Firefox 4 is here • Hacker News Board

Re: Firefox 4 is here

#151

Post by ch0wn » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 4:08 PM UTC

I couldn't find any PPAs or packages for Ubuntu, yet. Did anyone else?

Re: Firefox 4 is here

#152

Post by Kilimanjaro » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 4:08 PM UTC

Firefox user here since phoenix, switched to Chrome and never looked back. You can't come to par with Chrome to make me switch back, you have to make me shit my pants to do so, and Chrome did when they were the first to bring websockets to the browser. They kept bringing good stuff like web inspector, so no need to download firebug or any other extension. And joining the search bar with the address bar is just genius.

In short, I prefer my browser naked, and Chrome is the best without clothes.

Re: Firefox 4 is here

#153

Post by bsmith » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 4:14 PM UTC

I really would like to see a built-in PDF viewer–that's one of my favorite features in Chrome because it keeps the download folder clean and lets me reference several PDFs/pages without leaving the window.

Re: Firefox 4 is here

#154

Post by 51Cards » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 4:19 PM UTC

pldpld wrote: post #106

giu wrote: post #38

I started using Firefox again the day I heard about the 4.0 Release Candidate, and thought I could give it a another try after it failed to convince me the few times I tried to use it in the past. I was pleasently surprised. The browser's way faster; launching it doesn't take that much time; the UI is way more responsive; and all the add-ons I've been using in the past are compatible with 4.0 (Web Developer, Firebug,…

Why is title bar there? I was hoping they'd push the tabs up into the title bar like Chrome and give us more screen space.

I like having a title bar, I park collapsed Trillian chat windows up there and I HATE that Chrome doesn't give me space to do that. It's a UI deal breaker for Chrome for me.

Re: Firefox 4 is here

#155

Post by anonymous1234 » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 4:23 PM UTC

brown9-2 wrote: post #50

Does anyone have JavaScript performance benchmarks yet against Chrome?

http://arewefastyet.com/

Re: Firefox 4 is here

#156

Post by 51Cards » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 4:24 PM UTC

roadnottaken wrote: post #143

Meh. One of the smoothest features of Chrome (that won a lot of adherents) was how you could close lots of tabs quickly without moving the mouse (i.e. the tabs only re-size after you move the mouse away). Same for opening tabs. How did FF4 not copy this? It looks just like Chrome only crappier.

I alter FF to put the close button at the end of the tab bar in one fixed location. (it's an about:config option) I like that it doesn't move, mimics the OS Window-close mouse movement (in Windows) but MOST importantly, I think it's a complete waste of space to have an X on every tab.

Re: Firefox 4 is here

#157

Post by bgray » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 4:26 PM UTC

d0m wrote: post #2

Lets say I'm a chrome user (and loving it), is Firefox4 worth a try? What are the main differences from the last version?

Right. Is it just me or does it seem that most (if not all) of the new features in this release were inspired by Chrome? What is Firefox doing to move the web browsing experience forward?

Re: Firefox 4 is here

#158

Post by 51Cards » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 4:28 PM UTC

mbrubeck wrote: post #140

bretthoerner wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But aren't those all features of Chrome? Wouldn't a happy Chrome user want to know about something FF4 does that Chrome doesn't? It's very clear that 4 > 3.6, the features you listed are awesome ... they just aren't very appealing to a current Chrome user.

I was answering the question from above "what are the differences from the current version?" As for the differences from Chrome, those are mostly the same as they've always been: Deeper extensibility, more customization points, and made by a non-profit organization dedicated to openness.

Most customization points is the big win for me. I REALLY like to alter my browsers to fit my preferred layout and FF has done quite well at maintaining that capability for me. I get into Chrome and I find myself constantly going "Oh, there's no option for that... Oh, there's no option for that... Oh, there's no option for that... " to the point I close it in frustration yet again.

Re: Firefox 4 is here

#159

Post by sid0 » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 4:29 PM UTC

niels_olson wrote: post #148

gcr wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maximize. It puts the tabs in the title bar when you maximize.

Where is this "maximize"? Is it an add-on? A button I'm not seeing? edit: why the downvotes? I'm at work on my rickety WinXP corporate box, and FF4 definitely does not behave as described above. (Do really think I didn't try that?!)

Maximize as in what your OS allows you to do.

edit: Oh, Windows XP. You'll have to disable the menu bar to get it to work there, I think.

Re: Firefox 4 is here

#160

Post by shortlived » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 4:30 PM UTC

gue5t wrote: post #146

Firefox 4 still has a huge number of UI issues on linux due to reliance on XUL for the UI. There have been improvements in a couple extensions, as far as font colors using GTK themes go, but the menubar is still too tall and has the wrong font color (on basically every GTK theme and theme engine I can find) and keyboard shortcuts for several things (e.g. space to toggle menu items without closing the menu) are remove…

Firefox 4 still has a huge number of UI issues on linux due to reliance on XUL for the UI

Does that mean that other platforms do not use XUL for UI?