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Firefox 4 has finally arrived and I believe it is a somewhat radical departure from previous versions.....particularly the interface.
Editorial reviews are almost all extremely favourable. User reviews are largely positive too but there are still quite a few complaints about heavy resource usage.
Have you upgraded to the latest Firefox version yet??
Let us (your fellow members) know what you think of it.
I installed it.
Surfed a couple pages.
Closed it down and went back to Chrome.
It's very possible that it's bigger and better than ever. But for anyone who has used Chrome for a while, there wasn't anything all that compelling about it (unless I missed it).
Have you played with it yet?
I played around with it in Win7 64bit and Win XP, using the installed and the portable version, respectively.
Though I consider myself a Firefox fan, I'm sorry to say that the only thing I find positive about Firefox 4 is the faster start up. A lot of talk about the speedier rendering of pages - sorry, was not noticeable to me.
If you don't dress it up, it looks as ugly as Chrome - sorry Chrome users. Plus, it takes up quite a lot of vertical space - so not good if you're on a laptop.
Call me old-fashioned, but I can't for the life of me understand why developers deem it necessary to make drastic changes that force long time users to go through a learning curve. Instead of coding in useful stuff that addons provide, some of the changes force you to use even more addons in order to get Firefox to look, feel & work as you want it to.
With the latest version, I got the feeling that Mozilla got too focused on gaining Chrome users over, that they forgot to keep their existing users happy. Proof:
Tabs on top: if I wanted Chrome or Opera, I'd use Chrome or Opera, or both and maybe I already do.
Status-bar: allegedly, replaced by the addons bar, but even that doesn't work nicely - addons are placed on the left by default, which results in the big round Windows "Start" button to cover them - solution? [url=https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/772300:fsd7w54s]Here[/url:fsd7w54s], if that makes any logic. Plus, if you update keeping your existing profile, not all of your addons show or work as they should.
Padlock: also gone, replaced by the "Site Identity Button" in the navigation bar.
Navigation bar: it serves so many functions now, one is lost if he turns that off.
Addons Manager: at first glance, no way to manually look for updates for all your addons at one go.
Chrome folder: not present by default, one has to create it and put his .css files in. But even then, the changes in the Firefox code, make a lot of your own code not work, so you spend extra time trying to get everything back - I say trying, because it doesn't always work as expected.
Few more points, but I'll stop here, pointing out the most important issue I have: Firefox 4 crashes a lot and that Crash Report window doesn't close when the report is sent - have to click on the little x on the top right corner.
As someone said in the mozillaZine Forums, it feels like Firefox 4 is not ready for "Prime Time".
Needless to say, I'm still on Firefox 3.6.16 and only kept the portable version of Firefox 4 to keep playing with it.
I am human
I find your comments spot on Flying Dutchman. Hope they make a change real soon (like issue v4.01) with the feel most FF users have come to love. Wish more people would comment, and mention why they like or dislike it, Mindblower!
"For the needy, not the greedy"
WOW. Thanks for your very honest and thorough appraisal FD......great job!!
That's an astute observation, that FF is pandering to Chrome fans by emulating [in part] Google's approach. FF got where it is today by being uniquely FF, not by imitating other browsers. It is understandable to a certain extent though; Chrome has gradually eaten into FF's share of the market, not substantially but obviously enough to make Mozilla sit up and take notice.
I'm pleased now I haven't yet succumbed to the temptation to upgrade....think I'll stick with v3.6 for the time being, at least [as MB said] until an updated version is released which hopefully will deal with some of those issues.
Thanks again.......Jim
Hi Mindblower and Jim,
Reading my post again, I don't really sound like a Firefox fan, do I?
[quote:3mdilhwu]FF got where it is today by being uniquely FF, not by imitating other browsers[/quote:3mdilhwu]
That's exactly my point, I like Firefox, not some Chrome look alike/ wanna be - there's the original and at least one better clone than Firefox 4. Makes dread about how Firefox 5 will be.
[quote:3mdilhwu]FF is pandering to Chrome fans[/quote:3mdilhwu]
How about [url=https://blog.mozilla.com/addons/2011/04/01/improving-add-on-performance/:3mdilhwu]this[/url:3mdilhwu]?
Is this new or is it just me discovering it late? Please notice, they're talking about start-up time.
And what's the point Firefox gets always beaten by Chrome? What's the point Chrome users brag about over Firefox? Start-up time!
Now, I ask myself: when did this get so important that Mozilla started pressing addons developers to improve the start-up time impact of their addons? Was it when the loyal users complained about it, version after version? Unfortunately no, it started when Chrome turned into a considerable competitor/threat?
[quote:3mdilhwu]which hopefully will deal with some of those issues[/quote:3mdilhwu]
I wouldn't hold my breath on that; all things I've described are design choices, so unlikely to change - unless we go on strike?
On a side note, I checked out the latest Palemoon as well (based on Firefox 4). Not very satisfying either. The developer tried to keep some of the old functionality and I hope it'll get better over time - would make a nice Windows alternative. For example, there's still a Status bar, but it's obviously achieved by coding in the Status-4-Evar functions which is a good addon that needs some more work.
I am human
Jim Hillier
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