Mozilla Firebird v0.6: I have a new default web browser
I use a lot of web browsers. I have six different browsers installed on my primary computer, and maybe ten more on other testing machines.
Of all of these, there is one primary browser. When I click on a link in an email or instant message, my primary browser will open it.
Years ago, Netscape 4 was my primary browser. Then, along came Internet Explorer 4, which was dramatically better than Netscape 4. In early 1998, IE4 became my primary web browser. Since then, it has been all IE - including version 5, 5.5, and up until today, 6.
There are other great browsers. Mozilla has had a great browser since before version 1.0. I used it regularly (the standards compliant rendering engine was great for testing web development work). It wasn’t enough to get to switch over entirely, though.
Then along came Phoenix. The browser started as a lean off-shoot of the Mozilla project. It became a great browser very fast. I started using it more and more with the version 0.5 beta release a few months ago. I really got hooked on the joys of using open-source software when a feature request I made was answered by a developer with a patch that same day. Still, Phoenix was in the relatively early beta stages and had some key features missing, incomplete, or broken.
Phoenix has been renamed Mozilla Firebird. The Mozilla project has announced that they will be making Mozilla Firebird the primary Mozilla browser (which means Netscape 8 could be based on Firebird, if that even matters anymore). Today, with the release of beta 0.6, Phoenix-come-Firebird is stable enough that I have made it my primary web browser, and I will secretly install in on my parents computer.
I have a few recommendations for anyone trying out this browser. The core browser is kept as clean and simple as possible (about a 6MB download) and additional functionality is handled through a nice extensions system (as opposed to just pilling everyones favourite feature into the core).
- The Luna theme looks great on Windows XP
- The Trivial extension lets you put font-size controls in your toolbar (should be there by default)
- Googlebar gives you all of the functionality of the Windows Google Toolbar.
I wrote the very same comments to my weblog some weeks ago and has been a wicked fan of Moz-firebird ever since. The latest release (Glendale) of this great software was released this weekend. (http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firebird/release-notes.html)
Actually there's a default behavior that's even better: Ctrl+/Ctrl-
And speaking of elegant genius by default, how about Find As You Type?
To locate text in a browser window, just start typing it. To search only links on the page, key an apostrophe first. (Firebird 0.6 may require a Preferences tweak for this.)
The right-click context menu is great too, especially when you first select some text. By right clicking the selection you'll be offered Web Search for [Selection] and View Selection Source.
Then there's the PNH Developer's Toolbar and Chris Neale's Compact Menu extension. The Tabbrowser Extensions are must-have.
And when you absolutely must use IE, there's Netcaptor. Between it and Phoenix/Firebird, I haven't seen a popup nor accepted an unwanted cookie nor permitted offsite images to load in a year and a half.
Using other folks' mainstream browsers is truly painful any more.
Tabbed browsing is fantastic, a feature I assume the next version of IE will(should) adopt. The skins are also very nice.
One last thing. Does anyone know why Mozilla doesn't apply the color style to the HR tag?
I made a test page at http://www.dti.barrysworld.net/web/HRColouring.html - IE colours the HR red, while Mozilla Firebird colours it blue.
I also use IESpell on a regular basis which is a must add-on that has me still attached to Internet Explorer.
Fortunately, things will get simpler. These Firebird browser will eventually be replacing the main Mozilla browser (probably in v1.5) meaning there will be only one browser, with one name (probably called "Mozilla Browser" at that point).
In the unlikely event that someone would like more information on this, the recently published Mozilla Branding Strategy explains all.
The email client will become Thunderbird; the editor and calendaring apps will also go standalone. Spellcheck and a Jabber client are on the way, too. They'll integrate, of course, but won't be bound to each other. This was a wise and brave decision on Mozilla's part, imo.
It's only Monday and this is the second piece of good news this week.
One thing that's bugging me, however: whenever I do a javascript rollover on an image, the browser freezes for about .5 seconds. Really annoying. Anyone else having that problem? I can't find any documentation or fixes on it.
I am a big fan of the status bar, before I click on any link I have a habit or checking where it's taking me, and if there is some /annoying/ javascript to cover up the link, I tend to right-click the link, which usually displays the URL in the status bar. I would like a browser that had a javascript ignorant status bar. Something that would tell me, no matter what, where a particular link was going to send me.
Besides the status bar, I make heavy visual use of the progress bar and, more often, the "throbber". (TWSS) I miss them in firebird.
Not a troll.
There is a progress bar in the bottom right corner.
View > Toolbars > Customize
Yes, that little "Q" thingy is the throbber. Put it wherever you want. And yes, you can move everything else around, including the bookmarks toolbar items.
As for status bar stuff, try Tools > Options > Web Features and click "Advanced", where you can turn off all sorts of javascript nastiness.
Tons of info can be found at
http://texturizer.net/firebird/
and http://www.mozillazine.org/forums/
Enjoy,
-Ted
Cooler still, you can modify any pref by keying about:config in the address bar. Note that many of these prefs are only germane to the Mozilla core and have no effect in Firebird. I'm sure this will be tidied up, but as Steven said this is beta software.
In particular beware autocomplete, which is very unstable (the Firebird team acknowledges this in the 0.6 release notes). Password Manager is fine, but cursoring down through the offered autocomplete options in a form field is asking Firebird to crash. Just use the options as a reminder, but type them fully yourself, for now.
Last, if you install the Tabbrowser Extensions (which are great) be sure to select "Use Expert Preferences." The really useful options aren't shown unless you do.
At least with Firebird, we know they're working on it.
Pros
- Tools - Options is better than Mozilla's Edit - Preferences.
- Nice Themes and Extensions management.
- Better Tab right-click menu.
Cons
- Should have a different icon than Mozilla - perhaps a bird on fire?
- Tabs are not as pretty as Mozilla.
- Icon in upper right corner and taskbar defaulting to Windows unkown format icon.
- Cannot remove search bar.
- Less advanced menus than Mozilla.
- Loads slower than Mozilla on my computer.
Overall a good browser, but I think I'll stick to Mozilla for now. Perhaps after they release their first non-beta version I'll take take another look.
One good thing is the ability to delete/edit bookmarks from the bookmark menu itself, something you can't do in mozilla.
For now, it seems on its way to a very respectable 1.0 release.
My main problem with it is on my computer's (a PIII 750 and a PIII 450) it takes between 10-20 seconds to load the first time around. That's simply too long.
If you want MSIE, you know where to find it.
http://iconpacks.mozdev.org/phoenix/
Click on the links at the top of the page to see the icons.
I don't understand why it's not bundled by default either.
Oh well... Safari is my browser of choice.
sharky44: turn auto-complete off by changing the permissions on your formhistory.dat file
Apparently, OSX has new code that makes old browsers (read: not optimized for OSX) slow. That's probably part of the problem - they haven't had time to do any of that OS-specific optimizing.
As for me, I switched a few days ago. Mozilla was my previous, and it was okay except it loaded slowly. I didn't know much about Firebird, but I figured it wouldn't hurt (the same reason I tried Mozilla in the first place - well, and I don't like supporting the Microsoft juggernaut when I don't have to). It has many of the features I've been wishing I had from my days with IE - those Bookmark context menus (although there's a bug with that - right-click and you've lost access to the highest-level folder in your Bookmarks it's in - but as usual, they're working on it). With Googlebar, I have everything from IE I liked (except Edit Source - they say it's called View Source for a reason - I liked being able to edit pages - but they're slowly working on it).
Firebird is great now - just imagine what it'll be by v1.0!
