Hmm, I did know know that Kerm.

I still like chrome because of it's speed.

Chrome is better because it is slim and FAST

souvik, I agree

though, it is missing some features that firefox has...

Firefox works fine on my Windows XP Netbook. Perhaps your real problem is that you're using a bloated version of Windows...

meh netbooks are... cute... they arent really the epitome of processing power... So a regular laptop or even a desktop running "bloated Windows" should run it just fine... Personally the only reason Firefox runs slow is because of all the add ons people add to it in an attempt to personalize their browser. I agree though, Chrome is the best. IE sucks, just like Safari, and no one cares about Opera. >.<

I just didnt like the constant crashes that IE gave me....

If IE is constantly crashing, check your add-ons.

the sad part here, I was using the no add-ons IE...

I never assert without proof:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSTY2sz5Dik

It seems that the speed is MUCH faster now. Some regressions (incorrect CSS rendering, etc.) were definitely fixed. Still laggy in tab switching, and right clicks don't respond sometimes.

Some positive notes:
1) Starting up with many tabs (finally) isn't slow! Chrome unfortunately suffers that disorder too, unfortunately.
2) Nice Awesomebar!
3) Firefox Panorama is awesome!
4) A LOT faster, but still needs work.
5) Interesting About screen redesign - although they ditched the fun scrolling credits...
6) App tabs

Negative notes:
1) No more status bar? Boo. Removing it won't make people think it's loading nicely.
2) Progress bar is hard to see.
3) No Firefox button, which would perfectly fine on Linux...
4) Sluggish still in some areas
5) LOTS of connection failures. HTTPS seems to be the most problematic. Chrome connects perfectly.

Any more thoughts and/or experiences?

On your negatives:

1) Easily turned back on
2) Can be adjusted afaik
3) What?
4) Which ones
5) I saw no such problems

In response:
1) Sorry, but there's NO option in the menu to change it. Maybe in the 1000+ config options in about:config, but otherwise, nada. There's a big fight over at http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=1951751&start=210. An extension was actually created to mimic a status bar (a bar either doesn't exist in FF4, or there is an addon bar).

2) IIRC, it requires diving in and either changing some CSS buried inside Firefox, or changing the GTK+ theme, neither that I would ever feel like doing. Personas hopefully will allow color changes for the progress bar.

3) You know, the orangey rectangley Firefox button? Mocked up (and is implemented for Windows): https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/4.0_Windows_Theme_Mockups

4) Tab switching, clicking, opening menus.

5) This is TRUNK, so I'd expect some weird breakages like this to occur. Beta builds aren't that bad.

...and to add a pet peeve:

6) Their new link hover (where you see the URL when you hover over a link) is TERRIBLY FLAWED. It turns:

Code:


See the flaw yet? No? Let's try another example:


Code:


What's the difference between the seen URLs? Nothing. The actual URLs? Different.

Most browsers do something like:

Code:


Definitely a pet peeve.

The status bar is there for me....
On Win7 the new UI is rather meh, on netbooks I'd like it but personally I like my menu bar. Don't make me do more work to get to the same options and since I used smart bookmarks bar to iconize my bookmarks I had already combined my menubar and bookmarks bar thus it didn't really take up any space.

I'm currently building it on my Arch Linux install so I'll see if I like it any better there.

Maybe in beta, but not in trunk. It's gone.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1016340/PublicPictures/Firefox4TrunkReview/HeyMaNoStatusBar.png

There is an "Addon Bar", but that is not a status bar.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1016340/PublicPictures/Firefox4TrunkReview/AddonBar.png

Oh, and a real world example of the problem with their new system:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1016340/PublicPictures/Firefox4TrunkReview/BadLinkHover1.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1016340/PublicPictures/Firefox4TrunkReview/BadLinkHover2.png

Yeah, now I really need to give this a test so I can offer my opinions as well. Sounds like there will be things for me to both praise and complain about.

My question is what happens when you install an Addon that uses the status bar, I have 5 of them minimum on my current install that I couldn't live without. I would def prefer the old status bar with the link preview and loading bar, even having it autohide by default would be fine but I want it there

The addon will go directly to the addon bar.
And if you want a change, you'd better start complaining to them now with plenty of bug reports, cuz they're really wrapping things up.

@KermM: Indeed. Just download from http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk/ and have fun! I plan on making a cross-platform browser tester, with all sorts to things to test - from JS speed, to tab changing speed. (Python likely)

I used Firefox back when it was still called Firebird. It's a good browser, and the developers really do care about web standards, but the bloated, cross-platform XUL is always going to be like a hemorrhage to RAM. If the browser made use of the native API of whatever system it was compiled on, it would run a lot more efficiently. Mozilla realized this with OS X, at least; which is where Camino comes in.

I stopped using Firefox somewhere around the second major version, and switched to Opera. Been an Opera-user ever since. Tried to go back to Firefox a few times, but I have too many complaints with memory-usage and loading times. Opera has a way more flexible interface, which allows you to re-arrange and customize the look and feel of everything. FF only allows you to do so much out-of-the-box, and many efforts would require that you script your own extensions. Speaking of extensions, Opera supports UserJS, which suffices in place of FF's extensions. I've been able to find the most essential scripts I've needed to expand Opera.

Chrome has intrinsic problems with memory, since it divides several of its elements into individual processes. It's like having a memory leak that accumulates the longer you carry on your browsing session. I know I'm overstating the problem, since Chrome is likely stable for most people; but I don't agree with its approach at all.

So, I'm still a dedicated Opera-user for now. I continue to experiment with other browsers here and there, but none of them have impressed me as of yet.

One of my biggest complaints with Opera is that it's turning into the emacs of browsers. It wants to be everything: your FTP client, your IRC client, your browser, etc. I want my browser to just be my browser, with maybe a weather forecast and a custom skin at the most. I'll use a dedicated FTP client, IRC client, etc, thank you very much.

Yea, but you don't have to use those features with Opera.

You can choose to disable them all, and it still takes less RAM than FF.

Also, it's FTP implementation isn't any more than what FF or IE have, all it does is list files.


Instead of separate processes for each tab on Chrome, they should look at error handling and making it not crash.

On the other hand, it is still very fast and a relatively small download even with all those features built in, and the features are hidden until you set them up (no chat panel until you set up an IRC account, no mail panel until you subscribe to a feed or add an email account). I reckon an IRC client and email client are far more appropriate features for an Internet suite than a weather gadget!