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Add to SafariWhen comparing K-Meleon vs w3m, the Slant community recommends w3m for most people. In the question“What are the best browsers not based on Chromium?” w3m is ranked 6th while K-Meleon is ranked 10th. The most important reason people chose w3m is:
Although w3m is primarily a text-based web browser which runs inside the terminal, it supports and renders several elements which other terminal-based browsers cannot like images, tables, tabs or frames.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Secure and fully under user control
No malware/adware toolbars/extensions can be injected. You can switch off Java, JS, Flash, popups, and Ads from the toolbar or with a hotkey.
Pro Extremely customizable
Almost every detail can be personalized:
- skin
- buttons (icon theme and on/off state)
- toolbar placement
- menus
- number of settings and preferences
- proxies (add and switch with ease)
- locale (switch on the fly without downloads and restarts)
etc.
Pro Fast and lightweight
Light on memory footprint: the smallest RAM amount used among all the modern browsers. Fastest application startup. Very responsive. Invaluable on the older and low-end hardware.
Pro Highly extensible
Has hundreds of its native extensions written on its own macrolanguage.
Supports dozens of XPI-extensions for Firefox.
Pro Native
Pro Support for several elements not found in terminal browsers
Although w3m is primarily a text-based web browser which runs inside the terminal, it supports and renders several elements which other terminal-based browsers cannot like images, tables, tabs or frames.
Pro Available as emacs plugin
W3m can also be downloaded as an emacs plugins to be used as a fast web browser that runs inside emacs.
Cons
Con Dead
Ended in 2016.
Con Stability issues
Con Extremely dated interface
The UI is ugly, which is forgivable, but sticking to a setup from the early 00s makes using it clunky.
Con Windows only
K-meleon is only available on Windows. It was previously available on Android and Linux, but now the both discontinued.
Con Uses Goanna
Its one of the oldest gecko forks which was made by one man.
Con Not secure
Con Steep learning curve
Being a terminal web browser w3m has a certain learning curve because you need to learn the keystrokes and different commands.
