Well, I'm quite old on here and have been through some browser discussions, Ed.
I guess it's that people _do_ understand that they don't want to support AOL, but it's a dilemma, really, as supporting open source usually is a _good_ thing - as it may hurt Microsoft in some or other way.
Also, since Chimera is definitely the fastest browser out there today, people are attracted to it. I must say myself that back when IE 5 appeared for Mac OS 8.6, I switched to it immediately, because it was the most complete, stable and the only standards-compliant browser around.
So, while politics _do_ move people, so do features. And the freedom to choose is, of course, also a burden. Responsibility comes with it.
And we just have to respect other people's decisions.
My decision was clear when I first saw OmniWeb and got onto their mailing list: I wanted to support those guys, so I bought a license. And I'm kind of glad that OW _isn't_ open source software, as this gives me the right to complain. And someone answers my complaints. And how well they do it shows me that I've put the money to the right people.
Another difficulty is how far you're thinking. If you don't stop, you might hurt the wrong people: Let's say I use iCab because I don't want to help Microsoft, so I don't use IE. Now, hurting Microsoft there could end in Microsoft stopping software development (or slowing it down) for Mac OS X. This, again, could diminish the attractiveness of the platform. And could thus hurt Apple. So, does supporting iCab hurt Apple?