How to Integrate Firefox with KDE
Eric Fleming
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One of the most commonly-used web browsers (second only to Microsoft's Internet Explorer in popularity), is Mozilla Firefox. Long deemed more secure and feature-rich than its 
counterpart from Redmond, WA (not to mention cross-platform compatible), Firefox is a strong second-favorite browser on both Windows and Macintosh.
On Linux, Firefox is likely the most popular web browser. It is the standard browser installed on nearly every Gnome-specific distribution, as well as many KDE-specific distributions.
Performance-wise, Firefox stacks up well versus other Linux-only browsers (including Konqueror, the KDE default web browser), but in one area Firefox has often fallen far behind.
That area is integration.
For instance, when saving a web page to disc, the file picker used by default is the Gnome file picker. This certainly works, but doesn't fit into the look or aesthetic of the typical KDE environment. There is a way (particularly simple if using Firefox 2.0), to get a slightly better XUL file picker. Simply type "about:config" (without the quotes), in the address bar, then type "for ui.allow_platform_file_picker" in the filter box. Double click, and the Value column should change from true to false. This will change the file picker to the XUL version.
There is currently a hack to let you use the honest-to-goodness KDE file picker in your Firefox. The piece of code is called KGtk, and can be found at kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=36077.
Using this bit of code (and remembering to always start your Firefox with the correct command), you will be able to open files and save files and web pages using the same file picker as every other KDE program on your system.
So, what else can be done to make Firefox behave and look more like a typical KDE application? Looks are the first thing that come to mind.
On Linux, Firefox is likely the most popular web browser. It is the standard browser installed on nearly every Gnome-specific distribution, as well as many KDE-specific distributions.
Performance-wise, Firefox stacks up well versus other Linux-only browsers (including Konqueror, the KDE default web browser), but in one area Firefox has often fallen far behind.
That area is integration.
For instance, when saving a web page to disc, the file picker used by default is the Gnome file picker. This certainly works, but doesn't fit into the look or aesthetic of the typical KDE environment. There is a way (particularly simple if using Firefox 2.0), to get a slightly better XUL file picker. Simply type "about:config" (without the quotes), in the address bar, then type "for ui.allow_platform_file_picker" in the filter box. Double click, and the Value column should change from true to false. This will change the file picker to the XUL version.
There is currently a hack to let you use the honest-to-goodness KDE file picker in your Firefox. The piece of code is called KGtk, and can be found at kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=36077.
Using this bit of code (and remembering to always start your Firefox with the correct command), you will be able to open files and save files and web pages using the same file picker as every other KDE program on your system.
So, what else can be done to make Firefox behave and look more like a typical KDE application? Looks are the first thing that come to mind.