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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.
its time for a cocoa-ized version of cyberdog
A computer without a Microsoft operating system is like a dog without bricks tied to its head
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
There are much wider implications involved rather than a simple browser here - IE means a lot psychologically to Microsoft, it's a product that it fought very hard (and very dirty) to have succeed against Netscape, and also to some extent the DoJ, and Microsoft is currently loving the fact it's the de facto browser shipping with both of the two most popular desktop operating systems on Earth (Mac OS & Windows). For Apple to devote time and money towards developing a competing browser is going to be seen as a rather aggressive move by Apple, and with the 1997 MS/Apple deal timed out now, Apple has to be cautious to maintain the support of MS as an ISV (take Office away from Apple and it's in trouble). But on the other hand, Apple is in an extremely strong position, it has 4.5 billion USD in the bank, it has award winning products that the world seems to be fawning over, it's FINALLY got itself an ultra modern OS, it's diverging at both extremes of the industry (iPod and XServe), and despite the tech slump with a combined worldwide economic slowdown, the company is amazingly still turning a healthy profit. The knowledge of this newfound stability is likely to fuel Job's fire for radicalism that has in the past produced both fantastically innovative products, and also almost ruined the company - what will it do this time? Who knows, but all the signs point to Apple getting back up for round two vs MS - starting with the little tremors such as the page dedicated to educating Windows users as to the superiority of Mac OSX that went live on the Apple site a couple of months ago, and recently Job's commented during an interview with the BBC on doubling Apple's marketshare in very positive terms. It seems the future is anything but certain, and only a fool would resign Apple to it's current position in the industry - if Apple does have new browser plans underway, you can be sure that it's part of a much larger move back into the limelight.
This sig has been deprecated.
I for one can't wait for Chimera to be as good as Mozilla RC3.
I know that people say that Mozilla is a failure because it didn't kill IE, and that it's big and bloated, but the good part about Mozilla is it's all open, baby. You want to build your own lean, mean browser? Have at it!
That's the benefit of the Mozilla project. It's a big open pile of browser-related code that will drive projects for the next decade.
Chimera is looking very good and has all the Aqua-ey bits. Ditching Mail, News, Composer, Chatzilla, XUL and the like is sure to make it smaller, faster and easier to maintain.
MS doesn't do a darned thing for Mac's IE. Their Mactopia webpage [link intentionally omitted] says "If you want IE, go load it off your CDs that came with your Mac". As far as I can tell, they limit their support to bugfixes. Seems to me they're not real interested in updating their 'best of class' browser.
I'm going out on a limb and guessing that Chimera will be as good as the current IE in 1Q2003. In the meantime, Apple is cozying up with AOL (iChat, advertisements with Netscape in the dock). The stronger OpenOffice and Chimera are when the deal is made, the better position Apple will be. Apple and MS will figure out their relationship in some backroom. If MS loses IE to an open-source iBrowser, it won't be a big loss for MS, but it will be a big win for Chimera (and by extension Mozilla)
My father is a blogger.
From Hyatt's blog:
Monday, May 27, 2002 Posted 1:12 PM by David Hyatt
Eep. Sometimes I forget that people are actually reading this thing and developing grand conspiracy theories. I especially like the part where I'm referred to as a "long-time Mac nut." Until about 3 months ago, my Mac desktop was a glorified paperweight, Cocoa was something you drank, and Objective-C... well, I would have just blinked and responded with "Objective what?"
Just to set the record straight on this conspiracy theory... all Netscape employees who were hired before AOL took the company over are eligible for a six-week sabbatical after four years of employment. You also have to take the sabbatical within one year of becoming eligible for it, or you have to go through the hassle of filing for an extension. As of July 5, I'll have been working for Netscape/AOLTW for 5 years, so I had to take the sabbatical now. It also seemed like a good time to do so since Mozilla 1.0 is wrapping up (and in very good shape). This sabbatical has absolutely nothing to do with Chimera.
Although an iBrowser would be an interesting development--IE is only one of three third party apps that ships with OS X, and the use of Mozilla in a Beta version of a Mac AOL client gives this some weight, I don't think Hyatt is working on it.
--
$tar -xvf
David Hyatt, Chimera's principal developer, said that since he was on sabbatical no new builds were in the works until July. However, the demand for more development was so high, and the rumors were so rampant, that he released a new build this morning. See for yourself. David has denied the rumors repeatedly, and I doubt that Apple will take Chimera and rename it iBrowser or (even better) iBrowse. However, I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually became the default browser and shipped with future versions of the OS.
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.
could be used as a weapon in the 'negotiations' with Bill Gates and Co. over IE
I don't think so.
I can just see Steve on the phone with Bill now:
"Bill, we'd like to dissolve our "strategic partnership" that places IE exclusively front and center on the desktops of Mac users and be able to customize our users' experience without being restrained in any way."
"I'm really sorry to hear that, Steve. I had thought that our strategic partnership meant more than that to you. Much more. Beyond placing IE on Mac user's desktops, I thought that Microsoft went the extra mile in putting Office on the Mac. Am I mistaken in valuing this relationship?"
"No, Bill. I think I understand better the great value of our special relationship now that you've made it clear. You've done your part keeping new versions of Office on Mac - we'll hold up our end doing whatever it takes. By the way, do you have another spare $150M to invest in "advanced projects"?"
"Provided by the management for your protection."
...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.