I’ve been using a nonstandard browser for months now, a freeware/opensource project called Shiira. Based on Safari’s Web Kit (itself based on Linux KDE’s KHTML engine), it renders web pages exactly like Safari but features a rich and intuitive interface all its own. I still crack open Camino and Firefox from time to time (Firefox’s Web Developer extension is invaluable, and even Safari has a unique feature in its “Activity” window—a must for developing web apps) but for basic browsing I stick to Shiira.

In fact, many new browsers are being developed with standard renderers such as KHTML and Gecko. Their existence allows lightweight developers to focus on the distinguishing factors of a browser, such as the interface. Really, as much as I enjoy the highly customizable interfaces, and the innovation on that front, I’d love to see some new features in HTML, HTTP, and CSS – true rich text, for example? Transparency? (OK, the only browser lagging on transparency is Internet Explorer, so I’ll go cry myself a river. Really we web designers should be bold enough to use such features without worrying about the D students of the browser world.)

In any case, what browsers are you all using? I notice Flock and Songbird don’t seem to be gaining much ground?

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See Also: More Efficient Turbines vs. Coal-to-Gas,On the Efficiency of Trains,PVC Alternatives, Espresso machines,

This entry was posted by Jeffrey Warren on Monday, April 2nd, 2007 at 8:15 am and is filed under Design, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.