Firefox - finally good enough for Mac use

[Kaido]

Article:

http://www.orionmods.com/blog/?p=14


Software:

Firefox

Adblock Plus

Mouse Gestures

Google Browser Sync

Full Screen (works on Safari, read my entry)

Vista-aero theme

1Password ($29.95 and worth every cent!)

I didn't like Firefox in the past, but it's good enough now and I've had enough problems with Safari 3 that I'm switching.

 

[randomlinh]

what did they do significantly in 2.0.0.11 to fix thinks? I heard 3 was going to be very good, but it's a ways away.

and I'd say one of the GrApple themes is the best ones on OS X

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: randomlinh
what did they do significantly in 2.0.0.11 to fix thinks? I heard 3 was going to be very good, but it's a ways away.

and I'd say one of the GrApple themes is the best ones on OS X

I don't know...I haven't used it for a few releases, all I know is that .11 works great. Not a single crash so far in 2 days of using it. Yippie! I'll give GrApple, thanks!

 

[Parasitic]

What was the big problem? I have been running Firefox fine on Leopard.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Parasitic
What was the big problem? I have been running Firefox fine on Leopard.

The big problem was Safari, and lack of plugins that did what I wanted. I didn't like Firefox in the past because it was slow and had weird scrolling issues. I tried .11 and it looks like those are mostly gone.

 

[randomlinh]

I never had consistent crashing or anything with firefox. every so often, yeah. I also use bonecho (intel optimized firefox with the firefoxy form widgets) though, so I dunno if that had anything to do with it.

It was a bit sluggish compared to safari though.

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

Does it feel like it's on a Mac though? I couldn't get into using it because of how ugly it felt. Also, if I'm running firefox on my 2 VM Windows Machines, could I link the saved browsers to on central one so my favorites/passwords are linked to all of them?

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: SoundTheSurrender
Does it feel like it's on a Mac though? I couldn't get into using it because of how ugly it felt. Also, if I'm running firefox on my 2 VM Windows Machines, could I link the saved browsers to on central one so my favorites/passwords are linked to all of them?

Yes, you can link the favorites/passwords using Google Browser Sync:

http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/browsersync/

I am currently running GrApple based on the above recommendation. I also really like Vista-aero a lot, it has big, easy, clear buttons and blends in well with Aqua's graphics. My only complaint right now is that the widgets (buttons, radio boxes, etc.) are still blocky. I think either Bon Echo or another OS X-optimized build of Firefox fixes that, but I'm pretty happy with .11 right now. Been using it a ton all day, no lockups, no crashes, no problems. If you can live with squarish buttons, it's a very good move!

 

[Kaido]

The only major thing I'm missing right now is Safari's Spotlight-style search feature, where it grays out the screen and highlights and bounces the searched text. Firefox just does it in a green box, which draws attention to it, but Safari's method really focuses on it. Hope someone makes a plug-in for it!

 

[imported_Shivetya]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Parasitic
What was the big problem? I have been running Firefox fine on Leopard.

The big problem was Safari, and lack of plugins that did what I wanted. I didn't like Firefox in the past because it was slow and had weird scrolling issues. I tried .11 and it looks like those are mostly gone.

huh?

I have been using Firefox on the Mac since I first got the Mac. Frankly, Safari is the one that sucks. FF always rendered pages correctly and scrolled just fine, thank you.

The nice thing about FF is that its fairly consistent between machine types. Hell Apple is about as consistent between Apps as MS - which is not very much.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

it still has odd problems

numerous times it just beach balls on me when i switch back to it after say using CS2 or parallels or another program

and it still doesnt seem to like dual screens, sometimes when i move the window from one screen to the other...all the little autofill pop ups and address bar history slide out things still appear on the original screen. does the same with right clicking. right click while FF is on the right hand screen and the dialogue box pops up on the left hand screen in the middle of no where

its annoying.

though i have to say, it is nicer to use than opera... i dunno why, ive just totally gone off opera. never even bothered with safari

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Shivetya

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Parasitic
What was the big problem? I have been running Firefox fine on Leopard.

The big problem was Safari, and lack of plugins that did what I wanted. I didn't like Firefox in the past because it was slow and had weird scrolling issues. I tried .11 and it looks like those are mostly gone.

huh?

I have been using Firefox on the Mac since I first got the Mac. Frankly, Safari is the one that sucks. FF always rendered pages correctly and scrolled just fine, thank you.

The nice thing about FF is that its fairly consistent between machine types. Hell Apple is about as consistent between Apps as MS - which is not very much.

Firefox scrolling was never as smooth for me as Safari was. It's much better with .11 but still not perfect, but pretty dang close. Also little things like resizing the window looked slow. I liked Safari 2 a fair bit, but used it in conjunction with Camino. Now it's just Safari baby!

 

[Kaido]

Firefox Exploit can Hack Gmail

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer
it still has odd problems

numerous times it just beach balls on me when i switch back to it after say using CS2 or parallels or another program

and it still doesnt seem to like dual screens, sometimes when i move the window from one screen to the other...all the little autofill pop ups and address bar history slide out things still appear on the original screen. does the same with right clicking. right click while FF is on the right hand screen and the dialogue box pops up on the left hand screen in the middle of no where

its annoying.

though i have to say, it is nicer to use than opera... i dunno why, ive just totally gone off opera. never even bothered with safari

I was never a big Opera fan. I kinda liked old IE (pre-7) and Safari 2, but Firefox has been my favorite to date.

 

[MovingTarget]

I am normally a pretty avid FF user, but I found it had too many quirks on OSX. I finally switched to Camino and never looked back. I do miss the plugins from FF though. Maybe this new version has improved.

 

[Kaido]

I've found two bugs that annoy me:

1. Problems with scripts: This probably is mainly on AT - if I open a window to make a post or reply, it sometimes doesn't send the post - it just hangs there like it's going to send, but never does. If I open up Safari and cut-and-paste the text in, it posts right away. It also sometimes happens on the Quick Reply box too.

2. Flash display: If I'm reading, say, TUAW, and there's a Youtube video embedded in a post, I have to scroll down so that the tab bar is partially overlapping the video box in order for the preview image or video to be displayed.

These don't happen 100% of the time, but they do happen often and I find them very annoying. It's a difficult problem because I like Firefox's plugins like Adblock, Google Sync, etc. and don't want to give those up.

 

[Kadarin]

The only problem I've noticed (over several versions) is that when there's a pulldown menu, in some rare cases clicking on the menu doesn't show the choices and I have to manually tab through them using the arrow keys.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: Kaido
I've found two bugs that annoy me:

1. Problems with scripts: This probably is mainly on AT - if I open a window to make a post or reply, it sometimes doesn't send the post - it just hangs there like it's going to send, but never does. If I open up Safari and cut-and-paste the text in, it posts right away. It also sometimes happens on the Quick Reply box too.

2. Flash display: If I'm reading, say, TUAW, and there's a Youtube video embedded in a post, I have to scroll down so that the tab bar is partially overlapping the video box in order for the preview image or video to be displayed.

These don't happen 100% of the time, but they do happen often and I find them very annoying. It's a difficult problem because I like Firefox's plugins like Adblock, Google Sync, etc. and don't want to give those up.

1: I noticed something similar to this when i was working for this company over the summer. I would browse AT on the computers there (they really didn't care about forums, they cared about bandwidth, so... no youtube or anything like that) and I wouldn't even have the Quick Reply box in IE7.

2: Huh, never really came across anything like that.

After looking up what GoogleSync is, I can understand why you would want that. I really only surf the web on my laptop, so I couldn't care less if my desktop maintained all my preferences. And I use Google Homepage to store all my bookmarks, so that is one less thing.

As for Adblocking, Safari-Adblock (which is free, ergo score) keeps getting better, now allowing for subscriptions and custom settings and the like. Honestly, version .1 worked just fine for me.

Frankly, I never liked the look and feel of Firefox on OS X, and the only thing that it has that I wish Safari did was to open all links in a new tab, rather than a new window. I know that SafariStand allows this, I just wish that Safari could do it by default.

 

[Kmax82]

*EDIT: All my rants have been displaced after giving a few of those plugins a shot, etc.. so disregard this post.

 

[pinktank]

ermm, there is an intel version at beatnikpad.com

 

[kamper]

Originally posted by: Kaido
2. Flash display: If I'm reading, say, TUAW, and there's a Youtube video embedded in a post, I have to scroll down so that the tab bar is partially overlapping the video box in order for the preview image or video to be displayed.

Hrmm, I have that too, you're the only other person I've heard report this. I fired up a new profile a while ago and it didn't happen so I assume it's an extension problem. Wanna compare lists?

 

[Kmax82]

I believe that the Flash problem is associated with Adblock Plus. Don't quote me on it, but I remember having that problem but I don't anymore, and I think when I was troubleshooting it, that that was the culprit.