Random thoughts on version 4

[PaulB]

Let me preface this by saying Firefox is my browser of choice and will remain so for the foreseeable future. I have used it in all its incarnations stretching back through Navigator to Mosaic.

That said, I am underwhelmed by version 4.

It appears Mozilla has joined the mad race to look like every other browser around. It's now very difficult to distinguish one browser from another.

Speed? It doesn't seem any faster to me based on the type of browsing I do. Some sites I visit are so slow it doesn't really matter how fast the pages are rendered. Other sites are so fast that rendering a page 37 milli-/micro-/nano-seconds faster is not even noticeable. And when my wife is accessing Facebook on her computer, well let's not even go there...

What happened to the Status bar and its little security blankets such as the padlock and the progress bar?

Don't get me started on their combining the Reload and Stop buttons at the right end of the Awesome Bar! Moving the Home and Bookmarks buttons to the extreme right of the Navigation bar was bad enough but at least they can be moved back to where they rightly belong.

Personalization? Like Big Al, I would like to personalize the look of my browser with my art. I don't want to submit it to some faceless entity at Mozilla for vetting and sharing with the rest of the world. Shades of Steve Jobs...

I do like some of the other cosmetic changes, particularly the Firefox button and the increase in usable screen area.

[StuartR]

...Don't get me started on their combining the Reload and Stop buttons at the right end of the Awesome Bar! Moving the Home and Bookmarks buttons to the extreme right of the Navigation bar was bad enough but at least they can be moved back to where they rightly belong...

How do you do this?

Don't worry, knowing it can be done made it easy to find.

Can I move that bookmarks button somewhere more sensible? Next to the Firefox button would be good

[PaulB]

Don't worry, knowing it can be done made it easy to find.

Can I move that bookmarks button somewhere more sensible? Next to the Firefox button would be good

I'll assume you you found the Right Click>Customize...>Move-things-around etc.

It appears that you cannot move the Bookmarks button next to the Firefox button, just within the Navigation bar.

[BobH]

It's just I, no doubt, but the only difference I've noted in Fx 4.0 is that it doesn't open all the tabs that are in my Tools/Options/General/Home_Page entry. Guess I better go back and watch the intro video or do some web surfing to find out what else I'm missing.

[TonyE]

Fortunately Firefox can be customized to suit your needs.

For the status bar, you can use the Status-4-Evar add-on to make the add-ons bar more like the status bar, including adding a progress bar.

The padlock has been replaced by the site identity button which offers more details than the padlock did. For details on using it see https://support.mozilla.com/kb/Site+Identity+Button" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As mentioned above, you can move the buttons on the navigation toolbar about, including creating separate stop, go and reload buttons. This link shows how - https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/ho ... e-toolbars" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Gloria E]

Paul, this may help you rearrange something you don't care for in Firefox 4.


http://www.pcworld.com/article/223059/f ... longs.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I hope you can use it.

Gloria E

[PaulB]

Thanks, Gloria. After reading Tony's post and taking a closer look at the Customize window, I discovered that I could relocate the Reload/Stop button just like I could the others.

[PaulB]

Thanks for those links, Tony. In the last link you provide, there is a graphic of the Customize Toolbar window that shows a string of buttons above a 'Feedback' link. I do not see either on my Customize Toolbar window. Is your link for the alpha/beta version of Fx4? Did these not make it into the RTM version?

Capture.PNG

[Gloria E]

Thanks, Gloria. After reading Tony's post and taking a closer look at the Customize window, I discovered that I could relocate the Reload/Stop button just like I could the others.

Firefox is not my default browser, so I'm learning as I go. I haven't installed version 4 yet and hesitate to do so because of all the alterations or add-ons that need to be installed. I'm temped to just use IE8 and maybe Google Chrome.

Thank you for your reply,

Gloria

[Bigaldoc]

Firefox is not my default browser, so I'm learning as I go. I haven't installed version 4 yet and hesitate to do so because of all the alterations or add-ons that need to be installed...

Hmmm, that's strange. I didn't have to add any additional addons and mine looks OK to me, including the Reload and Stop button location which I didn't have to move or touch. The only thing I did was mentioned by John Gray - I moved the TABS from on top to the "bottom" where I like to see them.

At first I was sad because the little arrow to expand the "Back" list was gone, but I quickly saw that right-clicking on either the Back or Forward button provides the "old" list I was used to.

[Gloria E]

Gee Big Al, it seems like you're always trying to keep me straight when it comes to installing things I hesitate to install. I've read so many negative things about the Firefox newest version that I had decided to wait awhile and see if the bugs were fixed. I will change my mind because of your recommendation and try out the tabs location and check ou the Back list.

If I remember correctly the newest version is installed over the older one, or has that changed?

Gloria E

[HansV]

You don't have to uninstall Firefox 3.x before installing version 4.

[agibsonsw]

I think I'll ignore this update. Hopefully I won't be forced or 'persuaded' to update.

[Gloria E]

Firefox is not my default browser, so I'm learning as I go. I haven't installed version 4 yet and hesitate to do so because of all the alterations or add-ons that need to be installed...

Hmmm, that's strange. I didn't have to add any additional addons and mine looks OK to me, including the Reload and Stop button location which I didn't have to move or touch. The only thing I did was mentioned by John Gray - I moved the TABS from on top to the "bottom" where I like to see them.

At first I was sad because the little arrow to expand the "Back" list was gone, but I quickly saw that right-clicking on either the Back or Forward button provides the "old" list I was used to.

I just installed Firefox 4 and already I don't like it. The first thing I can't find is how to change my homepage. I'm sure I'll find more as I go along. So, where the heck is it?

[TonyE]

I just installed Firefox 4 and already I don't like it. The first thing I can't find is how to change my homepage. I'm sure I'll find more as I go along. So, where the heck is it?

The method to change the home page has not changed in Firefox 4, for details see https://support.mozilla.com/kb/How+to+set+the+home+page" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Argus]

That said, I am underwhelmed by version 4. [...]

But it's gratis.

At first I was sad because the little arrow to expand the "Back" list was gone, but I quickly saw that right-clicking on either the Back or Forward button provides the "old" list I was used to.

I agree with you Al, that right-clicking the buttons is very convenient, I've been doing that most of the time since day one; it’s a much larger target than a tiny arrow/drop-down list; in fact it's probably among the top 10 reasons why I use Fx, instead of IE (on the other hand I've back buttons on both the keyboard and the mouse, and the latter is used frequently).

I haven't installed version 4 yet and hesitate to do so because of all the alterations or add-ons that need to be installed. I'm temped to just use IE8 and maybe Google Chrome.

I don't get this; if you have, for example, Fx 3.6, that is, not new to Fx, even if not been using it as your main browser, you should know that there is no need to add this or that if one doesn't want to. On the other hand if you do use some extensions, add-ons, it’s pretty easy to get information if there are updated versions for Fx 4. That said, I've not installed Fx 4 everywhere yet, and I don't think there is an immediate rush for that, if one doesn't want.

[PaulB]

But it's gratis.

Does that mean I can't get my money back?

[PaulB]

I fear I may have left everyone with the impression that I don't like Fx4. I do like it. I use it as my main browser. It's just that a change in version number usually means changes in appearance and functionality. Tabs on top? Or not? Home button on the right? Or on the left?

Decisions, decisions...

[Argus]

Paul,
Yes, I think it will be difficult to get some money back. You didn't leave me with that impression, sorry if my comment implied that; I think I understood what you meant. A leap in the major version number should and usually mean that quite many things have changed. I expect to see that as well.

Then, as we all know, there are lots things that are not easily perceived at first or second glance. But I know that you are a long time user; so you know the software, and probably have read quite a bit about the changes. I think there are several things implemented in the latest version that we will see being used more in the future, HTML5 etc. Sometimes in the development of software they use one version as a stepping stone to future development; not necessarily in this case, I don't know, but sometimes they have to rewrite the inner workings to be able to do other things in the future.

Then we have the issue with what is mentioned in media when there is a new browser around; usually a little about some few changes, new features and then how it "looks". And it usually doesn't matter where you read it; it's more or less the same info. at all places. One could say then that the developers have to tell the world what has changed, and why etc. But I'm pretty sure they have, and given how journalists in general work, I'm not all that optimistic that it's going to change, but then one also has to remember that most users isn't interested in the details.

There are many small changes under the hood; for example the user agent ID is less verbose. Compare the ID string if you visit for example getyourip, or similar. The info has some use in the client-sever communication, but some have argued that it combined with other information can be used as a "fingerprint" for a specific machine. So, with less info in the string, less of a fingerprint. But I would not call it giant leap in privacy, what ever we include in that, it's a small change, mentioned at among other places here at SANS's ISC blog: Firefox 4 Security Features. They also mention HSTS, Strict-Transport-Security header which is good for security.

I guess that most things are mentioned in the release notes. For example the bookmark database is quicker, or its code, which they mention should speed up the use of bookmarks, for example, via the location bar. Etc. But just watching some of the videos showing what is possible, there definitely are some major changes. Personally I also like the "App Tab" feature (though perhaps they could have chosen another name, there is enough talk about apps, everywhere, as it is ).

I think we can agree that it's often difficult to compare differences between versions, and reach some consensus which was the most important, different people are interested in different things; from ver 2 to 3, I think they changed several things under the hood as well, but I mostly remember how they changed to the library database for bookmarks and history, and also the download manager; the change in bookmark management was quite a step forward, in my mind. Then we saw the 3.5 and 3.6 branches. If I've understood things correctly, they will from now on change to several major releases every year, how that is going to work, and what changes will come, I don't know, but I think it means we'll see less of ver. x.x.16 and more of larger steps in version numbers, even though with smaller updates. The race is on, and they want to get new features out the door faster than previously. Perhaps a little race to have version 12 ready at the end of 2012, together with all the other browser developers. How about that Paul, all have the same version number and they all look and behave the same? Nah, impossible; IE will probably still be using that clunky Organize Favorites, and one link, a.k.a. Internet Shortcut, for every address in the, very clunky, Favorites folder (which also mean you have to give unique names within a folder).

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