Thoughts on Firefox 1.5

cfleck

cfleck

tired
I can only make reference to 1.5, as I haven't used 1.0x for quite some time. And, fair warning, the comments I'm about to make are fairly provoking. But I'm hoping to get some passionate responses.

That said, I downloaded 1.5rc3 about what, 2 days ago and have been using it exclusively up until about 5 minutes ago.

I must say, I don't understand the passionate attraction to it, at least on the mac. In my experience it is unbearably slow and choppy. It doesn't scoll worth a crap, with smooth scrolling on or otherwise. And as cool as the extensions are, they aren't very nicely integrated. Given, some are. But I used about 15 of them, and all but about 4 of them were poorly integrated.

So that said, I ask you, Firefox users, defend yourselves and tell me what I'm missing. Are you all so hung up on the extensions that you can't see that the browser just isn't all that?
 
Wow....I haven't had the issues you're talking about with FF 1.5 RC3 on any platform. On the Mac, it actually runs much nicer than the 1.0.x series. It actually even runs as well as Camino, but it's still not ready to replace Camino on my Mac.

I guess the nice thing for me other than the extensions is the fact that it's a consistent experience on all platforms. I'm actually quite happy with FF on Windows and Linux. It still needs work on the Mac, but my complaint is with it not being as Mac-ish in usage as Camino is. However, I do thank the FF guys for allowing the click-and-hold context menu option which Camino, though more Mac-ish than FF, doesn't support.
 
I used to be an exclusive Firefox user. I guess I just kept on using it after I switched to the Mac this year (I was using it on Windows XP for nearly a year by then). These days, I usually only use it when I have to use the extremely useful Adblock extension- it's useful for retreiving the direct URL of (and then saving) MOV, MPG, or SWF files that are embedded into a webpage and you can't fish them out of the source code.

I prefer Safari and Opera these days, although Firefox is still pretty nice for some things. I alternate between the three, and I can't really explain why.

I also downloaded Camino the other day, but I haven't had the chance to try it out. And of course, there's Internet Explorer, but I haven't had to use it for anything so far.
 
Well, I have to aree here with orginal post... on Mac. I have been a die hard wintel user since... well win3.1. I recently (less then a month) made the swich to Mac. My only HUGE regret is that it took so long for me to see the light. That being said I used Firefox on wintel for ages. And now being on mac i dont see the reason to keep it installed as safari isnt any better or worse. maybe I'm wrong but so far these are the only two mac browsers I have used. So I look forward to seeing this post grow and fnnd others that may be better... hell anything is better then IE.

As a last note if you ever want to run a fun test... Ctrl+alt+Del in winxp nd watch your ram usage... then open up 20 or so IE windows....
 
Firefox 1.5 works fine for me, definitely faster than Safari. The only extension I use is Adblock. Scrolling not choppy or slow.
 
Perhaps it's faster computers that benefit more... on my machine (sig), FireFox 1.0 and 1.5rc are unbearably slow and choppy at scrolling, while Safari does it nice, quick and smooth.

Overall rendering speed is about on par with Safari.

I love Safari, though, and it's gonna take a pretty mean and lean browser to get me to switch. I try 'em all, and the only thing I've found that comes close to Safari in terms of usability, speed and general layout is Camino.
 
I think it is interesting that some of you aren't having problems with scrolling and what not. I've been using it on a 1.5ghz G4 and it is terrible. I expect some chop on busy pages, but it pretty consistent regardless of the page.

My real affection is for some of the extensions. I really do wish there were more things like that for Safari or Camino. I've been teetering between those two as my favorite, but so far Safari is my favorite.

I guess in the end, I want to like firefox, but it just isn't working for me yet. The extensions I like most are adblock, web developer, and the idea of the download statusbar. I found an adblock-like replacement for safari, but nothing for the other two. Also, I've been clamoring for years to be able to reorder tabs, and 1.5 lets you do that. Now I just hope Safari and every other tabbed app follows suit.
 
To be honest, I have experienced slow scrolling on the G4 and G3 machines, but I usually expect this. However, at home I have a G5 iMac and it has the RADEON 9600 graphics chipset, so as mentioned earlier I think the hardware does have a lot to do with it.
 
bobw said:
Firefox 1.5 works fine for me, definitely faster than Safari. The only extension I use is Adblock. Scrolling not choppy or slow.
Click to expand...

That's every reason i use it too. Especially the smooth and quick scrolling, somethign that is really bothersome in all the other browsers.
 
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