5 posts tagged “firefox”
Yesterday morning while we were out running, my wife and I saw a small fox right on one of our neighborhood streets. I wasn't quick enough with the cameraphone, but it looked sorta like this except younger and more frightened with bigger ears:
I dig it, anyway, after using it for a while. In my mind, it’s kinda like Firefox with my favorite extensions pre-installed. In particular:
- The one that combines Stop and Reload into one button
- The one that puts a little close box on each tab
- The one that provides spellcheck in text fields
The one thing I’d like that it doesn’t provide out-of-the-box is a form filler-outer, if you know what I mean. But that’s a small quibble…I’m sure there’s an extension out there for that.
Speaking of extensions, the new Flock seems to have greatly increased compatibility with Firefox extensions, and even a way to “convert” Firefox extensions to work with Flock. I think this will really help adoption of Flock…lots of folks have a browsing itch that’s scratched by a particular extension.
The way it handles the search box is pretty nifty, as well: the top five Yahoo! search results are included in a dropdown as you’re typing, and if you select one of those you go straight to the result page. This dropdown also includes search results from your browser history.
I find it interesting that they struck a deal with Yahoo! instead of Google for this. Firefox gets a nice kickback from Google for throwing search business its way, and maybe Yahoo! ponied up more cash. I’ve also heard that some of the Yahoo! APIs are way better than what Google provides, and some kind of search results API would be necessary to provide the top five results right in the dropdown box. Though Google gets a lot of attention, Yahoo! is just fine for most searching and even has a few tricks up its sleeve.
Other random stuff I like about Flock…
- The Snippets feature, which provides a pasteboard of sorts where you can stick images, links, and bits of text you’re currently working with.
- The fact that the installer imports your bookmarks and settings from Firefox without any hiccups. Nicely done.
- The integrated RSS reader, which I would definitely consider using if I wasn’t using the NewsGator-NetNewsWire combo.
Overall, I give it a thumbs up. It’s the browser I use most often, since I’m using Windows at work again. (More on that later.)
Every once in a while I get sick of switching back and forth between Safari and Camino to get all my browsing needs met and I start looking for other options. Camino has a really annoying download bug, which is apparently Firefox’s fault, and is slower than Safari, but Safari can’t handle some of the new AJAX-heavy sites on the Net.
The option that would seem to hold the most promise is OmniWeb, from the folks that brought you other great Mac tools like OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner. Unfortunately, seem is the key word in the previous sentence. In its current iteration, OmniWeb renders pages in a weird way and has a slightly awkward interface (in some areas).
There is reason to take heart, however: a new version of OmniWeb will be in public beta in a few weeks and it’s based on Apple’s WebKit rendering engine. (That means OmniWeb will display web pages the same way that Safari does.) This will be a nice step forward, and could make OmniWeb a viable option for me.
The dealbreaker here could be lack of AJAX support, especially as it applies to Google Calendar. Google Calendar currently doesn’t work in Safari (so it won’t work in OmniWeb either), and at this point it’s my calendar of choice. Google has straightened out the notifcation issues (they come on time now) and the ability to search your calendar is cool. I’ll also admit that I like the e-mail Google Calendar can send you every morning telling you what your schedule is.
I’m gonna hold out hope that Google will find a way to make it work in Safari, even if it’s at the expense of some decreased functionality. Also, Backpack will have a calendar soon (so they keep saying), and I may switch to that. You can bet dimes to dollars the Backpack calendar will work in Safari.
All this having been said, the interesting thing I’ve observed here is the market opportunity for a “Pro” browser on the Mac.
The “Pro” Browser
Nowadays especially, computer geeks of all stripes are using Macs. Many of these individuals have a need for a browser that’s simply more advanced than Safari. Perhaps you need extensibility (like Firefox provides) to add your own features to the browser. Or maybe you just want to take advantage of the lastest Web 2.0 AJAX wondersite. Whatever.
Firefox seems like it fits the bill here, but there’s just one tiny problem: it looks like ass on the Mac. (Refried ass, actually.) It just sticks out like a sore thumb, and though they’re apparently working on this, I think it’s such a deep-down part of the core architecture that it’s hard to believe Firefox will ever be really great on the Mac.
Hence the market opportunity.
I wouldn’t worry too much about competition from Apple here, either. It’s safe to say that Safari will never have a lot of features, or at least not enough for the power users. Apple is likely to keep it very simple, like Mail or iChat, but there are people out there that either pay for or need more than what those apps provide.
Plus, it’s easy to switch browsers. You can usually export your bookmarks without too much trouble, and it’s not like there’s compelling iLife integration or something to keep people in the Apple fold where the browser is concerned.
The best thing I learned in college is that it’s all about incentives: Apple doesn’t really have an incentive to build this type of browser. No one will be switching to the Mac because it has a better built-in browser. They want to make a kick-ass WebKit, for themselves and other Mac developers, and keep Safari lean and simple.
But guess what: someone else does have an incentive. They can have some of my money! Or, jump into the Camino/Firefox code base, fix some of the nasty bugs, and watch the job offers roll in! You’ll be featured in Wired magazine before you know it.
Will such a browser be easy to build? No. Will I be building it and retiring on my millions next year? Hell no.
But somebody can do it. Who’s up for a challenge?
The Camino Project is an effort by a few dedicated individuals to take Firefox’s Gecko rendering engine and put an honest-to-goodness Mac UI on top of it. And if that isn’t enough to get you excited (perish the thought), they just reached version 1.0.
I like to use Camino if I need to access sites that are designed to work with IE/Firefox, but not necessarily Safari. (Citibank’s web site is the example that immediately springs to mind.) Unfortunately, you might see that those sites still warn you that they might not work.
This is where CamiTools comes in. It’s an add-on for Camino that does a number of nifty things, but my favorite is the ability to set the User Agent of the browser so that when the web site says to the browser, “Hey, man, who are you?” it can be all, “I’m totally Firefox 1.5 for the Mac. Like, really.” Then, the web site is like, “OK dude. Come on in.”
This is just a little white lie, really, because it should render any site as well as Firefox. I’ve had pretty good success with it. Also, I’m 99.9% sure there’s a way to set Camino to do this without using CamiTools, but it’s much easier to do it this way.
I’ve still stopped short of using Camino as my primary browser, however. To me, it seems a tad slower than Safari and I’ve actually started to use Safari’s RSS reading feature. (This is for casual time wasting only…if you try to take away my NetNewsWire I will hurt you.) Also, I had a problem in which Camino would freak out when downloading files, though it was fixed by a complete uninstall/reinstall. (Just an FYI there.)
So, give Camino a shot if you’re a Mac person but you like Firefox.
The title of today’s post is taken from the episode of King of the Hill in which Bobby takes a women’s self defense course after being picked on by bullies. When he gets into fights at school his strategy is to yell out, “Let go of my purse! I don’t know you!” and kick the would-be assailant in the nards.
This is significantly funnier on TV than it is when I describe it, and certainly violence against women is not humorous at all. What is at least smirk-inducing is the similarities between the attitudes of Windows users and victims of domestic violence. (How about that for a segue.) I didn’t make up this theory, but I’m reminded of it because I feel like I was victimized today.
Most days I sail along without too many problems, actually…my strategy is basically to use my “main” work PC as little as possible. For example, about eighty percent of the time I only have Outlook and Firefox open. It’s when you push the envelope that you run into trouble. You see, myself and another esteemed colleague have taken it upon ourselves to rewrite the intranet applications used by our team on a daily basis. Things have gone pretty well so far and in some cases we’ve actually greatly improved upon the software people used to use.
We are basically stuck with developing this in ASP and so far VBScript has not been that bad. But, recently we got it into our heads that it would be cool to have a file upload option on one of the pages and…you can guess which major software company is making this hard for us. Basically, it worked on one PC but not another, and we tracked it down to Internet Explorer being the culprit. It essentially drops the ball entirely on the whole file uploading part of the file upload feature.
Stepping back from this particular problem, Microsoft just does not make good software. (Check out this crap that’s going to become the next version of Office.) But most people don’t really know that. Like the victims of domestic violence, they’re not really aware that there’s a better world out there. I consulted a clinical psychologist friend of mine who’s also a Mac user and asked him for his thoughts on this phenomenon.
I would be interested to know if the people at Apple responsible for the “switch” campaign have spent time or consulted with behavioral specialists. From a hardware and software perspective Apple has removed many barriers but their are other “psychological barriers” that need to be addressed. Using the treatment of domestic violence victims as a model you could address some of these barriers.
Simple steps would include, helping users develop a simple (no more than 2 or 3 step) plan for escape. Build trust that you will be available (tech support) to help them in this transition. Move them to action. Next time their hardware or software crashes you want to be the first person they call. Help them take what they need (data) and get them to some place safe and affordable (Mac mini). If they have any belongings they can use (peripherals, monitor) help them to bring those things with. Also you need to be prepared to address doubts they will have in the first days, weeks, months. When something goes wrong you need to be there to help them through it and reassure them (support). Ideally I would like to see most support take place in person or by phone from someone at a local Apple store. Someone they can build a relationship with and begin to trust.
Highly interesting stuff, if you ask me. To be sure, Apple products have their flaws. It’s not perfect. But, speaking from personal experience, it’s a helluva lot better. Check out the Mac the next time you’re thinking about getting a new computer.
In the short term, get Firefox (even people who made IE are now switching to it) and use web-based tools as much as you can. Gmail is a good example. You’ll never go back to using e-mail the “old” way. I’m doing my best to make sure the tips/info I post here somehow work on Windows, and I’m noticing that cool web tools often make great cross-platform solutions. The “overall” tip for today is “use web-based tools whenever possible” and in the future I’ll have more specific examples.
So, please, people…learn to be like Bobby Hill and don’t stand for it. If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. There’s better computing out there…you deserve it.
