Konqueror the Browser—Part 2
© Copyright Darrell Anderson.
(Winter 2006)
Two years ago I published my thoughts about Konqueror as a browser. I believe Konqueror is a superb file browser and manager. After all, is direct support for SSH (fish) and FTP cool or what? Two years later, investigating Konqueror from KDE 3.5.4, I have not changed my mind. Sadly, Konqueror leaves much to be desired as a web browser. Because of my dislike for GTK and especially Firefox-GTK, a key cornerstone in my migration efforts remains unfilled. Konqueror is a natural choice for a web browser within the K Desktop Environment, but I feel crippled whenever I try to use the tool in that capacity.
As a web browser Konqueror amply provides the basics. I remain convinced of that observation. Yet, like my review two years ago, my concern is usability—the little things that improve my browsing experience. Bear in mind that I do not pretend to be a Konqueror subject matter expert, or even a KDE expert, although I am comfortable in that environment. Solutions might well exist for some of the usability issues I describe, but if the solutions were so easy to find or implement, they would stop being usability issues, n’est pas?
The Good News
Konqueror is fast, both with the user interface and page rendering. Compared to the painfully sluggish XUL interface of Firefox, Konqueror is a breath of fresh air. A couple of forums I visit regularly load and render noticeably faster than they do in Firefox. Of course, being written with native widget libraries makes using the tool enjoyable, which I cannot say for the XUL-based Firefox. Konqueror loads quickly, not the 20+ seconds I experience with Firefox.
Konqueror finally supports ad blocking. The filters work just as nicely as in Firefox and that pleased me.
Konqueror supports white listing for cookies, JavaScript, and Java. I never surf with Java enabled and likely never will, but seeing the white list option was good. I enable cookies only for a dozen sites that I visit regularly and only one site for JavaScript. Still, considering that I do not have to install an extension to enable JavaScript white listing as I do in Firefox, I welcome these features in Konqueror.
I can more easily toggle certain features than I can with Firefox. For example, when I test and use Konqueror, typically I do so from my text box and not my primary box, which normally runs Windows NT4. NT4 does not support gateway and network address translation (NAT) services like Windows 2000 or XP, but does support IP forwarding. On my test box I can modify the Konqueror proxy settings to use my NT Squid or Proxomitron ports and browse as though connected directly. But when I dual boot my primary box, my Slackware configuration easily supports gateway services and NAT. I want to toggle Konqueror on my test box accordingly. Through the top-level menus and the khtml settings toolbar button I can toggle this feature.
My previous experiences with profiles seem to have been corrected somewhere the past two years. I now can open Konqueror using my web browsing profile and concurrently open Konqueror with my file management profile and Konqueror does not turn itself inside out. That alone is significant good news.
The Bad News
Continuing with past practices, the Konqueror hyperlink context menu still does not support three options: (1) Open [in the current tab] (not really necessary, however), (2) Open in a background tab, and (3) Open in an active [foreground] tab.
![[Image: Screen capture of the Firefox 1.5.0.7 link context menu.]](../images/context-menu-firefox.gif)
Firefox 1.5.0.7 Context Menu
![[Image: Screen capture of the Opera 9.01 link context menu.]](../images/context-menu-opera.gif)
Opera 9.01 Context Menu
![[Image: Screen capture of the K-Meleon 0.9.12 link context menu.]](../images/context-menu-kmeleon.gif)
K-Meleon 0.9.12 Context Menu
![[Image: Screen capture of the Konqueror 3.1.3 link context menu.]](../images/context-menu-konq313.png)
Konqueror 3.1.3 Context Menu
Okay, I believe I made my point. Yes, I can modify mouse clicks with the Shift key. No thanks. I have been using Firefox for many years and Opera before that and I have grown accustomed to these context menu options. Those options are now second nature to me. Every time I try to use Konqueror I habitually look for these menu options only to realize that I can open tabs only in one manner, unless I use those Houdini options. That such options exist means Konqueror already supports what I need and the actual problem is modifying the context menu. I believe the problem is somebody’s ego more than any technical challenge.
Konqueror provides no intuitive way to define default opening actions. The purpose of using a tabbed browser is to, well, open web pages in additional tabs. For the most part, just about any default open action in Konqueror results in opening a web page in the current tab, which defeats the idea of using a tabbed web browser. When I open a page from a bookmark, I do not want that page to open in the current tab but a new tab. Yes, I can use the secondary pop-up menu to open a bookmark in a new tab, but why can’t I configure that option as the default? In KDE 3.5.4, the secondary pop-up menu contains a bug in that the menu will not disappear after making my selection.
Similarly, when I open a web page using the Location and Search boxes I want a new tab opened. This is the nature of tabbed browsing. Sure, I can use the Ctrl key to modify the behavior, but why? Why not allow users to configure default actions according to their style of browsing? Forcing users to use these extra keyboard modification is extra work.
A glaring missing option in the web page context menu (not to be confused with the hyperlink context menu) is the Close Tab option. Again, so accustomed am I with these options in Firefox and Opera that in Konqueror I habitually try to close web pages using that non-existent option.
Like Firefox, there is no easy way to modify Konqueror context menus (this is possible in Firefox with extensions only). If I could edit the context menus I probably could resolve these issues and also could eliminate options I never use, such as Open in New Window.
I have yet to discover a method to force Konqueror to use single window mode when web browsing. I want only one web browser session open.
A growing impediment for me is that I cannot define different sets of bookmarks for each profile I create. Although web surfing and file management share certain elements, by and large for me they are two separate tasks. I am from the old school of one tool-one job. I have bookmarks that I created for web surfing and I created bookmarks for file management. Basically, I do not want the two to mix. For whatever reason, bookmarks are common to all profiles and not unique and thus, only one set can be used.
Similarly, I find frustrating that toolbars are more or less common to all profiles too. Yes, I can do some shuffling of the toolbars for each profile, but not completely. Particularly, when I import my Firefox bookmarks, I want to use the same bookmark toolbar in each browser. That toolbar provides my commonly used links. If I enable the bookmark toolbar in my web browser profile, I do not want that toolbar showing in my file management profile. After all, the bookmarks in that toolbar are for web browsing, not file management. If I could define different bookmarks for each profile then this issue would disappear.
Speaking of sharing bookmarks, I know of no way to automate the process of having Konqueror simply link to my Firefox bookmarks. I always have to import them. Thus, the bookmarks are not always in sync with my Firefox browsing.
Along with bookmarks unique to each profile, I also should be able to define a unique location for the Home toolbar button. With file browsing I want the Home button to load my home directory. In web browsing I want the ISP home page.
In the spirit of conserving tool bar real estate, how about combining the Reload and Stop buttons into one button?
Speaking of toolbars, I find moving the toolbars to my liking a challenging exercise. I notice from surfing the web that other people describe this as Konqueror Toolbar Hell.
A toggle feature noticeably missing for me is the ability to toggle the HTTP header referrer. I always surf with this option disabled and only one site I visit requires me to temporarily enable this option. Konqueror provides no quick toggle option for this. I would like to add this toggle to the khtml settings toolbar button and I would like to see white list support for this option.
An irritating issue with Konqueror is searching web pages. Typically when I am in search mode I open several web pages concurrently as I follow a potential trail. When I move to each of those tabs, I perform a search for whatever I am looking. When I close that tab I want to perform the same search in the next tab, but Konqueror does not remember my search criteria and I have to retype the information. To me, this is insane.
After using Opera and Firefox for many years, and grown accustomed to the close tab buttons being on the right side of the tab, I find myself always subconsciously “frozen in the headlights” as I try to adapt to the close buttons on the left side. Is there a way to move the location? I don’t know.
I have had some difficulty using the same style sheets I have designed for Firefox. A style sheet is universal and should work just fine in either browser.
Another issue I have with Konqueror is that the minimum font size configuration tools seem set for points rather than pixels. By using pixels rather than points, I have been able to configure Firefox to provide a near perfect look-and-feel match between Windows and GNU/Linux. Not so with Konqueror.
Although I am grateful that Konqueror now supports ad blocking, I wish somebody would create an import/export tool that would sync Firefox ad block filters (from a prefs.js or user.js file). I was able to copy and paste and eventually massage my Firefox ad block list to the Konqueror configuration file format, but, I’d like to see a way to quickly import those filters in order to keep the two browsers in sync. Even a shell script hack would be a nice tool to keep the two lists in sync.
Konqueror does not yet provide an image whitelisting feature, something that Firefox has had for several years. Image whitelisting is an important feature for dialup users. As a dialup user I tend to prefer to surf with images disabled. I enable images only as needed or add a handful of sites to my images white list. No, my web surfing experience does not “break” by surfing in this mode. I find many of the images on many web pages distracting.
One bug I have noticed with Konqueror for the past several releases is that without fail, Konqueror insists upon creating a favicons storage directory and saving icons. I have manually edited the configuration file to disable favicons.
A nit-pick, KDE comes packaged nicely with many system sounds. Something I have missed from my Opera days is the ability to configure a handful of system sounds. In Opera I have a quiet “whish” sound I use to let me know a page is finished loading. With dialup, these little things are important. Odd that so many other KDE apps support various system sounds and Konqueror does not. A sound for completed downloads would be nice too.
Although supported in Firefox only with an extensions, I have grown accustomed to being able to use a keyboard shortcut to place the cursor into the first text box on any web page with a form, such as a search engine page. I would like to see the same support in Konqueror.
Lastly, there is no session saver. Yes, I know I can save my overall KDE session, but that is not the way to provide Konqueror web surfing session-saving, especially when one of the reasons for using a session saver is to overcome the problems of a browser crash. Besides, session saving is convenient. Often I shut down my box and want to continue reading the same web pages but I do not want to physically save the pages to my hard drive. I am amazed that this handy feature, available in Opera for many years, does not yet exist in Konqueror and has appeared only recently in Firefox. Just in case any KDE developer reads this review, session-saving should be profile specific, not global.
Although not web browsing related, why does the Konqueror side bar refuse to allow me to display hidden files and directories?
A Check List
Consider my browser wish list check list and then consider how I rate Konqueror.
- Complete single session, tabbed or multiple document interface browsing—no additional browser windows or instances unless specifically configured by the user. (Fail)
- A link context menu that allows a user to either open a link in a background tab or an active foreground tab, without using the keyboard or middle button. (Fail)
- The ability to define the tab focus when closing a tab. (Fail)
- The ability to define as the default action that all links entered from the location bar, search bar, history, Home button, etc., to open in a new tab. (Fail)
- The ability to reopen closed tabs. (Fail)
- The ability to view pages offline. (Fail)
- The ability to define the location of the cache, bookmarks, cookie files, etc. (Fail)
- An informative and accurate real-time status bar. (Pass)
- Drag-and-drop reordering of tabs. (Fail)
- A page context menu item to close the tab. (Fail)
- A page context menu item to view the source code in the text editor of my choice. (Pass)
- White lists for (a) cookies, (Pass) (b) forms, (Fail) (c) JavaScript, (Pass) (d) Java, (Pass) (e) images, (Fail) (f) HTTP Referrers, (Fail) and (g) Minimum font size (Fail).
- A toolbar button or menu to toggle various quick-preferences. (Pass and Fail)
- A toolbar button to toggle between a user-defined minimum font size and no minimum. (Fail)
- A toolbar button to toggle/disable a web site’s styles. There are some absolutely awful color combinations being used. (Fail)
- Toolbar buttons to toggle accepting cookies or enabling JavaScript and only for the current page. (Pass and Fail)
- A toolbar button to enable images on the current page without enabling images on all other open pages and without needing to refresh the page. (Fail)
- An option to enable certain event sounds, such as (1) page begins to load, (2) page finishes loading, (3) file downloading finishes. (Fail)
- A download manager that intelligently and always pauses to allow any other internet communications to prevail—basically works in the background and does not inhibit dial-up browsing. (Unknown)
- Supports multi-user, networking environments, including being able to share or synchronize common bookmarks files or white lists. (Fail)
- An ad blocker. (Pass)
- A session saver. (Fail)
- A user agent switcher. (Pass)
- A toolbar editor. (Pass and Fail)
- A context menu editor. (Fail)
- Runs entirely with the native operating system libraries and widgets. (Pass)
Conclusion
Konqueror is a powerful software tool. I enjoy Konqueror as a file manager and I continue to discover various ways to improve my work environment. Yet, as a web browser I remain distant unless or until some basic usability issues are addressed.
The KDE community usually is open to change and eager to improve usability. KDE is my preferred GNU/Linux desktop—is my only GNU/Linux desktop. I hope developers receive this essay in the spirit written—as encouragement to remedy some issues. I hope they do not suffer from NIH—Not Invented Here syndrome and add these usability features.
Finis.