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Firefox on MBP

Y

yustas

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 11, 2009
555
469
Hello,

I am new to MAC and OS X, but I love my new MBP.

I have heard that Firefox has not been optimized properly for OS X and decreases the battery life. Is it true?

Also, if I install Firefox on MBP, will I be able to use the same extensions I use on Windows 7, such as Roboform and Xmarks, or do they only work on Windows?

Thanks.
 
yustas said:
I have heard that Firefox has not been optimized properly for OS X and decreases the battery life. Is it true?
Click to expand...

Not significantly. What you're doing on the web usually matters more.

Also, if I install Firefox on MBP, will I be able to use the same extensions I use on Windows 7, such as Roboform and Xmarks, or do they only work on Windows?
Click to expand...

Check and see if those extensions are Windows-only.
 
I don't know whether Firefox has not been optimized properly for OSX, but it seems fine. I've had 7 hour battery life with my 17" i7 MBP while using Firefox – so it doesn't seem to me to be decreasing the battery life.

I don't know about those extensions, but my extensions (Word Count Plus, Rank Checker, TinEye) work just fine.
 
yustas said:
Hello,
I have heard that Firefox has not been optimized properly for OS X and decreases the battery life. Is it true?
Thanks.
Click to expand...

Firefox works just as well on OS X as it does on Windows.

yustas said:
Also, if I install Firefox on MBP, will I be able to use the same extensions I use on Windows 7, such as Roboform and Xmarks, or do they only work on Windows?
Click to expand...

These are two of my favorite Firefox extensions, and they are both available for Firefox under OS X. Roboform recently released a Java version of their app in Beta that runs in Firefox on OS X. It doesn't have all of the functionality of the full product under Windows (yet), but it seems to work well, and synchronizes my Roboform data through their servers with my other computers running Roboform. Likewise for Xmarks. Great tools that are huge time savers for people that use both PC's and Macs!
 
iPostpone said:
Roboform recently released a Java version of their app in Beta that runs in Firefox on OS X. It doesn't have all of the functionality of the full product under Windows (yet), but it seems to work well, and synchronizes my Roboform data through their servers with my other computers running Roboform.
Click to expand...

Please correct me if I am wrong, but what you are talking about is Roboform Online version. It even works on Safari; the thing is, I do not want to put my passwords online, even if they are encrypted.

Can I use Roboform To Go from a USB key on OS X if it is formatted as FAT32?
 
I've been using Firefox since the beta and recently my friend told me about Chrome. Chrome is lightning fast, I made the switch over immediately.
 
Rithem said:
I've been using Firefox since the beta and recently my friend told me about Chrome. Chrome is lightning fast, I made the switch over immediately.
Click to expand...

me too, I thought I'd never betray Firefox. Everyone's been using Chrome and I thought it was so overrated until I tried it. I thought it would be the same thing as Safari, but it's like the best of Firefox + Safari :p. Actually, one of the things that I was missing from Safari was the Cmd+# to go through the tabs. I always ended up opening a bookmark. Oh, and Chrome has h.264 for HTML5 so I can browse youtube without draining my battery. (full screen html5 player + full screen browser == full screen flash)
 
On OS X, Chrome has the same Roboform functionality as Firefox.
 
Trackpad

I just took the plunge and tried out chrome. How come the 3 fingers swipe to go top page and bottom page doesn't work on chrome? and the 4 fingers swipe is actually backward and forward to the last page instead of switch app?
:confused:
 
Bill Gates said:
Chrome is great but it unfortunately triggers the dedicated GPU when downloading something, which is more of an Apple bug than a Google one. I don't know if FireFox suffers from the same or a similar issue.
Click to expand...

All I do is force the intel GPU, problem solved.
 
xi mezmerize ix said:
Google chrome dominates on OS X. Don't bother with Firefox.
Click to expand...

I disagree. Compared to the Windows version it is much behind. No web application shortcuts support, occasional performance issues, even spell checking can't be turned off.

Overall as far as Webkit browsers go, Safari makes for a smoother experience. Unfortunately it is severely deficient in the feature department but hopefully that will change when stuff like Glims etc is ported to the new extension system. Many Chrome extensions can probably be ported quite easily to Safari 5.

I keep coming back to Firefox on OSX. It seems to work best overall, even though Safari and Chrome are often faster, especially cold startup.
 
My opinion

Chrome is yet to be completely optimised for the mac and still has its privacy issues. Firefox on the other hand maybe a little bulky but there is no memory leaks or any issues that put it at a disadvantage compared to any of the other mac browsers. Get grapple yummy and enjoy :)
 
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