[usurp]

Today there were some major updates in firefox from actual skin to some really cool stuff like the new popup blocker message on top of the pages. so download the nightlybuild

http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.o...fox-mac.dmg.gz

here is a pic

http://www.unex-t.com/firefoxnightly.jpg

[Moogs]

Good call. Thanks for the link... downloading now.

[johnq]

Hey, that looks, like, usable. Downloading...

[Eugene]

Pretty funny, that's leeched from the new Internet Explorer in XP SP2. I also noticed that FireFox has the RSS indicator a la Tiger.

[Mass Appeal]

Why do you use Firefox as opposed to Safari? I don't know much about the pros and cons of the two browsers and any help would be appriciated.

[Quagmire]

Originally Posted by Mass Appeal Why do you use Firefox as opposed to Safari? I don't know much about the pros and cons of the two browsers and any help would be appriciated.

I use firefox on my Pmac G4 400 Mhz running jaguar. Safari in jaguar(or at least mine) sucks. It is slow.(not as much as IE though) Firefox on it runs faster then Safari and IE. But, I downloaded it on my pbook and safari was faster so I deleted firefox on pbook.

[Luca]

I don't see much different in the latest nightly. Nothing very different from the last time I downloaded a nightly build a while back. I'm still using the 0.9.3 milestone release.

Anyway, the main advantage of Firefox is the ability to use Extensions. One of the most popular extensions is AdBlock, a very easy-to-use way of blocking banner ads and flash ads. It's also extremely effective. The other thing is that Firefox is a bit faster. The main disadvantage is that it uses ugly, non-OS X buttons, and there's no spell checker. Download it and try it out.

[Mass Appeal]

Thanks for the info. I'll give it a try.

[Brad]

SWEET MOTHER OF MOLASSES ON A STICK. They *FINALLY* figured out how to hide that stupid window that floats off screen. It's still there, but at least Exposé doesn't show it.

About damn time!

Edit: I overreacted too quickly. The bugger is still there after all.

BTW, a few other disadvantages of Firefox after a few minutes of use:

• Sheets used where they shouldn't be.
• Sheets not used where they should be.
• No click-wheel support on links.
• Scroll wheel is super fast, ignoring system settings.
• Incomplete scroll wheel support.
• Apple-` still activates the "hidden" offscreen window.
• No keyboard shortcut for switching tabs (at least, I couldn't find it)

Granted, it is a very nice browser, but it's still not perfect and I probably won't be using it full time until someone integrates some native widgetry into it. Most people don't care so much about an app behaving properly on its host OS; so, it'll be great for a lot of folks.

[Mac+]

Originally Posted by Mass Appeal Why do you use Firefox as opposed to Safari? I don't know much about the pros and cons of the two browsers and any help would be appriciated.

I have to use Firefox for an online course I'm doing b/c Safari 1.0 (v85.5) won't get me in to the homepage for some reason.

[Luca]

I agree with almost all your points, Brad. Sheets are used inconsistently, and I'll often find a window (for example, the find on page window) that can only be closed by clicking "Cancel," with the close box grayed out. That's stupid. One of those windows has a grayed out close box and NO way of closing it otherwise, forcing you to quit and relaunch to get it to work. If the Mozilla guys want this browser to be taken seriously on the Mac side, they should get a couple people working on making it nice. They can axe Camino for all I care, as long as they make the Mac version of Firefox a lot nicer. Right now there are a lot of features that are only in one or the other. Camino has a much more Mac-friendly interface, but no support for extensions. Why not? It seems pointless to put work into making two okay Mac browsers - they should make a single really good one that can compete with OmniWeb and Safari not just on features, but on the basis of polish and ease of use.

You talk about no click-wheel support. I have my scroll click set to command-click, and that works fine for me. But you're right that it doesn't work unless you use third-party mouse drivers to assign command-click to the middle button. Also, the keyboard shortcut for switching tabs is control-tab and control-shift-tab. It's a bad combo that forces your hand to move a lot, but at least it's there.

Another thing I really hate is that you can't hold down shift while scrolling to get horizontal scrolling. That needs to be there. Really, they should just merge the Camino and Firefox-Mac teams and have them make a really nice browser with all the advanced features of Firefox. Right now I'm still using Firefox for its ability to block flash ads and banner ads more effectively than anything else out there, but sometimes it gets on my nerves.

[MCQ]

Originally Posted by Brad BTW, a few other disadvantages of Firefox after a few minutes of use: No keyboard shortcut for switching tabs (at least, I couldn't find it)

Ctrl-tab is the tab switcher. Also Cmd-# for a specific tab (numbered from left to right).

I'll add another gripe to the list:
In dual monitor mode - putting the browser window in the non-primary (without menubar) monitor, and control-clicking causes the contextual menu to show up in the primary monitor. Very annoying.

[Luca]

Damn. Latest nightly is a bit better than before, but it doesn't support the latest version of AdBlock. I'll have to stay with the old version until this is fixed. Hopefully 1.0 comes soon!

[usurp]

MCQ thanks, didnt know Cmd # got u a specific tab. pretty cool.

only problem i have faced with the latest nightly build which is btw FireFox 1.0 now is that BugMeNot doesnt work with it.

[usurp]

Luca how can i block flash ads?

[Brad]

Originally Posted by Luca Damn. Latest nightly is a bit better than before, but it doesn't support the latest version of AdBlock.

Unfortunately, the main developer for AdBlock is using Mac OS 9 with Mozilla 1.3.1 (WaMCoM version). I don't think he has access to Firefox to test and fix code for. Since Firefox and Mozilla both use the same architecture for the extensions, I'm suspecting that something just broke in the Firefox nightly.

[ZO]

Safari still has some problems on some sites I visit.
Especially on my company's Webmail. (damn Novell... )

[thequicksilver]

Originally Posted by Brad SWEET MOTHER OF MOLASSES ON A STICK. They *FINALLY* figured out how to hide that stupid window that floats off screen. It's still there, but at least Exposé doesn't show it.

Having just downloaded it, that's certainly not the case here. The extra window shows up here just as it's always done. It's the same with the two other Mozilla separate suite apps like Thunderbird and Sunbird too.

Though the app still doesn't appear to be 100% dock aware. Whenever a new window is opened, it's still the same window size, but lower down the screen, and encroaching under my always visible dock. Grr.

But I'm looking forward to 1.0. I've been on Firefox (prevously Firebird and Phoenix) since 0.5 so to have a proper Mac version to replace the buggy and annoying Safari (which has a major aversion to animated gifs, it seems) would be pleasing.

[thuh Freak]

Originally Posted by usurp Luca how can i block flash ads?

i can field that one. it's called 'Adblock'. but, as claimed in this thread, it might not work with the latest nightly. here's a link. basically, you run your browser as per usual, and you can click on this little button (on my browser its in the bottom-right corner, labeled 'Adblock'). it lists all the images/flash files on the current page. click on one and click add. if you know regular expressions, i think you can write one or some to block a lot of images/flashes at once. typically i would do it like this: "http://*.doubleclick.net/*" that'd block basically anything from www.doubleclick.net, ad.doubleclick.net and anyother blahblah.doubleclick.net they come up with. Adblock, for some images/flash files puts a little button flying right over an image/flash, so you can click on that button directly and block the offending ad.

[Brad]

Originally Posted by thequicksilver Having just downloaded it, that's certainly not the case here. The extra window shows up here just as it's always done. It's the same with the two other Mozilla separate suite apps like Thunderbird and Sunbird too.

Crap. You're right.

Strangely enough, when I tried it last night, the little window didn't appear in my Exposé "show all", but that's because I was using an external monitor for my PowerBook. Apparantly, it somehow hides if you have a dual-monitor setup. On a single-monitor setup, it shill shows like always. Grrr.

See:

[usurp]

one thing i noticed. they fixed the saved passwords thing. i used to have a problem where when i visit a login page it would only display my username without my pass. i had to type the first letter of my username in the username box and then get the drop down list, select my username from the list and then it would put the password.

now i just go to the login page and my username and pass are there.

[onlyafterdark]

The nightly builds of Camino have also changed slightly. The changes, as far as I can tell, are similar to those that have been introduced into the nightly builds of firefox.

[Brad]

The current nightly builds of Camino also have replaced the clumsy centered "standard" tabs with a custom widget. The tabs are still far from perfect, but it's a nice improvement for a first try.

[DMBand0026]

Screw FireFox...what about the new version of Adium?

Sorry to send y'all off topic...I was just angry.

FireFox looks sweet, but until I have a reason to use it, I probably wont.

[onlyafterdark]

Originally Posted by Brad The tabs are still far from perfect, but it's a nice improvement for a first try.

Exactly, Mozilla is doing an awsome job with the development of their browsers. I would still like to see an RSS feature in Camino but Im sure they will add that sooner than later.

[usurp]

its cool we have soo many choices in browsers. if only we can get 1 browser now that has the best features from each.

[usurp]

anyone tried the find feature. its really cool now u get a find bar at the bottom of th screen.

press CMD F

[onlyafterdark]

Wow that is so cool.

[usurp]

isn't it? dont know how i missed that until now...
the Highlight feature is soooooooooooooo practical!!

[alcimedes]

1.0PR was released today. you should go download it, give it a whirl.