K-Meleon

K-Meleon

K-Meleon 76 on Windows 10
Developer(s)	Christophe Thibault, Sebastian Spaeth, Brian Harris, Jeff Doozan, Mark Liffiton, Rob Johnson, Ulf Erikson, Jordan Callicoat, Dorian Boissonnade, Roy Tam, et al.[1][2]
Initial release	August 21, 2000; 24 years ago (2000-08-21)
Stable release	76.4.7[3]  / 7 April 2023; 19 months ago (7 April 2023)
Repository	sourceforge.net/p/kmeleon/source/ci/default/tree/
Written in	C++, JavaScript
Engines	Gecko, Goanna layout engine
Operating system	Microsoft Windows
Standard(s)	HTML5, CSS3, Atom
Available in	7 languages
Type	Web browser
License	GPL
Website	kmeleonbrowser.org

K-Meleon is a free and open-source, lightweight web browser for Microsoft Windows. It uses the native Windows API to create its user interface. Early versions of K-Meleon rendered web pages with Gecko, Mozilla's browser layout engine, which Mozilla's browser Firefox and its email client Thunderbird also use. K-Meleon became a popular Windows browser and was available as an optional default browser in Europe via BrowserChoice.eu. K-Meleon continued to use Gecko for several years after Mozilla deprecated embedding it. Current versions of K-Meleon use the Goanna layout engine, a fork of Gecko created for the browser Pale Moon.

K-Meleon began with the goal of being faster and lighter than Mozilla's original Internet suite. Until 2011, K-Meleon embedded Gecko in a stripped-down interface. Throughout its lifespan, K-Meleon has required small amounts of random-access memory (RAM). K-Meleon 76 supports discontinued versions of Windows such as Windows XP and Windows Vista. Mozilla no longer supports these platforms after their Firefox Quantum rewrite.

Customization is another primary design goal. Users can change the toolbars, menus, and keyboard shortcuts from text-based configuration files. K-Meleon supports macros, which are small browser extensions that users can examine, write, or edit in a text editor. K-Meleon's custom configuration files can trigger macros. Reviews describe the customization features as versatile but intimidating to the average user. Due to its adaptability, K-Meleon was recommended for Internet cafés and libraries in the early 2000s.