I apologize for asking an old question, but I'd better ask it and start looking seriously at Linux, a project I've promised myself for this fall.

I know several of our resident experts have been considering the possibilities of a version of K-Meleon for Linux, if that is possible. I'd also be interested to hear whether it IS possible, and what the latest understanding of that is.

For myself, I'm attracted to Linux Slackware, but I'm also somewhat afraid of it. I would prefer a Linux that was not a Windows look-alike. I also shall be hunting down a totally free, off-the-web distro.

Thanks for suggestions. :-)

@ Carson,

I run a dual-boot system on my laptop at work using Win98SE and DS Linux. I happen to like the small executable size (only 50MB for an entire OS?!?!?), and it's based on Debian Linux (with some Knoppix-like tendencies in the boot enviroment for good measure). Synaptic helps you with identifying dependencies when downloading install packages, and the OS should run fine with most PCMCIA ethernet adapters (it ran right out of the box with my D-Link TXE-690). Heck, I even like the title (DSL=Damn Small Linux - cool, huh?)

For right now I'm not sure if anyone will take the "KM for Linux" challenge. There are sooo many different flavors of Linux kernels out there that development would be a nightmare. I suppose one could always use the libraries from the window manager instead of the kernel, but then there are several (completely) different window managers out there as well (XFCE, IceWM, KDE, Gnome, etc.). The only thing I can think of which might work would be to develop a stand-alone library just for KM, but this is what Firefox already does by using XUL. Importing your own library seems like a neat idea but it's also the very reason why for some people Firefox runs like a slug on Valium - that XUL overhead just seems to bog down some machines.

I suppose if we could have KM use the native QT or GTK libraries then it might just work. The bottom line here is that one K-meleon version for Linux would not be usable by all Linux users - you would have to come up with different versions for different (kernels, window managers, runtime enviroments, etc. The very thought of attempting this makes my head hurt.

@tech:

Okie, now bear with me my friend as I know as much about Linux that you could place it on a pinhead with plenty of room to spare. Thanks for understanding!

But your's saying that even if we used the native GTK libraries that we'd still have to come up with different versions per kernels?

You mean that the GTK libraries even are different for each kernel involved? Seems so they must have some sort of custom programming for building their GUI between the different Linux Kernels that could be used to build the GUI of KM?

I seem to recall @ MozillaZine the Linux people often calling for Firefox to be built on the GTK libraries instead of .XUL. I skimmed the articles but not knowing Linux I never really understood it. If I ever did use Linux I'd grab myself one of Jan's builds and use that. They say his are excellent on Linux.

Now again, forgive my total ignorance here on the subject, isn't KDE, or GNOME, like the "Windows" interface, the "thingy" that builds the windows? And won't that run on all Linux versions?

(I bet that question just showed my utter stupidity! <VBG>)

Thanks for your patience Tech. If this post seem totally absurb then feel free to ignore it. I won't be insulted in the least, okie my friend?

Bon Weekend!

Eyes-Only
"L'Peau-Rouge"
http://eyes-only.dyndns.org/jimmymac/

Well, as I type this I have a couple of ISO downloads coming in with Slackware 10.1. Each one is trucking along at 75 KBps. Should take a couple of hours.

I've done ISOs before. That'll work fine. After that, I'll likely find that I've succeeded in importing just enough alligators to come up to my ass.

My current working enviroment is Slackware 10.1 and XFCE4 Desktop. It 's fast and stable but is not for beginers.

Hao

You have lots of wrong information about Linux. Programs that use KDE libraries can also run on GNOME, IceWM and other Linux desktops. You only must have the right libaries installed. You don't have to write a K-Meleon version for each Linux kernel. Software written for any 2.x kernel is compatible with other 2.x kernels, too. [[url=http://www.tldp.org/FAQ/Linux-FAQ/kernel.html#linux-versioning]]http://www.tldp.org/FAQ/Linux-FAQ/kernel.html#linux-versioning][/url]

Our guest is right; with the right libraries it will run on every Linux platform.

About Linux versions; I would recommend Fedora Core 3 or Core 4 for the beginner with a technical background. It is bleading edge (especially Core 4, which is out for about a month now) and my experience is that it is working very fast and stable.

Vector Linux is a nice version for the smaller computer; very fast, stable, but not as 'bleading edge' as Fedora.

As hao said, Slackware is a very fast Linux distribution, but because of for example the installation it is absolutely not for the beginner.
Although, there is a distro, based on Slackware, with a normal easy to understand install now, but I can not remember the name ;-)))

K-Meleon for Linux?!

When I switched from Windows to Linux I had the same idea.
But because Linux is not as sensitive for virusses, worms etc.. as Windows, I stayed with my own Seamonkey builds.
On my platform as fast as K-Meleon and sorry to say, but all I need is in it standard.

K-Meleon is a very nice, fast, stable solution for Windows platforms. And I think there it has it's strength.
Porting it to Linux? I think not; there are several good alternatives under Linux....

Jan.

@ Carson:
I've been experimenting with the Ubuntu distribution. It's pretty good for windows users. Read about it here : Ubuntu - Linux for Human Beings

To be honoust, I also tried Ubuntu, but it is slower then Fedora, less organized and therefor I stayed with FC3.
But it is not a bad distribution ;-))

It's pretty good for beginners. Everything is included.
I asked for the free CD distribution, and after about a month I got 10 double CD packs. (the installation CD & live CD) The Live CD was great it let me run Ubuntu off the CD without messing with my Windows system. I was doubting that it would work on my 166 Mhz Pentium, 48MB RAM, 9GB HD system. It does and the next major crash I have I'm switching over.

Does anybody know of a free disk partioning software package that would allow me dual boot (without destroying the win98 partition.)

That's a very ironic question, AmboyGuy, becuz there is an absolutely excellent partitioning package included on XP. Doesn't do you a whole lot of good, unless you're into the habit of taking your hard drives with you when you visit friends. :-)

(Still, I think it is good to know it exists. I have used it LOTS, running two drives with 15 partitions on a meticulous setup. I have never used Partition Magic, and I've done oodles of partitions, making and breaking, unallocating, re-formatting, and choosing drive-letters right up to Y.)

Otherwise, there is partitioning available on Boot-US. It might or might not be advanced enough for your needs. It will definitely allow you to multi-boot, though, and it gives you a very nice GUI when you do it. You would want to get the download and try it out, doing all your experimenting on a floppy disk. (In fact the floppy by itself is extremely handy.)

I got a licensed Boot-US a few years ago when it was freeware, in return for providing details about my own experiences with the program. Now I think it is mostly shareware, but it is worth looking at, for sure. Also, Ulrich Straus (the "US" of Boot-US) is an approachable guy and you might be able to swing something. It is definitely a very nice piece of work.

http://www.boot-us.com/

I've tried:

Ubuntu (Hoary Hedgehog) - could not get my sound to work, and system lacks alsaconfig utility to configure sound

Vector Linux - eventually got my Speedtouch DSL modem to work with it, but Vector 'forgot' all the settings at boot, so I kept needing to re-install (PITA!!)

Puppy Linux - a great little distro if you are on dial-up - definitely recommended!

Knoppix - from 3.3 to 3.7, both live CD and hard disk installed. Great to learn about Linux - recommend a try, but there are better for hard disk installation, including -

Kanotix - which is Knoppix with extra bells and whistles, and tailored for hard disk installation. An excellent second choice distro, IMO.

My first choice recommendation would be SimplyMEPIS (or alternatively its lite cousin MEPISLIte): it's easy to install, easy on the eye, fast and stable, and although KDE is the default desktop you can easily use it with Xfce, when it becomes a real joy!!

See:

http://www.mepis.com/

Free downloads are available here:

http://www.mepis.org/node/1462

How about porting K-M to run on Wine? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine_Is_Not_an_Emulator

I just switched from Fedora Core 3 to Vector Linux 5.1.

Just wanted to let you know it is a great distro.

In the past I tried VL4x but had some problems with my wireless keyboard and mouse; with this version I had no real problems.

http://vectorlinux.com/

yea, VECTORLINUX rox! VL SOHO comes with KDE, and the basic version has icewm and xfce , light and cute distro

also , i use SLAX on my cd and usb-disk , coz i don't have to install and patition my disk

btw:both are slackware based

cheers!

SLAX KB is a pocket operating system with the ability to run many Windows applications natively in Linux. It contains KDE, wine, dosbox and qemu (download size 188M

This is excellent. I'm going to be able to choose among the very best Linux distros there are. :-)

Question: What is Wine?

Wine: something you can drink ?!

But seriously, WINE is a windows-emulator running on Linux. It's not 100%, but the number of Windows program successfully running on it is growing.

Oh, I forgot to add - there are several versions of "Windows emulator" available for LInux and Unices. WINE is one of them, it's free. Some others are commercialware.

Anyone interested in Linux can visit http://lwn.net - read the archive, way, way back, and you get a gist of how Linux has grown.

As for good old DOS, there are emulators too. The one I use the most is dosemu

Penang is right, there are a lot of options for people who do not want to have Windows completely replaced by Linux, or who have some 'Windows-connection' for what they need an alternative.

But there is so much software available under Linux that I do not think you need a dosemulator, wine or whatever to use Windows-software under Linux.
As a hobby okay, to test things, to work on dos- or windows-projects on your Linux-box yest, but not for daily work on your Linux system.

But that is my opinion ofcourse ;-)))))

The only thing I did not find till now is a forum with people as nice, helpfull and friendly as on the KM-forums. But because of my switch, I have to realise that I have to live with it....

Greetings from Holland,
Jan.

Old topic, I know. But I don't come here as often as I (should) wanted...

I have been doing Linux distros like forever, and I have reached mostly the same conclusions as Robin T Cox (see 9th post above). Mostly, I am leaning to Ubuntu, which I have kept installed. My trouble is I have an Geforce 5200 and whatever I do -- I have spent countless weekends reading readmes, install.txts, howtos and the O'Reilly Linux manual, I can't seem to manage to install the nVidia drivers. Everything else is working OK, but my system is fairly up-to-date.

Although commercial, I was pleased with Xandros and Lindows (now called Linspire; in its version 2.something it installed in under five minutes).

Although KDE looks more familiar to the Windows user, my research shows that Gnome is technically somewhat more solid (or so some of the Linux experts seem to think), as is the Debian development tree, so in order to stay close to orthodoxy in my ascent through the (rather steep) learning curve I am sticking to distros wich include them -- which is the case of Ubuntu. Also I rather like the spirit behind it (African development, not restricted to software).

A final note to point that, according to some, you can boot SLAX or DSL (Damn Small Linux) from a USB pen drive. I haven't managed more than to run DSL in a window, in Windows. In my awkward Linux experience, that was the top achievment... But I am not giving up.

Keep us posted on your progress, please...

Ubantu! I wonder if that was the African Linux I brought in about two years ago. It had the cutest darned logo--a classic friendly neighbourhood headhunter sort of guy. I don't think he was a penguin.

I knew nothing about big downloads; I wuz starting from scratch. I made a 24-hour download and ten minutes before it was to end, my girlfriend tripped over the computer power cable (an extremely unlikely event) . . . and I made another 24-hour download.

In the end, I got it okay but never did install it. It looked like it wuz very probably going to automatically re-format the whole disk, instead of just the target partition.

Might not have been Ubantu. It wuz a name a lot like that. I liked its graphics and the fact it was African. Never did learn much more about it than that. Oh, it wuz Debian-based, and it came with truckloads of goodies.

-- The free Opera now available moves me one step closer to Linux. :-)

http://www.mozillazine.org/

Security flaw reported in Linux version of Mozilla Application Suite and Mozilla Firefox. Fix expected to be included in Mozilla 1.7.12 final release.

One of he gripes I have with Linux is its assumption that everyone that installs it is wired to the Internet and via broadband. When that isn't the case, you're in a world of pain (or a least a truckload of frustration...)