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Konqueror Nightmares—Day 59© Copyright Darrell Anderson. Configuring Konqueror has to be one of the all-time examples of futility. Konqueror is a powerful tool and I expect I never will discover or use more than 20% of its potential. Yet, simple tasks such as customizing tool bars, context menus, and profiles leave me perplexed and exhausted. I first noticed this approach in unusability way back with KDE 2.2. Simply put, profiles don’t work. Profiles are supposed to help soften the blow of using a multi-purpose tool. I never have liked multi-purpose tools. I’m from the old school—one tool, one job. The Konqueror developers apparently disagree, but they also have failed to provide users the ability to customize Konqueror. I realize that some web and file management tasks overlap, but I want a file manager that is a file manager and a browser that is a browser. Now, mind you, I enjoy KDE. A lot. I think overall the KDE project is one of the better desktop environments available and continues to improve. Configuring Konqueror is not one of those areas, however. The first thing many people notice is the overwhelming number of tool bars and buttons. I certainly noticed this and after surfing discussion groups I noticed this is a regular complaint. Yet, after several years nothing seems to be done. I suspect some ego problems when such regular complaints are never addressed. Because I was already using Firefox as a browser, I initially focused on customizing Konqueror as my file manager. I don’t need much in the way of file management. I’m not a member of the Jetson’s where I need every tool and need them now. I need only some basic tool bar buttons. So I deleted buttons from tool bars, selected which tool bars I want showing, rearranged the placement of those tool bars, and then saved my profile. With versions 2.2 and 3.1 I noticed occasionally that Konqueror would seem to forget those settings. Newer releases behave much better and once I configured my 3.3.x profile all seemed well. At least, until I decided to experiment with Konqueror as a web browser. Then, literally, all Hell broke loose. Someone once quipped that insanity is repeating the same act but expecting different results. Such is the way of life of trying to configure Konqueror’s profiles. In file management mode, I want the Main, Extras, and Location tool bars showing. In web browsing mode, I want the Main, Location, and Personal Bookmark tool bars showing. Within each profile, I configured the tool bars to show only the buttons I wanted. In web browsing mode I tried saving screen real estate by moving the Location bar to share the same level as the Main tool bar, much as I have Firefox configured. Looks great. I saved the profile. Everything seemed peachy until I opened Konqueror as a file manager. I end up with the browser profile! The only thing that worked is the windows size. In file manager mode I like a windowed appearance but in browser mode I prefer full screen. Yes, I am using the prepackaged desktop icons that open the kfmclient with the appropriate profile. I rearrange everything and again save the file management profile. I then open Konqueror using the web browser profile. I end up with the file manage profile! Repeat ad nauseum. Confused and frustrated I look at the profile rc configuration files. Everything is exactly according to Hoyle. Those tool bars that should be hidden are hidden and vice-versa. Nonetheless, something is terribly broken with the way Konqueror profiles work. They have been broken for several years. Some people might argue that the problem is me. I agree the possibility exists. However, the real problem is a configuration model that is poorly designed and not intuitive. I’ve been around these computers for more than 20 years. I also have worked as a technical writer for almost as long. I’ve learned a thing or two about usability. Konqueor configuration and profiles are a usability nightmare. To add salt to my own wounds, I wanted desperately to configure the Konqueror web browser context menu to show both options of “Open in New Tab” and “Open in Background Tab.” I found no way to do this. I surfed the net and found discussions that such a configuration is possible. The Konqueror handbook mentions both options. Then I ran into threads that this option was removed recently. One of the most intuitive context menu options within the tabbed browser environment is gone! I never can predict how I want to open a web page. Sometimes I will open a link in the same tab, sometimes I want to follow a link later and I open the page in the background, and sometimes I want to follow a link immediately in a different tab. I use all three options liberally and without forethought. I then visited the KDE bugs web site and discovered that the issue is closed. In other words, no further discussion, the developer responsible for this awful decision won’t discusss the idea of returning this sensible menu option. I think community opinion should overrule. Firefox developers suffer from this same disease and only some extensions cure this problem. Only the Opera developers seem to have escaped this malady. I also desperately want to open bookmarks, URL entries, and search bar entries in new tabs. Why, oh why, if I am using a tabbed browser, would I want the default action to always open new pages in the same tab? If I wanted to always open a page in the same tab, I would not need a tabbed browser! But Firefox developers suffer from the same myopia. Again, only extensions resolve this problem. Was there something in the water that causes web browser developers to create unfriendly web browsing environments? I also want different bookmarks for file management as opposed to web surfing. In file management mode my web bookmarks mean little to me if anything at all. Strangely, I can define different bookmarks for Konsole and KDialog, but not Konqueror profiles. One tool, one job. I would not mind so much that Konqueror is a mult-purpose tool if the profile concept at least supported this well-tested philosophy. I am continually growing to appreciate Konqueror as a file browser, but not as a web browser. Make profiles work properly and all of my complainsts dissappear. After looking at the KDE 3.4 features list, I do not see any of these problems being resolved. I have grown somewhat disatisified with the GTK version of Firefox (the Windows version works just fine, thank you) and I wanted to explore the possibility of using Konqueror as my web browser. Konqueror developers have a lot of work to do before that cold day arrives. Finis. |
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