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Firefox forcing me back to IE?

14 February 2008 0 views 5 Comments

The new version of Firefox (3) has begun to spread around the industry, with some disappointing results. Although there are a few new features, noticeably Gecko 1.9, and the URL bar’s striking new functionality, there is just not enough changes to give it an integer update, to 3. If I was in charge, I would call it 2.2 (or even 2.1) or something to suggest a medium magnitude feature change. The only reason for it is the new Gecko implementation, for the simplicity for the end user.

I have been using the latest beta version available at the time (beta 3) which is the first implementation of the new theme. I want you to take note of the lack of any style that the latest version of Internet Explorer comes with. Following are a few screenshots to demonstrate my point.

Firefox is ugly in vista  image

Although Firefox fans will argue that Firefox implements native colours while rendering themes in all recent versions of Firefox, including version 2, if it was truly for applying the look that will fit in the most, surely they would have paid more attention to the user interface design, and shown more respect to the operating system’s entire design, and outlook. To be honest, the only feature holding me back from going back to IE is the auto-suggest search box, and the way the software renders pages, which at the end of the day is the most important part, which IE will have to (and is said to) catch up on by version 8, hopefully released by Fall/Autumn this year.

Another saddening point is that the CSS rendering changes are nowhere near as big as they were said to be, JavaScript is improved, but again, not nearly enough and general HTML standards are taken with Mozilla’s half-hearted approach as ever.

I would love to see Mozilla take note of the large up-stir from the users of Firefox 3.0b3, but I highly doubt they will have time, as the last beta will be in the next few days/weeks, in which they hope to be finished with all styling. I would love to see the effort. Leave a comment, and digg the article because I’m very interested in your opinions.

Now for the wait, while these images upload on my slow connection (you may have guessed that I am not at home here).

EDIT: More examples of the mixed response can be found here.

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5 Comments »

  • Asa Dotzler said:

    Just a quick note that the Vista look and feel update hasn’t happened yet. What you’re seeing is intended for winXP and will be replaced with the new Vista l&f in the next beta.

    - A

    # 14 February 2008 at 8:14 pm
  • Lawrence Job (author) said:

    I’m aware of that. I looked at the icon sets you area planning. They do look impressive, I admit… I’m just “not a big fan” of the purple-lilac smudge behind the icons.

    Looking forward to the outcome, and I hope you take note of the public opinion, it would be great to have a nice, new, unique interface.

    # 15 February 2008 at 9:12 pm
  • Ahad Bokhari said:

    Sheesh…What is firefox doing? In the Flash world man they are integrating a hell of a lot with Adobe but you wont see those changes till a couple of years, especially with Tamarin, ES4, etc etc.

    I still hate IE. Crash dumps on me all the time even if i turn Dr. Watson off. Its a good thing i haven’t upgraded to Version 3 of F.F. as yet. I did however d/l the beta of Safari which really wasn’t all that on the PC, especially performance wise. I did like the text bar resizing and bookmarks list (tho they werent attached to the mouse wheel).

    Well Mr. Job i have to agree that those fancy shmancy icons arent my cup of tea either. I aint about to d/l or upgrade to version 3 anytime soon cuz i figured it wouldnt be worth the effort some time ago!!!!

    # 29 February 2008 at 7:04 am
  • Lawrence Job (author) said:

    Interesting response there… I have to admit I am a Safari/Windows user now for the sole reason that the fonts render much better, it utilises my screen better, and it’s just simpler. It’s feature list is poor, and main competitor really IE5.5 or 6 feature-wise.

    There’s going to be more on this though. I’m definitely concerned about the future of FF and Safari. It looks like IE8 has a strong chance of winning the browser battle with the upcoming beta. The rendering is 80% improved (assuming it used to be 20%) from what I’ve seen, with their revolutionary new rendering system. I suggest you give them all a try, but watch out for IE.

    IE8 beats the rest on all these:
    Style
    Rendering
    Integration
    Simplicity

    All the reasons above are pretty much the only reasons you will want to use a specific browser, so definitely keep your eyes open on that front.

    # 29 February 2008 at 4:11 pm
  • Lawrence Job (author) said:

    Also like to note that the last version I downloaded recently is worse - the vista problems are in fact even worse, with the mono-colour and inexcusably Web2.0/styled iconset. This is the end of mainstream firefox.

    # 2 March 2008 at 12:56 pm

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