The description of Rekonq is simple: the Konqueror browser using the WebKit engine. But it’s not quite that simple. Rekonq will be the new default browser for Kubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat). This is a new project that will, hopefully, overcome some ofthe shortcomings of the current Konqueror browser. And in this article we will take a look at this new browser so all the Ghacks readers will be prepared when it lands on the new KDE desktop.

Features

Like any good browser, Rekonq has plenty of features. You won’t, however, find this browser getting bogged down in too many features which wind up being nothing more than bloat. This should keep Rekonq fast and responsive. The current feature set includes:

• Simplified interface.
• Tabs.
• Bookmarks.
• WebKit engine (which is, ironically, a derivative of the Konqueror KHTML engine).
• Tab previews.
• Shared bookmarks.
• Proxy support.
• Anonymous browsing,
• Web page inspection.

Installation

Of course you are going to want to install this browser, so you can see for yourself how it performs. Since Rekonq is already in the standard repositories you should be able to install with the following steps:

1. Open up either the Ubuntu Software Center or Synaptic.
2. Search for “rekonq” (no quotes).
3. Mark Rekonq for installation.
4. click Apply to install.

1. Open up either the Ubuntu Software Center or Synaptic.
2. Search for “rekonq” (no quotes).
3. Mark Rekonq for installation.
4. click Apply to install.

That’s it. You will now find this browser in Start > Applications > Internet > WebKit KDE Browser. I will warn you: Rekonq is not ready for prime time. This browser is still very much in beta. So if you rely on your browser for work, avoid using this for nothing more than testing purposes (and make sure you report bugs to the developer as you find them). Although I am currently writing this article in Rekonq, I do not dare do any general browsing.

Figure 1

When you open Rekonq you will be treated to a very clean interface (see Figure 1) that includes thumbnails of your favorite sites.

There really are no tricks or features that you will have any difficulty with. The only challenge you will have (in its current state) is finding web sites that won’t crash the browser. But when you do come across web sites that work fine, the first thing you will notice is how quickly Rekonq renders pages. Rekonq is one of the faster browsers you will find on Linux. For example, loading Ghacks.net took Rekonq half the time that it took both Konqueror and Firefox. Rekonq rendered Ghacks.net in around a 1/2 a second faster than Chrome. Unfortunately the over all end result is that Rekonq is just not stable enough to compete on solid grounds.  But when it is able to compete, it is lightning fast.

Final verdict

I am excited to see where this project is going to go. Even in its infancy it shows plenty of signs it will have a lot to offer the Linux desktop. Rekonq just might make the choice to have a “fringe” browser as the default a smart choice for KDE.

In this article I am going to show you a few tips and tricks that you can apply to the Konqueror web browser to make your Konqueror (and KDE) experience even more flexible and powerful than it already is.

KIO Slaves

KDE Input/Output slaves allows Konqueror to take advantage of external applications making it far more usable. Depending on what kio_slave you want to use the input for Konqueror will be different. Let’s take a look at some of the more useful slaves.

fish://

If you start an address with fish:// you are telling Konqueror to make use of the ssh protocol. With this you can connect to a remote ssh server and even copy/paste to that server from within Konqueror. To do this you would enter an address like:

fish://USERNAME@ADDRESS

Where USERNAME is an actual username on the remote machine and ADDRESS is the actual address of the remote machine. You will be prompted for a password, unless you already have this connection set up for passwordless secure shell connections (see “Five handy secure shell tips and tricks“).

imaps://USER@PASSWORD@ADDRESS:PORT

Where:

• USER is the actual user name.
• PASSWORD is the users password.
• ADDRESS is the address of the imap server.
• PORT is the port used for the imap server.

Quick search

If you enter gg: linux in the Konqueror address bar you will get a page with the Google results of the string “linux”. Konqueror has a lot of pre-configured quick search shortcuts like this. For example:

• gg – Google
• fm – Freshmeat
• froogle – Froogle
• msdn – Microsoft Developer Network
• odp – Open Dictionary
• tr – Technorati
• wp – Wikipedia

You can also create your own by issuing the command kcmshell4 ebrowsing in either the run dialog or a terminal window. In the new window click the New button and then fill out the following information:

• Search Provider Name: Give your shortcut a name.
• Search URI: The URI the site you are adding uses.
• URI Shortcuts: Comma delineated list of shortcuts.

So let’s say I want to create a short cut for searching amazon.com. To do that I would enter the following information:

• Name: Amazon
• URI: http://www.amazon.com/s?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=\{@}
• URI Shorcuts: az,amazon

So now if I want to do a search for the string “Linux” on amazon.com I would just enter:

az: Linux

In the address bar.

Split views

Figure 1

Not only can Konqueror do tabs, it can do split windows. Say you want to do some comparing of windows, or just want to be able to see more than one window at a time. With Konqueror you can split the view either horizontally or vertically by going to the Windows menu and selecting either Horizontal or Vertical and you can have two windows open at once for simple viewing. NOTE: Whichever window has the focus is the window that the address bar will effect. In other words, if you want to change the page on the right pane, click on the right pane and then enter the url in the address bar. If you want to close a pane <Ctrl><Shift>R will close the active window.

Final thoughts

Konqueror is a very powerful, flexible tool that can be extended well beyond its intentions. Have you found a cool trick that applies to Konqueror as either a web browser or file manager? If so, share it with your fellow Ghacks readers.