most reviews i've read from users trying km for the first time, showed that most novice users were deterred from it because of the gui either not knowing how customisable it can be or how it can be done.. so i suggest that the default interface should be like this:

1. change phoencity skin, i recommend lo-fi skin (from all the skins i've tried, it's simply the best looking one for km)
2. no toolbar background
3. no icons in menu, no keyboard accelerators
4. no throbber
5. layers/tabs bar at bottom

if those settings are default, novice users will find kmeleon appearing like their regular windows api and very familiar, it will also revert km to use the system's colour theme in menus which will make it more responsive and faster and taking less memory.

i mean the default gui should be basic and simple and if the user is savvy, they could customise but not the other way around.

My friend disrupted, i'm disagree with your suggestions;

1. It's possible that Phoenity skin isn't the best but lo-fi skin (Do what you think?). I hate lo-fi skin and i don't understand because there are people that can like it. lo-fi skin seems a 19 century browser buttons. In 21 century there are colors, a lot of colors, why don't use it. (There are someone death for here?)
2. The toolbar background can be disable in Preferences and if the background is good can help you to integrate the skin.
3. "No icons in menu" I'm agree with this because there are useless and with out you can save some resources, "no keyboard accelerators" I'm disagree whit this, accelerators are needed and useful to help you.
4. "no throbber" why? All browsers have one, else it isn't a browser.
5. "layers/tabs bar at bottom" This is a matter of taste, for example i don't like layers/tabs bar at bottom. You can change this in Preferences.

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disrupted
if those settings are default, novice users will find kmeleon appearing like their regular windows api and very familiar, it will also revert km to use the system's colour theme in menus which will make it more responsive and faster and taking less memory.

If I were a novice and I would find it whit your suggestions i'm running at the thought that this wasn't a browser. (I think anything but that was something familiar)

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disrupted
i mean the default gui should be basic and simple and if the user is savvy, they could customise but not the other way around.

I agree but with some design and good taste, please.

K-Meleon in Spanish



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/2008 08:00PM by desga2.

I agree with desga, but in the other hand I'm starting to ask myself why that obsession to attract people :-?

i don't know, i think because it's so much better than ff which is all the buzz now; not a lot know about km.. on the other hand, it might also be a good thing that km is like the best kept secret and only those computer literate folks like us who use it..

Don't get me wrong, I like the people using this browser and discovering it, but I don't like the way of evangelizing as Linux does. If people test and like it, great!!!, if not, I'm not going to force anyone.

But, if you go to sites as dowload.com and softonic.com (the most famous download site in spanish), almost all comments and ratings are great, what we can't say about Linux with all of its evangelizing, so let the people know K-meleon without forcing the things. It is the best way. I don't want/like to see "fanboys" as Firefox has.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/2008 03:41PM by JohnHell.

My children, aged 9, use KM and find it very easy to use. I've tried to show them that a browser should be fast and that it should be under your control. I hope they'll be KM evangelists when they're older.

I agree with JohnHell and disrupted about evangelising. I like the way KM doesn't attract viruses and that the community here has a certain level of closeness and exclusivity which IE and FF will never have.

KM is like a special drug - you just give it out in small quantities to people you know well who can handle it, whilst knowing this is the best thing you've come across.

Cliff

Sorry, Desga2. I just can't help myself.

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Desga2
lo-fi skin seems a 19 century browser buttons

AFAIK there were no computer browsers in the 19th century. :p:p:p

Charlie

~~If it ain't broke, why screw it up?~~

@ caktus;
I know it, but it's only a coloquial expresion, a joke.

K-Meleon in Spanish



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/2008 10:07PM by desga2.

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Cliff
I like the way KM doesn't attract viruses and that the community here has a certain level of closeness and exclusivity which IE and FF will never have.

Last I heard, K-Meleon has a user base of about 10,000 people world wide. That's exclusive.

Where did you read/hear that? Just curious

I don't think we are "only" 10.000. Anyway, is not bad.

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JohnHell
Where did you read/hear that? Just curious

I don't think we are "only" 10.000. Anyway, is not bad.

I read the number in a thread on the K-Meleon Forum a few years ago. Like I said, it was "last I heard". The number is probably higher now in 2008.

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Desga2
I know it, but it's only a coloquial expresion, a joke. tongue sticking out smiley

I know. It's been a long, hard day at the salt mines, and I needed a laugh. Thanks.

Charlie

~~If it ain't broke, why screw it up?~~

K-Meleon's user base was almost always much higher than 10.000 - there is a statistics section on the download page

And that was never the only download source - versions such as CCF or the Russian version still have other traditional places. K-Meleon started in 2000 - it is relatively new that national translations are official and hosted at SourceForge. I still remember rumpels, Sebastian's and clickfish's German German downlaods (& pages) - while the German PC Magazines hosted only en-US Versions.

There were more than 50.000 very active users when K-Meleon was 0.7 ( with lots of translations for that version ). The downloads stagnated when K-Meleon did not have active devs and Firebird (Phoenix or Firefox now) was much advertized by Mozilla.

During those old times places like Secunia did not search and find bugs so often - I remember that I used my old K-Meleon versions for years.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/28/2008 01:48PM by guenter.