Chimera 0.5

[chmorley]

Chimera nightlies have just turned 0.5. Last time this happened, the "official" milestone release followed within 2 days.

For those who haven't been keeping up with the nightlies, it's getting more stable, and it uses favicons.

And it's still fast as hell.

Chris

 

[bousozoku]

That's kewl. I try it from time to time. It's still a little raw for me...or at least, 0.4.0 was. It's has great potential but I'll still with Mozilla until later releases.

 

[FattyMembrane]

i saw that they hit .5 on the chimera boards, but i'm to lazy to sign up for an account so that i can post. does anyone know if the newer versions require 10.2? i've been a bit too hesitant to download the nightlies.

 

[mac15]

wicke man, thats awesome, me is gonna go Download it and then come back

 

[mac15]

very nice, still on complicated sites it crashes

such as http://www.foxsports.com.au , bang is a sec it goes but other than that its insane

 

[sjs]

Thanks to Apple Software Engineers

it's excellent...fast and stable. Really its better now than OW, but OW is still the most elegant-looking.

In "About Navigator" is still shows special thanks to Apple. Wonder if it will be an Apple iApp soon?

 

[chmorley]

Originally posted by mac15
very nice, still on complicated sites it crashes

such as http://www.foxsports.com.au , bang is a sec it goes but other than that its insane

Not having any problems at the site you posted. I was able to read all about your boy Hewitt. Not sure why...

Chris

 

[scem0]

If apple makes a browser that is Chimera-based that would be so awesome. They would call it iBrowser, iNavigate, or iWeb I bet. Maybe even iSurf That would be freakin' tight. , now I wont be able to go to sleep b/c I will be thinking about iSurf or whatever it would be called.

 

[kungfu]

i don't know about an apple branded web browser... at first thought, it kind of sounds neat, but then again... do you really want apple to get into the whole browser war? obviously it would be nice because they would be able to control the quality, etc., but it would just be another thing for them to be doing....

kungfu

 

[FattyMembrane]

i dont know if apple would use chimera as the basis for thier own browser if they ever decided to pursue such a thing (although that would obviously be the best candidtate). just look at itunes, instead of using the free LAME encoder, they chose some inferior proprietary one, i'm assuming to appease people who dont like open source products (which makes no sense when you're runing darwin). seeing as they're all buddy-buddy with aol (ichat), they would probably use something with the netscape brand name (althought the line between moz and net is blurring daily). i'm sincerly hoping that they choose to use chimera and just brand it "apple netscape" or some other buisness like that. apple always tends to surprise us with ideas from left field.

 

[jaykk]

I am trying Chimera once again

I was using Chimera from the beginning then when Mozilla RC came out, i switched to Mozilla. I just downloaded Chimera .5, its really fast in Jaugr. But it went backwards in some features. Now the number of tabes u can open at once is limited . I think i am going to stick with Mozilla some more time. Also, Mozilla have a close tab button which is missing from Chimera. other than that Chimera is getting better..

 

[iJon]

chimera

last time i heard apple had hired a lead developer of chimera or mozilla or one of those programs. i think apple will make a web browser. this statements i am making are based on some stuff that was posted earlier this summer about apple hiring that guy.

iJon

 

[AmbitiousLemon]

Re: chimera

Originally posted by iJon
last time i heard apple had hired a lead developer of chimera or mozilla or one of those programs. i think apple will make a web browser. this statements i am making are based on some stuff that was posted earlier this summer about apple hiring that guy.

iJon

apple hired dave hyatt the original leader of the chimera project. the project was handed over to mike pinkerton before dave went to apple.

RANDOM RUMORS/INFO TO FUEL THE FIRE:
1) it has been suggested that netscape is interested in chimera as the osx netscape.
2) chimera was auto-detected by jaguar's internet pref pane in beta builds.
3) apple used chimera in mwny presentations
4) a thank you to apple has been present in the chimera get info since at least .2
5) dave repeatedly denied associations between chimera and netscape or apple before being hired by apple (dave had formerly worked for netscape).
6) no one knows what dave is working on at apple...


when i first installed jag i decided to see if i could switch to chimera full time by trying to use it exclusively for a week. i have been using it ever since but here are my complaints:
1) sidebar wont open on left (violation apple HIG)
2) no contextual menu option to open in new tab.
3) no button to close tab (need to use command-w)
4) no contextual menu to block ads
5) no spell check (its cocoa so they just need to take advtange of services)
6) preferences lack ability to block popups (it will ask you once if a pop up appears and never again... dont miss your chance) and other annoying ad things (resize windows, move windows, etc)
7) poor proxy support (useless for me)
8) poor implementation of history/bookmarks (must use sidepanel and cant use the 'file bookmark' feature from moz)

looking at my list you will see it is incredibly nit-picky. i mean im digging to come up with things. all in all chimera is definitely at a point where it can be used as your main browser.... but dont take my word for it, check it out for yourself (http://chimera.mozdev.org/)

 

[hesdeadjim]

Mozilla

I've used Chimera some, but I have a lot of problems with it crashing. Maybe it was just 0.4 or my computer, but It didn't work well. So, I've stuck with Mozilla because it seems to work all the time and it has some more features I like. That being said, Chimera had some great features that Mozilla should "borrow" like the sidebar.

A little off-subject, but just cruising these posts, I see most people don't use Explorer on these sites, which is quite different from the PC world. In fact, I might be bold to say that it has created a true browser war in Macs (it also helps that explorer for Mac sucks). I don't think that Apple should brand a browser necessairly, but the market for them is quite open on this side of the computing world. I only know one or two PC users who don't use Explorer. Anyway, just a stupid observation.

20 Posts!!

 

[Rower_CPU]

Re: Thanks to Apple Software Engineers

Originally posted by sjs
it's excellent...fast and stable. Really its better now than OW, but OW is still the most elegant-looking.
…

Other than the fact that it can't render CSS correctly...

I'm gonna check out .5....4 has been nice, but still hasn't replaced IE for me yet...

 

[Rower_CPU]

OK, not good...strike 1 against it, it won't launch.

[edit: Had to trash the prefs. Hopefully a nightly glitch.]

 

[irmongoose]

Also, I find that if I go to a site such as versiontracker, and select download, I HAVE to stop the automatic download process, or it just crashes. And then, I have to manually control click on the link as click Save link as...


Maybe it was just 0.4, I'll download the nightly build to see how it goes.




irmongoose

 

[FattyMembrane]

Re: Re: chimera

Originally posted by AmbitiousLemon


2) no contextual menu option to open in new tab.
5) no spell check (its cocoa so they just need to take advtange of services)
6) preferences lack ability to block popups (it will ask you once if a pop up appears and never again... dont miss your chance) and other annoying ad things (resize windows, move windows, etc)

i'm using .4 and there's a contextual menu to open links in a new tab. are you talking about pages themselves? i've heard that because the cocoazilla object is based on the c++ mozilla code, it's a little harder to get all of those nice little interface goodies in there (menus and buttons took a while, as did quartz rendering) i think that spell checking is presenting more of a problem than a fully cocoa app, but i could be wrong, i'm no programmer. i've never had a pop-up in chimera, but if you could give some links i'll check them out. you're right about the bookmarks, and its slower than OW when i'm draging them around in the sidebar (not that my machine is any real beast) and window resizing is slow and inconsistent.

for those of you who are interested, the chimera board has lots of information about the nightly builds and all other aspects of the interface.
http://chimera.eternaltedium.com/

 

[mc68k]

I update my nightly every 2-3 days. I really like the speed of Chimera to the point where it is my default browser. On a 9600, speed is everything.

 

[AmbitiousLemon]

Re: Re: Re: chimera

Originally posted by FattyMembrane


i'm using .4 and there's a contextual menu to open links in a new tab. are you talking about pages themselves? i've heard that because the cocoazilla object is based on the c++ mozilla code, it's a little harder to get all of those nice little interface goodies in there (menus and buttons took a while, as did quartz rendering) i think that spell checking is presenting more of a problem than a fully cocoa app, but i could be wrong, i'm no programmer. i've never had a pop-up in chimera, but if you could give some links i'll check them out. you're right about the bookmarks, and its slower than OW when i'm draging them around in the sidebar (not that my machine is any real beast) and window resizing is slow and inconsistent.

ah look at that the open in new tab is in there. guess i hadnt updated my nightly in awhile. but... contextual windows are still problematic since they violate apple HIG by not opening on click-hold (i like browsing without a keyboard).

popups - chimera will ask you the first time you run into a page with popups if you want to block them, whatever you choose will be permanent. you will never ahve another chance to change this sicne there are no preferences for it. there are also no prefs for any other annoying lil window issues like resizing and moving.

ive always wanted a way to rearrange my tabs by command clicking and dragging -- but that seems unlikley

 

[FattyMembrane]

Lemon hit the nail on the head, the contextual menus get to be a hastle with the one button mouse when they dont pop up automatically (this is my only major qualm with chimera). as for tabs, i'm hoping that they will soon put a close tab button (why not just the red bubble from the window itself?) where mozilla has one, but i read on the chimera boards that a several people dont want they close tab button because mozilla's is so ugly (its not like chimera would keep the exact same ugly button). i'm hoping that they change their mind about this one, having to hit a key combo every time is a bit cumbersome.

 

[Rower_CPU]

Keyboard shortcuts for me are more useful than mouse clicks, since I'm on a laptop and "trackpadding" around the screen is slower/more difficult than pressing a couple of keys.

Even when I'm on a desktop system, I prefer keyboard shortcuts over mouse clicks. It's just the way I work...

A close tab button definitely makes sense, but keep the keyboard shortcut.

I'm still not happy with the pop-up killing abilities...no preference option, and it failed to prompt me at a site that spawned several...

 

[MacBandit]

Unfortunately there is no other browser in my future besides I.E.. Unless Apple comes out with something great or the other browsers catch up with the times. This is because none of them fully support java. I have tried the other browsers and I was always running into pages that didn't display right or just downright crashed the browse. So for now back to my dungeon.

 

[sparkleytone]

i have been using chimera as my default for a couple of months now. i update my nightly every day. i have never had a nightmare with any of them. if it seems to be running badly, i just go back to the day before and wait another day or so.

more and more chimera is getting the features and stability everyone is demanding.

it stays as the primary browser in Jaguar
i have had zero CSS support problems
the plugins are much less buggy
the textfield problems are gone
i can just click download links now instead of having to option-click
you can drag links onto the toolbar, urlbar, a tab, etc
file dragging onto the window works
dragging out of the window into the finder works
etc.

and yes, your number of tabs is limited, but how much frickin pr0n are you surfing to get more than 16 windows open!?!?!? thats just ridiculous.

 

[AmbitiousLemon]

Originally posted by sparkleytone
and yes, your number of tabs is limited, but how much frickin pr0n are you surfing to get more than 16 windows open!?!?!? thats just ridiculous.

i completely agree. chimera is my defualt browser as well and slowly but surely all the missing features are making their way in. but the tab limit is troublesome. right now i dont use chimera for research because of the inadequate proxy support but in mozilla when i am doing research i will often have several dozen tabs open. just moving from one article to another through the works cited can quickly escalate into many different paths many tabs deep. moz handles it (though slowly) and for me to move completely to chimera i will need mroe tabs and some real proxy support. im sure they will fix these things eventually. they dont seem to be focusing on preferences but once they create complete preferences i think many problems will drop out.