After a colleague convinced me to downlod a copy of Mozilla Firefox, claiming that it was the "Internet Explorer killer", I have to say, I was sorely disappointed, for a couple of reasons.
1. Broken skin/theme support.
One of FireFox's trumpeted "new features" is skin/theme support. As you can see from the screenshot, it's broken. I tried three skins; unsuccessfully. It turns out that it's fine if you restart the browser, but that's beside the point. The interface doesn't tell you that it needs restarting.
2. While not browser realated, as a web developer, you hear both sides of the coin. Mozilla/etc browser users always complain that your site is "Designed for Internet Explorer", and doesn't display properly in their browser. They claim that because your site isn't standards compliant, it shouldn't exist.
I show you; a page from FireFox, displayed in Internet Explorer:
In a similar way to FF's skin support, it's broken.
"Maybe it's just Internet Explorer", i thought:
Nope, it would seem that the FireFox page authors themselves shun the standards. If I ever hear another Mozilla/Gecko/Firebird/Firefox user complain about standards non-compliance, I'll wring their neck.
Some other things..
3. While they've dramatically improved FireFox's load time, it's just not on-par with IE. I know; several components of IE are loaded with the Operating System, but you're not going to get the masses to use a new browser if they have to wait.
4. The interface is gluggy. In a similar manner to almost ALL Linux (or Open Source in general) interfaces, FireFox has a gluggy interface. It took me ten minutes to figure out how to move the Address bar to the line below the back/foreward buttons. And how do I turn off the damn Google toolbar?? (For those who are wondering: Create a new toolbar, drag the Google one to it, then turn the toolbar off).
Internet Explorer users are used to the ieda of being able to drag their toolbars, rearrange them, etc; without having to Right click and hit Customise. Don't want the Google toolbar? You don't have to create a new toolbar for it and disable it -- it's counter intuitive.
While many people think IE and Microsoft are the spawn of the Devil; I still believe that IE is a great, easy to use product, and until someone comes up with something better (And yes, I've tried Opera, Safari, etc), you're not going to knock it out of First Place.
Comments
Seriously SIF
I don't know which version you're using but its probably below the first full version 1 release cause thats not out yet. Not everything is implemented yet. Straight from an install, I customise some stuff like extra searches in the google bar area. Switch to an older skin cause the icons are smaller and import my bookmarks. From there I have never come across a website that didnt load cause I was using firefox. Pop-ups are always caught and I rarely have to adjust it for the few sites that use pop-ups within their site.
Firefox isnt generally toted for its theme support. Also I've found if anything is missing or doesnt work, there is a plug-in for it to fix that. I forget the address to the plug-ins page.
Nope, that article was written on the day I installed Firefox. It was the latest version available on the Firefox website at time of writing. (Can't tell you, because I uninstalled it.)
Since you've written, I've taken the liberty of looking at the Firefox plugins page, and now decide to ammend the article, below:
It's funny how so many Mozilla users say they use Mozilla because they hate IE. Even taking a look at the Firefox Plugins/Extensions page reminds me why I use IE.
Take a look at the page. At time of writing, the fifth most popular plugin is the "IE View" plugin. This plugin takes the current page, and loads it up in IE.
If this is the fifth most downloaded plugin for Firefox, why not just use IE?
And the fun doesn't stop here. Users go further -- writing plugins which spoof the User agent (likely to look like IE): User Agent Switcher. If you're going to spoof the User Agent to look like IE, why not just use IE?
While I think it's commendable that Firefox has a popup killer built in, there's already popup killer plugins/applications for IE. I use one called ZeroPopup. The Google toolbar has one built in, I beleve.
If I could use IE on Linux, I would. Good thing I don't use Linux very often.
i think there's something broken about your computer. maybe you need to reinstall it. I've not ever seen a page as broken as the one you displayed, nor have i ever seen firefox break like that. Or any other application for that matter.
maybe you just have bad luck. How could you like IE? it's a load.
IMO firefox is the best for linux & windows.
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.realmtech.net%2Farticle69.html&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline
its sort of like those people that try to install linux but then it 'crashes' and they can't install something and then the video screws up.
i've actually never had any problems with a computer before. actually i broke gentoo a few times, but that's in my nature and i knew how to fix it.
or like those people who install firefox and notice that the theme engine blew up (probably because of some spyware :D) and who think a browser without tabs is actually usable.
whatever.
oh the other thing - the reason people do the user agent switching is because of crappy website designers with crappy websites that need a specific browser to function properly. OR, they try to force people to use a certain browser by breaking the page for some browsers. so, for people who try to force IE, firefox users can still trick their way in.
it's kind of like photoshop vs mspaint. last time i looked mspaint could only save bmp.
lets assume i want to make a bmp image. mspaint can only save bmp. photoshop can also save as bmp, but you have to select it as an option because it's not the default.
using your logic, i would OBVIOUSLY choose mspaint because what's the point in trying to make photoshop act like it saves bmp when you can use the real, actual bmp program which is mspaint.
your argument is flawed.
so is your computer.
I never claimed realmtech was in any way shape or form 100% W3C compliant. I was simply saying that Linux/Mozilla/whatever people always bitch that sites aren't W3C compliant and don't work in their browser.
Realmtech at least works to some acceptable level in most browsers.
ok here i am addressing 3 and 4
3) See the photoshop vs mspaint argument
4) IMO safari has the best browser interface out of the lot. http://www.worth.id.au/~luke/screen.jpg
The only way i can think of that someone might want to improve it would be to remove the bookmark button and the google box. but i use the google box. it is to my belief that having a thousand useless buttons in a toolbar goes against usability. it makes it look cluttered and doesn't provide anything to the user.
My browser is 1337. is yours?
ps lol i'm so over writing these things. by now either you get it or you dont (probably the latter). i really don't care what you think, just playing.