Like everybody else, I gave Firefox a try and, yes, it’s very nice. Unfortunately, it has a very strong competitor, which is probably the reason why I won’t switch. This competitor is Mozilla.
I have been using Mozilla for quite a while now and I like it a lot. While I like the idea of these various browsers spinning off the main branch, I have to say I’ve been very disappointed by the lack of innovation they typically sport. Firefox might be snappier than Mozilla, but as far as I can tell, it’s pretty much the only added feature. Everything else is just what Mozilla already has but repackaged (different bookmark management, more centralized preferences, etc…).
Actually, it’s even worse than that: Firefox doesn’t even offer 100% of the features that Mozilla has, like for example Ctrl-Return to open a link in a new tab, a feature I didn’t realize I was using that often until I tried Firefox.
Why do so many people bother branching off the Mozilla line if it’s not to offer brand new features?
#1 by Carlos Villela on February 14, 2004 - 8:27 pm
In fact, Firefox is not just a branch, it’s Mozilla’s “future”… the main Mozilla branch is going to die as soon as Firefox’s feature-set is identical to Mozilla’s, and when Thunderbird gets a bit more stable.
I have no idea what they’re going to do to replace ChatZilla and Composer, though. I often use CZ, and I find it a quite decent IRC client…
#2 by R.J. on February 14, 2004 - 9:18 pm
Carlos is right, Mozilla (Seamonkey) has numbered days. Firefox will be the replacement when it is at a point to satisfy veteran Mozilla users (I may be wrong, so don’t quote me, but I thought Mozilla 1.6 would be firefox based).
Middle mouse click for me is open link in a new tab, so I would presume it is a short effort of key-binding to get your Ctrl-Return back in (in fact, it may exist as a different key combination).
So anyway, wait a while, and you won’t have to switch; the switch will be done for you.
#3 by Doug on February 14, 2004 - 9:56 pm
Actually, Mozilla/SeaMonkey got a reprieve. The roadmap at http://www.mozilla.org/roadmap.html says, “Updated: Maintain the SeaMonkey application suite, currently built by default, for enterprises and other organizations with large existing Mozilla deployments. SeaMonkey remains an important product for many customers.”
It also says, “We are not retiring the SeaMonkey application suite, or its XPFE front end, in the foreseeable future… We intend to keep supporting these deployments in at least a conservative, sustaining engineering fashion. However, we still intend to focus on evolving Mozilla toward the more flexible application architecture pioneered by Firefox and Thunderbird.”
As for ChatZilla and Composer: “Calendar, Chatzilla, and Composer (the HTML editor application), are not going away, either. We’re not sure yet how they’ll evolve… But we’re committed to supporting them…”
#4 by Anonymous on February 15, 2004 - 5:52 am
will open link in new tab… At least on my PC
#5 by Anonymous on February 15, 2004 - 5:53 am
Control-Click will open link in new tab
(didn’t show up in my last post)
#6 by Cheah Chu Yeow on February 15, 2004 - 6:08 am
It’s Alt-Return to open a URL in a new tab for Firefox – I believe this is what you’re looking for.
Perhaps you could tell us what features you’re missing in Firefox from Mozilla Browser/Sea Monkey.
#7 by Srinivasan Ranganathan on February 15, 2004 - 2:02 pm
I’ve been using Mozilla for a couple of years now and recently switched to FireFox (when it was Firebird) and I should say its much better than Mozilla. Sure its faster. But that’s not just it. Why install software that you don’t use? I never use composer or the irc client that comes with moz. It was a bit akward to use firefox for a few days. But it grows on you. Considering mozilla’s days are numbered, you should give firefox a shot (for a week at least). Too bad the firefox extensions site is offline at the moment 🙁
#8 by Srinivasan Ranganathan on February 15, 2004 - 2:03 pm
I’ve been using Mozilla for a couple of years now and recently switched to FireFox (when it was Firebird) and I should say its much better than Mozilla. Sure its faster. But that’s not just it. Why install software that you don’t use? I never use composer or the irc client that comes with moz. It was a bit akward to use firefox for a few days. But it grows on you. Considering mozilla’s days are numbered, you should give firefox a shot (for a week at least). Too bad the firefox extensions site is offline at the moment 🙁
#9 by Andy on February 15, 2004 - 5:48 pm
I had no idea ctrl-enter did that. However, Apple-T does. I assume CTRL-T would on Linux. I never use windows.
#10 by Ross Judson on February 15, 2004 - 10:38 pm
I keep hearing “it’s faster, it’s faster” over and over again. Moz sits in resident mode on my system, and opens instantaneously on everything. Exactly how do you get faster than that?
Firefox, or whatever they’re calling is this week, seems like a massive waste of time to me, when that engineering effort could have been spent making Mozilla itself better…
#11 by Mats Henricson on February 16, 2004 - 1:24 am
Firefox is basically one guy doing the programming. It will take a LONG time before he’s done all the programming necessary to be up to par with all of Mozillas features. I’ve tried Firefox several times, and I’ve been disappointed every time.
#12 by Cheah Chu Yeow on February 16, 2004 - 1:54 am
Mats: What features are you missing in Mozilla? They are still rather similar at this point until Firefox 1.0 when Firefox will become the flagship browser. Remember that it is just a browser, and that’s all it aims to be. If you’re missing the integration features of the Mozilla Suite, then use the Mozilla Suite.
Anyway, I can say 1 thing I really hope Firefox would improve in, and that is the speed of it in running as an application. The Mozilla browser is better in this sense because it sits in memory like Ross described. On the other hand, Firefox seems to take up a considerable amount of memory (there are memory leak problems noted in Bugzilla), and takes forever to bring up whenever I do a context switch from a heavy application.
Still, it would be good if everyone could put into writing what they are really missing in Firefox. Make a Request for Enhancement (RFE) or a bug report at Buzilla (http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/). This is something where you have something close to a say on how a browser “should be”.
#13 by R.J. on February 16, 2004 - 1:15 pm
I don’t have all of the links anymore, but some of the original incentive of Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox was to build up a reasonable, flexible baseline. The refactoring that should occur on Mozilla just wasn’t happening. The original Phoenix documentation linked to the source code for a single CPP file and it was tens-of-thousands of lines long, simply because it was a one stop shop for all CSS/HTML hacks possible.
I think the goal of Firefox is to make more progress by having a more efficient platform in the first place. If it takes 40 hours per feature for 10 features (400 hours) or 200 hours up front time and 10 hours per feature (300 hours) I’d take the second cost anyday.
#14 by Anonymous on February 17, 2004 - 2:02 am
sorry i think the title is a traffic bait
#15 by Nathan on February 23, 2004 - 12:03 am
Chatzilla will work with Firefox, I use it all the time.
#16 by Tom on March 26, 2004 - 3:32 pm
Just curious. How does Firefox “grows on you”? I’ve been using Firefox for months, and as far as I can tell, everytime I leave the computer at night, Firefox doesn’t go with me.
#17 by Rick on April 16, 2004 - 4:23 pm
I like Firefox alot too…………a lean and mean browser without all the “fluff”. I’ve been running 0.8 on Mandrake 9.2 & Mandrake 10 and I seem to have a problem with a memory leak. It would be nice if that was fixed so it wouldn’t slow my otherwise fast system down to a crawl. Until then it’s Konqueror or Mozilla for me. Too much “fluff” with Opera too and as for “Windoze” ( IE 6 )….4getaboutit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
#18 by plavix drug on August 17, 2006 - 6:24 am
thank