Firefox rant about its best (not readily noticed) feature...

[spaghetti]

Even though I'm still an Opera-slut and recommend it strongly for any advanced users, I have to say that Firefox 1.0 is hands-down the finest browsing experience most users will ever see.

It all boils done to Firefox doing an exceptional job with Microsoft's own UI guidelines (which even their internal teams can't keep up with). Since XP Microsoft has been pushing for "inductive UI" which is a really nerdy way of saying complicated interface features should be out of sight until discovered or wanted by users. The reasoning is that it's easier for geeks to turn off the newbie crap than for newbies to turn it on.

Firefox does a damned excellent job with that, putting most of Microsoft's attempts to shame. From setup to launch, everything is clean and simple, only a few buttons and options readily apparent. Even the default homepage is barebones, losing on ad revenue potential. The Mozilla team is willing to make huge sacrifices for newbs and those leaving Microsoft's embrace.

But at the same time advanced users don't suffer, since all the advanced features are just clicks away. There are tons of examples, but I only need one: the tabbed interface. From a usability perspective, tabs complicate things by presenting another way to "switch tasks," easily confusing newbs. My dad for instance complained of lost work when he would create new documents in a particular MDI app: he didn't understand the "Window" menu.

In Firefox you wouldn't even notice the tabs unless you wanted to use them. It works as an SDI app until you create a new tab or specifically set it in the preferences. This is inductive UI, discoverability, at work. And boy does it help a lot of newbs to see a taskbar button for each thing they're doing.

Firefox is not perfect, Opera does many things better and without the need of a hundred odd plugins (particulars not relevant here). But too much is exposed from the start, intimidating newbs. No amount of speed or improvement can make up for a bad first impression.

</rant> (Hey, I've been studying UI and usability intensively for the last two years! It's something I love to talk about, so I hope someone else here wants to rant too...)

[weeperofsouls]

the main reason i like firefox is that its fast, expandable with plugins and themable, plus i love tabs. also the fact that its free doesnt hurt either.

[Quzar]

Even though I'm still an Opera-slut and recommend it strongly for any advanced users,

huzzah! Operans unite!

[mariobro]

Opera is faster. It's regarded as the fastest browser on Earth .

All of the stuff plug-ins do in Firefox, is available in Opera from the get-go.

Opera is fully skinnable. Some skins are really cool. It has the high-tech look of the last Netscape Navigator, without the laughable sluggishness.

If you don't want to buy Opera, you can still keep using it, you'll only get a small banner ad that becomes unnoticeable in time.

Firefox is very nice, and it's trendy right now, but let's give credit to a damn fine piece of software like Opera. I've been using since day one, and I can't go back.

Plus, Opera's image handling features are second to none.

[Pyrite]

Opera is really the fastest browser on earth I couldn?t agree more.

[MulletMan13]

Camino is pretty damn fast as well...

[Quzar]

Camino is pretty damn fast as well...

shh, the PC users are talking.

(j/k, we were just referring to PC/ windows browsers)

[Sir C.A.T]

Yeah, but in firefox, There are a lot of "scripty" things I cant see

unless theres a plugin for that, then Firefox would be flawless, using it right now, with IE.

[navi]

Wow... the tabs make it really easy to hide pr0n suffering!

lol that's one girl's input

I just love all the plug-ins and themes

[|darc|]

Opera is nice, but Firefox's rendering engine is better imo.

[spaghetti]

Firefox has a marginally better rendering engine, I mean it does a better job supporting standards and IE-specific sites, but Opera is much faster at the actual rendering, especially because it kinda "guesses" the page, which gives the illusion of speed increase on dialup.

[Quzar]

can firefox save sessions?

[Skynet]

can firefox save sessions?

That's an opera feature that's come in handy before for me

[BlackAura]

Yeah, but in firefox, There are a lot of "scripty" things I cant see

Examples, please? More often than not, some idiot has written a web page so that it'll never work in anything but IE.

Firefox has a marginally better rendering engine, I mean it does a better job supporting standards and IE-specific sites, but Opera is much faster at the actual rendering, especially because it kinda "guesses" the page, which gives the illusion of speed increase on dialup.

Actually, Mozilla tends to do really badly on IE-specific sites, because it doesn't even attempt to emulate IE. It tries to match some of the error guessing stuff in Quirks mode, but Opera actually does implement some IE-specific crap than Mozilla doesn't.

Opera's page loading does seem a little better than 'zilla or IE, definitely. Mozilla's does far too many reflows while loading the page, which means that badly-written sites can go a little weird while loading (like Slashdot, for example). IE just doesn't display anything until the entire page has loaded, which is far, far worse than 'zilla on a slow connection. I don't know how Opera does it, but it's certainly quite nice.

can firefox save sessions?

I'm pretty sure that there's an extension to do that. I'm almost certain that TabBrowser Extensions supports it, but I don't think that's out for 1,0 yet.

[nakamichi]

Firefox page loading slow? Hahaha,you must be kidding.

Try the "Tweak Network Settings" extension and set it to POWER.
Then you'll see the real speed of Firefox.

(and also try to optimize your OS and modem settings with lots of registry tweaks,dialup/broadband tweaks and settings for even more extra speed if you're a more experienced geek).

Use the "AdBlock" extension and block EVERYTHING you don't want to see (flash,whole sites,java(script),popups,images,forms,even various types of files
And all of that with the power of the mighty "*" wildcard (hehehe)

Now with Firefox and all those tweaks,my pages load fast on a 56k modem,like having a 256kbps broadband connection,not crappy 56k at connecting at only 46.6kbps or lower - browsing is fast and furious,while file download is still the same ol' 56k fare.

Use the "ImageZoom" plugin to zoom and shrink every pic on the page.

Use the "FireFTP" plugin for a superior FTP experience.

Use the "User Agent Switcher" plugin for much more weird/bad site compatibility.

Use the "Translate" plugin for instant Babelfish and Google translation of any link,text or page with a right mouse-click.

Use the latest Sun Java SE 5.0 for better security,stability and compatibility,and turn it OFF when you don't need it.

And,finally - get Thunderbird for all your Mail.

For themes,you have to wait a bit - the amazing Qute theme (my favorite) is not yet updated to support Firefox 1.0

And,the best thing is,with just one click,all your extensions,themes and core browser files are updated and installed automatically if the browser detects newer versions. Sweet.

and,block all those bad-tasting cookies and make a huge anti-cookie ban list.

Now,if you mention Opera again...I'm better with my super-customized Firefox.
I won't use Opera,even on 56k.

Other useful plugins I use:

"Disable Targets For Downloads"
"View Cookies"
"OutSidebar"
The good RSS feed XML parser plugin.
and GetRight wit the "ToGetRight" plugin - amazing.


Note: I've DELETED Internet Explorer from my PC forever

Now waiting for Firefox 1.1

[Vlad Tepes]

I gotta say, I'm an Opera user, but I really like Firefox. I've been recommending Firefox to all the students in the dorms where I work. Security holes in IE have caused the network here so many problems, yet, for some reason IE is STILL the only browser CSU "officially" supports. Oh well. I can't recommend Opera to students because our new "web based email" doesn't work in Opera for some reason. Works fine in Firefox, though.

[Quzar]

Firefox page loading slow? Hahaha,you must be kidding.

[snip]

Now waiting for Firefox 1.1

if you tweak those things in Opera and your OS like you describe and use Opera, then Opera becomes EVEN FASTER. I'm pretty sure that Opera can surf as fast as firefox can with those experience crippling tweaks ou made, while retaining full images and such.

Oh well. I can't recommend Opera to students because our new "web based email" doesn't work in Opera for some reason. Works fine in Firefox, though.

did you try changing what Opera identifies itself as? Sometimes certain sites will only allow browsers they know of to access them (IE, Mozilla but not Opera).

[sixteen-bit]

Firefox page loading slow? Hahaha,you must be kidding.
[snip]
Now,if you mention Opera again...I'm better with my super-customized Firefox.
I won't use Opera,even on 56k.

You should try it, realise how much faster it feels.
I loaded a test page in Opera then in Firefox, noting that when FF was rendering the page, things felt sluggish and clunky.

The CPU load for both events reveals something interesting:

[Vlad Tepes]

did you try changing what Opera identifies itself as? Sometimes certain sites will only allow browsers they know of to access them (IE, Mozilla but not Opera).

Yeah, I tried that. Opera opens the page fine, but if you click on any of the links to check email, it locks up the browser. I've tried it on a couple of different computers, and it does the same thing on all of them.

[nakamichi]

? The CPU loads... they almost match?
(or the red line shows VERY LITTLE CPU usage?)
Which one is from Opera? the red or the green diagram?
hmmm...seems like they use very similar rendering engine and optimizations
...or one of the browsers uses a lot less resources?