Firefox 2

[patrickp]

Hm. Firefox 2 is out.

Release notes haven't been updated from RC3 yet, but my extensions (I upgraded from 1.5) all seem compatible; most of my themes don't seem to be, though.

[Ultima]

/me doesn't like the new toolbar >:[

... I'm not a big fan of Firefox. I'd been using the nightlies up until recently. For me, Opera gets the job done, with less resource usage. I only use Firefox to help someone test something, and for the extremely rare case where Opera can't render a page correctly. Also, for the features I need in Firefox that isn't there, I need to use stupid extensions, whereas in Opera, there are no features I feel like I'm missing. YMMV, of course.

[Gamesoul Master]

I always have Firefox installed, but it's more for when IE starts acting up on me than anything else. Like... when IE suddenly decides to act like I have no connection or something... Firefox can jump in and take over for a little while. But overall, Firefox has given me more troubles than IE, hence the reason it's there as backup only.

Opera... I heard about that a couple years ago. Never bothered to look into it. How would you compare Opera to IE6 and IE7?

[Ultima]

Opera is extremely lightweight, and loads up VERY quickly, even on cold startup. It renders most pages I visit correctly. Then again, I don't really find myself visting AJAX-intense sites very often, so I can't vouch for its ability to render AJAX sites well... though I know a lot of sites do discriminate against it.

Anyhow, I don't like IE6, and while IE7 is an improvement, I still don't like it. Its interface is so tacky, and sticks out like a sore thumb. That said, I still have it installed, if of for its purported security improvements. I'm not sure I can give a good comparison at this point, as I haven't used IE for (probably) over a year now at any great length. I stopped using it because it rendered a bunch of standards-compliant pages incorrectly. Also, its rendering speed is rather slow, and when I was coding some stuff for browsers, IE got on my nerves with respect to how I had to work around stupid rendering issues in it.

lol I think my thoughts are all mixed up in this post, but yeah, the general gist of everything is, I don't like IE, and for the purposes for which I use Opera, it works perfectly well for me (and it's much lighter than either of the other big browsers -- 15 tabs takes ~30-40MB RAM). And Opera looks less fugly than either Firefox or IE




Edit: I guess I exaggerated regarding the memory usage...

42 tabs open, 26.5MB RAM used xD Granted, some of the actual memory being used must be stored somewhere else, but even still, the other two browsers would use MUCH more than just that much RAM... I'm fine with using RAM, but when there's an alternative that doesn't use much, I'm always open to using that instead

Edit: Yeah after flipping through all the tabs, the memory usage plateaued around 50MB RAM. Still very respectable.

[smegforbrain]

After having been a Netscape junkie, I was happy to have Firefox. I still am; IE6 is more of a backup, and Opera? Not interested in it.

Yeah, Firefox has it's issues, but it generally works like a charm for me.

Oh, I do plan to wait a little bit on 2.0 though. I need to go over my plugins and stuff still.

[Deleted]

I'm using Firefox 1.5, and probably won't be using 2.0 for a while. I don't like how they moved the tab closing button to each tab, instead of just one in the far end. It just doesn't suit me. Maybe that's configurable? I hope it is.

Opera is good as well, but has that same closing button on each tab. Same with IE 7 I think. And I'm not really fond of the script system Opera has. Seems more work than I'm willing to do for ad/flash free browsing experience. I'm so used to Adblog extension on Firefox.

Generally I recommend Firefox to people who use IE, but don't bother if they use Opera, because, aside from a few javascript issues I've seen with Opera, it's pretty good all things considered.

[thedigitalnomad]

The main thing I don't like about Opera, is that it has given in to a lot of the previously "IE only" HTML and CSS tricks and bugs, such as colored scrollbars. Sure, it adds to the atmosphere of pages, but is counter-productive on the road to making everything on the web standardized.

I downloaded Firefox 2 the day it released, and really like it. I especially like the built in spellchecker--not that I need it often anyway. ;D

[Deleted]

I actually traded my 1.5 to 2.0 when I did a fresh install (again) a week or so ago. The tab closing buttons on each tab that I complained about are indeed configurable (about:config browser.tabs.closeButtons 3) and the slightly annoying 'view all tabs' button can be hidden with a style for a Stylish extension.

No complaints really on my end. Can't say anything about whether it's heavier or whatever than 1.5, mainly because I didn't really pay attention to it on 1.5.

edit: Plus of course, my theme (Noia Extreme) was updated for FF2 ages ago.

[Deleted]

REVIVAL! Instead of going on about this browser thing in the voting thread, it's a major bumpage.

mz said:

Yes, it is. And you don't need one thousand of extensions to do it.

In FF2.0 you don't need any extensions (which is far from thousand?) to move the close button from each tab to far right though (and in 1.5 it didn't need moving).

ultima said:

And as far as I can tell, Javascript is handled properly in Opera (though I'm not sure about its AJAX capabilities, as I rarely use AJAX applications -- the one I alluded to above was µTorrent's WebUI for Directrix). About the close button... I don't see any obvious way to do that, but there probably is a way to do so -- you can create custom buttons in Opera, I just never bothered to figure out how


Edit: Mika: The answer to your question is a resounding yes

Check out this page for custom buttons. The one you're looking for is "Close current page" -- simply click on it, and it should at that button for selection. From there, you can drag it into the right-hand side of your tab bar. Disabling the buttons from the tabs is simpler -- Preferences > Advanced > Tabs > [UNCHECK] Show close button on each tab

Interesting. Looks like I'm going to have to give it a shot again. Before I too though, few more questions. Does Wand support multiple login/pass combos for the same page? For example, I have like 10 gmail accounts, can I store all the login info in the Wand thing?

How's the adblocking in Opera these days? Last I tried it was possible with a userscript, but not nearly as handy as it with adblock extension.

If I end up switching, it's going to be a pain in the ass to transfer all my roboform stored passwords to Opera.

[Ultima]

Yep, Wand definitely allows multiple accounts (I just tried two of my gmail accounts). And yeah, it has adblocking (Block Contents from the page context menu).

[kinghanco]

I'm using Firefox 2.0.0.1 with DownThemAll plug-in.

Can Opera use the DownThemAll plug-in? It will speed up the download speed.

Sorry I didn't remind you why I get a faster download speed at the other thread on Firefox.

Anyway I love the taps that Firefox have. I hate to have multi windows open.

[patrickp]

Yes, Mika, I know you don't need an extension for the tab closing button; I actually use Tab Mix Plus because it's so useful in other ways.

Opera also uses tabs, kinghanco. Even IE has ripped off that idea now...

[Ultima]

kinghanco: No, Opera couldn't use DownThemAll -- it's a Firefox extension. IMHO, a download manager of that sort is unnecessary anyway. If anything, though, I can always use FlashGet if I needed a file badly enough that I needed to split it into multiple connections. For me, that's rarely ever the case, so I almost never find myself ever needing to use FlashGet either.

As for tabbed browsing, Opera's had them since 1996, but had the feature in its preview builds since 1994.

[Deleted]

I actually use Flashget occasionally (with Flashgot extension on FF), mostly to download Dwelling of Duels music compos, and anything similar with multiple links. It's quite handy.

[kinghanco]

Flashget is a spyware or adware? I had a program that removed it a few years ago. I forgot what program is call. But the program kill it and delete it right off of my computer. It did say it is harmful to my computer. I will never use it again.

As for Flashgot. I don't need it because DownThemAll will do the same without any extra programs needed.