surefire Posted August 15, 2003 Share Posted August 15, 2003 I know there's been at least one other thread on Mozilla. I've been using Mozilla Firebird from some time now and it's great. http://www.mozilla.org/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raDeon Posted August 15, 2003 Share Posted August 15, 2003 Yes, I switched over to firebird about a month ago and I'm loving it. I've converted several people from IE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deverill Posted August 15, 2003 Share Posted August 15, 2003 Other than the "Microsoft is an evil monopoly and we should stand against them," which is a valid point of view , what about Mozilla/Firebird do you find worthwhile or compelling to switch to it? Just curious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayners Posted August 15, 2003 Share Posted August 15, 2003 Here are some good reasons to switch to Firebird: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firebird/why/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surefire Posted August 15, 2003 Author Share Posted August 15, 2003 It's touted as a very 'lean' version of Mozilla. Which I guess means they cleaned up the code a bit and left out stuff that most don't use... but I haven't personally found that the program loads any faster than ie. But what I like is that I can open up sites in different tabs instead of new windows. The toolbar is small and sleek so that the browsing screen is bigger. I like the way that bookmars are set up. You can search though your bookmarks like you would search Google. It comes with a google search box so you can search google without going to the site first. You can change the font size on sites to accomodate your viewing preferences. It has a popup blocker. And as a developer, I have found that 9 times out of ten, if a site works for Mozilla, it will probably work for IE, Netscape, etc. My research indicates that Mozilla incorporates css better. I was using Netscape for a while, which is built off of Mozilla code, but it seemed to have bugs in it and when I searched for a problem to the bugs I found, the searches came up with other bugs that I wasn't comfortable with. Apparently, from what I've read, AOL does a sloppy job of converting Mozilla code to their purposes. In addition, I read an article recently that says Microsoft has no urgent plans for upgrading IE since they have 'won' the browser war. My guess is that Mozilla builds will make a nice inroad on IE market share... who would've thought that PHP would surpass ASP?! At the very least, my hope is that more folks migrating away from IE might encourage Microsoft to update their browser rather than resting on their laurels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surefire Posted August 15, 2003 Author Share Posted August 15, 2003 I just read that link by rayners and learned some cool tricks I didn't even know about... Awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundweaver Posted August 15, 2003 Share Posted August 15, 2003 I'm another convert - after reading posts about mozilla on this forum I tried it and switched. I really like the tab feature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimzdat Posted August 15, 2003 Share Posted August 15, 2003 Here's a quick list of features that helped influence my decision to move to Mozilla (not using Firebird, but the full version instead--I like the mail client and it's "junk" filters) (and no, I didnt rely on ALL of the reasons) 101 Reasons to use Mozilla over IE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockNRollPig Posted August 15, 2003 Share Posted August 15, 2003 My research indicates that Mozilla incorporates css better. I'm not sure about that...I had to change a good many things in my CSS documents to accomodate mozilla....and i still haven't got my links to be the color i want for mozilla...the browser keeps overriding my link colors....besides that...i...like everyone else...love the tab feature.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayners Posted August 16, 2003 Share Posted August 16, 2003 Well, the usual argument is that Mozilla and it's spawn actually implement CSS correctly (and in my experience, that seems to be the case). The implementation of CSS in IE can ba a litte iffy at times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deverill Posted August 16, 2003 Share Posted August 16, 2003 Great response gang - thanks! I am going to learn the better features of Firebird and probably will not need the others after that! I also downloaded Thunderbird and am impressed with it as well. Besides, the price is right and the support (community) is great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinW Posted August 16, 2003 Share Posted August 16, 2003 I started using Firebird when a customer of mine could not access the Fed Ex web site properly with IE! They couldn't get labels printed, and therefore could not ship packages. Not good! I went around and around on several Microsoft web sites. I received instructions ranging from reloading Java, to changing security settings, to looking at my firewall. I finally loaded Firebird and we've had no other problems. -kw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frylock Posted August 17, 2003 Share Posted August 17, 2003 Hmm, I'll have to try this. I had been sticking with my IE/Avant browser since the last time I tried Mozilla or Netscape I didn't like what I saw. I remember when I was putting together the CSS for my site, I had it just like I wanted it as I viewed via IE... but when I tried in Netscape. Wow was it off. So I went to a CSS validation site and it showed me a number of errors that I fixed... and bam! It looked like I wanted in IE and Netscape.... Though doesn't only IE have those cool scroll bar colors still? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surefire Posted August 17, 2003 Author Share Posted August 17, 2003 Though doesn't only IE have those cool scroll bar colors still? I'm not sure... but if you're designing sites for clients, then you can still but in whatever CSS you want to make IE change scrollbar colors. Mozilla Firebird will hold you, the developer, to a higher standard than IE will because Mozilla code is designed to accurately reflect the CSS standards. It's more CSS compliant than IE. That doesn't mean better... but I've found that setting my browser default to Firebird speeds up my site design because of the stricter interpretation. Then, when I switch to IE to double check, everything almost always looks fine. I found the opposite to be true (just as you have indicated) when IE was my default browser. It would let me get away with CSS that wasn't perfect, and then I'd get mad when I checked it in Netscape... which is based on Mozilla. Anyhow, there are dozens of cool things about the browser itself that has nothing to do with web design. I simply like the browser better than IE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chadf Posted August 22, 2003 Share Posted August 22, 2003 I tried Firebird out for the first time today and I have to say I was a little disappointed. One of my add-ons didn't work at all, and the themes I downloaded were a little buggy. It also kept opening up new browser windows, even though it is a tabbed browser. It looks like it could get a lot better, but right now I really question how reliable it is. Is the Mozilla browser any better than this? I am currently using Avant Browser, which I'm pretty happy with, but I'm always looking for something bigger and better. Sometimes you don't know what you're missing until you go out and try something new - kind of like eating out, but that's a different story all together. I also wonder which brower will be around longer? Why would Mozilla and Firebird continue to be developed together? I don't want to start using something that's going to fizzle out in the near future. Any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borfast Posted August 22, 2003 Share Posted August 22, 2003 Mozilla and Mozilla Firebird are not going to be developed together. The idea from the Mozilla project guys is to replace the current Mozilla browser with Mozilla Firebird and the Mozilla mail component with Mozilla Thunderbird. Yes, Firebird is still a bit buggy but I use it as my default browser and I rarely have problems with it. My suggestion is to use Mozilla Firebird and Mozilla for those situations when Firebird misbehaves. If there's something about Firebird functionality that you don't like, chances are that someone else didn't like it too and wrote a plugin to change it. You only have to go to http://texturizer.net/firebird/ and get it EDIT: I just noticed this news item from texturizer's firebird page: "Nightly Linux Builds with XFT and GTK2 Available Mozilla Firebird builds with XFT and GTK2 are now available! Go to the downloads section for more info. Good news for Linux users who don't like to compile their own programs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Munnin Posted August 24, 2003 Share Posted August 24, 2003 I like Firebird, or I did until it yeilded its first Kernel panic in two years. I think I will wait before I try it again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digirunt Posted August 24, 2003 Share Posted August 24, 2003 I am a Firebird convert also and have been for several months now. I like Firebird because it looks like this Simply Firebird Mmmmm Boring. . . yes but that's the way I like it, fast simple and I don't have to read reems of tutorials to simply empty my cache unlike IE. Unfortunately there are still people who seem to asume that the world is firmly in Microsofts grip and built sites only for IE with phrases like click the menu below to navigate. . . . what menu? So I always have a copy of IE and Mozilla around for those akward sites but nether the less in constant persuit for simpler software I'm sold on Firebird and as it seems to be improving so much all the time I'm staying. Thumbs Up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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