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Firefox 2 Launch - Interview With Chris Beard
ReadWriteWeb writes "This afternoon Firefox 2 will be 'officially' launched. In anticipation of the unveiling, ReadWriteWeb has a brief interview with Chris Beard — Mozilla Vice President of Products. Subjects discussed include the growing enterprise usage of Firefox, the importance of user experience and security, Mozilla's theory behind Web feeds and why they haven't included an integrated RSS Reader, the growing add-on ecosystem, offline browsing, and finally a little about the future of the browser." From the article: "It felt to us like a 2.0 product, particularly if we looked at it from what 1.0 was, to 2.0. It was like half steps, from 1.0 to 1.5 to 2.0. It's also a very stable and rock solid release - it's really ready for the masses. So it really does feel like a 2, as opposed to a 1.x product. Firefox 2 has, we estimate, between 3-4 times the number of fixes than FF 1.5 did. And that doesn't just include fixes and bugs, but all of the feature work as well as memory, stability and security issues. But there's certainly a lot in it which makes it really solid." Also on the site is a concise review of the product, and an overview of Marketing Firefox 2.0.
I've been using it since yesterday since Mozilla had it posted in their pub directory. :( But I like the new look and feel to it, plus it uses quite less memory.
So far, so good. I was upset my Daily Dilbert and FastFirefox Extensions weren't compatible though.
Good job Mozilla!
I look forward to the actual release. Of the American English version. For more than one platform. (This is not directed at the firefox team).
Chris said that current stats indicate that Firefox usage peaks mid-week, as opposed to the weekends - which he said is the reverse of what it was two years ago when they launched Firefox.
Where do they get these stats?
to get rid of the close buttons on every tab and make it like 1.5 goto about:config and set
browser.tabs.closeButtons to 3
and to hide the Go button set
browser.urlbar.hideGoButton to true
IE7 and FF2, I have to say its really no contest. Despite just plain hating how much vertical real estate the new tab toolbar takes up, performance with IE 7 is just horrible. Even a light page like the Google home page take about about half second longer to render on my Core 2 Duo machine. Let's not forget only really giving lip service to CSS standards, there is still going to be a ton of web pages that need hacks or workarounds for IE CSS issues. Check out http://www.positioniseverything.net/ for the latest hoops you need to jump through for IE. In no means is Firefox perfect in its CSS support but at least they respond to incompatibilities in a reasonable time frame.
Ack! Thbbbt. Sorry, hairball. Anyway, bundling is the software equivalent of a traveling salesman sticking his foot in the door. It stinks.
The goal of Firefox is to have a browser that supports web standards and puts users first. It does a great job of that. It isn't to have 100% market share. To the extent that it re-energized ie development, it is a boon for web standards. Better is better, even if it is from Microsoft.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
The reason to use it is already there -- no idiotic little script can install something without your knowledge into your always-running web browser. This does change with IE7 to a certain extent, but it's still very much the way it was. That's why I have switched people to it, and they have noticed the difference. Most of the people who were using IE had their computers crapped up in weeks. Not so with FF.
Yes, autoupdate will allow you to update to 2.0. You have the option to refuse the update. If you refuse the update then the update will still offer you point releases of the 1.5.x series while it continues to be supported.
Bb-B-C-C#-D
My blog
Just to add to that:
browser.tabs.closeButtons 0 = close button on active tab
browser.tabs.closeButtons 1 = default, close button on all tabs
browser.tabs.closeButtons 2 = no close buttons
browser.tabs.closeButtons 3 = Fx 1.x style, one close button on right
It updates instantly so you can try them all out and find the one you like. I like 2 because I use an extra mouse button to close tabs instead of the close buttons.
CTRL+Shift+T.
You can also right click the task bar and say Undo Close Tab.
And the History menu contains a submenu called Recently Closed Tabs.
You know, Microsoft's street address also says a lot about their mentality.
Yet you're still a douchebag. Yay, you use Opera - go fuck yourself.
Because it has approximately 1Mb more than Opera included in the install file.
1MB?! Yikes! That's going to take an extra 3 seconds to download!
E pluribus unum