Downloaded your copy of Mozilla Firefox 3 yet to help them make the world record? I’ve been using Firefox 3 since the early betas and I’ve got no qualms about recommending it wholeheartedly. The awsomebar is simply that: awesome, the speed and memory usage have become far better than the previous version, and the care and attention that have gone into the little things – like the fact that it now asks you if you want to save passwords after you’ve seen if they were correct, not before – really do make this the best web browser I’ve ever used.
Go download it already.
I’ve got it, but I’m not convinced. I’ve resolved to stick to it for a couple of days and see if it grows on me, though.
So far, I prefer the colour scheme in Firefox to that of Opera, even if it does kind of feel like a Safari clone but for all Opera 9.5’s flaws, I really like Speed Dial and the ability to lock tabs from being closed, which I don’t think Firefox has?
Not being able to close tabs I’m not focused on is a bit of a bugger, as is the lack of alt+tab to cycle through the browser tabs.
(I’m not doing a very good job of convincing myself to actually stick with Firefox here :/)
I don’t see the colour schemes for either, anyway, because I exclusively use custom skins to save as much screen real estate as possible. =o)
I never really used speed dial. That’s what my bookmarks toolbar (carefully moved to be in-line with the menus to save yet more precious vertical screen space) is for.
There’s a plugin for Firefox that can lock tabs from being closed that I used to use. Oh, and try CTRL-TAB: that’s what most programs seem to use to cycle through tabs (at least on Windows – ALT-TAB switches through application windows), and both Firefox and Opera (for Windows, again) are no exception.
Yes, I did mean ctrl+tab. I’m probably too good at touch-typing – I know sub-consciously what I’m pressing but when I look at the keyboard and try to remember what it is I’ve got to do, I just can’t do it.
Call me a purist if you like, but if one program has something like locking tabs, and ad-blocking built into the software, I’d rather use that than a program which requires me to download plugins to do the exact same job.
Have you discovered the robots Easter egg yet?
I agree with you. However, there are features I require day-to-day that Opera simply doesn’t provide as standard (Ajax debugging, colour-picking, page measuring, GTD and PGP-integration for GMail, tight integration with Selenium) and other features that are “just nice”, so Firefox+plugins is a must for me.
Opera’s still got a special place in my heart (I bought my copy way back at version 5 – back when it wasn’t free – and I’d been using it since version 3), and it’s great for browsing (and I still use it for that, especially for the tasks it’s best at): but it’s no use for me to do work in.
Ah, yes – I find myself going back to my old sitting-on-the-fence argument: no OS/browser/client/program/etc. is universally The Best – the closest I come to working in a browser is uploading my photography, writing emails and checking that the latest version of a website is displaying properly, all of which Opera does just fine, and as you say, it’s good for browsing too :-)
Downloaded it well before you made that blog post. Was one of the people trying to hammer the server at launch time since I’d just reinstalled everything on my PC so was waiting for launch before putting FF on
Anyway I have a bone to pick with you Mr Q!
Bone? Pick? Me?
Msg me on MSN about it :-P
There’s an idea. Or you could e-mail me, and save me from setting up/recovering an MSN account…
Er if you can’t get on your account I guess I’ll forgive you for deleting me from it!