Nautilus & Web browsing [Was: Re: KDE Interop [Was: D-BUS background]]

["Chris Chabot" <chabotc xs4all nl>]

> >  - Mozilla doesn't have native UI (Qt/GTK) and is too complex
> >  - Galeon is too complex
> >  - Phoenix is not native UI
> >  - Epiphany is not finished
> >  - Konqueror is too complex and is tightly bound to having
> >    KDE desktop running
>
> Just another option: why not using Nautilus with Gecko so that Nautilus
> becomes GNOME's web browser just like konqueror is KDE's web browser ?

Actually thats exactly what i am hoping to see some day.. take just the
javascript + rendering engine from mozilla, junk 'Necko' and all the other
libs and link that to gnome-vfs (so its 'native' and consistent w/ the rest
of gnome) and you would have a hell of a good solutions (Gecko it self is
very light weight and fast, its the ton of other modules around it that
bloat it). The you could create javascript bindings for gnome properties,
and use it even for normal file browser windows and desktop rendering. (why
have multiple render engines in memory, when dhtml+js can do the same).
Would save a lot in redundant libs/render engines, and save quite a bit of
memory if you presume the average person has a file browser, a desktop
canvas and a web browser open at any given time. It would also live up to a
users assumption and expectation that a file-browser == web-browser ==
network-browser == help-browser == etc, and help make things a lot more
consitent in the end. I know scraping gtkhtml(/2) for gecko would raise a
lot of objections over bloat, but really, i have mozilla or derivative open
at any given time anyways, so it would be more efficient in the end (Added
benifit that a single code base for all those 'views' means less bugs and
people with html/js knowledge could contribute to the GUI)

Would also be very cool to then extend that even further, and use something
like mozilla-xml-terminal.. thumbnails & icons + clickable links in a CLI
interface would be a evolutionary step for an OS (and give us a real 'new'
feature over other GUI's) (check out the xml-term project page at
www.xmlterm.org and http://www.xmlterm.com/shots/xls-icons.html for a nice
example screenshot of how a terminal interface could look)

That would truely bring us to a 'next level' .. but i gues also open up a
can of accesability problems and tons of intergration work and new bugs to
fix.. Gues i'll keep dreaming for now; But if anyone does start a project
around that concept, let me know and i'll help in any way i can

Ps a lot of people confuse Gecko for gtkEmbedMoz, but they are not the same.
gtkEmbedMoz is the 'full' mozilla browser with NSS, XUL, Necko (network
libs) and everything else, wraped so it can be embeded. However 'Gecko' is
just the render engine, so to use only that you would have to build your own
network&file IO layers and everything, but it is a lot less bloated..
positivly light weight even ;) Perfect fit for teaming up with gnome-vfs,
bonobo and gconf i would hope

    -- Chris