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Firefox Accepting Feature Suggestions for Version 3

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the i-would-like-a-pony dept.

Krishna Dagli writes to mention an article over at Ars Technica discussing the Firefox team's call for feature suggestions. Version 3 of the software is already in the works, and the team members are looking to the community for ideas on where to go next. From the article: "The wish list is long indeed, and it provides an insight into the desires of the browser community, and a look at the open source development process. While closed-source projects often ask their user community for feedback on requested features, the process is not usually open to the public. For Firefox 3, anyone can both suggest new features and comment on other people's suggestions. The feature requests are divided into categories, such as browser customization, privacy features, security, history, download manager, and other areas. There are suggestions for features found in other competing browsers, such Safari, IE 7 beta, and Opera. IE7 seemed to be featured most prominently, with requests for "low-rights mode," as well as more cosmetic features like skins that mimic Microsoft's browser."

12 of 422 comments (clear)

  1. Keep it simple ... by schwit1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Make it fast, compliant and secure. Leave everything else to extensions.

    1. Re:Keep it simple ... by Chris_Jefferson · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Actually, I think that firefox's reliance on extensions is rapidly becoming a problem. For so many features I'm told to "get a plugin", which often isn't being maintained to the same high standard as the rest of the browser.

      I'm happy for many features to be in extensions and a lean, mean version to be provided for those who want it. I'd also like a "bloated" browser as well, full of plugins that are considered useful, carefully maintained, and also checked to make sure they all work well together.

      --
      Combination - fun iPhone puzzling
    2. Re:Keep it simple ... by debrain · · Score: 4, Insightful

      By default, build in functionality to hunt down every little extension that covers all that extra functionality.

    3. Re:Keep it simple ... by Man+of+E · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Make it fast, compliant and secure. Offer two versions for download:
      - Barebones, browser only, users must install their own extensions. Most geeks will want this one.
      - Some common and supported extensions preinstalled to support features included in competing browsers. Most people will want this one.

      --
      Ceci n'est pas une sig
    4. Re:Keep it simple ... by mqduck · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The solution seems simple to me. Move all the extra features to extensions, bundle those extensions with the browser, and turn them on in a "default" installation. Won't confuse your average user and would make the lean-and-meaners happy. Those of us with a bit more knowledge can disable the extensions we don't use, providing a benefit for people like me (and I suspect most others) who don't like to whine about Firefox bloat, but still think no more bloat than necessary is a good idea.

      --
      Property is theft.
    5. Re:Keep it simple ... by kryptkpr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Are you proposing loading up a new instance of Firefox for every open window? I regularly use both windows AND tabs, and it's not uncommon for me to have 4-5 windows open (1 window = 1 research subject, and windows have many tabs in them all relating to the same subject). Your proposal would quadruple the memory requirements on Firefox for my system.

      If such a feature is included, I would like to be able to turn it off. My firefox very, very rarely crashes (once every few *months* Java or Flash bring it down). If you're having crashing problems, you should start up a new profile and re-install your extensions one by one to see which one is causing you the grief.

      --
      DJ kRYPT's Free MP3s!
    6. Re:Keep it simple ... by Theovon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Good thinking. Some people agree with you, adding this to the wiki:

      Plugins
        Run plugins as a independent process, that talks with firefox via a socket or something like this. If a plugin crash it doesn't take firefox with it. It also allow one to kill a locked or high load plugins and keep surfing.
        Run plugins as a independent process, so that when they leak memory, that memory will be freed when the tab or window is closed.
        Run plugins as a independent process, so that when a plugin refuses to shut down (like acroread), the browser can forcibly kill it.

      Stability and resource-utilization improvements
      Put each document into an independent process (not thread: separate forked process) so that:
        When a document causes Firefox to crash, the whole browser won't be taken with it.
        When a bug in Firefox stomps on memory it doesn't own, other documents in memory are not corrupted.
        When a document causes Firefox to leak massive amounts of memory, closing that tab or window will free up the wasted memory.
        When a bug in Firefox or a script on the page locks up (infinite loop or whatnot), the whole browser will not hang up, just the one document. Closing the tab or window kills the aberrant process. This is also an issue for DNS lookup; the browser always freezes completely during DNS lookup. Make this affect only the document being loaded.
        Obviously, this also means that the Firefox main UI should also be in a separate process, and you should use IPC and sharing of window-system resource IDs and handles to communicate between UI and document processes.
        When the UI crashes, restarting the UI can sweep up documents that find themselves unattached and re-present them undisturbed.
        Cross-site scripting and buffer overflow exploits have a much harder time hacking into information for other documents, because they are inaccessible in separate processes.

  2. Stability. by dal20402 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    With extensions, Firefox does pretty much anything that anyone could want in a browser. I'd like only two things from Firefox 3:

    1. More stability and less memory usage. On both Windows and OS X, Firefox can swallow all your system resources if you leave it running long enough and do enough browsing. On my machines, the program also crashes, infrequently but regularly, most often when a page it's loading is corrupted by a network error. Spend the effort on finding memory leaks and bugs instead of adding gewgaws.

    2. Without changing the functionality of the interface or its basic elements, make it prettier. The buttons look big, garish, and way too colorful; look at Safari for one example of a better way. (I use a skin to make my Firefox installs look much like Safari, but I think a more professional/more beautiful interface could inspire more people to switch.)

  3. Per site Shockwave Flash disabling!!! by Programmer_Errant · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Preferrably with control on the main panel to disable those sites with annoying float over ads that obstruct the view of the article you are trying to read. This is important since the Shockwave Flash positions itself as a mechanism for advertizers to bypass browser controls. Shockwave needs to be seriously slapped down.

  4. Different password handling by Rumagent · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Number one on my list:

    Wait until the password has been accepted before offering to save it.

    Other than that. Slim it down to the bare minimum and let people customize it with extensions.

  5. JavaScript links by Hangin10 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've yet to find an extension for this, so if there is one, please let me know.

    It's all too often when I middle-click a link to open in a new tab, only to get the tab being "Untitled" and the URL starts with "javascript:". Is it too much to ask that Firefox detect a javascript link and prevent it from opening in a new tab (or window, but usually I catch those), and merely run the javascript?

  6. Re:4 things by Ash-Fox · · Score: 4, Insightful
    A fix for this javascript DoS attack:
    for(;;) alert("Please restart your browser.");
    What would be nice is to have those pesky dialogs part of the window they belong to, in their own little UI. So they don't block me from changing anything in the address bar, looking at other tabs etc.
    --
    Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.