Posts Tagged ‘firefox’

21 Dec

Mozilla Firefox Updates – Now a Failed Experiment?

Posted by ssmusoke in chrome, firefox, web development. Tagged: , , , , .

Okay now this is a ranting post … Mozilla decides that their development process for Firefox is too slow since Google Chrome and Microsoft Internet Explorer are eating their lunch …

So they made what I consider the dumbest experiment any software organization can do, copy a model and use it. I do not have a problem with the process just that:

  1. Increasing version numbers every 6 weeks – come on we had Firefox 3.6 at the beginning of the year and now we are at 9, at this rate we shall have FF 25 by the end of 2012. Remember with Chrome, the version numbers are not important at all
  2. Breaking extensions at each update. Firefox’s strength is with extensions, if they are unusable at each update WTF?
  3. Large update – 8MB for an upgrade from 8 to 9, what is in the update?

My advice for Mozilla is to use the approach followed by all other software development organizations, open source or not.

  1. Have a major release, maybe every year – this is where you introduce major features and can even break backwards compatibility
  2. Have minor releases every 6 weeks, this is okay, but make the update process seamless
  3. Simplify the update process – make it seamless so that we users are not expose to the vagaries of the browser versions …
  4. Ensure all our extensions work all the time, break them once a year but not once a week

I am still fighting to love Firefox, but Mozilla is making it hard and Google Chrome and Internet Explorer are improving fast ….

27 Jun

Firefox 5 – Rants and Raves

Posted by ssmusoke in firefox. Tagged: , .

Mozilla (http://www.mozilla.org) I do not understand what you are trying to do. While I appreciate the rapid release schedule, which means we get new features faster, I do not agree with breaking the fundamental principles that have made u what you are:

a) Version Numbers – are you trying to chase Chrome (http://www.google.com/chrome/)

b) Updates that break add-ons – see 5.0 breaks Google Page Speed, Web Developer, Skype, Google Toolbar

c) Forcing Beta Versions down our throats

Get us the features, but do not confuse us otherwise we shall walk ….

20 May

My Take – Top 10 Reasons Why Firefox is still Better than Chrome for Web Development

Posted by ssmusoke in chrome, css, firefox, html, opensource, web development. Tagged: , , .

This my take on the topic started at http://tinyurl.com/3fhw7hb from personal experience.

My reasons are below:

1. Firebug – the defacto standard for web development troubleshooting, along with plugins like Google Page Speed, FirePHP, etc

2. Web Developer- another great extension, allows use of lines, clearing cache, disabling Javascript and cookies etc.

3. Other plugins –

4. Firefox 4 is almost at par with Chrome on speed and memory usage, so there is not much difference

5. Easier installation – I can control where I install Firefox not chrome, and I can also have different versions of Firefox, older versions as well as betas and bleeding edge nightlies

6. Profiles – one for development, a clean one for testing, a loaded one for day to day work, almost like virtualization

7. Brief – RSS feed reading extension, the best that there is

8. Configuration – almost the same as Chrome so no advantage here

9. Better memory usage in Firefox 4 which is almost at par with Chrome

10. Its been around longer so I have more experience with it

24 Jun

Safari 5 Goodies – Different Browsers for Each Tab

Posted by ssmusoke in web development. Tagged: , , , .

I spend most of my day looking through different browsers to ensure our solutions look and behave the same in each of them. Typically I read my RSS Feeds in Firefox using Brief, debug pages using Firebug and Web Developer. BTW the new Firefox 3.6.4 feels a bit snappier than the previous one, but I will give it a few more days to see what happens.

I am now in love with Chrome, especially since I could move the default settings out of the default roaming profile so I do not have to keep watching the cached pages etc.

IE 8, is not bad but I use it as the default browser since its used by 70% of most website users as its the default browser in Windows. Opera and Safari have not been anywhere in the mix, but Safari is now close to number 4 since its used on the imachines 🙂

This morning I got a popup on my desktop that an update for Safari was available, I had forgotten when I installed it, but well I said yet, but also made a decision to leave out Itunes and Quicktime. I use VLC for audio and video, hence I think that I am a geek

The update and installation on my broadband connection were smooth and happened in the background without interruption, and after about 20min, I had forgotten about it, then the install was done.

On opening the browser, I was pleasantly surprised, it looked and felt alot like Chrome, including the placement of the settings and options buttons, but well I don’t know who had it first, but imitation is the best form of flattery. As I looked through the options, I saw an impressive list of user agents, so I said to myself, well will check that out when I have to.

This evening on my way out, I had to check on mobile and desktop website updates, and I though why not try the user agents. I tried Iphone, first and well the updates were there. I thought to myself, why not check out the Ipad and main website, in different tabs. Being lazy, I decided to open a new tab for each, and try a different user agent in each tab.

Wham!!! Almost like Smeagal seeing his precious (Lord of the Rings), each tab had a different user-agent, the mobile sites looked as expected. Now APPL I am impressed, u may be dictatorial, but this is a win for web developers. As I clear my desk, I say to me, and today has been a good day.