Since this was written Chez Scheme was open sourced, it has a great optimizing compiler that doesn't go via C. The downside of it is that it doesn't come with a lot of libraries, so for example if you want to use sockets you have to find a library[0] or write your own bindings.

[0] Here is a good starting point: https://github.com/ovenpasta/thunderchez

So, if you prefer to get things done, e.g HTTP client (without re-inventing stuffs as much as possible), Chicken Scheme is a better choice?

Chicken is good for libraries as is Racket (that uses Chez for the backend). These are really practical alternatives.

I also really like Gambit and Gerbil that is built on top of Gambit. The maintainer of Gerbil seems to be into systems programming, and Gerbil supports that.

Most of this blog is worth reading. Try following some of the tags. Personal favourite is https://wingolog.org/archives/2015/07/27/cps-soup

(2013)