Scripting News: Are you using Firefox 3? (Scripting News)
Nathan Snell
· 1 year ago
Love Firefox 3. Happy they finally integrated saving sessions, it's by far my favorite feature. Only thing is they didn't seem to anticipate this problem. In my opinion, the current way they handle tabbed navigation given the new ability to save sessions is poor, clunky, and just not fast enough (especially when it comes to scrolling). I'm sure some addons will be developed as a solution for it (if i get time, maybe ill contribute).
Daniel Ha
· 1 year ago
Yes, Firefox 3 beta 4.
I wasn't having a great time with the previous betas but recently everything just clicked together. I'm loving it now, but it required a bit of tweaking.
dave
· 1 year ago
Me, I'm still using Firefox 2.
When I downloaded and installed 3 on one of my machines my productivity ground to a halt. Too many things changed. I realized I'd have to approach this one carefully.
The thing that kept me using MSIE for all those years, despite the malware and popups was exactly this kind of transition awaited me. When I switched platforms from Windows to Mac, I also switched browsers (obviously) but I wanted to, because I was sick of MSIE and how Microsoft was treating its customers.
I found out later that it was my criticism of Microsoft in this period that got me disinvited from their press list. Hell hath no fury like a platform vendor for a former customer. (The old Microsoft would have tried to win me back.)
Sebastian
· 1 year ago
I'm using Firefox 3, since the late alpha versions. There are a few things that are very different, like the "Awesome Bar", but most of these things are very, very useful at the same time. The interesting thing about transition is that each browser, despite the basically similar features, behave very different. It's the small things like what happens if I double-click on a paragraph of text that make changing the browser difficult for me. I repeatedly tried to switch to Opera, for example. But even after changing Opera's settings so that it behaves more like Firefox (like the STRG + TAB tab-switching), I'm having a difficult time getting accustomed to it. And after a few days, I always came back to using Firefox.
Funny that you got uninvited from their press list, though. I think that's a bad thing, because their newest browser versions really are big, big steps forward. Both from a user's as well as from a developer's standpoint I consider recommending them again.
David Knighton
· 1 year ago
I am, mainly because it came pre-installed in the version of Ubuntu I'm running. It's okay...will be better when all the plug-ins catch up and are compatible.
McGee
· 1 year ago
Yes - so much faster to work with
Bill Rice
· 1 year ago
Yes. I think the productivity challenge, at least for me, is the plug-in catch-up. Most of the most important ones to me have caught up and my productivity came back.
I don't see the big changes in what I use. What do you see as the big (productivity) changes? Maybe I am not maximizing my Firefox usage.
jepace
· 1 year ago
Not yet, not until Tab Mix Plus is supported
Pete
· 1 year ago
I got Beta 4 a few days ago when I installed the beta of Ubuntu Hardy. So far I'm liking it a lot, if for no other reason than it looks a lot nicer.
It's been surprisingly stable so far--crashed on my once when I had 10+ tabs open, but otherwise, no problems. I wouldn't say I've had a chance to test extensively yet, though.
Mark
· 1 year ago
Yes and much improved. Memory leaks issue seems resolved. Rendering much faster than previous version as well as IE7. I miss a couple of my extensions but I can wait.
mickduc
· 1 year ago
Not right now, crashes all the time with no add-ins even. Tried it on my Vista Home Premium machine and my Vista Ultimate machine. So tired of the crashing that I'm using Safari which has been rock solid.
Mick
Blake Robinson
· 1 year ago
I'm using it, but I haven't completely dropped my other browser yet. It has flaws that I can't seem to resolve. For instance, Flash video (youtube, etc.) like to load and stop at 2 seconds. Always at 2 seconds. It's infuriating. Plus there are some other issues that crop up at random.
That said, I still have my old Firefox installed for use in a pinch and I use Safari on my Mac.
Nicholas Kreidberg
· 1 year ago
For general web surfing / browsing I am still using FF2 but I have FF3 installed both @ home and at work for testing. I am mainly focusing on FF3 from the standpoint of how it will impact web developers but I am also on the hunt for any bugs/usual beta stuff.
- Nick
dshaw
· 1 year ago
I've been running FF3 for several weeks, since Beta 2 and like it. It doesn't seem much different than FF2 for now. Every beta has little cosmetic differences, I'm not too enthusiastic about most of them. They've made major changes to bookmarking, but I rarely use my browser to bookmark anymore ( http://del.icio.us/dshaw ). I had been having lots of trouble with the new version of Gmail in FF2, and haven't had any problems with FF3 so that's been a major selling point for me.
Matthew Gifford
· 1 year ago
I switched to Firefox 3 from Safari when beta 3 was released. As far as I can tell, Firefox 3 has none of the memory problems that Firefox 2 had on OS X. It's been very stable and very fast, which is my primary concern. Firefox 2 killed my productivity because it crashed so often.
I really like the new UI. Fits in much better with the other OS X apps.
The only drawback, from my point of view, is that many of the add-ons that I use haven't been updated to work with 3 yet.
John Minnihan
· 1 year ago
Yes, I am using FF3 v3.0b2, but not as my primary browser. I ran it as a primary browser for a few hours while back, but it locked up. Seems to exhibit some of the same memory leak symptoms I used to see with FF1.x & FF2.x. Platform is MBP 10.5.2 and my primary browser is Safari.
The only reason I continued to keep FF 2x on my system was because of Firebug & the high utility it provides in debugging Javascript. But Firebug isn't yet supported in FF3, so there's very little reason for me to use it at all.
When I launch FF3, it complains that the version I have installed isn't supported. I recall running the 'Check now' when I initially installed F3 & there was no love for Firebug then. Haven't run it lately, though...
Update: Firebug 1.10b12 is indeed compatible with FF3.0b2. But when you run 'Check for updates' with Firebug 1.0x installed, it does not find any compatible versions.
If you know to go to Firebug's site & run the installer there... you'll get it installed in FF3.
Rafy Mediavilla
· 1 year ago
In my case, I'm still using Firefox 2, but mainly because the Firefox add-ons I use are not compatible with Firefox 3. I recently switch to the Mac a couple off months ago, and tried using Safari, but again I dependent to much on the Firefox Add-ons functionality.
I tried Firefox 3 anyhow, and I think it will be one of the best Firefox, for now, I will do the change once the add-ons are compatible. Safari in the other hand is awesome, extremely fast much like Firefox 3, but the lack of add-ons makes me keep using Firefox for now.
As on MSIE, back in my windows days I never used Internet Explorer, I most off my time was a Netscape now Firefox user.
Rafy Mediavilla
Chris Peterson
· 1 year ago
I'm using Firefox 3 Beta 4. From a user's perspective, no much is visibly different from FF2.
The good: No crashes yet. Seems to use less memory. The bad: Few add-ins are compatible with FF3. Sometimes hangs for a few seconds. The ugly: I dislike many of their UI changes. Plus my favorite FF2 themes are not compatible with FF3.
Joel(ehudokai on twitter)
· 1 year ago
I just downloaded and installed Firefox 3b4 yesterday. It is much improved over the last beta I used, and seems almost completely usable. I haven't had any troubles with it yet, but have only been using it for a day.
It is MUCH faster, and is/will be my favorite Mac browser. Extremely fast rendering and responsiveness. The interface is a lot tighter too.
Santosh
· 1 year ago
I'm using Firefox 2 as well. On a related note - I'm wondering if software companies are forcing themselves to upgrade their software lines because they have somehow built up all this inertia and they WANT to release a new version every 6 to 12 months. Firefox 2 works fine for me (and perhaps for 99% of the people that use it). Firefox 3 probably adds a couple of new functionality that we could have always done without. Will Mozilla (or Microsoft or any other software company for that matter) actually stop upgrading a particular line of software and say "OK this software is now mature, feature rich, has no noticeable bugs and works well for our customers. So let us go find something new to develop instead of adding more bloatware to it and releasing version 10.0"? Can Mozilla say that Firefox 3 will be the final version of their browser, stop adding any more new features to it and instead focus their energy on one of their new lines of software or perhaps even to making Thunderbird a serious threat to Outlook?
Richard Long
· 1 year ago
Yes I am, and its a big improvement over the previous version. Version 3 has a much smaller memory footprint and the interface is very slick and easy to navigate.
luigimontanez
· 1 year ago
Just installed Firefox 3 Beta 4 this morning, got the "Nightly Tester Tools" extension so that all my extensions would work (although many already do), and I'm loving the speed gains. The U/I is still a bit clunky on the Mac OS X version though. Also using the tab key to navigate forms skips the dropdowns, which has always been a problem with FF on the Mac and it sadly appears it will remain.
Asa
· 1 year ago
That's a mac system wide setting you must adjust if you want to tab through _all_ elements on the page.
Bryan Villarin
· 1 year ago
I've been using it since v3.0b2 primarily. I'm over v2.
I love how typing in the address bar also searches your bookmarks. I don't use too many plugins, but I'm glad that at least Greasemonkey and Adblock Plus work.
I'm not noticing the changes in the UI too much. Besides, I mainly use keyboard and mouse shortcuts (i.e. the back and forward buttons on my mouse).
queuebert
· 1 year ago
Using FF3b4 now and lovin it. A few minor here-and-there bugs, but overall very nice.
cacheop
· 1 year ago
Yes. Beta 4 on Leopard for two weeks now and don't regret it. Never had a crash and seems much faster than FF2.0. UI is great. Overall a big step up.
Inferis
· 1 year ago
I use Minefield, the nightly builds of FF3. It's speedy, and remarkably stable. Most of the problems I've noticed it with sites not displaying as they should, but mostly minor things (positioning). I have very little crashes.
I still keep FF2 around as my default browser which is on one hand rather annoying since clicking a link in another app opens FF2 even if I have FF3 open, but I still need it because there virtually no ports of existing addons to FF3. I know I can use them anyway but I've found that make FF3 a lot less stable. The developer toolbar works with minor glitches.
So I use both, actually. And sometimes Safari too. ;)
pwb
· 1 year ago
For general purpose browsing, IE on WIndows, Safari on Mac.
For special purpose (development, preference) I will occasionally fire up Firefox on Mac/Win or Safari on Win.
I tried the early Beta but stopped. Now I use Flock. I'm not sure if I'll switch to v3 or not.
edythe
· 1 year ago
one thing I don't like is when you right click for "Page Info," it no longer shows you all the links on the page! Arrrrrgggh!
Mohamed Marwen Meddah
· 1 year ago
I've been using it since the first beta, and I switched to it from Firefox 2 after a couple of days of playing around.
The one inconvenience to me is that most of the plugins I had installed on FF2 don't work yet, but still it helped me realize which ones of them I really need, that really help me be more productive, and which ones are just sitting there being useless.
cfont
· 1 year ago
I've been using it since b2 - now on b4. Love it. Dropped Firefox 2 after i upgraded to FF3b3. This is my sole browser for all work and personal business. I've modified about:config to allow me install all the extensions I normally use - about 14 of them.
missTech
· 1 year ago
- I have been using Firefox for a very long time. - Since version 0.05. - Firefox 3 requires Win2000 or >. - Latest Firefox , V2.0.13 still supports Win98. - I wonder for how much longer? - May soon have to switch to Opera.
I have been using it of and on. However, it hasn't pushed Safari to the side yet. I'm a big Firefox fan, but when FF2 starting causing issues, i moved over to Safari. When my add-ons are updated to work on FF3, I'll then move back.
PaulE
· 1 year ago
I've been moving more to Opera lately and might not make it to FF3. Originally this was just for reading nytimes.com since Opera doesn't do the definition pop-up when you select a word, which I find so annoying. Then I found that magically washingtonpost.com somehow doesn't require registration when I read their articles in Opera, even though it does in Firefox and IE. Also I found that I really like Opera's rss feed reader (at least better than Google Reader).
I still use Firefox for some development, gmail, and reading bookmarked sites I'm too lazy to import into Opera (like this one). I'll probably upgrade my Firefox for development purposes when the full version is released.
cyprien
· 1 year ago
I just switched to flock. I will be back to Firefox 3 when there is a good del.icio.us plugin.
Eric
· 1 year ago
I Used FF2 for quite a long time, then switched to Flock and love the extra functionality. It is a memory and processor hog though, just like FF2. I love the speed in FF3 and the new Safari 3.1 but not sure I'm willing to give up the Flock extras. Many FF plugins aren't FF3 compatible yet, so that may tell the tale as well. I wish there were more plugins for Safari.
Mark
· 1 year ago
@Eric @cyprien @shawngrimes, Flock's next release will have FF3 under the hood. Using Flock 1.3pre - which is FF3 (disclaimer - I work there).
FF3 is a huge performance improvement over FF2. Most simple add-ons will work the same in FF3, developers just need to update their install.rdf file. Some will need rework.
playerx
· 1 year ago
i'm using the beta right now under Ubuntu 7.10 and it's GREAT!
Jorge Rosa
· 1 year ago
Page rendering seems a bit faster, but I hope the smart bookmarks don't do the opposite, i. e., slow navigation. Interface is also slightly better, although one arrow only for multiple page back/forward is in the beginning a bit unintuitive. Download is also improved, but I still haven't tried the "pause" feature. A progress bar in the status (a la safari) instead of a new box would be even better. Since I'm addicted to a few add-ons (del.icio.us, FireFTP, etc.), I'm only using the beta in an older computer, for testing. When it's out of beta, I'll install right away it in the main computer.
Jorge Rosa
· 1 year ago
PS: Memory management is also improved. Memory usage normally stops at (i. e., floats around) 80MB, even with a few tabs open. But I still feel (in the old computer) some slowing after a while. At least I can close the program and open it again with all tabs memorized (also a new feature).
rvanderblom
· 1 year ago
I love it, actually I love betas anyways, but this one actually is a huge improvement above FF2. And it's pretty solid, when it crashes it's mostly because of a problem with flashplayer. (running it on Ubuntu Hardy Heron Beta RC4, which i can also recommend)
Have been using it on & off for a couple of days. I just had to shut it down because it was using 100% cpu with three tabs open. I'm using a Macbook. I don't really like Safari much as it doesn't have the extensions I use but Firefox is just becoming tiring. Either it's taking all the memory or now it's the cpu. *Groan*
_Mark_
· 1 year ago
I'm using it because (1) a lot of developers at PyCon2008 mentioned their use of it (2) 3.0b4 is the default browser in the current Ubuntu Hardy (8.04) beta (more for pyxpcom than web browsing, though it seems to handle that fine.)
Ryan
· 1 year ago
I've been using Beta 3 and 4 on my MacBook Pro and out of the box it's pretty darn nice. Fast, significantly lower memory usage than FF 2, and once you tweak the toolbar to use small icons, it looks good too.
If you use some extensions, it can be a little bit of a pain to get them working, but I like it about [-----------------------] that much more than FF2, and [-----] more than Safari.
ac5
· 1 year ago
I probably won't . . . my sons tell me it is pretty good, but I'm in a comfortable rut with IE7
mike
· 1 year ago
Started using it about a day ago. Waaay faster!
The Mac native i/f was noticably different compared to FF2, and w/in moments it just looked right.
One problem, right-click->open in new tab makes the tab active. Maybe I missed a pref.
No other problems that I'm aware of other than many extensions don't work.
Overall, very happy with FF3.
joypog
· 1 year ago
I finally started using Firefox3 after the announcement last week that apparently it was stable enough for "non-developer types". It seems to run smoothly (without adblocker; Firefox2 ran so slowly that I finally put adblock on it just to keep the webpages moving). So far I have had no problems, but no particular praises either -- except for the toolbar and how much easier it is to type in a website than ever before. At first the big text boxes annoyed me, but once I realized how much easier to go to a specific part of a website, I really began to enjoy it.
That said, even though I grew up with DOS (hence my tendency to type in websites), I am NOT a poweruser by any stretch of the imagination, I'm an architect and I use the web to surf and entertain/educate myself, for example I just barely started using RSS.
Dean Landolt
· 1 year ago
Yes. And I have been since beta 2. It's...remarkable. I can't even go back to FF 2. I keep way too many tabs open, and FF 3 is so good for memory management, I couldn't even fathom using FF 2 on my ubuntu machine, and when I couldn't figure out how to install the beta, it was worth it to me to actually upgrade to the new ubuntu beta to get it -- the difference is that huge! At first, I thought the speed bump was just because a lot of my plugins I had in 2 wouldn't work for 3, but I've got most of them back and running in 3 and it's still lightning quick w/ a small memory footprint.
shiva
· 1 year ago
I am using the beta5 and have been using since beta 3. Here's why? 1. It's very stable 2. very good memory management (less memory leaks) 3. like the cleaner new interface (On the mac, it made me give up safari. )
fyc
· 1 year ago
Yep, I've been using it since the first non-2.0 nightlies (I've gone to the more stable beta 5 now). I absolutely love it, mainly because of Places and the Awesome Bar. Other favourite things: (multi-word) tagging; better UI, no matter what OS (GTK icons!); and far less memory hoggage than Fx 2.
lemonobrien
· 1 year ago
i don't use firefox; i probably never will (maybe for testing). i use safari. i know the source code; and it's 1994 over the top OOD shit c++ code with everything abriviated "ns"
they had a memory leak for years, this release is suppose to cure that; they had to switch rendering engine i think; now it's gecko/mecco...
i really think people who care about the browser, and get into the coolness of it, are just locking themselves into some tiny world.
also, as an aside, if you have to use ajax/avascript/dom-node processing to make you website/service the bomb; then you should reconsider your business model.
the only reason i've heard developers use firefox for, was to dev java-script...
i also don't like the people who use it too much, they're wanna be's, spacy, unrealistic, can't really code, especially in a real language like c/c++; if they could've, they'd fix the memory leaks, remove the "ns" crap, and completely re-written it themselves, without having to rely on gecko.
and...if it wasn't for google, these mozilla wouldn't even exist.
so...no. i like simple easy to use, no bullshit, straight up, software.
i'm using IE 5.0/6.0/? right now; but that's cause my mac is packed away. and to be honest, i don't care.
All Comments
I wasn't having a great time with the previous betas but recently everything just clicked together. I'm loving it now, but it required a bit of tweaking.
When I downloaded and installed 3 on one of my machines my productivity ground to a halt. Too many things changed. I realized I'd have to approach this one carefully.
The thing that kept me using MSIE for all those years, despite the malware and popups was exactly this kind of transition awaited me. When I switched platforms from Windows to Mac, I also switched browsers (obviously) but I wanted to, because I was sick of MSIE and how Microsoft was treating its customers.
I found out later that it was my criticism of Microsoft in this period that got me disinvited from their press list. Hell hath no fury like a platform vendor for a former customer. (The old Microsoft would have tried to win me back.)
The interesting thing about transition is that each browser, despite the basically similar features, behave very different. It's the small things like what happens if I double-click on a paragraph of text that make changing the browser difficult for me. I repeatedly tried to switch to Opera, for example. But even after changing Opera's settings so that it behaves more like Firefox (like the STRG + TAB tab-switching), I'm having a difficult time getting accustomed to it. And after a few days, I always came back to using Firefox.
Funny that you got uninvited from their press list, though. I think that's a bad thing, because their newest browser versions really are big, big steps forward. Both from a user's as well as from a developer's standpoint I consider recommending them again.
I don't see the big changes in what I use. What do you see as the big (productivity) changes? Maybe I am not maximizing my Firefox usage.
It's been surprisingly stable so far--crashed on my once when I had 10+ tabs open, but otherwise, no problems. I wouldn't say I've had a chance to test extensively yet, though.
Mick
That said, I still have my old Firefox installed for use in a pinch and I use Safari on my Mac.
- Nick
I really like the new UI. Fits in much better with the other OS X apps.
The only drawback, from my point of view, is that many of the add-ons that I use haven't been updated to work with 3 yet.
The only reason I continued to keep FF 2x on my system was because of Firebug & the high utility it provides in debugging Javascript. But Firebug isn't yet supported in FF3, so there's very little reason for me to use it at all.
http://getfirebug.com
When I launch FF3, it complains that the version I have installed isn't supported. I recall running the 'Check now' when I initially installed F3 & there was no love for Firebug then. Haven't run it lately, though...
Update: Firebug 1.10b12 is indeed compatible with FF3.0b2. But when you run 'Check for updates' with Firebug 1.0x installed, it does not find any compatible versions.
If you know to go to Firebug's site & run the installer there... you'll get it installed in FF3.
I tried Firefox 3 anyhow, and I think it will be one of the best Firefox, for now, I will do the change once the add-ons are compatible. Safari in the other hand is awesome, extremely fast much like Firefox 3, but the lack of add-ons makes me keep using Firefox for now.
As on MSIE, back in my windows days I never used Internet Explorer, I most off my time was a Netscape now Firefox user.
Rafy Mediavilla
The good: No crashes yet. Seems to use less memory.
The bad: Few add-ins are compatible with FF3. Sometimes hangs for a few seconds.
The ugly: I dislike many of their UI changes. Plus my favorite FF2 themes are not compatible with FF3.
It is MUCH faster, and is/will be my favorite Mac browser. Extremely fast rendering and responsiveness. The interface is a lot tighter too.
I love how typing in the address bar also searches your bookmarks. I don't use too many plugins, but I'm glad that at least Greasemonkey and Adblock Plus work.
I'm not noticing the changes in the UI too much. Besides, I mainly use keyboard and mouse shortcuts (i.e. the back and forward buttons on my mouse).
I still keep FF2 around as my default browser which is on one hand rather annoying since clicking a link in another app opens FF2 even if I have FF3 open, but I still need it because there virtually no ports of existing addons to FF3. I know I can use them anyway but I've found that make FF3 a lot less stable. The developer toolbar works with minor glitches.
So I use both, actually. And sometimes Safari too. ;)
For special purpose (development, preference) I will occasionally fire up Firefox on Mac/Win or Safari on Win.
The one inconvenience to me is that most of the plugins I had installed on FF2 don't work yet, but still it helped me realize which ones of them I really need, that really help me be more productive, and which ones are just sitting there being useless.
- Since version 0.05.
- Firefox 3 requires Win2000 or >.
- Latest Firefox , V2.0.13 still supports Win98.
- I wonder for how much longer?
- May soon have to switch to Opera.
I still use Firefox for some development, gmail, and reading bookmarked sites I'm too lazy to import into Opera (like this one). I'll probably upgrade my Firefox for development purposes when the full version is released.
FF3 is a huge performance improvement over FF2. Most simple add-ons will work the same in FF3, developers just need to update their install.rdf file. Some will need rework.
Interface is also slightly better, although one arrow only for multiple page back/forward is in the beginning a bit unintuitive. Download is also improved, but I still haven't tried the "pause" feature. A progress bar in the status (a la safari) instead of a new box would be even better.
Since I'm addicted to a few add-ons (del.icio.us, FireFTP, etc.), I'm only using the beta in an older computer, for testing.
When it's out of beta, I'll install right away it in the main computer.
At least I can close the program and open it again with all tabs memorized (also a new feature).
If you use some extensions, it can be a little bit of a pain to get them working, but I like it about [-----------------------] that much more than FF2, and [-----] more than Safari.
The Mac native i/f was noticably different compared to FF2, and w/in moments it just looked right.
One problem, right-click->open in new tab makes the tab active. Maybe I missed a pref.
No other problems that I'm aware of other than many extensions don't work.
Overall, very happy with FF3.
That said, even though I grew up with DOS (hence my tendency to type in websites), I am NOT a poweruser by any stretch of the imagination, I'm an architect and I use the web to surf and entertain/educate myself, for example I just barely started using RSS.
1. It's very stable
2. very good memory management (less memory leaks)
3. like the cleaner new interface (On the mac, it made me give up safari. )
they had a memory leak for years, this release is suppose to cure that; they had to switch rendering engine i think; now it's gecko/mecco...
i really think people who care about the browser, and get into the coolness of it, are just locking themselves into some tiny world.
also, as an aside, if you have to use ajax/avascript/dom-node processing to make you website/service the bomb; then you should reconsider your business model.
the only reason i've heard developers use firefox for, was to dev java-script...
i also don't like the people who use it too much, they're wanna be's, spacy, unrealistic, can't really code, especially in a real language like c/c++; if they could've, they'd fix the memory leaks, remove the "ns" crap, and completely re-written it themselves, without having to rely on gecko.
and...if it wasn't for google, these mozilla wouldn't even exist.
so...no. i like simple easy to use, no bullshit, straight up, software.
i'm using IE 5.0/6.0/? right now; but that's cause my mac is packed away. and to be honest, i don't care.