4 ms·

Firefox 3.5 is out, But Are You Dazzled?

20 points by aj 17y ago

dpcan 17y ago
It's not about being dazzled. When you go on a road trip, you rotate the tires, check the brakes, wash the windows, change the oil and fill it up with gas - and not because it's dazzling, but because you need to be prepared for the road ahead. Not to mention you must be able to maintain the pace with the other vehicles on the road. "Dazzling" will come (or so the rumors say) but right now it's about being competitive, useful and functional.
profquail 17y ago
The one feature I've noticed so far is that the page renders much faster than it used to. I guess this is the "speculative rendering" changes made to Gecko (FF's layout engine). In fact, it made me realize that a lot of page loading time is probably due to slow-loading ads or scripts, not because the actual website or my connection is slow.
- JimmyL 17y ago
  Yeah - I'm seeing this as well. The real thing I've noticed - and this happens every time that a major new rev comes out - is how much my browsing experience depends on various extensions. Sure, stock Firefox works, but in order for it to be the incredible tool I'm used to I need five or ten separate extensions there. It's almost as it Firefox is more a browsing platform (which allows others to develop extensions that work for me) than a straight-up browser. In other news, where's my PTTL and Google Gears!
- aj 17y ago
  I've also noticed that my FF instance uses a LOT less memory. Where the usual 60 tabs would take 400+ MB (and a max of 1gig+ sometimes) of memory, it now hardly goes more than 350 MB and an average of 275-300 MB
  - ramidarigaz 17y ago
    60 tabs? WOW. I never use more than 10-15. Right now, I have 12 open, and FF is using a total of 172MB.
    - aj 17y ago
      Hehe.. This is less because due to a stupid tech support dude, I lost about 100+ of the open tabs
Tichy 17y ago
I just want a nice browser, and FF delivers. I don't need the internet reinvented. I like the awesome bar enhancements, too.
natmaster 17y ago
I don't see why private browsing should be considered a late copy for Firefox? That feature first appeared as a Firefox extension, and was then copied by IE. Are you saying Firebug should be included with the default Firefox install just b/c IE has their copy of it now?
natmaster 17y ago
The whole point of Firefox is to not overload the average user with feature bloat. Yes, Safari and Chrome are slightly faster than Firefox now, and this is something that should be in core. OK. But awesomebar + ubiquity + weave? Other browsers just barely started copying awesomebar, and the others have yet to be copied. How are these not revolutionary?
- sp332 17y ago
  Because they are not ready for prime-time. The Weave platform only has one feature implemented so far (Weave Sync), and Ubiquity just recently (like last week) figured out what kind of parser it was going to use. Sure, they're awesome features (I use both!), but they don't count if they don't get shipped.
sp332 17y ago
Yes! http://labs.pimsworld.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/demo-content-aware-image-resizing-2/ http://labs.pimsworld.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/demo-co... http://craigmod.com/journal/font-face/ http://craigmod.com/journal/font-face/ http://hacks.mozilla.org/2009/06/pop-art-video/ http://hacks.mozilla.org/2009/06/pop-art-video/

20 points by aj 17y ago

dpcan 17y ago

It's not about being dazzled. When you go on a road trip, you rotate the tires, check the brakes, wash the windows, change the oil and fill it up with gas - and not because it's dazzling, but because you need to be prepared for the road ahead. Not to mention you must be able to maintain the pace with the other vehicles on the road. "Dazzling" will come (or so the rumors say) but right now it's about being competitive, useful and functional.

profquail 17y ago

The one feature I've noticed so far is that the page renders much faster than it used to. I guess this is the "speculative rendering" changes made to Gecko (FF's layout engine). In fact, it made me realize that a lot of page loading time is probably due to slow-loading ads or scripts, not because the actual website or my connection is slow.

JimmyL 17y ago
Yeah - I'm seeing this as well. The real thing I've noticed - and this happens every time that a major new rev comes out - is how much my browsing experience depends on various extensions. Sure, stock Firefox works, but in order for it to be the incredible tool I'm used to I need five or ten separate extensions there. It's almost as it Firefox is more a browsing platform (which allows others to develop extensions that work for me) than a straight-up browser. In other news, where's my PTTL and Google Gears!
aj 17y ago
I've also noticed that my FF instance uses a LOT less memory. Where the usual 60 tabs would take 400+ MB (and a max of 1gig+ sometimes) of memory, it now hardly goes more than 350 MB and an average of 275-300 MB
- ramidarigaz 17y ago
  60 tabs? WOW. I never use more than 10-15. Right now, I have 12 open, and FF is using a total of 172MB.
  - aj 17y ago
    Hehe.. This is less because due to a stupid tech support dude, I lost about 100+ of the open tabs

Tichy 17y ago

I just want a nice browser, and FF delivers. I don't need the internet reinvented. I like the awesome bar enhancements, too.

natmaster 17y ago

I don't see why private browsing should be considered a late copy for Firefox? That feature first appeared as a Firefox extension, and was then copied by IE. Are you saying Firebug should be included with the default Firefox install just b/c IE has their copy of it now?

natmaster 17y ago

The whole point of Firefox is to not overload the average user with feature bloat. Yes, Safari and Chrome are slightly faster than Firefox now, and this is something that should be in core. OK. But awesomebar + ubiquity + weave? Other browsers just barely started copying awesomebar, and the others have yet to be copied. How are these not revolutionary?

sp332 17y ago
Because they are not ready for prime-time. The Weave platform only has one feature implemented so far (Weave Sync), and Ubiquity just recently (like last week) figured out what kind of parser it was going to use. Sure, they're awesome features (I use both!), but they don't count if they don't get shipped.

sp332 17y ago

Yes! http://labs.pimsworld.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/demo-content-aware-image-resizing-2/ http://labs.pimsworld.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/demo-co... http://craigmod.com/journal/font-face/ http://craigmod.com/journal/font-face/ http://hacks.mozilla.org/2009/06/pop-art-video/ http://hacks.mozilla.org/2009/06/pop-art-video/