Mozilla Firebird

[Hierophant]

Netscape and Mozilla may be similar but so much functionality has gone into Mozilla since version 1.0 that Netscape is missing out on. With AOL/Time Warner signing a 7 year agreement to use Internet Explorer in their software, it leaves you to wonder what will happen to Netscape because after the version 5 blunder, they will never regain their market share or even a slight portion of it. Mozilla will most likely continue on if AOL /Time Warner divests of the division but it won't have the resources it has today.

Firebird will be the browser in the Mozilla Suite as of version 1.5 as well which will further remove it from the legacy of Netscape.

I also have a question - Does the Windows version of Firebird do automatic searching on a page? To find out click anywhere in the window and start typing to see if it highlights text as you type. Very useful feature in the Linux version.

[website]

I also have a question - Does the Windows version of Firebird do automatic searching on a page? To find out click anywhere in the window and start typing to see if it highlights text as you type. Very useful feature in the Linux version.

Yes.

[mmj]

?

Anyway, I use 'Phoenity' theme, kind of like it, don't know why though, I guess it's the colors

Hehe - I really dislike the Phoenity theme and all of its variants - I can't stand it! However, I do quite like the "Orbit" themes.

(Not Phoenity Orbit though!!).

[mmj]

Yes, if you press / and then type, it finds text on the page. If you press Alt+/ and then type, it finds text in hyperlinks on the page. If you press F3, it finds the next occurence of that text.

Hint: watch the status bar while you do this.

Most builds of firebird also allow you to start typing without pressing / at all, and it will find text in hyperlinks on the page.

[webQS]

Hi

Interesting piece on Firebird naming conflicts in Tech Times. My view is that it needs to have a boring name to compete with dull Explorer.

Anyway, I like it, nice and fast - faster than Mozilla - and I don't install composter, mail and chat. The Web Developer and User Agent Switcher found at
http://chrispederick.myacen.com/work/firebird/
are brilliant.

Had some trouble installing some themes on it - icons come up but no background. Opera 7 still has the best skins imo.
A good minimal skin for Mozilla is Breeze found at Deskmod. Works on 1.4rc1 as well. Also the Camino/Cocoa skin is great for FB and OP7.


I have some clients who only accept screenshots of pages with IE chrome - the IE skin comes in handy here. I can have my cake and eat it to

Cheers
James

[Sla]

I'm 99.99% sure it was Firebird I downloaded...but I'll give it another whirl tomorrow morning...I just got in from work, and boy am I saying hello to Captain Chafage.

(Yes, some of us have minimum-wage, grunt-work jobs )

[Hierophant]

I'm 99.99% sure it was Firebird I downloaded...but I'll give it another whirl tomorrow morning...I just got in from work, and boy am I saying hello to Captain Chafage.

(Yes, some of us have minimum-wage, grunt-work jobs )

Not if it had a version of 1.4rc1 it wasn't... Firebird is on version 0.6 and comes with a different default theme than the netscape one.

[AlexW]

Yep, I set up a new work PC last week. I was already a Firebird convert and I've been running my mail through Thunderbird since.

It's really pretty good. It's bayesian email filtering was outstanding after about a week of learning and just gets better everyday. It's got a nice address book, simple encrypted mail, and really nice HTML mail tools. Imported Outlook mail painlessly too. I never used the journal, notes and calendar stuff in Outlook so I don't miss it.

FireBird is certainly fast and really clean, but I think it's key asset is it acts so much like IE that after five minutes you don't even remember that you're using it anymore. The shortcut keys and menu layouts are so similar that trying it out is painless so you tend to keep using it.

I must admit I always found myself gritting my teeth every time I shift-clicked a link in Mozilla and it opened up the 'Download' box, rather than loading the page in a new window (an IE-ism). Sure, you can retrain yourself after a while, but it takes effort. Firebird shiftclicks open a new window and adds the advantage of a CTRL clicking a page into a tab that opens in background tab. Gotta luv that.

Throw in the ability to use extensions like 'Checky' and the 'PNH toolbar', and Microsofts decision to not release standalone updates to IE anymore and it's hard to imagine why you'd go back.

It's certainly creeping it's way around the office here. Tom and I started using it full time about a month ago. Kevin and Jules have switched in the past two weeks. Lucas has been flirting with it. Julio, G, Mark and Jase are still on IE for now.

[AlexW]

I'm 99.99% sure it was Firebird I downloaded...but I'll give it another whirl tomorrow morning...I just got in from work, and boy am I saying hello to Captain Chafage.

(Yes, some of us have minimum-wage, grunt-work jobs )

Looking at the screenshot you included you've got icons in the bottom right linking to AIM and Mail etc, which come with Netscape and Mozilla by default but don't come with Firebird. That's why it's only 6-7 meg compared with 12+ for the others.

FireBird also has a built in GoogleBar showing by default which I can't see on yours.

[Sla]

Looking at the screenshot you included you've got icons in the bottom right linking to AIM and Mail etc, which come with Netscape and Mozilla by default but don't come with Firebird. That's why it's only 6-7 meg compared with 12+ for the others.

FireBird also has a built in GoogleBar showing by default which I can't see on yours.

Well, I guess I made a stupid

Oh well. I'll re-dl.

I'm REALLY liking FireBird, and I agree with you, Alex, when you say you almost forget you're not using IE. I haven't encountered any problems so far

[geiger]

Here's a problem - HTTP Uploads. The one thing that's REALLY bugging me

[website]

Any idea when that will be fixed ?

[geiger]

I don't know but it really needs to be! I use uploads every day and it's quite a pain to switch to IE all the time.

[Hierophant]

Here's a problem - HTTP Uploads. The one thing that's REALLY bugging me

You know, I just realized that this works in the Linux version of Firebird. I have been doing HTTP uploads for the last couple of weeks under Redhat 9 and Firebird 0.6

According to Bugzilla, it has been been reported and they are waiting to assign it to a developer.
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=208518

Looks like they are testing it here:
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=91606

[geiger]

Thanks for the info, Wayne. I'll me keeping an eye on it.

[website]

Now I've encountered strange problem, take a look at this site:
http://www.fjoltengi.is/web/
then hit 'Búnaður' in the links there, and now I simply see the html, any ideas what might be wrong so I can email their webmaster ?

[Hierophant]

Yeah, tell them to set up their mime types properly so a file without an extension gets sent through their webserver properly.

[delpino]

Does Firebird support the Google Toolbar.. couldn't live without that

[geiger]

There's an extension which installs it, yes.

[website]

Ah, email sent.

Anyway, did you say there was a email program related to Firebird? Where can I get it? Or am I just talking nonesense now? ...

[geiger]

Thunderbird. Mozilla Thunderbird. In alpha, I believe, but still worth a shot.

[geiger]

Thanks to whoever gave me a bump in reputation in this thread. Too bad there's no name :P

[website]

I just gave you, I though I wrote my name with it though, you certainly deserve it for leading me the right path in browsers choice!

[geiger]

Ah, haha. No wonder I didn't notice it.

"- website"

I thought you were making a reference to the link I posted in the topic starter.

[AlexW]

Does Firebird support the Google Toolbar.. couldn't live without that

FireBird has a basic built in search box at the top right that can submit to either Google or DMOZ. There is also an open source Googlebar that you install as an extension which Geiger mentioned. However this isn't in any way officially connected to Google and so it doesn't have access to PageRank and other Google-specific technology. Depending on your view this might be a problem or a great advantage.

Don't get me wrong, PageRank is a very useful thing. But most of us tend to sneer at the thought of using Alexa which constantly dribbles a stream of information back to Amazon on what we're viewing at any given moment, yet don't give a second thought about doing the same with Googlebar. Google is apparently databasing the lot but won't even say why they need to keep it.

Anyway, I'm less comfortable than I used to be running the offiicial Googlebar

Suffice to say, while FireBird is my browser of choice, I do have to jump back to IE to check PageRank or use activeX editors and the like (your hardly going ot uninstall IE6, right?).