Bob Caswell: Firefox 3: Impressions, Issues, and Verdict
Paul Ellis
· 1 year ago
I've actually been trying Opera 9.5 (my first time using Opera BTW) recently, and I think you'd like it. I'll have to do a write-up sometime soon. It is fast, and almost everything I'd use an extension (content/ad-block, Firebug, form autofill, etc) to do in FF is built-in in Opera. Most of the new features in/for Firefox (awesome bar, Weave browser sync, improved file transfer management, session support, full page zoom, etc) were already available in Opera too. Some, like the Wand feature, aren't even really available for FF.
It imported all of my bookmarks (even though I had used Firefox 3 betas :) from FF too.
Tom
· 1 year ago
Hi Bob - if you so much rely on all those extensions and bookmarks, why do you care for a x.0 version software anyway? Not to mention beta releases. There's a reason for all the warnings included in alpha and beta testing. I faced similar problems you did but didn't care the least at this point in time. In 60 days most of these problems will be history. Anyways - although I had quite some 3.0 crashes, my verdict is the same: best browser I've used to date.
Bryan Price
· 1 year ago
That's why I went to portableapps.org, downloaded portable Firefox 3.0, and tried to install all my extensions. Tab Mix Pro still isn't ready. My theme (Noia Extreme 2.0) isn't ready, and I haven't found a good theme I like that runs on FF3 yet. So I'm still running FF2 until these items get resovled.
Bob Caswell
· 1 year ago
Good comments. I feel like my point is confirmed by the way others handle the same problem. A x.0 release is no excuse for not having a fundamental issue resolved (i.e., giving the user the chance to know which existing extensions will work before the install, not after).
The portable work around is a nice way to try before committing, but it's just that: a work around. The fact that users have to jump through hoops for these kinds of things should have Mozilla rethinking the process.
Also, I should note that someone from Mozilla contacted me with some good news. Firefox 2 will soon offer users a chance to update (2.0.x -> 3.0.x) and will tell people which of their add-ons are not compatible before offering the update.
Bob Caswell
· 1 year ago
Oh, and Paul, what' the "Wand" feature?
Alex R.
· 1 year ago
Bob-
Try the nightly tester tools extension--it allows you to force an extension to work. It works for me about 75% of the time with no problems:
The Wand is an auto form filler and username/password manager. The password manager is pretty normal, but the auto form filler is a lot more sophisticated than other ones like the Google toolbar's implementation. Most auto form fillers will only let you fill the entire form or really just the parts of the form that it thinks are a name, address, phone, etc.
With the Wand if I am in any arbitrary form (like for posting a comment on a blog) and I type "P" it will have a drop down with Paul, Paul Ellis, and paul@notmyrealemailaddress.com. If I type "h" it will pop-up http://www.techconsumer.com. Basically any field can be filled with anything from my Wand information. It even has a few "other" fields for any other information you enter regularly (multiple usernames, alternate address, etc).
It is a lot better than any other implementation I've used, and it comes built-in.
Tom
· 1 year ago
something is odd though... the thing I hated most while tracking FF3 development, has become one of the key features to me: the interface design. Now that FF is out, I realized that it can be tweaked to look awesome. You might want to click on my name above to see a screenshot.
All Comments
It imported all of my bookmarks (even though I had used Firefox 3 betas :) from FF too.
The portable work around is a nice way to try before committing, but it's just that: a work around. The fact that users have to jump through hoops for these kinds of things should have Mozilla rethinking the process.
Also, I should note that someone from Mozilla contacted me with some good news. Firefox 2 will soon offer users a chance to update (2.0.x -> 3.0.x) and will tell people which of their add-ons are not compatible before offering the update.
Try the nightly tester tools extension--it allows you to force an extension to work. It works for me about 75% of the time with no problems:
http://www.oxymoronical.com/web/firefox/nightly
With the Wand if I am in any arbitrary form (like for posting a comment on a blog) and I type "P" it will have a drop down with Paul, Paul Ellis, and paul@notmyrealemailaddress.com. If I type "h" it will pop-up http://www.techconsumer.com. Basically any field can be filled with anything from my Wand information. It even has a few "other" fields for any other information you enter regularly (multiple usernames, alternate address, etc).
It is a lot better than any other implementation I've used, and it comes built-in.
Now that FF is out, I realized that it can be tweaked to look awesome. You might want to click on my name above to see a screenshot.