Mozilla Firebird Soars Into View

About a zillion people wrote to announce Mozilla 0.6, but asa was the first: "Mozilla Firebird 0.6 (formerly Phoenix) is available for download. This release features a fresh new look, a redesigned preferences window, preliminary support for Mac OS X and much more. Read why you should be using Mozilla Firebird and get the latest release." I'm not exactly clamoring for a new web browser, but it looks worth checking out.

Opera

[dbglt]

Has anyone compared this firebird you speak of, to the mysterious cult of opera? I'm quite happy as an opera cultsman, yet i am open to bribery :P

Anyone wanna point out to me some features that firebird has/plans on having? Most of the ones on the list look pretty basic...

Great Work

[mbrod]

I would just like to say good job to the developers and the project managers. The direction this part of Mozilla has gone has really put the icing on the cake for it being the best browser IMHO.

I use it Phoenix (ermmm I mean Firebird) now on every platform at work and at home. Love it.

Never have any popup problems, very quick and couldn't do without opening links in the background under a new tab as I browse the web then go to them when I am done reading what I am currently on.

It's great.

[The J Kid]

I've got it and it's great.

It's fast, zippy and speedy too!
If you haven't been using the Nightlies lately, the new default theme will seem to you as a breath of fresh air.

It's hands down the best browser for Linux.

Difference between Firebird and Mozilla?

[kevin_conaway]

The article mentions that this is a faster, less bloated version of Mozilla. What are they trying to do here, what are hte main differences between Mozilla and Firebird and why do they seem to be advocating one of their products over another? kc

Re:Opera

[mrd_yaddayadda]

I'm an Operaphile. Straight up front I'll say that but from my very very brief look at Firebird (.6) I'm impressed. One of the things I can't live without in Opera are the mouse gestures. I know that there has been a - imo - rather crappy implementation of the idea available for Mozilla for a while but it seems that it's finally getting there.

I tried previous releases of Phoenix and while I thought it promising it always has seemed very rough around the edges understandably but this seems to be getting close. Allied with Thunderbird this could be a good mix...

Worth trying for a while at least.

Re:Font Magnification

[dbglt]

This is hardly ground-breaking - this has been around since the early days of opera (not that long ago :) Just because IE doesn't offer it... it does not make firebird/whatever they want to call it now/and now better

Web panels?

[Anonymous Coward]

Anybody know what the Web Panels thingy does? (View->Sidebar->Web Panels) I can't really get it to do _anything_ at all :)

Re:Opera

[J_DarkElf]

The only advantage I see in having a XUL-based browser is that it is quite easy to add extensions to it, such as support for additional standards such as Ruby, or adding support for features left out of the main distribution, such as the 'site navigation' () bar.

Standards support is virtually identical in Gecko and Presto -- Presto does certain things a little better, Gecko has support for SVG and some other things Presto does not yet support. Unless you for some reason need SVG and MathML support, I do not see any reason to move to MF from Opera. But of course that is my opinion ;-)

Alas The Browser Formerly Known As Phoenix is still at least twice as slow as Opera 7.11 on my system, so it will remain a secondary browser for me. It is certainly at least the second-best browser around!

Re:Great Work

[sisukapalli1]

Just a few weeks ago, I felt that Mozilla was good enough and that there was no need to try anything else -- till I downloaded Mozilla Firebird (some nightly after 0.5), and boy is it good...

Here are the main things:

The customization is tremendous. I managed to shave off a couple of toolbars from the screen -- only one toolbar with more buttons and options than what I put with Mozilla 1.4b.

The extensions are wonderful too. Simple things like NukeImage, Tabbrowser extensions, Adblock, and a tonne of other extensions.

So, right now I use both Mozilla and Mozilla Firebird, and I see the little Mozilla offsprings dethroning parent Mozilla very soon.

Soon it will be the time to say, "The king is dead, long live the king."

S

Firbird or Camino? Make up my mind!

[mercan01]

Just out of a vague and morbid sense of curiosity, I thought Camino was supposed to be the firebird of OSX? Not that I mind the choice, but it just seems odd that they'd release two browsers that seem to occupy the same niche.

Mozilla Firebird Help

[djst]

For more information about Mozilla Firebird and how to customize it, change themes and install extensions, visit Mozilla Firebird Help [texturizer.net]

Among other things, you'll find instructions on how to disable two of the new features: smooth scrolling and automatic image resizing.

Tab behavior

[tmark]

I've been using Mozilla and Netscape, and I couldn't stand how opening a link in a new tab also switched focus to that tab. I don't know about previous FireBird versions, but this one opens a new tab but keeps focus on the current window, which is how I think it *should* work.

Gotta Love Firebird/Phoenix

[Anonymous Coward]

Having just downloaded 0.6 after using 0.5 for four months, the following stands out to me:

• Much better default theme (I still use Orbit Blue personally, but the default is now bearable unlike the ugly theme they had before)
• Easy to copy settings from old version (save your bookmarks.html file in your settings and drop it in the same place in 0.6)
• The about:config page is very powerful; I don't think I even need the preferential extension any more but it was very useful in 0.5
• Go to Tools->Options->Privacy->Download Manager History - I thought they were fixing the comment here for 0.6, oh well
• Under settings Firebird creates a Phoenix and Mozilla directory (on Windoze at least). I guess that'll change eventually as well.

I haven't personally noticed the speed difference yet, but then again I'm on a dual 1700. It will be interesting to try on my old 166 and 200 boxes. Finally, congrats to the Phoenix/Firebird/Mozilla team on 0.6. It looks to be a very worthwhile upgrade and is definitely worth a try.

Two Things I Would Like to See

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Where are the Xft builds? Reading the Firebird forums, one notes that not everyone has Xft, therefore, Firebird is not built with Xft. One is told to build from source if one wants Xft enabled builds. Oh ok, Firebird can not do what Opera handles by default, in a smaller download no less. No prob, back to Opera I go.
2. The best feature I ever saw in any browser, was in the older Galeon builds. In the preferences, there was a checkbox, which allowed you to select a preferred download manager, such as Prozilla. When will Firebird have this?

I really, really, really would like to use Firebird. #1 above is a must.

No down arrow searches?

[chefbimbo]

One thing's for sure, even if I could care less for the cruft Mozilla comes with, I'm not gonna use Firebird until they support hitting down arrow to search on Google.

Re:Opera

[Bander]

I was one of the Opera faithful for a couple of years, but switched to Phoenix/Mozilla Firebird about six months ago and haven't looked back since.

Opera started losing favor when the Daily Python site kept coming up in Greek (not that there's anything wrong with that, I just can't read Greek) and their tech support was completely unhelpful.

Mozilla Firebird is close to everything a browser should be. And nothing more, which is at least as important.

-- Bander

Re:Why do /.'ers think people should switch?

[DrXym]

Firebird has less chrome / overlays than the entire Mozilla, less XPCOM components and .xpt files and a simpler UI. This makes it start up a bit quicker, and run a bit better. That means that if you're just browsing, or intend to use a third party mail application it would be better than Mozilla.

Personally I just take the hit on startup for Mozilla since I have it running all day so a few seconds startup makes no odds. I also reckon that aside from a few annoyances the mail/news component is second to none (and miles better than Outlook Express) and needless to say I use that all the time too. So in my case, it makes sense to use Mozilla.

Re:No down arrow searches?

[Tyreth]

One thing I'd like to be able to do, is type anything in the address bar. If it isn't in a proper url format (no periods, for example) then it searches google with that text and the "I'm feeling lucky" option.

That way I can just type slashdot, or any of a thousand other websites I might visit commonly, and it will go there automatically. Also good for when I'm looking for something new and feel confident of my googling skills :)

This result could also be achieved by setting shortcuts, but doesn't seem as flexible and powerful.

Saved windows...

[tit0.c]

Apart from the mouse gestures the best thing about opera is the ability to save tabs.Very handy in case of a crash....

First Impressions.

[jellomizer]

I am comparing Mozilla Firebird with the Apple Safari Browser. Its a pritty good shot for a Mac Port of a browser. The Bootup time and render time is accecptible. Its still a fraction slower then Safari, both in boot time and render time. Firebird doese handle flash better then Safari but Safari has been slow with flash. As of right now the major problem I have with Firebird is the fact the scrool bar is extreamly slow but that should be an easy fix.
But I am still impressed for a version designed to be ran primarly on Windows and Linux platforms. Firebird runs quite well. With a little work and some healthy competition from both Mozilla and Safari. I think there is a chance of getting 2 really good browsers.

Close all tabs

[Photon01]

In mozilla, when i right click on a tab, i have a close other tabs option. I use this alot, and its the only yhting that stops me using firebird.

Why hasnt this been included, or am i just missing a way to turn it on?

Take that, Gates

[alpharoid]

When I looked at the Firebird feature page [mozilla.org], the first thing I remember is one argument Gates (or was it Ballmer?) used against Open Source: Open Source offers no innovation.

Now compare Firebird to IE which has been stagnant for years, ever since Netscape went down. IE takes a severe beating from any other updated browser today in the feature department.

Where's the closed-source innovation, huh guys?

Re:Nasty Flash-related bug in Mozilla Firebird 0.6

[djst]

I have none of the suggested registry intries in my registry and Flash works perfectly fine here.

I installed it by following the instructions in my own FAQ [texturizer.net]. Not sure what I'm doing "wrong", because it works perfectly.

The last things stopping me from switching:

[xenoweeno]

Maybe someone can point out how to change these by editing config files so that I can send IE away for good:

• I want to sort bookmarks with folders first.
• I always want the tab bar displayed.
• I want bookmarks (clicked in both the sidebar and in the Bookmarks Toolbar) to always open on a new tab.

Until then, I'm still using NetCaptor [netcaptor.com], in which the tabbed interface is much more intuitive and under my control. IMHO, of course.

I love this!

[Chuck Chunder]

It's great that we have an Open Source V Closed Source fight (floabw) on which opinions aren't distorted by one side being the MS behemoth. It's cool to see two sets of obviously talented engineers working so hard at something and in the process demonstrating the strengths and weaknesses of both models.

Re:Size of the browser...

[William Tanksley]

Yes, reduced size is a continued goal, and there's still some waste to trim. So you should expect to se the size continue to go down.

Although I honestly don't know whether it'll ever reach the size of Opera without Java; that's elegantly crafted. In theory they could, since they could pull the Java console out of the app and put it into an extension; but I don't know whether that'll ever be a priority.

-Billy

Re:Opera

[kbielefe]

I agree with you wholeheartedly about the middle clicking opening a link taking precedence. I use it all the time. However, you wouldn't need to do some weird button combination to activate autoscroll instead in this case. If you middle click on a link, open link in a new tab. If you middle click off of a link, activate the autoscroll. Simple as that.

Re:The last things stopping me from switching:

[bogie]

"I want to sort bookmarks with folders first."

Folders are first by default. You can also move them around any way you want with the bookmark manager.

"I always want the tab bar displayed."
Get Tabbrowser Extension

"I want bookmarks (clicked in both the sidebar and in the Bookmarks Toolbar) to always open on a new tab."
Get Tabbrowser Extension

http://white.sakura.ne.jp/~piro/xul/_tabextensio ns .html.en

Mozilla has 99% of the features most people want either by default or through extensions all it takes is a little research or a quick question at the Mozillazine forums. Its too bad more people don't realize that.

Also for future reference.
http://texturizer.net/firebird/index.h tml

User Certificates

[zeugma-amp]

The one feature that Firebird is lacking that keeps me from using it as my primary browser is the lack of support for certificates. I have several websites that I support at work where I must use certificates because the websites are set up to both require user certs and perform checking of a CRL.

I can still use the full Mozilla for this as it has the ability to import certificates, but I've yet to be able to locate a method for doing this in Phoenix/Firebird.

If someone out there knows how it might be done, I'd appreciate either a reply here or a mail to [z e u g m a at p o b o x dot c o m]

Re:Opera

[critter_hunter]

You haven't used Opera 7, obviously. DOM support is rock solid, and it supports most non-standard javascript as well.

Read the Standard support page [opera.com] to get an idea of Opera's standards support. It's pretty darn great.

Add to that all the neat, neat features (besides mouse gestures and excellent keyboard navigation, they also make the best use of stylesheets and page relations (link rel=next, etc) I've ever seen.) and you got a great goodness.

Re:Great Work

[dr.badass]

Of course, this means that those of us that like Mozilla are pretty much fucked, right?

I used Phoenix off and on since it came out, but when I started using Mozilla, there was just no comparison. Phoenix feels like a toy next to it, but apparently that's what makes it so popular.

I'm utterly bewildered as to why they intend to effectively kill Mozilla in favor of this. I can understand (in reading the new roadmap), focusing on a common runtime, but why must they kill off Mozilla to do so?

I wouldn't mind so much if the two browsers actually felt the same, but they don't, and given the direction Phoenix has moved in in the last two milestones, it doesn't seem like it's going to become any more Mozilla-like.

Re:Great Work

[Anonymous Coward]

The direction this part of Mozilla has gone has really put the icing on the cake for it being the best browser IMHO.

The trouble is, it's at the expense of the original browser. They've spent all this time whipping up a new browser and re-implementing the same damn features, when they could have focused on addressing the few problems Mozilla has.

Never have any popup problems, very quick and couldn't do without opening links in the background under a new tab as I browse the web then go to them when I am done reading what I am currently on.

That's funny, I can do all that, but I could have sworn I was using Mozilla. Oh, wait, I am.