To start off with the topic, I am not a Firefox lover. Instead, I am an Opera fan and I love my Opera browsers (Opera on my desktop & Opera Mini on my phone). But yes, I like the browser business and always go on to check out the new features when a new version of any browser comes out. Uh! Wait! The browser business I am talking about here is only the major browsers (IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Netscape - or is it way too old now). Should I include Opera Mini too?
I always try hard to keep a copy of the latest versions of some (well, I should say that) of these browsers and occasionally (actually more than occasionally) use them for my browsing needs, specially for testing purposes of my web development projects.
Recently, the Firefox team released a beta of its upcoming Firefox 3. I was keen to check out the beta and after some days of busy schedules I managed to grab a look at the feature log. I was lucky to have a detailed explanation of each new feature. But believe it or not, as I read through the feature list I couldn't stop saying one word. "Copy Cat!" Don't offend me for that. That is just a handy word I use for people (or even things) that copy others.
So let me give you a little bit of details. Here are the new features that Firefox 3 beta has. Below is the release notes of Firefox 3 beta 1 and I have included my comments in green (No! Not red. Green is my favorite. May be because of that I have folders called "Green" instead of "Misc", in my email accounts )
What's New in Firefox 3 Beta 1
Firefox 3 Beta 1 is based on the new Gecko 1.9 Web rendering platform, which has been under development for the past 27 months and includes nearly 2 million lines of code changes, fixing more than 11,000 issues. Gecko 1.9 includes some major re-architecting for performance, stability, correctness, and code simplification and sustainability. Firefox 3 has been built on top of this new platform resulting in a more secure, easier to use, more personal product with a lot under the hood to offer website and Firefox add-on developers.
- More Security
- One click site info: Click the site favicon in the location bar to see who owns the site. Identity verification is prominently displayed and easier to understand. In later versions, Extended Validation SSL certificate information will be displayed. (In Opera we have a question mark at the end of address bar for the exact same feature.)
- Malware Protection: malware protection warns users when they arrive at sites which are known to install viruses, spyware, trojans or other malware. You can test it here (note: our blacklist of malware sites is not yet activated). (That's a great feature.)
- New Web Forgery Protection page: the content of pages suspected as web forgeries is no longer shown. You can test it here. (This is called fraud protection, in Opera. Implimented since Opera 9.01.)
- New SSL error pages: clearer and stricter error pages are used when Firefox encounters an invalid SSL certificate. (A part of fraud protection, in Opera.)
- Add-ons and Plugin version check: Firefox now automatically checks add-on and plugin versions and will disable older, insecure versions. (This is indeed revolutionary.)
- Secure add-on updates: to improve add-on update security, add-ons that provide updates in an insecure manner will be disabled. (I am wondering! Is this simply https?)
- Anti-virus integration: Firefox will inform anti-virus software when downloading executables. (Haha! Is there any browser on earth which can hide files from anti-virus softwares while downloading to hard disk? Then, what does integration mean?)
- Vista Parental Controls: Firefox now respects the Vista system-wide parental control setting for disabling file downloads. (Yea, yea! Firefox loves Vista. Not to blame IE.)
- Easier to Use
- Easier password management: an information bar replaces the old password dialog so you can now save passwords after a successful login. (So, Firefox started saving my passwords to memory without my approval?)
- Simplified add-on installation: the add-ons whitelist has been removed making it possible to install extensions from third-party sites in fewer clicks. (Wow! That's more Open Source now!)
- New Download Manager: the revised download manager makes it much easier to locate downloaded files. (In addition to this, Opera even has the native Windows context menu for downloaded items.)
- Resumable downloading: users can now resume downloads after restarting the browser or resetting your network connection. (I am yet to test what if Firefox crashed during a download. Opera does a perfect job here. Not only I can recover, but I can resume downloads even If I mistakenly pulled off the power cable.)
- Full page zoom: from the View menu and via keyboard shortcuts, the new zooming feature lets you zoom in and out of entire pages, scaling the layout, text and images. (That's what we call copying. Opera has had this since version 8.)
- Tab scrolling and quickmenu: tabs are easier to locate with the new tab scrolling and tab quickmenu. (Another copy!)
- Save what you were doing: Firefox will prompt users to save tabs on exit. (Yet another copy!)
- Optimized Open in Tabs behavior: opening a folder of bookmarks in tabs now appends the new tabs rather than overwriting. (Again!)
- Location and Search bar size can now be customized with a simple resizer item. (This is perhaps one feature I am missing in Opera.)
- Text selection improvements: Multiple text selections can be made with Ctrl/Cmd; Double-click drag selects in "word-by-word" mode; Triple-clicking selects a paragraph. (Copy Cat!)
- Find toolbar: the Find toolbar now opens with the current selection.
- Plugin management: users can disable individual plugins in the Add-on Manager. (Ooh! I am yet to see this.)
- Integration with Vista: Firefox's menus now display using Vista's native theme. (I told you! Huh!)
- Integration with the Mac: Firefox now uses the OS X spellchecker and supports Growl for notifications of completed downloads and available updates. (Good step!)
- More Personal
- Star button: quickly add bookmarks from the location bar with a single click; a second click lets you file and tag them. (Is this a replication from the Firefox child - Flock?)
- Tags: associate keywords with your bookmarks to sort them by topic. (We call it "nick names", in Opera.)
- Location bar & auto-complete: type the title or tag of a page in the location bar to quickly find the site you were looking for in your history; favicons, bookmark, and tag indicators help you see where results are coming from. (Copy, copy, copy!)
- Smart Places Folder: quickly access your recently bookmarked and tagged pages, as well as you more frequently visited pages with the new smart places folder on your bookmark toolbar. (???)
- Bookmarks and History Organizer: advanced search of your history and bookmarks with multiple views and smart folders to store your frequent searches. (Opera is well known for this.)
- Web-based protocol handlers: web applications, such as your favorite webmail provider, can now be used instead of desktop applications for handling mailto: links from other sites. Similar support is available for other protocols (Web applications will have to first enable this by registering as handlers with Firefox). (Are they copying IE too? IE had this from 6.0 - If I am not wrong.)
- Easy to use Download Actions: a new Applications preferences pane provides a better UI for configuring handlers for various file types and protocol schemes. (Again, a copy!)
- Improved Platform for Developers
- New graphics and font handling: new graphics and text rendering architectures in Gecko 1.9 provides rendering improvements in CSS, SVG as well as improved display of fonts with ligatures and complex scripts. (Yes, that's real improvements.)
- Native Web page forms: HTML forms on Web pages now have a native look and feel on Mac OS X and Linux (Gnome) desktops. (Good!)
- Color management: (set gfx.color_management.enabled on in about:config and restart the browser to enable.) Firefox can now adjust images with embedded color profiles. (Hahahahhahahahahahah! I just can't stop laughing. Even the Opera Mini on my mobile phone has this feature.)
- Offline support: enables web applications to provide offline functionality (website authors must add support for offline browsing to their site for this feature to be available to users). (That's great! People have been waiting for this. Specially us, web developers.)
- Improved Performance
- Reliability: A user's bookmarks, history, cookies, and preferences are now stored in a transactionally secure database format which will prevent data loss even if their system crashes. (What does that mean? Can somebody explain?)
- Speed: Major architectural changes (such as the move to Cairo and a rewrite to how reflowing a page layout works) put foundations in place for major performance tuning which have resulted in speed increases in Beta 1, and will show further gains in future Beta releases. (Great!)
- Memory usage: Over 300 individual memory leaks have been plugged, and a new XPCOM cycle collector completely eliminates many more. Developers are continuing to work on optimizing memory use (by releasing cached objects more quickly) and reducing fragmentation. (I am afraid, I will choose IE! How many more memory leaks does Firefox have?)
I have no more lines to write and thus I shall end the article.
Ends!
"Full page zoom: from the View menu and via keyboard shortcuts, the new zooming feature lets you zoom in and out of entire pages, scaling the layout, text and images. (That's what we call copying. Opera has had this since version 8.)"
ReplyDeleteDude, Opera has full page zoom feature since version 2 (two). :D
Both Opera and Firefox are good browsers.the advantage Firefox has over Opera for me are the extensions .Opera widgets are mainly eye candy and not useful.
ReplyDeleteIt is a nice post, because it shows full FF 3 Beta 1 changelog, but your comments sir.. are pathetic.
ReplyDeleteFirst, you know a little about opera, and about stuff you write about.
Second, you desperately try to sound that changelog bad, truth is, that Opera got LESS innovation in last years than Firefox. All that Copy fox stuff is getting a bit old.
Third, Opera often comes up with an idea, but it is the implementation that is as important. And sorry to say, Firefox does it always better. Smart Address Bar (awesomo-bar in firefox) works in firefox faster, learns better, and doesnt hung my computer while using.
if you call this copying than all i could say is everyone copys... At first one person learned to speak and the next copyed from him and started talking... this is the same thing....
ReplyDeleteI use both FF and Opera, for me FF is the best.....
"Opera got LESS innovation in last years than Firefox."
ReplyDeleteThat's funny, because I could SWEAR that the Firefox 1.5 and 2.0 changelogs were a carbon copy of features Opera already had for years :D
What are Firefox's innovations? None. Opera? MDI (no, not tabs, although it had them long before Mozilla/FF), search field (the one Mozilla makes money off of, remember?), popup blocker, download manager, speed dial, User JS, full page zoom, etc.
Firefox has extensions, that's it.
"Opera often comes up with an idea, but it is the implementation that is as important. And sorry to say, Firefox does it always better."
Like the disruptive password manager in Firefox or the extremely bad tabbed browsing implementation? Sorry, dude.
While I primarily use Firefox myself, it's only due to extensions. Everything else other browsers do much better. I'm not going to delude myself into thinking that Firefox is innovative when I know as a Firefox user that it isn't.
I agree with the widget thing :/ Widgets made Opera more bloated (and complex = longer debug time to check everything, I fear), and they add little to Opera. One of the best widget so far is touchtheSky, but it cannot integrate itself in the browser windows like Forecastfox (FF add-on).
ReplyDeleteI will appreciate more if Opera's devs would focus themselves to better compatibility (already quite good in truth, but not everywhere) and an online spell checker, that underlines your typos. Those are the only things that I really miss in Opera.
As for Firefox, it was the only one that hasn't the full page zoom, until now, since IE implemented that in v7 (a lot later than Opera, indeed). I hardly feel the needs of any extension in Opera, because she had already almost everything I need:
- Adblock Plus? Opera has is content blocking (not as poweful as AdB+, but IMHO AdB+ is kinda too aggressive if you subscribe to his "easylists")
- EMail notifiers? Opera is a full email client too!
- Download manager? Opera incuded one ages ago and I still have to find an extension for Firefox that is as good as it (Download Manager Tweak + the FF3 dowload resume is quite close, though).
-RSS, View source with, undo closed tabs, and so on? Already in and satisfactory.
-Various buttons, menu, compact menu? Please look at here: http://operawiki.info/CustomButtons you don't even have to restart Opera (unlike FF) and you can place buttons everywhere.
Some FF extensions are better than some Opera features (i.e. gTranslate, that doesn't open another page), and they can still improved. There are FF extension that are quite unique. Add-ons are really the strong point of Firefox.
I'm OK with both of the browsers, but I think that Opera is a lot understimated (or not well-know).
"Easier password management: an information bar replaces the old password dialog so you can now save passwords after a successful login. (So, Firefox started saving my passwords to memory without my approval?)"
ReplyDeleteDid you take a look at Opera 9.5? Because it works the same way (you can save passwords after a successful login), and thats a godd feature against saving mistyped passwords.
Opera is still more innovative, but Firefox has its tons of extensions, with all the advanteges and disadvanteges.
In Opera 9.5 (it's NOT a major release!) the main innovation is the rewritten rendering and ECMAScript engine. Opera 10 however WILL have some great functional improvements I assume.
dude you know this type of flaming is seriously discouraged in the tech world.
ReplyDeleteBoth Opera and Firefox are good at what they do. There is nothing wrong with adopting/borrowing "copying" features from other's. Software should cater to the needs of the user, and should the user desire a particular feature that's present say.. on Opera and not Firefox (and vice versa) the developers have an obligation to copy. Sure they implement their own versions. As they say, there's more than one way to skin a cat.
I find your post to be... err... childish.
Negadrive said...
ReplyDelete"Widgets made Opera more bloated"
In what way?
Widgets are basically web pages outside the browser. How does supporting web pages outside the browser make Opera "more bloated"?
Remember, Opera is still smaller than Firefox.
"I will appreciate more if Opera's devs would focus themselves to better compatibility"
How do you know how much they focus on compatibility? According to Opera, they spend a LOT of time on that already!
And actually, most of the "bloat" you are referring to in the version when Widgets were added wasn't due to widgets at all, but better support for sites and standards (source: my.opera.com). Should the improved site compatibility be ditched to avoid "bloat"?
You seem to make a lot of assumptions that don't hold water when compared to the actual facts, as stated by the Opera devs themselves.
Dear anonymous,
ReplyDelete"Alot of widgets seems to crash opera" is not one of my "assumptions", but one of the know issues listed by the devs themselves (v9.50 9665, development snapshots, known issues). Please read my whole sentence again: I fear that your "web pages outside the browser" (that are manly eye candy and not useful, as other said) are adding complexity and are increasing debug work (thus taking away time for other stuff). I only fear that, I'm not sure how much time and resource are required to fix these issues.
As for "to bloat" something, I mean to add more stuff with little pratical usage, regardless of when this stuff is a lot or not.
What I appreciate more is not an assumption: it is what I personally fell (and you know: to appreciate a thing or another is a very subjective matter). And what I fell when I use Opera? I feel the need of more compatibility and I miss an inline spell checker, that underlines my typos (or the lack of that is another "assumption" of mine?). I can see myself that there were big improvement since v8 in this field, so I'm not thinking that devs did nothing, nor I'm blaming them... not for sure. Dunno what do you think, but I'm an Opera fan, and as I said, I think that this browser is a lot understimated/not know enough (I mean very few people are using Opera today).
As I said, the compatibility is quite good at this time, but it still needs some improvements. This is what I hope to see (plus the other thing) and what I will appreciate more in a future "what's news" list. Just my wish list.
I said many other things too: were there all assumptions? E.G. "Opera has RSS", "email client", and so on. These seem solid facts to me.
Hmmm.. I think I didn't explained myself well, and I was unclear in what I was trying to say: I'm sorry for my bad english (this is a foregin language to me) I hope I was more understandable now.
Most of the features included in the 9.50 were ripped from Firefox alpha, APNG, extended Location bar (2 months before it showed up in Opera) and MathML come to mind..
ReplyDeleteAnyone who actually links to "firefox myths" is a troll, sorry to say, this blog can hardly be trusted source of any information regarding firefox. kthxbye.
ReplyDeleteeven though its a copy cat.. fire fox go!! :|
ReplyDelete"Most of the features included in the 9.50 were ripped from Firefox alpha, APNG, extended Location bar (2 months before it showed up in Opera) and MathML come to mind.."
ReplyDeleteThis must be a bad joke :D
APNG and MathML are STANDARDS, not features specific to any single browser.
I have no idea what "extended location bar" means, but MathML and APNG are by no means "most of the features".
Geez, you Mozilla fans are desperate.
1.Firefox develop innovative extensions
ReplyDelete2.Opera includes same built-in features in new release as seen in Firefox extensions
3.Firefox implements built-in functionality from extensions' ideas
nough said
Firefox is one of the best browsers I have worked. regarding the copy cat thing... Its not copying, Its actually called getting inspired... :)
ReplyDeletei believe firefox is better than any browser... it wins even without a compittion..
ReplyDeleteI have used Firefox since the first version and have been a fan, but lately I am starting to rethink how I feel about Firefox. My biggest issue is that it is memory hog. I also find that it freezes a lot and I have to close it down and restart. All the plugins are really nice and as a developer it really helps to save time, but if they continue down the path they have been down for the past year, I am going to no loger be a Firefox fan.
ReplyDeletemy issue on firefox is that it crashes during heavy browsing, just like IE. So far I'm still using firefox with that kind of issue but it seldom happens. I haven't tried opera 'though :D
ReplyDelete