Mozilla-Based Browser Sports Cocoa Front End

Aqua OS X writes: "Looks like there is a new project over at mozdev.org. The guys are working on a new gecko-powered Mac OS X browser, Chimera (not to be confused with the X11 browser which bears the same name), built using Mac OS X's Cocoa API. It renders well, and scraps the bulky Mozilla/Netscape UI. Supposedly, version 0.2 should support Quartz rendering." Most excellent. XPFE (cross-platform front-end) has been my biggest problem with Mozilla on Mac OS, and perhaps my biggest obstacle to long-term adoption of Mozilla as my primary browser.

Mozilla's Crappy Tabs

[RevAaron]

Ok, I admit it. Maybe I'm not a part of the most average type of web-user. But I like to have a lot of tabs/windows open, not just 1-3 like a lot of people seem to have. We're talking about at least 5, and often around 15. iCab under OS 9 never had a problem with this. OmniWeb 4.0.6 got pretty slow with a lot of windows open, but the newer sneaky peaks haven't been. Opera kept it's pace with 15 windows being used, but it increased the probabilty that it would crash.

Mozilla though, is an entirely another story. On my iBook500 with 320 MB RAM, or a 500 MHz UltraSparc II w/ 256 MB RAM, it crawls as soon as I've got either a few tabs or a few windows open. By the time I've got 8-9 tabs or windows open, it's unusably slow, often taking 1-5 *seconds* just to open a new window!

One of my biggest complaints with Mozilla in the past was that it took so damn long for new windows or tabs to open. As a person who is always cmd-clicking to open links in new windows (so I can continue reading things in the last page, I read many pages at the same time, non-linearily), Mozilla is a pain in the ass to use.

Re:Yay, but don't diss the cross-platform interfac

[pudge]

I don't "rip on" XPFE just because I don't use it. I "rip on" it because it doesn't look like a Mac app. Mac apps should look like Mac apps. Mozilla doesn't look like a Mac app. Therefore it's bad (for those of us who value the concistency HIG principle, anyway). MSIE, on the other hand, is a fantastic app as far as looking and acting like a Mac app. However, it is crash-happy and from Microsoft. :-)

In addition to looking wrong, it also doesn't act properly. At least it does drag and drop to the Desktop, but it lacks Keychain support, AppleScript support ... bah!

I dig Mozilla, but not as a Mac app.

Re:Browser Toolbars

[Anonymous Coward]

In Chimera, we plan to support a separate location bar. The only reason we didn't is an engineering restriction: Cocoa windows only support 1 toolbar by default. If you want to have any additional toolbars, you have to roll your own. In order to get something up fast that people could use, we opted for the easy way out.

We plan to support a separate location bar by default (with the URL bar being an optional component that you can put on the main toolbar should you prefer it there).

Dave
([e-mail])