Fire Fox Three Was Better Than Fire Fox Four

I think I understand the reasoning behind "tabs on top." It doesn't help old users a whole lot, but it simplifies the interface paradigm a little bit when all of the controls that affect the content of the tab (address bar, reload, bookmark bar, etc) are inside that tab.

Removing the toolbar and status bar are about squeezing every bit of screen real estate they can for use in the page area itself. This is marginally helpful.

I think if we'd started out with these ideas and then were forced to use the old design, we'd be screaming louder about it than this way.

Fresh-eyed movie blog

I stopped using Firefox when they put so much junk into it that it started slowing stuff down. I have been partying with Chrome ever since it came out.

I'm goin to have to look at FF again if it's simpler.

“Human beings are the only animals of which I am thoroughly and cravenly afraid.”—George Bernard Shaw

Trying Chrome after FF 3 felt like driving a Ferrari after a delivery truck. That experience has made me not want to go back to it.

A brighter future for a darker age.

What version was Firefox in when Chrome came out? Like, 2.8? 3.0? Whatever it was, it was the absolute worst version I've seen. Insane memory leak even by FF standards, crashed multiple times a day. I think it contributed significantly to Chrome adoption.

Fresh-eyed movie blog

Now Firefox 5 is out.

@Paradox: I have trouble with 4 crashing too. My desktop is about as powerful as my little netbook, though.

"I don't know how I do it. I'm like the Mr. Bean of sex." -Drunkscriblerian

Was every change in FF 5 backend? The "thanks for updating" page only listed FF 4 frontend stuff.

If it was just backend, it should have been a .5 release, like 3.5 was. Are they trying to beat Chrome's numbers in the teens?

Fresh-eyed movie blog

I have begun to wonder the same thing.

^^The main changes were better CSS and other rendering, and a few other tweaks that generally make it faster. The only real feature I've noticed is that closing a tab now works like Chrome, not changing the size of each tab until you move your mouse away from the tab.

I think they've all but explicitly stated that this is what they're doing with their new "rapid release" process.

It seems dumb to me—I always hated Chrome's version number inflation. (Not to mention all the extensions that break because they're stated to be compatible with "4.x", even though there are barely any changes in "5.x")

And yes, from what I can tell, all the changes are backend. Wikipedia even says "the GUI has not been changed".

edited 24th Jun '11 8:56:03 PM by CentralAvenue

Heapers’ Hangout

And Firefox 5 broke most of the cool add-ons I use, like Download Accelerator Plus, Speedbit Video Downloader and McAfee SiteAdvisor.

"Hipsters: the most dangerous gang in the US." - Pacific Mackerel

I have a lot of extensions, and none of them broke when I went to FF5. Though apparently it was out for a few weeks before I got it, because they're releasing so fast we're getting blueshift.

edited 29th Jun '11 3:29:35 PM by TParadox

Fresh-eyed movie blog

^^^There actually was at least one GUI change to 5: Tabs will not expand after you close one, until you move your mouse away from the tab bar. This means you can close a bunch of tabs in a row without ever moving your mouse, assuming you start at the leftmost one.

As for getting addons to work after an upgrade, Addon Compatibility Reporter is your friend.

edited 29th Jun '11 5:02:37 PM by Funnyguts

I went a little crazy with Addon Compatibility Reporter from version 3 to version 4, and managed to get Firefox to crash on launch so badly I couldn't even get it fixed in safe mode, and had to completely uninstall/reinstall.

Fresh-eyed movie blog

Yeah, Firefox (or Mozilla) disables add-ons for a reason.

In the case of SiteAdvisor, it apparently caused too many crashes with 5.

edited 1st Jul '11 6:58:18 AM by RocketDude

"Hipsters: the most dangerous gang in the US." - Pacific Mackerel

Huh, I thought I noticed that once or twice, but I couldn't figure out how to do it again, so I assumed my mind was playing tricks on me.

(It apparently doesn't do it when you're closing the last tab on the right, which is what I kept trying)

Heapers’ Hangout

I never had opened that much tabs to notice anyway. Anyway, version 5 while freezes less than version 4, it is still too often for my taste.

edited 12th Jul '11 12:03:45 AM by Blurring

If a chicken crosses the road and nobody else is around to see it, does the road move beneath the chicken instead?

Firefox 4 never worked for me in the literal sense. None of the add ons functioned, and new ones I installed would just disappear when the mandatory restart happened.

Firefox 6 is now out!

What, seriously? Have they thrown out version numbering out the window?

"Hipsters: the most dangerous gang in the US." - Pacific Mackerel

Firefox 5 was around for what, two months? Three? They're just going really fast.

Fresh-eyed movie blog

What's the changelog say?

Fight smart, not fair.

I dunno, but there's been some stuff moved around in the History tabs and such.

"Hipsters: the most dangerous gang in the US." - Pacific Mackerel

Personally, the only thing I notice is that FF 6 does freeze less. Still do just less.

edited 17th Aug '11 10:04:48 PM by Blurring

If a chicken crosses the road and nobody else is around to see it, does the road move beneath the chicken instead?

Finally let it install FF 6 today. Mandatory domain highlighting? Lolno, I'm phishing savvy. I don't think I've ever gotten into about:config so fast on a new install.

Fresh-eyed movie blog