When the Maverick Meerkat, better known as Ubuntu 10.10, debuts in October, it will bring with it a new default browser for Kubuntu users in the form of rekonq. If you're a KDE user dissatisfied with Konqueror and Firefox, here's what you can look forward to next fall.

The talk of the town is that the next version of Kubuntu will have a new default browser, replacing Konqueror, the longtime KDE favorite.

Rekonq -- browser based on Webkit. Its implementation is going to embrace KDE technologies to have a full-featured KDE web browser.
This software is the product of author's "playing to be a programmer", so the higher its quality is, the better he can play. He has got lots of ideas to implement in it, so many features that he will like to have in "perfect browser".

Lately I've been trying Rekonq to see what all the fuzz's about. In short it's an alternative web browser for KDE, which uses WebKit[1] and aims to be lightweight.

Kubuntu 13.04, codenamed Raring Ringtail, comes with KDE software Compilation 4.10, Linux kernel 3.8, X.Org 7.7, Mesa 3D 9.1, GCC 4.7 and other updated core software. Included is is the new version of the Muon Suite for app install and upgrades, which introduces support for installing Plasma widgets. Version 2 of Rekonq web browser adds a bunch of new features.

With Firefox marketshare now above 20% and rising fast, can the KDE Project’s browser, Konqueror, compete? Recently I started running KDE 4.2.2 and decided to use Konqueror in place of my default browser — Firefox. Let’s see how Konqueror stacks up.

With Firefox marketshare now above 20% and rising fast, can the KDE Project’s browser, Konqueror, compete? Recently I started running KDE 4.2.2 and decided to use Konqueror in place of my default browser — Firefox. Let’s see how Konqueror stacks up.

You know Firefox like the back of your hand. You’ve heard tale of Chrome and you know KDE has tried to pawn Konqueror off as their default browser. In the distance you hear Opera calling your name and IE4Lin tries to woo you to the dark side. Browsers, the lot of them.

So far, all of the browsers that I reviewed for this book have been Gnome-based browsers. Epiphany is a Gnome-sponsored project, and Firefox is rapidly moving towards Gnomeization (though at the time of this writing, a Qt port of Firefox is under heavy development). What's a good KDE user to do? Simple: use the conqueror of the browser market, Konqueror.
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