use KDE.
      [/QUOTE]

      Its interesting that you say that. Most polls I have seen in the 7 years that I have used Linux show KDE to be the most popular Linux and Unix desktop environment followed by GNOME.
    • hbweb500, on 10/12/2007, -3/+18KDE has a certain mentality that many people like: integration and options. Konqueror represents this mentality well because it attempts to be a file browser/web browser/toaster all at once.

      Other people like streamlined simplicity, and use GNOME, XFCE, and minimal desktops.

      Linux is about choice, and to label Konqueror, a program which only represents KDE and its "all in one" ideals, the "Linux Killer App" overlooks all the other great programs that work well on ALL desktops.
    • i440, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5"Its interesting that you say that. Most polls I have seen in the 7 years that I have used Linux show KDE to be the most popular Linux and Unix desktop environment followed by GNOME."

      He said it was an example of why people don't KDE, not why most people don't use it.

      I have high expectations for KDE4. Let's hope it's impressive and breaks away from the Windowsish way of doing things.
    • yttrx, on 10/12/2007, -6/+3You know, if the unthinkable happens and KDE actually DOES attempt to break away from the windowish way of doing things in 4.0, it would be breaking a trend that goes all the way back to 1.1.

      I don't see it happening. KDE users are generally windows converts, which is fine, but let's just be honest here.
    • cduquette, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I think the only reason KDE has a bigger user base is because they've been around longer. Wasn't Gnome created after a few developers weren't able to get their ideas in there? I'm also guessing Gnome switching their interface from something similar to KDE to something of their own creation also lost some of the user base. That and taking away customizability and features from their DE.

      I'm currently a Gnome user, but I've been following KDE4 for a while now, and things sound very promising. New interface, less clutter, pretty (Oxygen) icons, better device integration, the works. KDE4 could put Linux on the map.. so to speak.
    • diffuze, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"You've got to be kidding....Konqueror is the best of example of why people DONT use KDE."

      That's like saying people don't use windows because of Internet Explorer..
  • XVampireX, on 10/12/2007, -23/+8Konqueror is a really good file browser and stuff, but it really fails at web browsing, although, it could be compared to Internet Explorer and in some instances be even better than internet explorer. Konqueror also starts up really fast (When I don't run java/azureus it starts up instantly). But don't use it as a web browser, use swiftfox or opera instead.
    • CptnObvious, on 10/12/2007, -6/+25What's wrong with it as a web browser? I have been using it for almost a year and it renders almost every page perfectly. Every once in a while you will find a site that is slightly off but that is usually because of bad code. Developers seem to be making sites that work with Firefox and IE but not even testing on other browsers, if Konqueror was as popular as Firefox then you all might say that Firefox is a terrible web browser because it was only tested with Konqueror and IE.

      In either case I think Amarok is the next killer app since it seems really well received and I have found almost nothing I don't like about it.
    • Mejogid, on 10/12/2007, -3/+24It uses the same rendering engine as Sadari (KHTML - open source and originally developed for Konqueror), which gets alot of praise round here, and it's the first engine to pass the Acid 2 test. It also uses native widgets and has better performance than firefox IMO, and has more features than firefox or safari by default.
    • DrBob, on 10/12/2007, -7/+5Firefox has native widgets too; that was one of the big changes from the Mozilla Suite. I would say that decent Javascript support these days is slightly more important than passing Acid2 perfectly, although both would be desirable. Firefox almost passes Acid2, and has unparalleled JS support, while Konqueror's is pretty poor.

      I would also say that Konqueror doesn't have more features, just different ones. Although Konqueror has an extensible interface, Firefox has many more extensions available, and that's why I'll always stick with Firefox.
    • nofxjunkee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Hate to nitpick*, but Safari uses WebKit which is based on KHTML. KHTML didn't render Acid2 correctly until after WebKit (first) and Opera 9 (second).

      * Who am I kidding, I love it
  • subgeniusd, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8I used Konq 3.3 for about six months on a different unit and liked it. The hitch? I have a huge MyYahoo space and yahoo only tolerates Konq 3.3. A lot of the site/space features and page details were oddly rendered and hinky. If not for that I would still be using it.

    This has inspired me to look at it again, seeing as it is buried right here in Xandros 4.0. I have to see if it is really faster then Opera 9.01.

    @btdown "Konqueror is the best of example of why people DONT use KDE." That is about as stupid a statement as me saying "you are the best example of why Windozers will NEVER try Linux". Ignorant slams with no actual data supporting them.
    • hbweb500, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1"@btdown "Konqueror is the best of example of why people DONT use KDE." That is about as stupid a statement as me saying "you are the best example of why Windozers will NEVER try Linux". Ignorant slams with no actual data supporting them."

      I think what he may of been trying to say is that many people dont use KDE because of the sheer amount of extras it includes, and Konqueror is an example of how the dev's tried to put so many features into one program...
  • zellis, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4I don't know....when KDE was just starting out there wasn't really any comparable open source web browsers available. Mozilla was still in beta wasn't it? Then Firefox came out, and Konqueror doesn't seem to get anywhere near the level of attention anymore from users or developers.

    I'm using Konqueror right now. I think it's generally a better web browser in terms of speed and ease of use, I like the way it plays well with KDE, plus of course it's more than just a web browser. But I keep finding myself needing to switch to Firefox for one reason or another: the Firefox extensions and Greasemonkey userscripts are hard to pass up, sites that are designed "for IE and Firefox" have a tendency not to render correctly (specific examples: the new Livejournal navbar looks wrong, and it's impossible to post any entries or comments at Vox), and embedded Flash videos simply don't play for me (although that's more likely an issue with the Linux version of the Flash plugin).

    So I'd like to recommend Konqueror, but I don't think it's a good choice for everybody. Certainly worth a try though.
  • baalzebub, on 10/12/2007, -10/+6Konqueror your desktop :)

    i like & reccomend KDE & Konqueror...

    i can digg it...
  • badbox, on 10/12/2007, -33/+1Yeah, that's all we need is yet *another* browser... jesus.

    Firefox works just fine... or are they the bad guys now becuase they're popular?
    • kingofearth2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17It's a little thing called choice. And besides, Konqueror came out a couple years before Firefox did.
    • Devz0r, on 10/12/2007, -3/+16Konqueror is 2 years older than Firefox - which isn't the only browser in the world, either.

      I don't see why Firefox is the one always compared to. All it has going for it, now, is extensions. Every other "unique feature" is either copied from another browser or is not unique to Firefox anymore. I'd rather use Opera or Konqueror.
    • xxNIRVANAxx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Konqueror came before Fx. If people had your mindset with Firefox when it came mainstream, it wouldn't have gotten this far.

      edit: *****, I wasted time trying to find release dates to prove my point and 2 comments came out before me :P

      Release Dates (the best I found, after a 10 min. search)
      Fx: http://www.bebits.com/appver/3143
      Konq: http://www.bebits.com/appver/2422
  • mouthster, on 10/12/2007, -4/+17"Killer Apps" are so late 90's.
  • elljay, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3Konq has always been available to me. I always make Firefox the default. Firefox is a badass brouser.

    Load up Amarok with some Nine Inch Nails, look over the web with Firefox. Good to go!
  • snaapy, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4The definition of killer application is that it attracts a lot of people to a particular platform. I doubt no one will switch to Linux due to the existence of Konqueror. Also, when KDE 4 is released, Konqueror will probably debyt on Windows too.
  • dragoonkain, on 10/12/2007, -7/+4I've always thought the Konquerer UI was a bit too... busy... (trying hard not to call it ugly.)
  • sathia, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8give me a working javascript engine and I'll switch tomorrow.
  • zugu, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5I thought that in the Linux world it is customary to have a program doing ONE thing, and doing it well. How come Konqueror is the default web browser and file manager at the same time in KDE?

    You might think I'm trolling, but were it the same in GNOME, I couldn't have had XFCE's Thunar as the default file manager and Firefox as the default web browser. Yeah, I know I can just install Firefox in KDE, but for me it would be bloat already, to have two applications doing the same thing. So KDE is limiting my choices when it comes to web browsers. That is one of the reasons I don't use it.

    OTOH, Konqueror is fast, nice and standards compliant.
    • int19h, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Konqueror does only one thing, and does it well; it's a kio-viewer. You can view file://, http://, fish://, svn:// etc etc.
    • Dochtuir, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Don't forget ipod:/ , to browse, play, and copy
    • ajuc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Maybe you won't belive me, but I use XFCE, Firefox and Konqueror. Konqueror mostly as file manager and/or image viewer.
    • rstanchak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The option to change the default browser in KDE can be found in KControl under KDE Components > Component Chooser > Web Browser

      My main complaint with KDE is that I can't swap the KWin window manager with Fluxbox, so I end up running Fluxbox with Kicker and Konqueror and a few dock apps. It is a nice compromise and it comes up a bit quicker that the whole of KDE.

      FWIW, a powerful feature of Konq that I use a lot are the Web Shortcuts. I.e. to search google, one types "gg: search terms" in the location bar...or "wp: search terms" for wikipedia. A bunch of sites are predefined and it is fairly easy to add custom definitions. The major advantage over the search toolbar in FF (also available in Konq) is there is no need to Click,Select to switch search engines.

      In terms of file management, I typically use the command line, but I have not found an sftp client that is as useful as the sftp:// kio-slave in Konq.
    • bhalo05, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1@rstanchak: forgive my curiosity. Why would you like to replace kwin with fluxbox? It's a genuine question ;)
    • kewldude606, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2rstanchak:
      Firefox does that too...
    • DnasTheGreat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@rstanchak: KDE lets you switch it. Most window managers support the --replace option so you can switch on the fly. for a more permanent setting, set the KDEWM variable to "fluxbox" or whatever. (Google is your friend ;-) )
  • bigtrouble77, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Just thought I'd mention that I used my image thumbnail benchmark to test the author's assertations that Konqueror is faster than Opera.

    As I thought, Opera is MUCH faster. I tried several different page loads with about 30 thumbnails and Opera was consistently about 12-15 seconds faster. Swiftfox was also a few seconds faster than konqueror.
  • sponeil, on 10/12/2007, -7/+4Konqueror is not even a "Linux" app.
  • Haiyadragon, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1It still segfaults... I guess nobody cares about that. I would use it because I like that it passes the ACID 2 test. But I can't use anything that segfaults or locks up several times a day.
  • apexified, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2While it's obvious why they're using the term, it's still not being used as per it's original meaning. KDE might be considered a killer app for *nix distro's but I don't think that
    Konq. is the reason so many people are attracted to KDE these days.
  • Barlo_Mung, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3If something really is a "Killer App" it does not escape the casual user's notice. Killer Apps are so compelling that they demand the user's notice.
    • baalzebub, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2yeah.............right

      like Internet Exploiter or Outhouse Express...

  • devoinregress, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Konqueror is a cool browser with a lot of really cool features. It keeps things simple as a bundled browser should. Because it's a web/file browser it has a lot of the functionality that IE has but with out the holes.
    Amarok is an amazing app. Konqueror is pretty cool but Amarok is the one that really shines.
  • Curufir, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Konqueror is nice, but for some reason it REALLY grinds on my disks whilst web browsing. I don't know if it's being aggressive with its cache, but there's a write to disk on every single page loaded.
  • blackjack75, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3The only killer apps are video games. Everytime you read someone died in front of his computer it's always because of a computer game.
  • calande, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1"It's faster than Opera, which is noted for it's speed. Let me elaborate. First, it loads faster, as it's part of the KDE GUI that's already loaded and running. It does a better job of loading recently visited web pages from it's cache than Opera. It also renders web pages more correctly than Opera, though Opera is very good."


    No, no, no, this is just not true.
  • Visceral, on 10/12/2007, -6/+3What the hell, someone use the cross-dimensional portal and make the trip from opposite land? Konqueror is by far the WORST Internet browser available on ANY platform. It's simply horrible. As a file browser it's nice, but the browser is a POS that ranks behind even IE.
    • vh1`, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4and do you plan on backing up what you've said?
  • igor2209, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5every feature of Konqueror ( for browsing ) that he mentioned is available in Opera too . Split screen , side bar and so on . He simply didn't look well !
  • tikal26, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Really konqueror is an amazing applications, when I first started using Linux two years ago I wasn't crazy about it, but after reading abit I learned to use it and it fits all my needs. I can listen to music while browsing. I was following some python online tutorials and I just opened another pane with a terminal. I am amazed at what you can do. I can open a pane with I can log in my blog and type on it or save picture on my left had pane and then drop them off on my blog very flock like if you wish to it can even be very simplistic if that is waht you want. I can graphically move thigs from my ftp site to my local drive with drag and drop all in one place. its quiet nice
  • clickwir, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Konq as a file manager is great. As a web broswer, leaves a lot to be desired. It's not bad, its a great backup browser for Linux.

    Where did we see a file manager and web broswer meet before with disastrous results? hmmm IE? yes.

    I don't like the idea of using a system tool and a webbrowser being combined. I'm posting from Kubuntu right now, Konq is on here and I've used it, but it's not FireFox. Of course in the article he's comparing Opera and Konq. Well it's easy to improve on Opera, it sucks.

    firefox > konq > lynx/links > opera > IE

    IMO, the only real advantage that Konq has over FireFox is that it loads up quick.
  • overlordmead, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3What I want to know is how Konq is going to kill Linux?... I thought it was allright when I was using KDE.
  • suckfone, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I think my favorite feature about konq ( I haven't used it much) is that it provides better access to my FTP server than anything else I've ever tried. I'd accessed it before from FF and IE, and Konq was by far the easiest to use. I'd elaborate more, but I can't remember what about doing it with IE and FF made me so mad. Anyone else used all of these browsers for FTP?
  • kounavi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4konqueror and opera are the only browsers for linux that will work with my lousy bank's ebanking interface.
    even safari (which is konqueror's child) does not.

    I generally find konqueror to be one of the most compatible,quick and stable browsers. Eventhough im addicted to Firefox and GNOME. :)
  • Altotus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Calling Konqueror a web-browser is doing it a disservice. It's a shell for KParts and KIO slaves (which probably means nothing to anyone that doesn't already grok how it's implemented and how KDE's put together). KIO Slaves are abstractions of object-oriented I/O and there are KIO slaves for accessing the local filesystem, ftp, http, https, sftp, file-over-ssh, ipod, iriver, devices, smb, nfs, netware, webdav, man pages, control-panel plugins, zip, tar, fonts, cameras, cvs repositories, etc. In short, a KIO slave provides a common abstraction for interacting with objects (real or virtual) on each medium (networked or otherwise).

    KParts are basically viewer objects (multiple of which can be assigned to a particular type and one selected as a default).

    When using Konqueror as a web browser, the default KIO slave is http or https, and the default renderer is the KHTML KPart. As a web browser it's really quite good. Layout is faster than FF and typically Konqueror and Opera take turns being the fastest (depending on the site). As a web browser, Konqueror's main weakness is actually the JavaScript interpretter (which is quite good, but not as good as FireFox).

    As a file-browser, it's quite good. It's ability to use file previews in place of plugins and roll-over previews for audio and video is very natural. I generally find it more natural than Windows Explorer and certainly more consistent.

    However, it's real strength is the breadth of the KIO slaves and the views. Browse a web page via WebDAV and you can also edit it in place. Split the window into two panes, and point one to a local directory. Now you can drag content (such as images) right out of a web page and onto the local disk. FTP sites, SFTP sites, Windows file shares, Netware shares all appear as local disks (and since all KDE apps use KIO slaves, you can specify a remote location in a file dialog and it will know what to do).

    I also like that I can associate special actions with individual or collections of file types. I work in BioTech and have to do a whole lot of custom manipulations on various biophysical data sets. Most of those are now reduced to right-clicking and selecting the approriate action (e.g., "Action > Extract spectral data" for mass spec raw data files, "Action > Normalize > GCRMA" for DNA microarrays, etc.).

    I have to say, this article doesn't do Konqueror justice at all. Sure, it's a fine web browser and all, but if that's all you're using it for you're hardly using it at all.
    • dumbkiwi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Here, here. The power of konqueror is in its kioslaves. Imagine moving files from a remote computer you can only access via ssh to another remote computer you can only access via ftp. In konqueror, you browse, drag and drop directly between the two - the power of kioslaves.
    • felchdonkey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3dumbkiwi -

      I think you mean "hear, hear."

      http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhear.html
    • dumbkiwi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3quite right. Living up to my name :)
  • felchdonkey, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1A "killer app" is something that is so useful, or even necessary, for people that it gets them to start using a platform just so they can have it. It doesn't have to be one specific program, it can just be the way a platform is used.

    For example, desktop publishing was the killer app for the Macintosh. The arrival of PostScript and laser printers made the Mac the computer of choice for print designers both professional and amateur.
    VisiCalc was the killer app for using microcomputers in small businesses.
    For many people, games are the killer app for Windows. You might even say that market dominance is itself the killer app for Microsoft.

    As an information architect, Visio is the killer app for me, and the reason I keep a PC next to my Mac.

    I don't know if Linux has a "killer app" yet, but I do know that Konqueror is not it. It might be cool, but I can't imagine anyone using Linux solely because of it.
    • zugu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Maybe the poster was referring to Konqueror as an application that has a high potential in conveting people to Linux, especially newbies. It's very solid, eye-candy and a fundamental part of KDE. And maybe along with Amarok, could represent the flagship of KDE.

      Or maybe the author is just a big fan of Konq.
    • felchdonkey, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1The only people who are going to even hear about Konqueror are those who already run Linux. For people who don't, showing them a split-screen browsing mode is hardly going to be enough to make them give up their Windows or Mac OS.

      A flagship is not the same as a killer app.
  • macinbest, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Am I the only one who cringed as I saw the screenshot on the linked site?

    I'm not saying Konqueror is bad. (and I love KHTML..) but man does it looks awfully bloated and ugly. Sure you can customize it but *****-looking-out-of-the-box is not how to attract people.

    50 toolbars with 275 buttons is so 1997. (and "is so" jokes are so 2002)

    They should minimize its looks, and let the people add what they want, not enable everything and let people disable what they want... that is just counter-intuitive.
  • nikkkko, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I'll use Konqueror as my default browser just as soon as it can open google mail, google calendars, google spreadsheets etc etc.

    Yes you can change how the browser is identified, but these sites are very poor when Kong is pretending to be something else.
    • drizek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1KHTML is extremely standarads compliant. It is googles fault for not supporting it.
  • fatas, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Its one ugly mofo.

    And it tries to do everything, its worse than Windows explorer.
  • trogdoor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3For people like me who use Gnome but still want to try out konqueror, and use a debian derivative ( that means you Ubuntu users ), remember to

    `sudo aptitude install konqueror` so that if you choose to remove it, you can
    `sudo aptitude remove konqueror` and all the rest of the KDE crap that konqueror depends on but none of your other aps use will be removed along with it. Otherwise you will still be stuck with :

    kamera kcontrol kdebase-bin kdebase-data kdebase-kio-plugins
    kdemultimedia-kio-plugins kdesktop kfind kicker konqueror
    libdbus-qt-1-1c2 libkcddb1 libkonq4

    If you just `apt get remove konqueror`
    • sixdays, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Thanks, gonna check out aptitude now!
  • scosol, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I love it- when MS does this with IE (which IE has done for days) they get castrated for building it in to the OS too much :P
  • Centipede, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Konqueror is quite good...but still Opera outshines it with its rocker mouse gestures (left mouse button + right takes you one page forward, right + left bacward). Without them I just can't surf the internet so efficently anymore.
  • jacks0n, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2why does everything these days have to kill something? can't it just be a 'valuable' app? or maybe a 'great' app?
  • someguyouknow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I hate Konqueror as a web browser but all of its other functions are great.
  • rafgar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I've really got to disagree with this article. Then again, I quit using KDE because of all the stuff that's running, or at least taking up memory, even when it's not being used. Konqueror is a big part of that problem. If I'm not using a program and it's not doing anything useful, I sure as hell don't want it taking up system resources.
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.