Firefox 2.0!, Should you get it? Read this little review thing to find out! Options

[Sir Modsalot]

Well, I just got Firefox 2.0 installed and running, and here's my list of goodies and baddies about it:

Goodies:

1. VASTLY improved default UI. Tabbing interface is cleaner and better looking, though I'm somewhat disappointed in the omission of the standard, right-hand tab close button, which has been replaced with a drop-down list of open tabs.

2. Anti-phishing. This is a good thing for careless people, but for those that know what they're doing, it's useless.

3. Improved performance. The new Firefox came up from a cold start almost 30% faster than Firefox 1.5.0.7, and it also handles loading bigger web pages better.

4. Inline spell-checker. Again, a good thing for some people, but for spelling/grammar masters such as myself, it's useless. It can get annoying, though, typing in a certain word that's not in the dictionary and seeing the red underline, a la MS Word, but, like Word, just 2 clicks and you can add it to the dictionary.

More goodies will be added later as I discover them.

Baddies:

1. Half of my extensions, including Tab Mix Plus and Fasterfox, are incompatible with FF 2.0. This is the biggest hit against FF 2.0 for me. People who load FF down with extensions will be disappointed to see some of their favorite extensions aren't compatible.

2. Incompatible themes. Because of the improved U.I., most themes I've used aren't compatible with FF 2.0. This includes Blueshift, which is my favorite theme, and I never used 1.x without it. I'm hoping a new version is released soon, because going back to the plain old default theme is somewhat painful.

3. No right-hand standard tab close button. As I said before, this is a disappointment, mainly because I've trained my hand over the past year and a half to snap to the right-hand close button. Hopefully when Tab Mix Plus is updated to work with FF 2.0 they'll include an easy toggle to restore this button without going into about:config.

More baddies will be added when I uncover them.

That sums it up for now, I guess. If anyone else has Firefox 2.0 installed, post about how it's been for you so far and whether or not you like it more than previous versions.

This post has been edited by Sir Modsalot: Oct 25 2006, 10:07 AM

[Creagor]

I agree with all those really. I use the greenshift theme (by the same people as blueshift) an dthat doesent work :(

And the anti-phishng, like most things, requires common sense alone. But stupid people will enjoy it.

I think the goodies outweigh the baddies though, so I'm still using it. Themes etc... will be made more compatible sooner or later.

This post has been edited by Creagor: Oct 25 2006, 10:27 AM

[Bittah Commander]

I never browsed with tabs anyway, so no problem there
It does worry me a little that the fasterfox plugin isn't compatible anymore though, but I'll be getting Firefox 2.0 anyway

[Xenus]

I find that Firefox's taskbar is extremely cluttered, so i just use the new Internet Explorer version

[Bittah Commander]

Bad idea

Anyway I just installed Firefox 2.0... I miss my Fasterfox extention :(

[Creagor]

Havent tried the new IE version. I'm sure its full of bugs and genreally not as good as FF, like most MS programs.

I just found out. With FireFox2.0 you dont get the gallerey problems any more.

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[The Raven]

Yeah, overall i think 2.0 is better...

[Clazzy]

2.0 is an improvement, but it's still unfortunately a memory hog. At this moment in time, it's using 124MB of my RAM (considering my laptop only uses 190MB when idling, that's a big number). I would have liked to see the spell-checker as a preinstalled extension or as a disableable feature in the menu, since it isn't really something I particularly need.

As for your criticisms, the first two are to be expected. To be fair, all of my extensions run fine on 2.0, but my Tango theme has yet to be ported. As for closing tabs, CTRL+W is a good shortcut to remember.

[ChielScape]

I agree with all those really. I use the greenshift theme (by the same people as blueshift) an dthat doesent work :(

And the anti-phishng, like most things, requires common sense alone. But stupid people will enjoy it.

I think the goodies outweigh the baddies though, so I'm still using it. Themes etc... will be made more compatible sooner or later.

orangeshift user here

i think i'll stick with 1.x.
2.o doesnt come with enough good stuff.

[Bittah Commander]

I would have liked to see the spell-checker as a preinstalled extension or as a disableable feature in the menu, since it isn't really something I particularly need.

The spell-checker can be disabled in the 'advanced' secion under the 'general' tab.

I haven't noticed the spell-checker doing anything at all yet however...

[The DvD]

FFS!

[Creagor]

Yeah thats a point. I havent noticed it correcting anee ov myee wronglee spled stuf. It also claims to be faster, but I havent noticed any noticible speed increase.


And your right there clazzy, it does hog one hell of a lot of memory.

[Clazzy]

The spell-checker can be disabled in the 'advanced' secion under the 'general' tab.

Thank you, I'll see if it has any effect on memory usage. One thing that really annoys me with Firefox, though, is the shortcut for bringing up the history menu (Alt + S), which was once the command to submit forms. It made life a hell of a lot easier when posting replies or new topics on forums.

[Bittah Commander]

Alt + S doesn't do anything for me and the shortcut to bring up the history menu is still Ctrl+H for me...

[Wess]

no probs here, some extensions need updating. even seems to go a bit faster over here, altho i did change some stats in about:config

[DeathRay2K]

The extensions and themes will be updated in good time, and right-click to close a tab?! That's crazy talk! Middle-click closes a tab by default, and its way better that way (So right-click can give you a context-sensitive menu, as in every other Windows program in the world).

Bittah, alt+s should bring up the history menu, while ctrl+h brings up the history sidebar.
If you look along the top to the right of File, you'll see History, and the s is underlined, alt+s is the shortcut for it.

[Sir Modsalot]

The extensions and themes will be updated in good time, and right-click to close a tab?! That's crazy talk! Middle-click closes a tab by default, and its way better that way (So right-click can give you a context-sensitive menu, as in every other Windows program in the world).

No, I mean the tab close button on the right side of the tab bar. You know, the button that's been there on every Firefox up until 2.0?

[DeathRay2K]

Oh I see.
That thing was so annoying when the bar was full and you were trying to open a new one. Half the time I ended up closing the tab I had open. :|

But I've been using 3.0 forever so I can't say I notice any difference at all.

[Bittah Commander]

Bittah, alt+s should bring up the history menu, while ctrl+h brings up the history sidebar.
If you look along the top to the right of File, you'll see History, and the s is underlined, alt+s is the shortcut for it.

Ah, that explains it... I'm using the dutch version of Firefox and for me the shortcuts are different. Alt+G (Geschiedenis) opens the history menu for me.

[Clazzy]

For those who care, turning off the spell checker saves a whopping 200KB of RAM, so isn't really worth it. I doubt it actually turns spell checking off properly, since you can right click on a text box and ask it to spell check. Ah well...

[TheGnomes]

I kinda like 2.0 but am sticking to 1.- until the extensions and themes that I use are converted (I'm using pitch dark)

[Havoc]

I was wondering why I kept getting those spelling checks while posting.

Firefox 2 isn't big deal compared to the 1s, but I find it more stable though. I don't use any extensions because I find no use for them. And it doesn't it too much memory on my comp [quick edit here while posting and a short faint]: Holy $***, 140MB/1024MB! This program is insane! OMG, I think I'll return to 1.xx.

IE7 is quite nice, although I can't use it on my WinXP (gotta love the genuine advantage), but I tried it on Vista and it was cool. But I don't trust it too much, since IE6 sucked.

[AluminumPancake]

I was wondering about those spell check underlines too ^_^ I don't like 'em. Any way I can take them off?

I can't stand I.E.

I'm not a Firefox fanboy; I just don't like I.E. at all.

I've also used Netscape and Opera at times, but Firefox is still my favorite. It is a memory sucker, but it doesn't affect me.

I use Noia 2.0 eXtreme as my theme. I've also used BlackJapan, but I still didn't like it as much as Noia.

My extensions are:

AdBlock Plus w/ Filterset.G Updater
DOM Inspector
ForecastFox
Soon-to-be Tab Mix Plus
Talkback
URL Fixer
Video Downloader

This post has been edited by AluminumPancake: Oct 26 2006, 02:23 AM

[Sir Modsalot]

Well, for me, when I throw open 6 tabs with big web pages in FF 2.0, memory usage peaks at 87.4 MB, which is slightly less than the 103.1 MB 1.5.0.7 used with the same tabs open, though that could be because the incompatible extensions and themes were disabled and won't be used until updated to function. When that happens I figure it'll use about the same amount of memory.

This post has been edited by Sir Modsalot: Oct 26 2006, 07:13 AM

[snow93]

There are plenty of tutorials scattered around teh interweb on easily converting extensions to FF2.0. Even if you can't be bothered, it's so easy that I'm sure all the extension producers will be doing it very soon.
Any memory problems are probably because you're running it on windows, btw.
(stupid conservative Debian release cycle makes it near impossible for me to get FF2.0 from any repository)

I just noticed something; near the bottom of this IPB thingy is a skin selector, and selecting "IPB Default Skin" looks sufficiently like SubSilver to keep me happy,