There comes a moment in every young program’s life when it needs to realize that it has grown up. It’s not just a little niche application — it has matured and spread and is now in enough hands to warrant serious attention. It’s not greasy kids’ stuff any more. It doesn’t sit at the short table at Thanksgiving ever again.

For Kazehakase, that time is now.

It has hit a respectable version 0.5.0, which suggests it has matured quite a bit. It’s under active development, with releases coming at acceptable intervals. Even more important, it’s been picked up in a half-dozen distros, and is the default in at least one (that would be Fluxbuntu, of course, and it looks like it might get selected by another).

And it’s not alone any more (was it ever?). hv3 is as capable as Kazehakase, if somewhat more sparse and perhaps a little less predictable. But if it continues to receive attention, it won’t be long before it wins some fans.

Similarly, Midori is impressive as a speedy little browser. And its design and layout suggest the development team behind it is a little more in tune with what people want out of a browser. If it gets half as much development from its team as Kazehakase gets from its designers, it won’t be long before it becomes quite acceptable for older machines.

So it’s time. Time to clean up the spammified wiki, get some translations and howtos in place, and start paying serious attention to all those little quirks that everyone was previously willing to put up with. Kazehakase has the fan base and the publicity it needs to make it a proper contender, and I, for one, am hoping it doesn’t stumble.

(Gee, so much drama on a Monday morning. I hope you had your coffee. … 🙄 😉 )