Why use Firefox?

[nsheikh80]

I've seen on the boards that a lot of users who don't use Safari end up using Firefox.

I went down this route when I first got my Mac but quickly discovered Firefox has a few "quirks" when compared to its Windows counterpart.

It was then that I dsicovered Camino. Wow! This browser is amazing. Its developed under the Mozilla umbrella but is actually built for OS X and is just really, really slick. I urge all you Firefo users to give it a test run. If you do, be sure to download the Latest Nightly Build. You can find it at http://www.mozilla.org

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Under Panther Firefox 1.0.x was much better than Safari 1.2.x, in my - and more than a few others - opinion. There are tons of old Safari vs Firefox threads where you can see why if you browse through the forums...

But Under Tiger two things changed this. First Tiger slowed down Firefox (which should be fixed with FF 1.1/1.5) and at the same time Apple released Safari 2 which is a quantum leap forward from 1.2.x (haven't tried the 1.3 version under Panther). The RSS handling in 2 alone is worth the switch back.

Firefox is still miles ahead when it comes to extensions (I really miss adblock to take those annoying flash-ads, and just them), but Safari has some nice extras, too, like AcidSearch and Taboo which makes the loss easier to bear...

 

[stridey]

It was then that I dsicovered Camino. Wow! This browser is amazing. Its developed under the Mozilla umbrella but is actually built for OS X and is just really, really slick. I urge all you Firefo users to give it a test run. If you do, be sure to download the Latest Nightly Build. You can find it at http://www.mozilla.org

Here here! Camino makes my day every day. Damn, it's good! If you're scared of the nightly builds, download the most recent .9 alpha. It's more stable than the nightlies, but recent enough to have all the bitchin' features.

 

[simon-says]

Personally I don't see why anyone would use Firefox period. It has been the worst browser I've ever used. I started trying Firefox way back at Firebird 0.3. At first it was "OK so things will improve." Two years later I sat with even more problems out of the browser. I couldn't get it to render a page correctly, the solution always suggested to me was "refresh". Yea, sometimes that fixes it but that's too annoying. And if it did finally render the page correctly it would crash. Not to mention how slow of a browser it is. I've had the same problem on multiple machines. I'd use IE over FireFox anyday, but I prefer Opera as my browser of choice over anything. I'm a web developer and for work I must make sure it works on multiple browsers, and I have to cross my fingers when I use FireFox. That's horrible when my code is to standards. Firefox just has too many "quirks" for me to even want to open it.

 

[stridey]

Personally I don't see why anyone would use Firefox period. It has been the worst browser I've ever used. I started trying Firefox way back at Firebird 0.3. At first it was "OK so things will improve." Two years later I sat with even more problems out of the browser. I couldn't get it to render a page correctly, the solution always suggested to me was "refresh". Yea, sometimes that fixes it but that's too annoying. And if it did finally render the page correctly it would crash. Not to mention how slow of a browser it is. I've had the same problem on multiple machines. I'd use IE over FireFox anyday, but I prefer Opera as my browser of choice over anything. I'm a web developer and for work I must make sure it works on multiple browsers, and I have to cross my fingers when I use FireFox. That's horrible when my code is to standards. Firefox just has too many "quirks" for me to even want to open it.

One word. Extensions. It's not a big enough incentive to keep me away from Camino, but it niggles the back of my mind occassionally.

 

[xli_ne]

searching for key words on a site is a lot quicker and easier in firefox, one of the main reasons i use it the most.

 

[stridey]

searching for key words on a site is a lot quicker and easier in firefox, one of the main reasons i use it the most.

are you kidding me?! Camino has find as you type: you simply type "/" and then your search term. "Find next" is cmd-G. *very* fast, *very* easy.

 

[swindmill]

I recently switched from FF to Camino and overall it was an excellent switch. I've found some neat add-ons and modifications for Camino, but I really miss my FF extensions. I would think that Camino will eventually support extensions of it's own, and then it will be the ultimate OS X browser.

 

[xli_ne]

are you kidding me?! Camino has find as you type: you simply type "/" and then your search term. "Find next" is cmd-G. *very* fast, *very* easy.

ah well i was unaware of that feature in searching on camino. So can you also easily have all the word(s) highlight that are on the page like in firefox?

 

[mkrishnan]

Does Camino have plans to enable Apple's built-in spell checking in text boxes? The latest betas seem to hold a lot of promise....

EDIT: The roadmap says that spell checking in forms is part of the 0.9 goals, but I'm not clear on what this means... it hasn't been in any betas I've tried. Is it there now?

 

[osiris315]

Camino rocks!

This browser is amazing.

I completely agree! I used Firefox/Firebird myself since 0.4 on Windows. Then, when I recently switched to the Mac, Camino was my first choice. I am running v0.9a2 with no problems at all. The only gripe I have is that there is no autofill, but that will become available in v1.0 sometime in Q405.

Camino has it's own dedicated site here...

http://www.caminobrowser.org/

 

[swindmill]

I completely agree! I used Firefox/Firebird myself since 0.4 on Windows. Then, when I recently switched to the Mac, Camino was my first choice. I am running v0.9a2 with no problems at all. The only gripe I have is that there is no autofill, but that will become available in v1.0 sometime in Q405.

Camino has it's own dedicated site here...

http://www.caminobrowser.org/

I'm pretty sure Camino does have a feature that fills online forms with your Address Book info. I've got an icon in my toolbar that claims to do it anyways; I've never had an oppurtunity to use it though.

EDIT: just tried it out on Whitepages.com and it seemed to work perfectly. Am I talking about a different feature than you, by chance?

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

Is there some special way to get RSS feeds to work in the bookmarks bar? In Firefox, I can tell when the page has been updated because the bookmark to the RSS is a folder, and all entries are inside it. In Camino, all I have is a link to the site itself.

Help?

 

[glosterseagul]

OOh err! I now have Camio; but err excuse me but I just loaded an application and my trusty mac didn't ask me for a password. This happend with Dashboard apps but camio as well

 

[stridey]

Does Camino have plans to enable Apple's built-in spell checking in text boxes? The latest betas seem to hold a lot of promise....

EDIT: The roadmap says that spell checking in forms is part of the 0.9 goals, but I'm not clear on what this means... it hasn't been in any betas I've tried. Is it there now?

It's not in the .9 alphas, but AFAIK it will be in the final release (which is coming up pretty soon).

 

[ThRiLLeR13]

So, in Tiger the majority of you guys recommend "Camino"?

 

[swindmill]

So, in Tiger the majority of you guys recommend "Camino"?

All I can say is that I swore by FF because of it's functionality and I've removed it from my dock since switching to Camino. I would like to see extension capability added to Camino in the future but I'll stick with it either way.

 

[mkrishnan]

It's not in the .9 alphas, but AFAIK it will be in the final release (which is coming up pretty soon).

Thanks. I guess I'll keep watching until they get to RCs. BTW, have they fixed the slow textbox on pages with animated GIFs (or something like that) issue that makes textboxes crawl on some forum pages? I know this was on the 0.9 known issue list.

 

[mkrishnan]

So, in Tiger the majority of you guys recommend "Camino"?

Actually, I use Safari 2, coming from FF 1.0.x on Panther. Assuming the textbox issue is fixed, and the spell checking added, however, by the time 0.9 is released, I will probably use Camino. Right now, Deer Park is my backup, because the textbox issue impairs a site I use a lot.

 

[floyde]

searching for key words on a site is a lot quicker and easier in firefox, one of the main reasons i use it the most.

I never understand why Apple in all its "Spotlight Glory" forgot to add a feature like this to Safari 2. The pop-up search window that closes after the first occurrence is found is annoying and primitive . Hopefully they'll catch up and I wont need to consider another browser ever again

 

[mkrishnan]

I never understand why Apple in all its "Spotlight Glory" forgot to add a feature like this to Safari 2. The pop-up search window that closes after the first occurrence is found is annoying and primitive . Hopefully they'll catch up and I wont need to consider another browser ever again

Totally agreed, but find as you type using AcidSearch, on Safari, really isn't that bad. And it's a gotta have because of its search bar mods anyway.

The find bar from AcidSearch is a pretty permanent fixture in my browser window.

 

[tjwett]

i personally don't care for Firefox at all, the whole thing feels real Windowsy to me. Safari is nice and fast but OmniWeb is where it's at if you want total control. not free, but worth the money.

 

[ravenvii]

i personally don't care for Firefox at all, the whole thing feels real Windowsy to me.

Agreed. Firefox feels *very* un-OS X-like. From what I hear, for the next version theyre working to make it more native-like.

 

[mkrishnan]

Agreed. Firefox feels *very* un-OS X-like. From what I hear, for the next version theyre working to make it more native-like.

I had heard that a long time ago, too.... I wonder how far along the Deer Park previews will have to get before they roll that part out. Right now, DPA1 and A2 look a lot like FF1.0, although the preferences have gotten somewhat more aquatized.

Although, as far as the main FF window is concerned, FF1.0 or DP with a theme like Grrrapple (?) or Safarish look a lot more Apple to me than Camino does. I like Camino for other reasons, though.

 

[Xephian]

I like it becouse of the Extensions, but Safari is better in everything else.