Firefox 3

dtravis7 · Jun 18, 2008

I will never leave Safari, but it's nice to have another browser for those problem sites and there ARE problem sites with every browser, Safari included. I am very impressed with the looks. It might not be perfect, but it's a large step in the right direction on OSX. Sure I use Safari 95% of the time, but to me FF3 is the nicest looking browser for OSX that is not Safari itself!!

My opinion anyway.

goobimama · Jun 18, 2008

Firefox vs Safari

cwa107 · Jun 18, 2008

goobimama said:
Check out this post on how Firefox still doesn't look right. Actually I installed it and it still felt a little weird. A little googling brought me to that page. FF3 is a major improvement in terms of UI for the mac, but it still needs to go completely Cocoa (and no, Camino doesn't quite cut it). Anyway, I'm back to Safari. Works best for me.

My goodness, that was a hearty chuckle. Thanks goobi. Was that an attempt at satire, or was he actually trying to make a point? I simply can't believe he was serious when he started picking apart nearly microscopic differences in gradient levels, or the curvature of buttons and drop-downs.

I love this particular comment in his blog...

Anonymous
June 17, 2008 at 2:12 pm

wow. You have to admit. This is a level of nit-picking that would get a Trekkie crucified and ridiculed off the net. Nobody said it was going to look, act and render *exactly* like Safari, because everyone who wants that, can just use safari.

Anyway...

I've been using FF3 since beta 1 and much prefer it to Safari. Page rendering is quite a bit faster, it handles RSS feeds much better and has quite a few add-ons that extend the functionality (my favorite of which is Ad Block Plus). I've tried Safari out several times and it just looks and feels completely stripped and featureless.

Tauron · Jun 18, 2008

cwa107 said:
My goodness, that was a hearty chuckle. Thanks goobi. Was that an attempt at satire, or was he actually trying to make a point? I simply can't believe he was serious when he started picking apart nearly microscopic differences in gradient levels, or the curvature of buttons and drop-downs.

I love this particular comment in his blog...

Anyway...

I've been using FF3 since beta 1 and much prefer it to Safari. Page rendering is quite a bit faster, it handles RSS feeds much better and has quite a few add-ons that extend the functionality (my favorite of which is Ad Block Plus). I've tried Safari out several times and it just looks and feels completely stripped and featureless.

ROFL.

I will not use FF3 and in fact I don't even want to download it because I know it will be a waste of time. Safari is plenty fast. If FF3 is faster the difference will be a few microseconds per page, wow congratulations. I gladly will give up a few blinks of an eye in exchange for a much more polished graphical interface in Safari, full integration with Leopard, more stability and not to mention also integration with me.com and the such.

Look at that graphic "safari vs. firefox" ROFL. That sums it all. A bunch of security features that, if really true, you don't really need for Mac. The other features are nonfeatures.

cwa107 · Jun 18, 2008

Tauron said:
ROFL.

I will not use FF3 and in fact I don't even want to download it because I know it will be a waste of time. Safari is plenty fast. If FF3 is faster the difference will be a few microseconds per page, wow congratulations. I gladly will give up a few blinks of an eye in exchange for a much more polished graphical interface in Safari, full integration with Leopard, more stability and not to mention also integration with me.com and the such.

Look at that graphic "safari vs. firefox" ROFL. That sums it all. A bunch of security features that, if really true, you don't really need for Mac. The other features are nonfeatures.

Ah, the "bury your head in the sand" approach to new software, that's productive.

goobimama · Jun 18, 2008

Cwa. Safari completely featureless? Have you checked out the web inspector? Or inquisitor (maybe a plugin, but still). Besides its got all that adblock stuff for the mac version at least.

With the new Safari4, you can also create those web applications for separate sites. That does come in handy.

cwa107 · Jun 18, 2008

goobimama said:
Cwa. Safari completely featureless? Have you checked out the web inspector? Or inquisitor (maybe a plugin, but still). Besides its got all that adblock stuff for the mac version at least.

With the new Safari4, you can also create those web applications for separate sites. That does come in handy.

I'll give it those things, but relatively speaking, it's pretty barren.

In fact, the only thing I can really say that I like about it is the super-smooth scrolling functions. Also, Safari 3.11 passes the ACID3 test, which can not be said of FF3.

One of the things that I absolutely can't live without - and to be fair, only Firefox does this - is the RSS feeds summary feature that FF has. Basically, you can dump any number of RSS feeds on your bookmarks toolbar. When you click on one, a drop down pops up and shows you a summary of the most recent feeds, without actually changing the focus of your browser window. Safari and others will just send you straight to the page, which I find irritating.

Here's an example:

chrisiw · Jun 18, 2008

Hi guys i downloaded it and dragged it to the Apps folder, but on each reboot it leaves the message "drag to Apps" but it is already in Apps, anybody else had this happen?

cwa107 · Jun 18, 2008

chrisiw said:
Hi guys i downloaded it and dragged it to the Apps folder, but on each reboot it leaves the message "drag to Apps" but it is already in Apps, anybody else had this happen?

Close the "Drag to apps" window. Click and drag the Firefox disc image to the trash. Now, when you want to open Firefox, just open your Applications folder and double-click on it.

chrisiw · Jun 18, 2008

cwa107 said:
Close the "Drag to apps" window. Click and drag the Firefox disc image to the trash. Now, when you want to open Firefox, just open your Applications folder and double-click on it.

Thanks for your help, all ok now

Tauron · Jun 18, 2008

cwa107 said:
Here's an example:

LOL

That GUI is basically a blatant copy of Safari 3.

cwa107 · Jun 18, 2008

Tauron said:
LOL

That GUI is basically a blatant copy of Safari 3.

One of the stated goals of FF3 was to mimic the feel of the native OS it's being used on. So, for example, on Windows XP the GUI elements are similar to what you'd expect in Windows XP - and the same goes for OS X, Linux (both KDE and Gnome) and also Vista. If it's a "blatant copy", it's only because it was designed to feel like a native application.

Also, I'd love to know how one would get Safari to display RSS feeds in the manner the picture displays.

al3x_j · Jun 18, 2008

FF3 is great, mozilla did a great job

dtravis7 · Jun 18, 2008

cwa107 said:
Also, I'd love to know how one would get Safari to display RSS feeds in the manner the picture displays.

CWA, the closest I could come is a bookmark in the Bookmark bar like in FF that opens the RSS feed, but no Drop Down menu like FF when you click the button.

I like the RSS display in Safari, but that is a great feature in FF3.