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- dokbeast7, on 10/12/2007, -9/+121So get an extension that supports mouse gestures. Geez, firefox is like the most customizable browser by a long ways.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+78And no 3G!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+42Fx doesn't need everything to be built due to the extensions. That used to be the point of it, a light app to which you can easily add what you want. I use a gesture extension but I only have one or two really useful ones active.
- chrono13, on 10/12/2007, -3/+34And they insist that spell checking, phishing, etc be bundled with the browser.
They will not make official plugins. They have officially came out against this exact request.
Here is how some imagine it:
Download standard Firefox - it comes with spellcheck, phishing, dom inspector, etc official extensions - which actually update themselves independently of the browser core.
And optionally, you can download *just* the browser. This would harken back to the Firefox 0.8 days when Firefox was successful as a perfect clone of Mozilla Browser with the only primary difference was that all the bloat was cut out.
Now they are adding the bloat back in (feature-creep) and refuse to use a perfectly good plugin system that would allow them to module the extra features.
Firefox became popular through its modularity, extendability, and extensibility. Now they are taking that away with each new force-bundled feature. - Hale, on 10/12/2007, -4/+32I wish they would quit trying to add features and just work on the current problems.. like how about fixing the bloated memory bug? There is a workaround, but no fix. If they insist on adding features, how about built-in Exif support?
- clintonforbes, on 10/12/2007, -6/+32Stupid comment removed because I just can't take the rejection of being dugg down for saying something silly. It might finally push me over the edge.
- unloud, on 10/12/2007, -1/+25. . . it's only a small step, do it.
- chrono13, on 10/12/2007, -1/+25What the hell?
A Firefox 3.0 feature list without mentioning the new Gecko engine?
Gecko is the heart, the soul, and what makes Firefox tick. Pass Acid2? Hell yes it will. More fixed bugs? Of course. Speed improvements? Absolutely.
http://www.mozilla.org/roadmap/gecko-1.9-roadmap.html#Major_Areas_Of_Development
And here is the link to more Firefox 3.0 features (also linked in the article): http://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox3/Firefox_Requirements - dogshaft, on 10/12/2007, -0/+22"Though, seriously, how many people believe IE or Opera are superior because their version numbers are higher?"
Based on the fact that most people are idiots when it comes to technology, I guess the answer to your question is 'most people'. - omatsei, on 10/12/2007, -1/+23Mouse Gestures are one of those features that I always read a lot about, and have tried to use them, but never really understood why I'd need them. I use Logitech mice, which have multiple buttons, so I just set 2 of them to Back & Forward. Refresh is Ctrl-R which seems faster than holding a mouse button and making some movement. What other gestures would I need in a browser?
I see a lot of new features that would be really nice.
1. The "Privacy Mode" would be great for us, since I maintain a number of computer labs. In that situation, not having to tell people to empty their cache when they log out (long story) would really help.
2. Remote Bookmarks would help too. I have 3 laptops and 2 desktops, and getting all the bookmarks to each place is a major pain in the ass.
3. I'd also like to formally request a built-in RSS reader like Sage. The current one just shows the headlines, but with Sage, I can read the first couple sentences of the article before deciding to click on it. I can also categorize things in Folders, which is a big thing for someone with more than 150 feeds.
4. The MSI Installer and group policy support would be nice, but they're both available in add-in's.
5. Finally, Vista parental control support would be really nice. I wouldn't use it, but I'm sure someone would. Also, it would suck to have to give up a point to IE... just out of principle. - Dougcope, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19"A private web browsing mode. I guess this would mean no cache, history, password or form information."
More commonly known as "pr0n mode". - Alfyx, on 11/07/2008, -4/+19Speaking of Opera, what about a zoom feature? More and more people are getting 22"+ LCDs; I myself have a 2405FPW. At 1920x1200 without zoom, the majority of web pages cause eyestrain. Even lowly IE has this feature, albeit implemented nowhere near as well as Opera. So what is the hold up Firefox?
- unloud, on 10/12/2007, -4/+16Uh, this is firefox.
- ColonelKilkenny, on 10/12/2007, -14/+25Opera added support for spell check in version 7.50...
Just install Aspell and Opera will recognise & use it.
It isn't inline though. - Feldforschung, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12What about fixing that annoying memory holes first. Would be worth a new version for sure.
- Promantarius, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13"Now they are taking that away with each new force-bundled feature"
No offence but I really don't think adding forced spell checking is such a bad thing, given the state of the Internet at the moment. A lot of people do not take the time to spell things correctly any more, which makes their messages much harder to read. Even if it only encouraged 10% of Firefox users to spell correctly by pointing out the mistakes it's still worth it.
As far as I can tell, none of the additions thus far can be called useless bloat; each addition serves a very specific and useful purpose. On the bright side though, if you really can't handle having them I'm sure those who believe it's a waste of space could download the source and compile your own version without those extras included. Nobody is infallible though, I find the spelling checker to be incredibly useful on a frequent basis and the anti-phishing would be fantastic for that one time where I might slip up when viewing an illegitimate website. - durzagott, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10"Support pause/resume downloads across sessions."
Please, please, please include this. I hate download managers and I just want to use Firefox's default tool to resume across sessions. Especially if my PC or browser crashes in the middle of a big download. - JorgeGT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9"ERROR: incorrect configuration, impossible to connect to Internet. Please check the online help for troubleshooting."
ehh... - troydoogle7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8For corp users.... and have an official group policy addin for managing the various aspects so you can have good corporate rollout..
- kjart, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9"This is Firefox v2.1 - the 'improvements' are so minimal as to make no practical difference. To be honest v2 of Firefox was more v1.6 anyway. Make this v1.7"
Yeah, I tend to agree with you there. I believe it's intentional though. I seem to recall reading that they were intentionally increasing the versions numbers by leaps and bounds so that they could "catch up" to other browsers. Though, seriously, how many people believe IE or Opera are superior because their version numbers are higher? - astrosmash, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Don't you dare make a silly comment, clintonforbes. We're watching you...
- M2Ys4U, on 10/12/2007, -8/+14This is a Firefox story. SFTU about Opera.
- Shirk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Pot, meet kettle errr... I mean rooster.
- chrono13, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Ran out of time. Also wanted to add:
I love the spell check, and I see a real need for the phishing filter to protect end users. And these can be included by default, in the standard Firefox distribution.
But there is no reason why they can not be modular and allow for further community involvement (perhaps you can make a better anti-phishing plugin?) and make Firefox even more customizable and allow it to fit a larger range of needs. - Alfyx, on 11/07/2008, -0/+5This is probably why my college still hasn't even upgraded to 2.0.
- tdk2fe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Being able to use the 'mailto:' with something like gmail seems pretty cool - i've been waiting a while for that.
- mtcool1988, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Ya ok................ Sure buddy..
- Thorpe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I haven't had any major problems at all. I'm sure Mozilla Firefox 2 improves stability over the previous versions.
- Thorpe, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6You can also download the Gmail Notifier - that allows you to direct mailto: links to Gmail.
- TonyCubed, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7Why exactly?
- kernelhappy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Did someone say pr0n mode?
Stealther does what you seek:
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1306/
I personally wish the Cookies exceptions list would allow me to totally block all sub-domains for a host (like *.hitbox.com) and I wish there was a search feature for the exception list (nothing worse than visiting somesite.com and figuring out that it's not working because you blocked aslk223.somesite.com 3 months ago) - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4There are other installer systems that are faster and aren't restricted by lack of MSI. See Numara Deploy, which installs only the new and changed files and registry entries. It's blazingly fast and works in the background to do installs as admin.
- Grimboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Bullpoop Mr. Hype-stupid-prediction-journalist type thing.
Yeah. - juraj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I've found this, literally, on Mozilla's site:
Security / Privacy Context UI redesign (the lock icon _sucks_; needs more detail) - chrono13, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microformat
Microformats, from what I've read, seem to be tags.
So as an example, you could actually use such tags in a search to narrow it down from just flat data, to tagged data. It could tell the difference between a seven digit number and a telephone number, or allow you to search by tag.
A more clear example would be searching for specifics in Oregon, often many on the web will not write Oregon, but will instead use OR, which is more than worthless as a search term. This could change that.
Anyone else know more about these Microformats? - badtz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3ahh *****, I meant to write Firefox. LOL seriously.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Or do you mean mobile as in for mobile phones? Then you need Minimo
- VeganG, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Less steps to install Add-Ons? It's pretty much two clicks now, as it is.
- GuyHitByTruck, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3If I can't play Half Life on it, I won't use it.
- sremick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3People who parrot the "the browser as your OS" have no real concept of what an operating system is, what an application is, and how they work.
Do a little research on all the extremely-technical black-magic voodoo that OSes do under the hood. Drivers? Memory management? Process management and inter-process communications? File system management? Networking stack?
The Mozilla guys (and any other application vendor [1] ) is having a hard enough time making good applications. Expecting them to be able to fork their limited resources and somehow pull off integrated OS functionality into the software is absurd.
[1] Humorously enough, the "any other" could accurately include Microsoft too, by they own track record. - wounded625, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3You need to learn how to use a keyboard without caps lock.
- unloud, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8I wasn't being a prick, I was just pointing out to him why he was getting dugg down by others.
. . .Did you really just write all of that in order to insult people? It's fairly uncommon to 'typo' an entire word. - bart9h, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"Make Firefox help accessible only while online. Not sure how good and idea this is."
Zero good. - honds, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Seriously though... how do you integrate OpenID into a browser? I was going to say something but I figured no one would care, but since you brought it up first...
OpenID is a decentralized identification system primarily for web pages. How do you integrate that into a browser? I mean, hell, I can make my web site OpenID capable in minutes on a Pear enabled PHP install and it will work automatically in all versions of Mozilla and IE. Do they mean that the Firefox website is going to use OpenId? Or possibly a Firefox OpenId identity provider?
Does anyone have more details? - stoppedcode12, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"Because it's not a problem"
Sure it is. Try running firefox in marathon mode. - sremick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2What about it? It already exists and has for years:
http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable - Brkwtzandrew, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Line numbers on the left hand side of view-source would be awesome!
Considering the fact that it has been a feature request for a long time I am surprised they haven't implemented it.
Line and column numbers in the status bar is a step up but it is still not as useful as a line number on the left side would be. - Toupee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3There are always going to be features no one needs. But I think the Firefox team is evolving the browser in important ways with every feature they add that "bloats" the browser. For example, I've never been too concerned with saving a page as a PDF before - and probably not THAT many people are excited about the feature. But then again, we all know that "Save Page As" creates an incredible mess of a folder. Before, if I wanted to save a copy of an order confirmation or something, I would go to the trouble of taking a screenshot, cropping out my browser, and saving it where it wouldn't get lost among thousands of other JPEGs. This is a smart, easy solution to something that was more time consuming than it should have been.
In defense of the spellchecker and phishing filter, your main concern is that these should be extensions that can be uninstalled in favor of better ones. You can disable them in the options and install whatever you want anyway. Bloat? I don't really know for sure, but highly doubt the spellcheck and phishing filter consume RAM when they're disabled, and I certainly didn't notice any increase in the install file size, so your argument seems petty. I think that the inclusion of these features is an awfully nice feature that helps virtually everyone - most of which wouldn't have bothered to install them as separate extensions in the first place. I sure didn't bother in the past, but I've grown quite fond of the spellcheck, especially.
Yes, some of the upcoming 3.0 features are already available with extensions. But they're also ones that make perfect sense being in the program from the start. I mean, isn't it nice that that you can click the Restart Firefox button after installing an extension - without having to have installed the RestartFirefox extension that not many people knew about anyway? I mean, heck, I'm using FoxMarks to organize my bookmarks over the net now, but if the Firefox team can integrate something better - and I certainly know there's room for improvement - I'm all for that.
I think you're making a bigger issue out of little things. I agree the browser should stay light and extensible - and for the most part it IS. I haven't seriously considered using any other browser since I started using Firefox around 0.6 - and I imagine I won't be through 3.0 and beyond. - Knightshadow23, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I agree man. I love firefox to death but i can't leave it open over night with multiple tabs because when I wake up it would be using obscene amounts of unneeded memory.
- Toupee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I think they were actually getting at cutting out the need to restart Firefox. I know this is mentioned later on, but I was reading that wiki page several months ago and it was one of the higher priorities back then.
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