Re: State of Konqueror - Was: Konqueror: webkit instead of khtml

[Valerio Passini <valerio.passini@unicam.it>]

Alle Tuesday 28 April 2009, Felix Homann ha scritto:
> Hi,
>
> first, let me state that Konqueror has been my standard browser for
> many, many years now. It has been my standard browser although:
>
> 1. _javascript_ *never* worked decently IMO
> 2. Flash *never* worked decently IMO
> 3. Java *never* worked decently IMO
>
> It has been my standard browser because it still worked for
> approximately 90% of the web pages I visit on a regular basis while it's
> much better integrated in KDE than the alternatives. For the pages that
> would not render in Konqueror I could still use Iceweasel.
>
> The situation has dramatically changed in KDE 4. With KDE 4, 90 % of the
> web pages I visit on a regular basis could *not* be rendered decently in
> Konqueror. I could not even log in on bugs.kde.org with Konqueror from
> one machine until 4.2.2 ...
>
> Yes, KDE 4.2.2 ships a much improved Konqueror. But still, there are so
> many sites that Konqueror won't display properly, including my *own*
> sites. (Have you ever tried managing a Drupal site with Konqueror??)
>
> So the question is not about Webkit or KHTML. I couldn't care less about
> the rendering engine in use. The question is how usable Konqueror is at
> the moment. For me the answer is sad but clear:
>
> *Konqueror in it's current state is almost useless.* (For me!)
>
> After using the "Open with Iceweasel" button way to often recently I'm
> finally using Iceweasel as the default now. A decision I did not make
> easily.
>
> The sadest part is that it reminds me of a similar switch I made about a
> year ago: I switched from KMail to Icedove because of the "most hated
> bug" in KDE, the well known UI freeze in KMail. Do I go back? Don't
> think so. Why should I struggle setting it all up again in KMail 4.x.x.
>
> So the strange situation is this now: I'm facing a beautiful KDE 4.2.2
> desktop while my most prominent standard applications have GTK
> interfaces: Iceweasel, Icedove, Emacs, Inkscape, Gimp, Eclipse.
>
> Do I use a single KDE app regularly right now? Well, yes, Dolphin (very,
> very buggy), Amarok 2 (very,very buggy), Konsole and that's it.
>
> (BTW, while preparing this mail Konqueror crashed on 3 different sites,
> one of them bugs.kde.org!)
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Felix

I think you are just missing the point that this is Open Source/Free Software and its development is not tied to any economical revenue. Developers implement and program following a common project layout and goal just for personal pleasure (that is) in most cases (even though there is a small part of payed programmers, they are simply not enough to take care of all the aspects and issue of a large project like KDE or GNOME or Linux kernel ). Even if this is the nature of their "work" (I'm using quotes because it's not a payed job, but it is a real effort), they generally ask two things as a contribution: feedback for bugs and patience. Not so much after all. So please, I'm not flaming, this kind of emails full of complains and menacing to switch to others application it's simply not in the right direction. Best regards

Valerio