The question I think a LOT of us loyal KDE/Konqueror users have is... What is Konqueror's future?

It's very encouraging that KHTML development is active, but progress seems slow to many. And, KHTML aside, some of us have other serious progress related concerns surrounding Konqueror overall. Hence the question.

See also... viewtopic.php?f=27&t=62092&hilit=konqueror+khtml&start=10#p147364

I agree konqueror needs some big improvements, it's a shame as one of the only things letting KDE down is the lack of a good browser. Try loading kde.org in chromium then in konqueror, it takes about 10 times as long and doesn't look as good with the hover menu's etc. Personally I think all the file manager part of konqueror should be stripped out as dolphin now handles all of that and konqueror should just be a web browser

And I don't - I find having an application that can do both a great help in my day to day work.

That's just my opinion, not saying it should as a lot of people like the built in file manager. Personally I prefer apps to do one thing and do it well rather than having loads of extra stuff built in, but that's just me.

i have konqueror opened alltime, is the main application in my computeur, for internet, email (with gmail even in simple layout of gmail is fine) and file manager. The seconde application that i use more often is akregator. May be would be a good idea to integrate akregator in konqueror. So if me that i am a simple user may be advanced but i am not a developer or a geek, use konqueror in this way, i can imagine that many users will do it when khtml have a little more improvements.

I use mandriva and i proposed to use konqueror as default browser.
http://ideas.mandriva.com/fr/idees/show.php?id=184 (french)
They dont want because they are scared when the new users have their first Mandriva(and KDE) experience to be disapointed and go back to Windows. So they keep use firefox as the default browser. Is fine but is not the browser of the KDE environnement.
i heard that now a firefox addon can integrate kwallet in firefox but it will never be full integrated in KDE

Perhaps a Qt port of firefox might be another direction to choose, although I am not in favour of any software that relies too heavily towards GTK+. Firefox, fwiw, prefers GTK+ file dialogs etc.

Perhaps, rekonq is the rightful heir to what Konqueror should have been. Its fast, WebKit based and already looks cool enough for Kubuntu devs to (at least) consider it as the default.

You're not the only one thinking that; There was a thread (still active) on the KDE-Core-Devel mailing list discussing rekonq supplanting Konqui as KDE's default web browser. Predictablly there was a lot of give and take on both sides; the discussion because a bit heated occasionally. The trouble is that the "pro-Konqueror" folks are split, and quite seriously; some think that Konqueror should be optimized as a web browser so that it can compete with the likes of FF and Opera, while others think it should continue to be the "KSwiss Army Knife" of times past. To make things more confusing, the "pro-Konqueror-as-web-browser" folks are split over the rendering engine; some want Konqui to switch to QtWebKit (like rekonq and Aora), others want KHTML development to pickup and stick with that (of course, the engines are switchable, so that's not a total dealbreaker)

So you have three/four PoVs that don't have a lot of agreement. I suspect that in the end, Konqueror/KHTML will stick around as a "power user's app" (sort of like Kommander), while a new, faster and lighter weight browser (like rekonq) will become the defualt web browser in KDE. Rekonq still has a ways to go before either the devs or the community will agree upon it as a worthy successor, but a couple high-profile KDE devs are already using it regularly: http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2010/02/javascript-plasmoid-errata-rekonq.html

Of course I could be wrong; perhaps Konqueror will make a comeback and settle the dispute - I don't know, but right now, KDE is hurting for a browser that truely caters to the everyday user - most KDE distro's ship Firefox as the default browser, and the one exception I know of (Kubuntu) got some real bad reviews about it's choice to use Konqueror as the default browser. It promises to be an interesting journey.

To those interested in the rekonq vs Konqueror discussion, here is the mailing list thread: http://lists.kde.org/?l=kde-core-devel&m=126667708029039&w=2

Kubuntu offers an option (like a shortcut in the menu) of installing Firefox, as far as I know.

I strongly believe that the use of WebKit would be wiser that insisting o KHTML. WebKit is used by other browsers as well (Chrome for instance) and QtWebKit has seen a very good progress recenlty.