Browser Wars: Shiira, Finally Ready for Prime-Time

Posted by Will Holmes on 05/17/07 in Applications, Internet

Shiira 2.0, a unique contender in the crowded Mac OS X Browser competition, recently got out of beta for its 2.0 version. It’s very similar to Safari (it uses the same WebKit rendering engine), but it has some unique features that set it apart. For instance, it has the “Shelf” for easily managing bookmarks and history, as well as a “Page Dock” for very slick tabbed browsing.

And all of this is wrapped in the best interface of any browser I’ve seen. No really.

You might want to check out Jordan’s previous Shiira Review. At the time, I was very excited to finally get a supposedly workable version of a browser that showed so much promise. Unfortunately, the beta was plagued with bugs that made it unusable as a day-to-day default browser. Happily, this just meant a few more weeks of waiting. Today, I popped open Shiira once again and she auto-updated using Sparkle. The list of fixes seemed promising, as it mentioned many of the issues I was having, like Bookmark importing, and crashing randomly.

Shiira Transition Effect

My Verdict? It seems ready! So far I haven’t had any problems at all. I’ve optimistically set it as my default browser, and barring unforeseen bugginess I’ll be using it from now on.

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16 Comment(s)

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Ahmad Zaki said on

May 17th, 2007 at 9:21 am

Anyone having trouble where ver. 2 (build070510) wouldn’t open a new window?

BaroqueW said on

May 17th, 2007 at 9:41 am

To Ahmad Zaki:
Yeah I had the same problem, go on their forum they explain how to deal with it.

I have tried Shiira when I became tired of Firefox sucking on my resources. I downloaded it and was prompted to download an update right after I launched it… okay, first surprise, and then as a second surprise the update prevents from opening a new window so you’re stuck with a useless browser… Verdict: not ready, went back to Safari with Saft plugin.

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pumpkinwhite said on

May 17th, 2007 at 11:58 am

I could not use it for more than a few minutes without it crashing. Every time i open multiple tabs it crashes. some concepts look good, but browser is not at all ready. I can understand minor bugs with a final release, but it is inoperable.

-1

jian said on

May 17th, 2007 at 12:50 pm

Its not ready. I’ve had about 3 crashes so far. I really want to make this my main browers, but the main thing that annoys me is that it doesn’t remember your window position. When you close a Shiira window and click the icon again in the dock to open a new broswer window, the position shifts! - and everytime too.

Bruce Anderson said on

May 17th, 2007 at 1:15 pm

I might give it a shot, but I’ll stick with Firefox for the time being. I’ve really come to depend on extensions like AdBlock and FlashBlock to make the web tolerable. Hmm…do Safari plugins like Saft work with Shiira?

Will said on

May 17th, 2007 at 5:32 pm

Since writing this, I have noticed the occasional crash. If I had a few more I might switch back, but the interface lures me in! I don’t have any problems with multiple windows though. In any case, I don’t use multiple windows for browsing, just tabs.

BaroqueW said on

May 17th, 2007 at 5:48 pm

The problem with opening new windows also meant for me not even being able to open a _first_ window…

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Mark Steiner said on

May 17th, 2007 at 6:42 pm

The 070503 Nightly seems to be fairly stableâ€”although it will ask if you would like to update to the very latest version, which causes it fail on startupâ€”clicking ‘Skip Version’ should remedy this.

On a side note, your image is of Shiira 1.2.x, Shiira 2.0 doesn’t currently support the Page Transition effect…

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Jack Cory said on

May 17th, 2007 at 8:47 pm

it’s still like a beta, it’s still got tons and tons of bugs

Steven Owens said on

May 17th, 2007 at 9:58 pm

Yeah, I agree, still seems like a beta browser.

Jasper said on

May 18th, 2007 at 11:44 am

I won’t try it because I want it to be really good. The last few times I’ve installed it, it’s just irritated me with crashes, and the inability to do essentially anything with bookmarks. It wasn’t ready 3 weeks ago, and judging by these comments, it isn’t ready now. They need to just go a bit low profile with it, get a decent closed beta going and try to save some face because if they keep releasing crap, people will eventually learn to ignore them

Greg H said on

May 18th, 2007 at 4:57 pm

I have never been able to get used to any other browser than Safari. I have tried many others, but always seem to come back to Safari as my default.

Sam Ryan said on

May 27th, 2007 at 1:17 am

I’m with you, Shiira looks and feels really cool, but it only works for about 5 minutes at a time. Can’t wait for a true stable release!

Will said on

June 3rd, 2007 at 12:42 pm

Mark,
Thanks for the note about the picture, and editor actually put that in.

Liz said on

July 11th, 2008 at 5:44 am

i love Shiira’s concept and interface so much…what they’re trying to do in creating this browser is so great! i wish them all the best but i need a more stable version. too many crashes But all the best to the Shiira team, I am cheering them on and anticipating the day there is a solid, stable release!

Jim said on

August 27th, 2008 at 5:22 pm

Is there something out there for us that will render pages in the EFFED up way Windows/IE does? That would be an amazing tool for designers that refuse to buy a crapbox only for testing purposes. Isn’t there a version of IE6 that runs on Intel Macs? What about PowerPCs?