Re-Klaiming Konqueror on Kubuntu 7.10
Last updated: Oct. 26, 2007, 4:39 p.m.
What was really wrong with Konqueror? It was one of my main reasons for using KDE, I was really looking forward to KDE4 and new features and an even more attractive interface with more functionality. That was until I heard they were retiring Konqueror. The full horror didn't hit me until I started using Dolphin in Kubuntu 7.10 which has been enabled by default.
"How do I open a new tab?" I thought to myself and after some rummaging in menus it began to dawn on me that you couldn't. After years of being the most awesome file browser simply for being multi-tabbed the KDE developers decided that Konqueror was just too complicated. From the Ubuntu wiki article on Gutsy Gibbon I quote:
Dolphin, unlike Konqueror, does not provide browser support as well as some of the advanced KIO slaves and options that Konqueror provided, therefor easing the use of the application.
This statement strikes me as being something like "Driving backwards is quite hard, so none of our new cars have a reverse gear to make them easier to use." True it is easier not to have to reverse, but there are circumstances that being able to do it is a lot easier than the alternative, such as knocking down the wall in front of you so you can turn the car around and go the other way. I also wonder how reducing the number of file types and protocols the browser supports actually helps. I mean if you didn't need to use the protocol you never knew it was there, if you looked up the details and used it. I have on several occasions already since installing Kubuntu 7.10 last week found myself using Konsole as a file manager in preference to having to fight with Dolphin.
Setting Konqueror as Default Browser on Kubuntu 7.10
I decided I wasn't going to waste any more time with Dolphin, I knew what I wanted and that was Konqueror back so I searched for solutions on how to switch back, and found nothing other than the above quote telling me how much easier Dolphin was to use. However I discovered it is very simple, run Adept Manager (K Menu->System->Manage Packages) search for Dolphin, you should get just one result, request uninstall and apply. You can preview changes if you want to check that it's not going to do anything to your other packages (it didn't on my system). Once finished I clicked the "Home" link from the task bar "Menu of important system places" and was very happy to see Konqueror pop up with my Home directory just like the old days. Bliss!
Comments
Posting comments is not currently possible. If you want to discuss this article you can reach me on twitter or via email.