First impressions of Firefox 1.0 preview release
Firefox is my second choice for a web browser. Opera comes first. No doubts about that. But Firefox in itself is a pretty decent browser. My requirement from a browser has risen with my long time usage of Opera so I just cannot move on to Firefox. Especially when it is not even in a final version. Till now at least.
Firefox today got a preview release for the version 1. Not officially released yet but still it was an offer I was too reluctant to pass by. Downloaded and installed over my previous installations. First impression after installing? I made a big mistake. More than half of my extensions were disabled as they were not supported. Even my favorite theme was disabled… I was back to a boring looking featureless browser. Damn. Rolling back sounded like a worse option, so continued with the preview release.
3 things impressed me in this release. Though, still not entirely good enough for me to think about using it as a primary browser. Let me discuss in details.
Speed is good but features?
The browser is indeed very fast. Not in loading which surprisingly is slower than Opera on my machine. The rendering speed is blazingly fast… faster than opera perhaps but I am not going to use stopwatches. But well, apparently I do not like the idea of a bare-naked browser with extensions providing the required clothing. Moreover, with every version seemingly breaking existing extensions and skins (might change in the final release and later versions), I certainly think twice before upgrading. And when I do (as I did today), most of the time I have to start from scratch.
The problem is that Mozilla users suggest Firefox is supposed to be a plain browser. Good enough then provide me a feature rich power packed version as well. Mozilla comes as a better alternative with many other applications. However, it still does not have most of the functionality that I have so become used to like mouse gestures and other stuff. Mozilla needs extensions too. Never really understood, why cannot they make Mozilla the complete package without any requirement for extensions for basic stuff? Even ctrl-enter does not work in Mozilla which works fine in Firefox. And what about problematic extensions. I have web development toolbar extension installed since some versions now. The problem is that the toolbar comes without any of the function buttons. Therefore, I have to use it from the right click menu. No apparent way to fix it other than restarting from scratch. The devils of using open source software. I love it with WordPress… but not here…
RSS integration
Firefox is supposed to be just a browser. So, how come it now supports RSS feeds! I am not complaining for the additional feature though… my problem is that the support is uninspiring. I love the RSS detector that shows a lovely icon in the status bar. However, it functions only when the site has a Meta tag pointing to the feed. Something like this:
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS 2.0" href="http://stuff.techwhack.com/feed/rss2/" />
<link rel="alternate" type="text/xml" title="RSS .92" href="http://stuff.techwhack.com/feed/rss/" />
<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Atom 0.3" href="http://stuff.techwhack.com/feed/atom/" />
Clicking the RSS icon lets you import the feed into your favorite bar, where the feed is shown as a folder with feed posts as live bookmarks. You have to visit the bookmark folders to check for the latest posts! Compare that to RSS integration of Opera and you will know. I did not find any option to enable any sort of alerts when the RSS reader detects a new entry. Also, Firefox does not seem to recognize RSS files. I cannot add a RSS feed to my live bookmarks by clicking on a RSS file. The only other way (that I managed to find out) of adding a new feed besides clicking the RSS button (if it comes) is to go to Bookmark Manager and choosing New Live Bookmark from the file menu. This thing is reported as a bug in the bugzilla so might get fixed in the next version.
Find Facility
Ok, forgive my innocence but I failed to notice the new Ctrl-F menu. And I cannot seem to make the famous Find as you Type functionality work anymore. Maybe, they disabled it with the popularity of GMail and shortcuts taking over the web that I believe conflicted with Firefox find as you type. Apparently, I do like the ctrl-f toolbar even though it does not seems to auto close by itself. Keyboard shortcuts can be complicated for new guys and this toolbar let me highlight a particular word. Not as good as a dedicated toolbar as it does not do multiple word highlighting and does not do search engine searches.
New Toolbar for Popup Blocking
Seems like Firefox is indeed starting to realize that just bare-naked browser is not going to work, it needs more in your face features for the beginners to see the internal powers of the software. The internal popup blocker works great and has a notifier as well. Now for the beginners, it brings on a message bar doing the same work that the same notifier in status bar did. Thankfully, advanced users can disable it for good… but it is very helpful for new users.
Overall Opinion
It is of course a very important upgrade. But someone like me who wants features and stability out of the box would keep on using it as a second choice browser for sites that fails to work in opera. I just hope they improve on the RSS integration because it is not much fun unless it is implemented properly.
Sushubh Mittal is technical consultant to SEJ and blogs at TechWhack.com
what were you doing on –snipped– ? hmmm? maybe the bsa would like to hear about this. lol. j/k… thanks for the review!
Would it kill you to write in complete sentences and conventional syntax? After the second paragraph I was too frustrated to keep reading… :-(
@sam: you are good… well i had to test for a site with a popup and i could not remember any good one!
@chris: hmm, well… the format of the blog make it tough for reading. let me see if modifications make it more readable. and again… this is what seperate me from other conventional writer, i concentrate more on the real stuff. :)
Good article, although I just wanted to clarify the Find as you Type functionality for you. As in previous versions of Firefox, just by hitting ‘/’ you can activate the search. Type your keywords and it will highlight the matches for you in the page you are viewing. When you are done searching, just hit ‘Esc’ and the search ends. In the latest version of firefox, the search bar opens and closes at the bottom while you are searching.
/ is another good shortcut in addition to ctrl-f and escape hides it back…
thanks shadi for the information.
this is not a technical review. just impressions. you seem to be biased to opera (a bloated browser).
First. It says first impressions, not a technical review. I cannot review software that is still in technical previews. Firefox has to reach version 1 before anyone gives a verdict. Even Mozilla says, it is not good to use it for mission critical purposes.
Yeah, opera is my first choice of browser. And I say it clearly again. I gave an impression from an opera user’s point of view. You call opera bloated that is very generous of you considering it has a smaller footprint than Firefox with 10 times as many features. And I am not biased. Even full time Firefox users I know have admitted.
Some good ideas here, but its a confusing piece of writing. Obviously you love opera which is nice for you, but means Firefox is “outgroup” and you look for flaws.
I am confused… I am highlighting the 3 new pieces of cool stuff I noticed in the latest version of Firefox and compared them to what I am more used to. Am I expected to compare Firefox to Internet Explorer what everyone else seems to do! I cannot coz I am not using IE since 2 years.
And I still do not see any reasons of being biased towards Firefox. I liked the new find feature. Found RSS support to be a bit complicated and I also liked the new toolbar that tells me that the site had a popup that Firefox blocked for me!
Free your mind and you will see I raise some valid points. :)
Indeed, the last update I did to Firefox killed my favorite extension, which was the RSS feed reader. Turns out the one I had was no longer available, so I switched to Sage, which works just as well and seems to have more choices.
I think the gesture stuff you want is also an extension, if they haven’t killed support for that one too.
Opera, naw. I thought it behaved strangely when I used it and it didn’t handle many sites I went to.
opera? fan boys? what’s the weather like on your planet? ;)
no seriously, have you tried any of the extensions out there (some of them are realy outstanding)? don’t you get fed up with opera just not rendering sites properly? do you prefer adware over open source? just some food for thought…
Let’s not make this an Opera vs. Firefox discussion ground. You like firefox, good for you. I like it as well. But I prefer Opera to be my #1 browser. Maybe you will respect that fact.
As for extension support. I am still waiting for 2 extensions I tried to get updated for the latest PR. Maybe if they stop breaking with every release… and I will start digging deeper. :)
Please give me a break. This post is about Firefox not Opera.
I’d prefer a basic browser like firefox that you can add the extensions you require than having a bloated browser with everything built in.
I’m definately a Firefox user. I’ve not used Opera for any extended period of time, having just converted to Firefox a year ago from IE.
Sushubh is right, Firefox is a geek toy right now. The reason people will keep using IE for now is that they are either too busy or too stupid or just not interested enough to spend even half and hour making sure their new version is working properly with all its extensions. Mozilla should release a geek version (bare browser with no extensions) and a user version (useful extensions like Adblock, Tabbrowser pref, sage, etc) that will not require very much additional config.
They’ve already made the install as easy as it can be. How hard could it be to add a few commonly used options. They could even poll the extension room for the top 10 extensions and skins and add them, it would still be less than 10MB to download most likely.
Firefox is excellent, not perfect. I use it exclusively (except for windows update, dumb non-standard coding), but I cannot recommend that my dad install it by himself. Maybe when I go home over Christmas I’ll take the time to set it up and customize it for him.
Great job on the review… Maybe Mozilla will win you over yet :)
@satch: I am happy for you that you like the product you have. I do too.
@music2myear: I had like a feature packed browser myself. Maybe then can empower Mozilla Suite a bit…
“Seems like Firefox is indeed starting to realize that just bare-naked browser is not going to work”. That’s funny. Firefox is already used by more people than Opera, and it’s been around for far less time. You make a blanket statement without anything to back it up. If a slim browser doesn’t work for you, that’s what extensions are for. But don’t make blanket statements about how it isn’t going to work. It does work. The real question is, when will Opera realize charging money for a browser isn’t going to work?
Firefox is not a geek toy. My girlfriend was using it right off without any help from me, and I usually have to teach her everything on a computer 5 times before she gets it.
As for the extensions not working from version to version – you started using Firefox pre-1.0. What do you expect. The API that these extensions use is going to change during pre-1.0 releases. This shouldn’t happen forever.
And the part where you say “The devils of using open source software.” It has nothing to do with open source. Every peice of software has usability issues. I could trot out a list of closed source usability issues a MILE long.
To tell people not to make this an Opera vs. Firefox zone is laugable – that’s exactly what you made it.
“Seems like Firefox is indeed starting to realize that just bare-naked browser is not going to work”
RSS integration. Popup Blocker toolbar. Both these options tell me Firefox is getting features that just do not constitute a bare-naked browser.
The real question is, when will Opera realize charging money for a browser isn’t going to work?
Opera is not developed by people working in their free time. The model of development of both the softwares is different. Maybe you will also like to work full time for free just because someone else provides the same services you provide for free…
Firefox is not a geek toy. My girlfriend was using it right off without any help from me, and I usually have to teach her everything on a computer 5 times before she gets it.
Did I say so? Firefox is just too featureless for me. And yes, its not in version 1.0. That is a reason I do not plan to switch to it any sooner.
To tell people not to make this an Opera vs. Firefox zone is laughable – that’s exactly what you made it.
I use opera full time. So, comparisons in the article with opera were bound to happen. You do not need to tell me what opera is lacking because I have used opera more than you have, so I know what it has that Firefox do not.
Also, a simple thing I had like to mention… Many people I know who use Opera have and do use Firefox a lot. But they still continue to use Opera as their primary browser. And I am one of them. Maybe they know something that you do not. So please, if you are here to criticize opera, better avoid commenting. Because this post is about Firefox from the eyes of a full time opera user. And I like my browser as much as you do… and I don’t complain about your choice.
To turn old-fashioned “Find As You Type” back on, check Tools -> Options -> Accessibility -> [x] Use Find As You Type
thanks :)
To enable find as you type find with just links, press the ‘ key. the / key is the same as ctrl-f, but both those shortcuts also auto close the find bar.
If you want to enable the old find as you type, go to about:config (type it as an URL) and set the following preferences to true:
accessibility.typeaheadfind
accessibility.typeaheadfind.linksonly
Hope that’s useful :)
Ian
There might have been some good points in there, but I couldn’t get them due to the extremely poor writing skills of the author.
Interesting review. But…
The beauty of Firefox is that you can make it as bare-boned as you like, or as feature-rich as you like. If you pack on all the extensions you want, it’ll have more features than any other browser out there. Just look at all the extensions available for Firefox. Why anyone would pick a pre-packaged, bloated browser over a free browser that allows you to customize it to exactly your taste just boggles my mind.
I use firefox as my primary browser atm, but I haven’t upgraded for some time now (so yes, I still have some security holes).
Why ? I don’t want to install all extensions again and again with each upgrade. I want an upgrade that goes automatically (no need to deinstall FF first), and that checks for updates on extensions automatically.
The statement that more functionality should be standard in FF is a valid one. Look at it from a computer illiterate point of view, those people don’t know what extensions are, and don’t want to spend time installing them.
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