That statement usually inspires all kinds of brilliance in correspondents, ranging from "M$ blowz!" to "bet u get hacked lol". But I keep up with security patches, have a firewall, and the Google Toolbar blocks popups sufficiently for my tastes.
]]> Despite this confession, I will enthusiastically concede that Firebird is a fantastic browser. After some initial rough spots, Ben Goodger created a terrific advocacy page explaining the browser's benefits. And it warms my heart to see people like Asa working on integrating Movable Type into web panels. That's exactly the kind of innovation that gets people hooked on a tool. I spent a while trying to hack my Movable Type boomarklet to load into Internet Explorer's search pane, and while I was successful, it was nowhere near as pleasant an experience as a well-designed XUL form would be.But all that praise aside, IE's still been my default browser thus far. So starting today, I've set Firebird as my default so that I can focus on the shortcomings that explain why I haven't yet switched. Now that the Google toolbar on Mozilla and Firebird has reached parity with the official toolbar for IE, my major obstacle is overcome. The extensions support in Firebird is fantastic and gives me hope that most of the new features I need will be added quickly, along with the fact that there are dozens of others available which I hadn't even known I wanted.
What don't I have? I think the primary missing pieces are context menu additions that could probably be created for Mozilla, but that I don't have the time and inclination to learn how to create, especially when they're easily added to Internet Explorer. The first gee-whiz feature (people are always amazed when they see this and don't know it exists) that I use constantly in IE is the ability to highlight a selection on a web page and right-click to view source for just that part of the HTML for the page. It's just one of several great features in Microsoft's Web Developer Accessories that are free to download.
Also critical are a few features afforded by the IE Web Accessories, such as right-click highlighting of text on a page and the ability to zoom in and out on an image (which just involves resizing the image by 50% or 200%) by right-clicking on it.
A few years ago, I talked to Dan Sanderson about his BlogTracker tool, then known as Subhonker Filter, and he created the ability to view update lists in the IE sidebar, which simply involves setting the TARGET attribute of a link to "_search". Since then, I've created a bunch of tools for my personal use which load into the sidebar in the same way, which works great on my widescreen laptop, since it still allows me to see a full web page while the sidebar's open.
So a common theme seems to emerge. I use right-click extensions and I use a lot of tools which load into the Search Pane in the browser. It seems like the latter need could be met by having Firebird web panels support the target="_search" syntax, even though it's not a standard, so that those links would work without changing the syntax from IE. The right-click extensions are certainly possible in Mozilla-based browsers, but they're completely incompatible with the way that IE implements them. So there's probably some demand for recreating a handful of context menu features.
I'll keep posting as I find other elements of my surfing habit that Firebird doesn't support yet (bookmark handling is still weaker in Firebird, too) but feel free to add your own list of requisites here if you're still using IE as your primary browser.
]]>Unfortunately the default preferences are a bit broken at the moment; you need to set "diagonal tolerance" to about 50 before diagonal gestures work properly. Once you've done that, gesturing diagonally from top-left to bottom-right over an image will double its size and gesturing the other way will halve it. The same gesture performed over the page at large (not over an image) will increase or decrease the text size. The other gestures are well worth learning as well.
]]>I really don't like use Firebird, personally I love to use Mozilla, I feel confortably with it. Mail, chat, DOM, browser, maybe I see you more as a developer than a simple user...
Did you tryed last Mozilla 1.4 suit? It's sweet.
]]>FYI, the "View Selection Source" is in Mozilla too, not just Firebird.
Note, however, it's the DOM source -- not always the same as the original HTML. For example, <br /> gets transformed into <br>.
]]>For real though, I'm in the midst of writing a piece advocating the switch to Firebird, and I'm very interested to read what you think of it and your issues.
]]>Furthermore IE6 still beats Firebird on launch. I use an RSS aggregator in Outlook... usually i'll click a link to a post when interested... Anyway... Firebird is on its way to seduce me as a new customer. I think the switch will be made in a few months.
]]>The problem as I understand it (as an outsider not following firebird dev super closely) is that "web panels" are still being coded and supported, and should make it into the next major release of firebird. Web panels sound like a reinvention of the mozilla sidebars (someone correct me if I am wrong).
]]>http://www.xulplanet.com/ndeakin/arts/reasons.html
Tim Bray's 'use a better browser' campaign:
http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/07/17/BrowserDream
]]>Do they work in IE6 then? They sound vaguely useful...
]]>OK - that's not really my favourite thing, but it's cool.
]]>Not only that, with IE you can have Notepad pop-ups!
]]>As far as general browsing, after getting used to tabbed browsing and the near perfect pop-up blocking handling, it was pretty much impossible for me to go back to IE. There are only a few things that bug me during day to day browsing:
* title tags don't show completely; they work as I think they should in IE
* Javascript links don't execute as expected when I open them into a new tab (IE doesn't handle javascript links well either)
For development, having the Javascript Console, DOM Inspector and Venkmann completely blows away anything the IE gizmos offered (I was quite the fan of both Micosoft and WDG's developer extensions back in the day). My current favorite development widgets are JesseR's bookmarklets. Most of the more useful ones just aren't able to work in most non-Gecko browsers.
Still, it would be nice to have a plugin that would allow easy JavaScript behavior attachment (context menus, pre/post-loading) manager...
]]>However, if I were to vote for my favourite browser, it would be IE... for these reasons:
1. Integration with OS (Duh)
2. Embed-ability in other programs. (I know Moz can do this now but it's not as easy as IE imo)
3. My Copernic Agent/Summarizer bars and software integration (This is the killer).
4. A better Googlebar implementation.
5. It looks like a part of my OS
6. Doesn't feel as "clunky" as Moz
Now, as I said, I use Moz and love it to bits, but I *really* miss my Copernic Agent and Google integration and find myself wanting to go back to IE... but alas I can't "surf" without tabs, and I've yet to come accross a good tab system for IE.
If the next version/upgrade of IE manages to equal the rendering power of Mozilla, while also delivering tabbed browsing, then I'll go back to IE for sure!
Still, with all that said, a day doesn't go by without me wanting to go back... it's wierd.
]]>Kris, I think that's why I always liked IE until Safari came around. Even Camino seems a little klunky when put beside Safari and Mac IE. I loved IE 5 when I was on Windows. I used it from early developer previews until the end of 2001. Firebird is the first Mozilla-based browser...well maybe K-Meleon, that I could easily use as my main Windows browser.
]]>It seems ok, but missing the DOM inspector as far as I can see.
Guess it's going to be a weekend of weighing up the pros and cons.
I just wish MS wouldn't let IE go stale, just an upgrade of it's CSS2 implementation and tabs is all it needs to convert a lot of ppl back imho.
]]>http://www.pivx.com/larholm/unpatched/
Is it a case of:
"I disable 'active scripting'"
or:
"It won't happen to me"
...in which case the following should give some pause for thought:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/11/0251235&mode=thread&tid=123&tid=153&tid=99
]]>Not to forget some great RSS readers available as extensions!
Now that there is a usable alternative to IE, I'm waiting to see some improvements in the next version of IE - it has been stagnating since IE 5.
]]>(It works provided you are using Netcaptor - http://www.netcaptor.com).
While browsing any site, if you come across Javascript link and want to open it in new page just press F12 (This will lock the 'Tab', alternatively you can right click Tab and select 'Tab Locked') and now click on the link! Voilla, it opens in new window! :)
JD
http://jdk.phpkid.org
Thanks,
Tim