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.

Nice

[dhovis]

I just went and downloaded it to give it a whirl. I've been using Mozilla 0.9.8 lately because it gives me fewer problems than IE (IE tends to make sections of pages disappear until I scroll down and then back up).

Chimera is definitely beta, though. I've noticed three bugs already.(I'm using it right now to make this post, so they're not major bugs)

• Cursor postion does not update when changed unless you type something.
• Pop-up selections do not pop up (you can make selections by selecting a pop-up menu and use the arrow keys)
• Preferences menu item is greyed out.

All in all, it is really nice, though. It is already much snappier than Mozilla. I'll be following this one.

Re:Personally, I prefer...

[djwudi]

Unfortunately, OmniWeb's CSS implementation is near-nonexistant, and it completely breaks any site using CSS for layout.

For instance, I just tested my site [djwudi.com] under 10 different browsers (plus 2 other screenshots that a friend sent me) and the only browsers to completely muck up the page were OmniWeb, iCab, and links (big surprise there...), as I've stopped using tables and use CSS specifications for my layout (browser test summary for my site is right here [djwudi.com]).

I like OmniWeb's speed, size, and rendering quality, but until they actually support CSS like they claim to, they're not going to be my browser of choice.

chimera

[Anonymous Coward]

funny how much the comments on this thread have nothing to do with chimera.

"have you tried opera?"
"how about omniweb?"

who cares? this is about chimera. and, though it is currently in pre-pre-beta probably alpha stage (hell, a good many of the basic features aren't even there yet), it is waaay faster than any browser out there - probably for any platform. check out the speed tests at chimera.mozdev.org. wow. and when you try it, you can see that it's true.

funny that the person raving about omniweb was saying how fast it is.. their benchmarks nail it as the slowest of the bunch (and i'd agree). omniweb looks great, but it ain't no speed demon. ie is much faster.

anyway, i check the development site every day to see if there are new versions released. each new release has been leaps and bounds better than the last. i'd say that this will be hands down best browser in a couple months if they keep pushing it forward at the current pace.

no one has commented on the sidebar yet - very cool. when they finish it, it will even have google search in the sidebar pull-out. hell yeah.. that's one of the few things i really like about opera (and the google toolbar for IE on windoze).

big round of applause for the fine folks developing this browser!

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