Chimera Developer Considers Dropping It

The Infamous Grimace writes "Chimera's developer is seriously considering dropping it, since 'Safari has already won.' This would be unfortunate, indeed. I still use Chimera at times, although it's true that Safari has become my browser of choice." I cannot use Safari regularly, it lacks too many features and has too many bugs. Of course, how long will this remain so? But even if Safari adds tabs and fixes bugs, will they add all the features I need from Chimera/Mozilla, like remembering form passwords, site navigation bar, more fine control of security and privacy? I guess there is always Mozilla if Safari doesn't fit the bill ... but Chimera is so much faster and Mac-like. Update: 01/22 19:54 GMT by P : The web site has been updated: "Chimera's not going [away], regardless of whatever I post on this blog."

Comments

Re:unlikely demise

[Twirlip of the Mists]

Dave Hyatt's weblog, the Confessions of a Mozillian

If it tells you anything, he changed the name of his weblog to Surfin' Safari about a week ago.

Re:Pushing Down Developers

[thatguywhoiam]

In short, will Apple invading all of the different types of software areas discourage developers to the point that it is no better than Microsoft, if only in terms of their attempted monopoly over all aspects of our computing experience?

In short, no. I'll tell you why.

There are three major differences between Apple's bundling of the iApps and Microsoft's value-add (uh, Plus?) software.

1. Apple's apps don't suck. Flame if you will. iTunes in particular, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who didn't think it's really the be-all of music interfaces. iCal has a huge following already, Mail kicks ass, iSync does what it says it does. iMovie practically kickstarted the real desktop moviemaking revolution, iDVD was an industry first. I have nasty things to say about iPhoto, but since the 2.0 rev is 4 days away I'll reserve judgement.

2. Apple apps are uninstallable. This point is often lost on the Windows crowd. "Apple bundles a browser too! It's anticompetitive!" Microsoft tells you that IE is literally crazy-glued to their OS, as is WMP and others. Any Apple iApp is a single icon, that is tossable, without a fuss, without that wacky Install/Remove Programs nonsense.

3. Apple only extends itself where it feels it is needed. I could probably take some crap over that statement, but it seems to be true. The browser situation was sucking until Chimera came along, and Apple hired that guy. The iApps serve as proof-of-concept OS X apps, as well as fulfilling the 'what software?' problem of a new OS. Also, Apple is happy to point users in the direction of more powerful, flexible, paid applications if asked (i.e. Audion).

Besides, I think most people would agree that there are certain activities that a computer ought to do 'out of the box' that are more complex than users would have demanded in the past. CD burning, for example. Does including CD/DVD burning capabilities in iTunes and the Finder hurt Roxio's Toast? Probably not, Toast is more powerful.

Are you translating that right? No.

[binarysearch]

"It's obvious it will only ever be a marginal product on a even more marginal platform."
So, not only does Chimera suck, Mac OS X sucks harder. Am I translating that right?

I think what he meant by the word " marginal" was that Mac OS X has, at best, maybe 6% of the computer market. Of that six percent, probably less than 20% use Chimera as their default browser. That is to say, marginal relating to size, not quality.

(at last glance there was still no button to close a tab).

That's because there doesn't need to be. Instead, Command-W has been overloaded to close the currently open tab, and if there are no tabs open, then to close the window. Or, you could add such a button to Chimera's toolbar. Or, if you've downloaded CocoaGestures, you can use mouse gesutures to close tabs (and windows), and to cycle through tabs.

Re:Safari musing

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's a quick taste test. Open a Chimera window with four tabs. Now move two of the tabs to another window. We're trying to stay organized, right? So put two of the tabs in one window and two in the other. Oops. Can't do it without opening a new window with two tabs and cutting-and-pasting some URL's.

That's simply not true. I do this all the time, in order to group pages that I want to bookmark as a group. You can click on the page title IN THE TAB and drag it to the tab area of another window (either to another tab OR alongside the other tabs), and voila! If you drag it to a tab, it replaces the page; if you drag it alongside the other tabs, it creates a new one. Simple and elegant.

That's not to say it's perfect. For instance, I'd like to be able to create browser windows and apply my own titles--i.e., "The Evil Empire" for a window that would contain tabs with today's stories about the latest outrages from Redmond, or "Admin" for a window that would contain tabs with my Webmin pages for the severa computers I administer. Then, I could control-click on a tab and choose "Move tab to [Window Name]." That's the direction in which I hope tabbed interfaces will evolve, and it is consistent with Apple's idea that everything is an object contained by other objects and containing objects itself.

Chimera is not dead! Pinkerton says so!

[lml]

Quoting from Mike Pinkerton's weblog:

"It's all about motivations. Why did we even start Chimera in the first place? Because we wanted to make something that sucked less. Safari aside, it stands on its own as a solid product with a good UI that is pretty damn bug-free for an 0.6 release. It's easy to get sidetracked on the "woe is me, we lost again" tangent (especially if you've been at Netscape for 5+ years), but it's time to get back to why we're doing this at all: because it's fun. It's fun making a product that more than seven people use. I wish that was 7 million, but I guess we have to set our expectations appropriately. Chimera's not going anywhere, regardless of whatever I post on this blog. Will this get picked up on MacSlash? Unlikely. I guess the damage has already been done.

I'd like to correct many of the emails that commented that I was the only developer working on Chimera. I'm not by any stretch of the imagination. While our unofficial "team" is smaller than Safari's, we certainly have a lot of coverage from the open-source community."

Check it at http://mozpink .blogspot.com/2003_01_01_mozpink_archive.html#8770 4137

Not Dead

[moof1138]

From: pinkerton@netscape.com (Mike Pinkerton)
Date: Tue Jan 21, 2003 10:46:55 AM US/Central
To: CHimera
Subject: [Chimera] Sigh
Reply-To: chimera@mozdev.org

Let me put this to bed once and for all: I'm not stopping work on chimera.

Yes, I'm frustrated and sick of being kicked around by apple. That's why I muttered that i was "torn". I never said I was stopping work or that chimera was dying. I can't speak for Simon or bryner or any of the other members of the team, but they're not stopping either.

I appreciate the support and all the emails. We're making a damn good product here, and we're doing it because we want to, win, lose, or draw.

--
Mike Pinkerton
Mac Browser Weenie
pinkerton@netscape.com http://people.netscape.com/pinkerton

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Chimera mailing list
Chimera@mozdev.org
http://www.mozdev.org/ma ilman/listinfo/chimera

Even less dead:

[Erik K. Veland]

For those of you who cannot be bothered to read his blog:

Wow, ok. First I'd like to thank the 75 of you that took the time to write me an email about my last blog entry on Chimera. One of the emails went like this:

OK, Chimera will never be an app used by the masses, and possibly not even by the masses of Mac users. Still, choice is good, and choices of several apps that suck less is even better.

You know, he's exactly right. It's all about motivations. Why did we even start Chimera in the first place? Because we wanted to make something that sucked less. Safari aside, it stands on its own as a solid product with a good UI that is pretty damn bug-free for an 0.6 release. It's easy to get sidetracked on the "woe is me, we lost again" tangent (especially if you've been at Netscape for 5+ years), but it's time to get back to why we're doing this at all: because we enjoy it. It's fun making a product that more than seven people use. I wish that was 7 million, but I guess we have to set our expectations appropriately. Chimera's not going anywhere, regardless of whatever I post on this blog. Will this get picked up on MacSlash? Unlikely. I guess the damage has already been done.

I'd like to correct many of the emails that commented that I was the only developer working on Chimera. I'm not by any stretch of the imagination. While our unofficial "team" is smaller than Safari's, we certainly have a lot of coverage from the open-source community.

Certainly I recognize the irony that my musings about my fifteen minutes running out generated more email than my weekly amount of spam. Next time I get depressed, remind me to just talk to my cats.