Considering the proliferation of something sucks websites I'm thinking of starting another one focused on Firefox 3 so people can have one place to read, post, and share links about Firefox 3's problems.
I think such a blog might finally convince Mozilla to make the changes so many people are requesting for either a later version of Firefox 3 or else for Firefox 4.
According to Asa Dotzler, Firefox's "chief spokesmodel and storyteller", Mozilla is unperturbed by our complaints and will make no changes based on our feedback. Is that not enough of a reason to launch a full-fledged blog devoted to the issue of exactly why Firefox 3 sucks?
For those who never heard of him before, Asa Dotzler is a storyteller alright. In fact, he told Information Week several "stories" after the release of Firefox 3 that I think people might find interesting, since his "stories" are utterly anti-consumer and anti-improvement.
Story #1: The Awesome Bar is fabulous - and it's here to stay.
Despite the complaints, Mozilla.org has no plans to remove the AwesomeBar -- or even build in an easy-to-use way of disabling it, like a checkbox in the Preference pane, said Asa Dotzler [...] for Mozilla.org. Instead, users will adapt to the AwesomeBar, and Mozilla.org will adapt the AwesomeBar based on user feedback to make it easier to use.
"Easier to use?" Who cares if it's "easier to use"? That's not the issue. It's not "hard" to use - it's simply distracting, almost entirely un-useful and always in the way. How about an option to simply disable it? What harm could "Click here to disable this option" tucked in among the Tools possibly do to Mozilla? What harms Mozilla much more in the long run is forcing unwanted features like the "Awesome" bar down everyone's throats - trust me.
Story #2: Firefox 3 has NO memory issues. Suck on it if you don't believe us.
Dotzler stands by Mozilla.org's claims that Firefox 3 is lean and mean. He said that Mozilla.org's own tests, and independent third-party measurements show that Firefox 3 uses less memory when viewing the same pages as Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Internet Explorer, Safari, and Opera.
Well, buddy, there's thousands of testaments from die hard Firefox fans all over the web to the contrary (although conveniently enough for Mozilla, Google has kindly been hand-editing for you guys and has removed over 10,000 of those search results in the last week).
Mozilla, why not listen to us when we bother to complain? We're real people discussing real issues. We'd like to keep on using the latest version of Firefox but we can't because it's eating RAM and CPU like it's going out of style - and we're not going to trash our hardware just to run your web browser.
Firefox 3 also features a variety of bugs and errors concerning missing and/or over-sized cursors in text boxes, unexpected crashes (is there any other kind?), a confusing Bookmarks Manager that also is known to crash while in use, and a small laundry list of issues that belong more to a Beta version than the finished product.
How about listening when we tell you exactly what's wrong - or keep on losing some of your most loyal fans to IE, Opera and the like?
If I start a blog that revolves around the issues people have with Firefox 3 I worry that I might not be able to keep up with all the comments and emails that come in, judging by what I'm reading in people's blogs and in Mozilla forums and the like, but the idea is strong on my mind.
Just Call Me "The Sphinx"
Page Summary
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ladylynx : (no subject) [+2] - ladylynx : (no subject) [+1]
- (Anonymous) : can't reinstall the old version - security zone settings - never heard of before [+0]
- (Anonymous) : Firefox 3 Bookmarks fixed [+6]
Comments
I do agree that the option to remove it, even with about:config, would be nice.
I updated the Firefox 3 a few days ago, because I was having so many issues with Firefox 2 after a while that I couldn't take it anymore. Right now, I have six windows open and it's using up 191+ kilobytes. When I used Firefox 2, all the about:config in the world would not stop it from giving me at least 400 kilobytes of memory usage. My computer is a few years old, so that's a lot for one program.
But, that's not to say other people have worse experiences with Firefox 3. I know some people can't log into sites they frequent since they've updated to 3.1.
FireFox 4 terrifies me. It's as if they're going backwards now. People download Firefox just to get away from OS integration. WTF? I enjoy using Firefox 3, but I hope by the time Firefox 4 comes out, Opera is nice enough for me to want to use.
I will never go back to IE for anything.
The issues I had with FF 2 memory-hogging turned out to be because of the JapanBlackMAX theme I was using - a truly awesome theme with curved 3-D-looking tabs and lots of gloss. But Silvermel (named after you, my dear!) was almost the only theme available from Download Day on so I took it for FF 3, and I liked it so much I installed it on FF2 as well. With Silvermel the memory issues in FF 2 are much better - and that's the first time in what, 2 years? of using FF 2 that I can honestly say that. FF2 never locks up or lags now no matter how long I keep it open or how many tabs I keep open. And there isn't an add-on on Earth that's incompatible with it except the new ones for FF 3 - and those are just updates for FF 2's add-ons anyway.
IE? I have 5 copies of IE on my computer at the moment - every version from 4-7 - but those are just for style sheet testing. IE messes up perfectly good style sheets so I spend most of my design time trying to get my CSS files working in IE and AOL browsers (since AOL uses IE's rendering engine to "read" them). I would rather die than use IE 24/7 - but it's almost not too bad with IE 7 Pro - software that adds Firefox-like add-ons and scripts. The only problem with IE 7 Pro is it's incompatible with the Multiple IE software I use, it makes IE 7 start up hideously slow, and it loads pages slower than IE 7 would without it.
Edited at 2008-07-20 07:59 pm (UTC)
http://www.seamonkey-project.org/
Same source code as Firefox, different programming team.
I figured out a fix for the FF3 bookmarks fubar, see
http://ronsrants.wordpress.com/2008/12/3
Today, I got an anonymous comment agreeing with me - can't prove it, but I suspect it's from someone at Mozilla! Which poses the question - if they knew, why didn't they say something?
Ron at Ron's Rants.
Open ID has given me grief the last few times I've used it, so I don't now. It IS me though!
Ron.
Edited at 2009-01-24 02:28 am (UTC)
Last year, with the demise of FF2 looming, I used Opera for a couple of months, to get a good feel for it (when it comes to browsers, plain vanilla with organised, searchable bookmarks, and a decent spell-checker is fine for me - what I do mostly online is read, write and shop - shopping in person mostly isn't possible), but Opera failed dismally on the spell-checker front, and the Wand feature sucked (not near enough capacity), which meant I spent too much time spent manually entering data in check-out areas, and manually logging in to all the websites I visit that require it (I didn't realise how many that was until I had to do it manually). The agricultural spell-checker, I got around by using Word, but the lack of personal data memory drove me to try FF3 one last time.
FF2 would remember all my personal data, and passwords, without any day to day input from me, and there was no limit, as far as I could see. FF3 asks if you want stuff remembered, but that's OK. Opera kept asking, but remembered very little, and no passwords at all - as far as I could see, once all the Wand data boxes were full, it wouldn't remember anything else.
Other than that, I was very happy with Opera, but that lack of personal data memory was a biggie. True, Opera is fast, but only since the last couple of updates - I use newspaper web pages to check speed, they're so data-heavy (and some, like the Guardian, are pretty clunky). In fact I use the Guardian, empirically, as my benchmark, and initially, page transitions were very slow in Opera, but got better with every update. By the time I reverted to FF3 around the turn of the year, Opera's speed was on a par with FF2. As for FF3, it does what I ask it to so close to instantaneously in doesn't matter, and as long as Mozilla don't screw it up again, I'll stay with it. Wish they'd lose the Awesome Bar, though. It's a tad better than it was originally, as it bears a passing resemblance something I might actually need, but there's a fair way to go before it's actually 100% useful. Or even 50%.
By the way, when did you stop hating FF3?
Ron.
And of course the one other reason I won't switch to Opera that I forgot to mention is it's lousier-by-the-day CSS support. About a year ago Opera had the best CSS support out there (better than Firefox 2's). Now I compare it's CSS support to Firefox 3's and I swear it displays CSS more like IE does than other browser I can think of. And as someone who loves and works hard on good web design, that saddens me. So I'll probably stick with Firefox for a good long time...Opera has a lot of work to do to get me over to their side for good.
How are you getting on with FF 3.0.8?
Damn thing keep crashing since the update (especially when I access a website from History). Judging by my blog, I'm not alone.
Ron from Ron's Rants.