8 ms·

Keen in mind that Firefox 8 (and 7, and I think earlier versions) has Web Developer tools built in, obviating much of the need for Firebug.

true_religion 15y ago
Do you mean Chrome 8 and 7? Firefox is only up to 5 now.
- stanleydrew 15y ago
  Firefox 8 is the nightly build now: http://ostatic.com/blog/early-glimpse-of-firefox-8-shows-vast-performance-increases http://ostatic.com/blog/early-glimpse-of-firefox-8-shows-vas...
- jbp 15y ago
  Firefox moved to new release cycle. The current nightly build of Firefox is Firefox 8 @ http://nightly.mozilla.org/ http://nightly.mozilla.org/
tbassetto 15y ago
Unfortunately, the new web developers tools* built into Firefox represent a small subset of what Firebug and Webkit Inspector can do. Since Firebug is not compatible with Nightlies (Firefox 8) and Aurora (Firefox 7), it's a major regression. * https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Using_the_Web_Console https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Using_the_Web_Console
- zobzu 15y ago
  That's not even true. The web console is not a replacement for firebug. its just decent built in tools. Firebug - guess what - supports Firefox 7 and probably 8 too. And of course, Firefox 5 as well which is the latest release of Firefox btw. It's tiring to read the large amount of FUD against Firefox lately. People like you are the major regression to the interwebs. Very seriously. http://getfirebug.com/ http://getfirebug.com/
  - Locke1689 15y ago
    The page you linked indicates that Firefox 8 is not supported. Also, please try to be civil with your comments in the future (and welcome to HN).
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - mikemaccana 15y ago
    > That's not even true. Today I needed to determine if any resources were 404ing on a page. Yesterday I wanted to see the exact POST request my browser was sending. I did both on FF using the inbuilt developer tools. I'm sure they may not replace every piece of Firebug functionality, but I didn't say they did. > People like you are the major regression to the interwebs. Very seriously. I've flagged your post. Please read http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- dangoor 15y ago
  The Firebug team has tests running against Nightly. Bugs are caught and fixed fairly quickly. Because we work to catch bugs during the Nightly phase, there should not be much time during which an Aurora build is not compatible with a pre-release (at least!) Firebug, and that would be soon after Aurora is branched. Given that Nightly is the least stable kind of build and could have other problems along the way, we've reached a pretty good point with Firebug's compatibility. Of course, you also have the Web Console if you're having trouble with Firebug (and I'll grant that this alone is not a replacement for Firebug!) ObDisclaimer: I'm the product manager for devtools at Mozilla.
- dangoor 15y ago
  Just thought I'd mention that Firebug 1.8 (now in beta) is compatible with Aurora and Nightly: http://blog.getfirebug.com/2011/07/18/firebug-1-8b6/ http://blog.getfirebug.com/2011/07/18/firebug-1-8b6/
RyanKearney 15y ago
Sort of like Chrome. Firefox has becoming nothing more than the browser that copies Chrome from this point on. Its market share is already starting to slip away and it won't be long now before Firefox is the next Netscape Navigator.
- ootachi 15y ago
  Exactly. There is not a thing that Firefox does that Chrome doesn't do better.
  - M1573RMU74710N 15y ago
    I don't know if that's entirely true. I do a lot of Firefox extension development. Many companies or users have a need for highly specialized functionality built into a browser, and Firefox provides an very rich platform for that. You can easily build powerful applications that integrate tightly with Firefox. Chrome's extension capability is much lighter and more restricted; Chrome extensions are just light little packets of functionality that add to the browser. There's many things that you can't do that you could do in Firefox. I think that area is definitely where Firefox wins, and will probably continue winning in the future. Does everyone need that, and is it enough to keep a large market share? I don't know...but it is something that Firefox does better.
    - blasdel 15y ago
      Unfortunately Mozilla is intent on squandering every last advantage they still had by copying what Chrome does. They abandoned XULRunner and Gecko as independent platforms. They're committing to breaking every traditional extension every 6 weeks with the new release cycle (and told institutional users to go fuck themselves). The new stable extension APIs will be limited just like Chrome. Companies will just switch to modern IE, Iceweasel, or Safari to get a maintained shelf-stable browser. Everyone else will use Chrome.
      - M1573RMU74710N 15y ago

true_religion 15y ago

Do you mean Chrome 8 and 7? Firefox is only up to 5 now.

stanleydrew 15y ago
Firefox 8 is the nightly build now: http://ostatic.com/blog/early-glimpse-of-firefox-8-shows-vast-performance-increases http://ostatic.com/blog/early-glimpse-of-firefox-8-shows-vas...
jbp 15y ago
Firefox moved to new release cycle. The current nightly build of Firefox is Firefox 8 @ http://nightly.mozilla.org/ http://nightly.mozilla.org/

tbassetto 15y ago

Unfortunately, the new web developers tools* built into Firefox represent a small subset of what Firebug and Webkit Inspector can do. Since Firebug is not compatible with Nightlies (Firefox 8) and Aurora (Firefox 7), it's a major regression. * https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Using_the_Web_Console https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Using_the_Web_Console

zobzu 15y ago
That's not even true. The web console is not a replacement for firebug. its just decent built in tools. Firebug - guess what - supports Firefox 7 and probably 8 too. And of course, Firefox 5 as well which is the latest release of Firefox btw. It's tiring to read the large amount of FUD against Firefox lately. People like you are the major regression to the interwebs. Very seriously. http://getfirebug.com/ http://getfirebug.com/
- Locke1689 15y ago
  The page you linked indicates that Firefox 8 is not supported. Also, please try to be civil with your comments in the future (and welcome to HN).
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- mikemaccana 15y ago
  > That's not even true. Today I needed to determine if any resources were 404ing on a page. Yesterday I wanted to see the exact POST request my browser was sending. I did both on FF using the inbuilt developer tools. I'm sure they may not replace every piece of Firebug functionality, but I didn't say they did. > People like you are the major regression to the interwebs. Very seriously. I've flagged your post. Please read http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
dangoor 15y ago
The Firebug team has tests running against Nightly. Bugs are caught and fixed fairly quickly. Because we work to catch bugs during the Nightly phase, there should not be much time during which an Aurora build is not compatible with a pre-release (at least!) Firebug, and that would be soon after Aurora is branched. Given that Nightly is the least stable kind of build and could have other problems along the way, we've reached a pretty good point with Firebug's compatibility. Of course, you also have the Web Console if you're having trouble with Firebug (and I'll grant that this alone is not a replacement for Firebug!) ObDisclaimer: I'm the product manager for devtools at Mozilla.
dangoor 15y ago
Just thought I'd mention that Firebug 1.8 (now in beta) is compatible with Aurora and Nightly: http://blog.getfirebug.com/2011/07/18/firebug-1-8b6/ http://blog.getfirebug.com/2011/07/18/firebug-1-8b6/

RyanKearney 15y ago

Sort of like Chrome. Firefox has becoming nothing more than the browser that copies Chrome from this point on. Its market share is already starting to slip away and it won't be long now before Firefox is the next Netscape Navigator.

ootachi 15y ago
Exactly. There is not a thing that Firefox does that Chrome doesn't do better.
- M1573RMU74710N 15y ago
  I don't know if that's entirely true. I do a lot of Firefox extension development. Many companies or users have a need for highly specialized functionality built into a browser, and Firefox provides an very rich platform for that. You can easily build powerful applications that integrate tightly with Firefox. Chrome's extension capability is much lighter and more restricted; Chrome extensions are just light little packets of functionality that add to the browser. There's many things that you can't do that you could do in Firefox. I think that area is definitely where Firefox wins, and will probably continue winning in the future. Does everyone need that, and is it enough to keep a large market share? I don't know...but it is something that Firefox does better.
  - blasdel 15y ago
    Unfortunately Mozilla is intent on squandering every last advantage they still had by copying what Chrome does. They abandoned XULRunner and Gecko as independent platforms. They're committing to breaking every traditional extension every 6 weeks with the new release cycle (and told institutional users to go fuck themselves). The new stable extension APIs will be limited just like Chrome. Companies will just switch to modern IE, Iceweasel, or Safari to get a maintained shelf-stable browser. Everyone else will use Chrome.
    - M1573RMU74710N 15y ago