Month: May 2010

Replacing Konqueror with rekonq

In a typical day I use multiple browsers. Konqueror, Firefox and Arora have been good companions the past few years. My main browser has usually been Konqueror, with Firefox being the one used for webdevelopment and sites which failed in Konqueror.

The recent slew of webkit browsers then added Arora to the mix, which was a really nice experience. I use it a lot on Windows too. However, the reason I like Konqueror so much, is due to the really good Desktop integration – especially the wallet has me hooked. Granted, Firefox provides a similar experience, but its slow startup times and less slick KDE integration have always put me off.

Now, rekonq is an attempt to provide a Konqueror-like, but webkit based alternative. The ambition, so it seems, is to produce a browser that is compatible with Konqueror: Among other things it will use the passwords stored in the wallet by Konqueror. That makes for a nice transition between the two browsers.

Over the past few weeks, rekonq has first replaced Arora and now even Konqueror, which I have demoted as second in line for the text/html mime-type.

If you like Konqueror I urge you to try rekonq. Its available in portage as www-client/rekonq

$ sudo emerge -pv rekonq

Rekonq’s fast paced development can be followed over at http://gitorious.org/rekonq

Teredo IPv6 in Gentoo

The world is running out of IP addresses. IPv6 to the rescue! Unfortunately most ISPs dont yet provide IPv6 connectivity. But be sure to ask your provider in order to increase awareness.

In the meantime a number of tunnelling mechanisms have been developed, among them Teredo. Miredo is a GPL implementation of Teredo and it is now available in Portage.

The advantage of Toredo is, that it also works through NAT. Windows Vista and later have Teredo support built-in.

To enable Teredo on Gentoo, simply sync portage and emerge and start miredo:

$ sudo eix-sync
$ sudo emerge -av net-misc/miredo
$ sudo /etc/init.d/miredo start

To start miredo at boot, do

$ sudo rc-update add miredo default

Now go to http://www.kame.net/ and watch the turtle dance 😉