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Apple Creating iBrowser on Mozilla Code?
louismg writes "The Register is claiming there may be a browser mutiny in Cupertino. The Mozilla-based Chimera browser was featured by many speakers during this month's WWDC, which may constitute a backhand endorsement, and could be used as a weapon in the 'negotiations' with Bill Gates and Co. over IE ..." Chimera is beginning to turn into a usable browser, favored by many Mac OS X users. Who knows? Update: 05/28 15:33 GMT by P : Chimera 0.2.8 was released today.
I would like it if Apple produced something like this. All the software they produce is easy to use and works very good. I wouldn't mind an alternative to IE. I don't mind IE, but alternatives and competition are always good....right?
I think perhaps the title of this article is a bit of sensationalism. There is no general knowledge nor mention in the article that Apple is making any browser whatsoever. The only "news" that the article mentions is that Apple _appeared_ to push Chimera in the WWDC, although it is a brand new application in very early developmental stages.
Yes, there has been recent speculation that Apple might move to a different "default" browser, now that the agreement with Microsoft is coming to an end. But it's been little more than people wondering... no real evidence.
I'd say it may very well happen, and the article brings up some good reasons why it might.
But to imply not only that this is happening, but Apple is creating it or directly involved is misleading.
mark
If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. -- Carl Sagan
This would only contribute to the stigma that Apple is starting to pull the usual Microsoft tactics. I don't thinks Steve wants to do that. If you look at all of apple's "i" products, you can see that none of them were created to compete directly with any other specific product, they were unprecidented releases meant to bring usablitity which previously didn't exist and to inspire a greater base of developers to relize the viability of the mac platform. If apple had not made thoes products no one would of. They simply had to take it in their own hands to offer an incredible base level user experience because no one else was helping them. The Browser wars are somewhat different though. Apple see's that their is already a good deal of competition and that by making their own labeled product they will hurt that even more than by including IE as their default browser. If their smart apple will put support into the development of Chimera and will eventually, when it is ready, make it their default browser. I doubt they would persue Mozilla much considering it is so heavy, isn't based on cocca and would be a little confusing for many basic users who have already started using apple's basic mail and address book apps.
I've never tried the full Moz on OSX, but Chimera 0.2.7 gets about 50% usage on my box. Its lite and fairly quick (well, quick for an OSX based browser). The feature set is a little light but I'm sure that's being worked on, and I see a little less flakiness than IE (which I use about 45% of the time and I think is a pretty good browser).
OmniWeb is damn pretty and my third browser of choice, but man it seems to be one hell of a pig. It eats up cycles like there's no tomorrow. Granted I haven't pulled down the latest beta so it may have gotten better.
...for MSIE's product manager saying that OS X is slow when the truth is that table rendering in the Tasman engine is the real problem. Chimera shows that the problem isn't OS X, it's bloated browsers.
Apple is obviously glad the Chimera project exists, and they're probably contributing code to it, but iBrowse is not an obvious conclusion. iSoftware is all about easy-to-use media tools that drive people to the Mac. iMovie, for example, set off a huge boom in personal filmmaking. But everyone already knows how to use a standard web browser.
I hate to say this, but the Register seems to have a real problem getting very much straight when it comes to OSX. They flamed it away for ages, rightly so, in the 10.0 era as being slow and buggy, but never bothered to actually check it later when the 10.1 series rolled around and give it some plus points. Likewise this article misses the boat completely - Explorer on OSX *does* have a Scrapbook and Bookmark managment. The clowns at the register seem simply not to have been able to move the mouse to the left part of the window.
The Chimera story is amazing not only for the fact that it is *the* killer browser on OSX (or at least will be at 1.0 or sooner), lightweight, fullfeatured, standards compliant, and responsive. What is the most amazing thing about Chimera is that it has moved so fast. I think most of us will agree that we've never seen a product move ahead so quickly in the opensource, or closed source for that matter, world. And this is the work on just three or four people? I would *not* at all be surprised to learn that Apple has been lending a helping hand behind the scenes, given that the core code is not in the CVS tree and only Dave Hyatt sees it. The reasons for this would be obvious, but not those that the Register is trotting out. Apple has clearly no intention of bargaining with MS over something like a browser these days. MS has not advanced IE in terms of performance in over a year, apart from the occaisional bug fix, and Apple needs a browser that is native, looks good, is responsive and standards compliant and above all modern. IE is dying on the Mac OmniWeb looks good, but has terrible standards compliance and a development pace that makes your average snail seem like an F-15. Mozilla and Netscape are finally starting to work well on OSX but they are extremely bloated and contain far too many features that have no value whatsoever on OSX. OSX already has a simple but good native mail client and 10.2 Jaguar will also have integrated chatting. Pull those things from Mozilla, add a native interface and what do you get? - Chimera. I, personally am willing to bet money that it will be the future of web browsing on the OSX platform.
I think the reviewers at the Register simply get confused and a little bit lost when something positive happens in the Apple world and don't know how to react, given as they are, to useing cynicism as a normal manner of conversation. (Or is it just a steady diet of Fish 'n Chips with too much vinegar?)
The correct thing to do is support a standard. That is what they are for.