Open letter to Mozilla: Where Firefox goes wrong on OS X

I use Firefox for the odd time when Safari won't render a page properly. Even then, Firefox *might* work, it might not. The fact that it's really a Windows browser ported to Mac is the main reason I don't use it. The interface reminds me of that which I ran screaming from a year ago...Windows.

I might try Camino though since I don't use plugins (beyond Flash and Java).

..So please, Mozilla, answer..

you can already read the anser on this site:
http://wiki.mozilla.org/Mac:Home_Page
http://wiki.mozilla.org/Mac:Roadmap

Firefox 3.0 (Q1 2007)

This is where the big stuff happens - at least the following improvements. Firefox will use cocoa widgets and become a Cocoa-based application (in the sense that is uses NSApplication). Hopefully we'll also have an accelerated graphics backend (Cairo-Quartz).

I'll make this roadmap more clear when I have more time...

Josh Aas
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or read the blogs from Josh Aas and Mike Pinkerton (FF/Camino developer)
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/josh/
and http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/pinkerton/
for example:
Where are we with Camino? Probably very close to beta2 once we fix up some lingering regressions and get talkback symbol uploading worked out (it's broken *again*). We won't be taking RSS support for beta2, and maybe not even for 1.0. We have yet to decide. Our other most-requested feature, spell checking, has landed on the trunk. We need some work to use the built-in OSX spellcheck, but that shouldn't be too hard. The big hurdle there, however, is when it's going to land on the branch. Maybe not for a while, so that might not see light until 1.1 either.
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and
FF is already the best ;-) mac browser, even without these few missing features
Maybe even a little better, if you use my FF (Mac only) themes ;-)
http://www.grapple.net.tf/

Regards

It is truly amazing to me. Everytime you point out a flaw in an open source project, the advocates start screaming - well if you don't like it fix it yourself. What a cop out. Firefox on the Mac is not a very Mac-like experience, whether the Firfox advocates like it or not. I am a huge fan of Firefox and open source in general, but I don't look at the world through rose colored glasses. If you want Firefox to be taken seriously on the Mac platform, it has to look and perform like other Mac-centric apps do, otherwise it will not be considered "good enough" by the average Mac user. That's another thing I'm tired of hearing...it's "good enough" - oh, don't get me started on that on...

I think you're completely right, Wes, but that's sort of the point: Firefox/Mac can't be the premier Mac browser unless those things change. If those things can't change, Firefox/Mac can't be the premier Mac browser. Which, what with Camino and Safari, ain't a bad thing.

I think all of you are pretty much missing the point of Firefox. Firefox is never going to use platform specific stuff like OS X's spell-check or Keychain, and I doubt it will stop using XUL for its interface. That would require pulling off a major fork in the code which. Doing something like that would probably cause Firefox OS X to always lag a version behind (features and bugs) the Windows/Linux version.

The entire point of Camino is to be the "Firefox for Mac" which uses all those Mac specific goodies, while trying to at least keep up with the Gecko codebase (although like I said, Camino will always be behind on Firefox until the day Firefox is completely stable and no one can think of ways to improve a browser).

It's strange, on my work Windows PC, I prefer, Firefox, but on my Mac, I prefer Opera (still on Jaguar and the older version of Safari isn't as nice Opera).

well, comparing to keychain / spell / etc. there are much more serious problems, such as constant memory leaks, extensive CPU usage, and other bugs (e.g.: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=141710 -- which is already 3.5 years old, btw).

really like Fx and do continually use it, but above-mentioned really disappoints me :(.

"Let's also not forget OS X's built in, universal spell checking engine which offers a simple keyboard shortcut for a pop-up definition window."

...uhm, sounds great but what's that keyboard shortcut, 'cause I'd really like to use me some of that.*sheepish grin*

Firefox and/or Camino need a few things for me to use them full time.

(FF) = FireFox, (CM) = Camino

1. Native widgets. IE aqua menus, radio buttons, check boxes, etc. (FF)

2. Built in spell check, with the little red squiggly line (which just allowed me to correct my spelling of 'squiggly' in Safari). (FF, CM)

3. RSS support. I don't need to read RSS feeds in the browser such as Safari does, but I would like to have an indication that there is a feed, and a button on which I could click to subscribe in NNW. (CM)

4. Keychain support. A lovely thing, this. One of the great, yet not really 'noticed' features of OS X.

I really like the way the Gecko engine works, having used it in Windows and Linux where it works great underpinning Firefox. But on the Mac, neither Firefox nor Camino can sway me from Safari as of yet, although I would like to be able to use either full time. I guess I just have a like for OSS, at least Webkit is OS, but I still await my return to FF/CM.

Firefox/Mac may be the most extensible Mac browser, but until they fix some of the glaring bugs that aren't present in the Windows version (just try floating form elements and then doing anything useful with them), it's useless for me. The extensions are nice, but most are actually gimmicky for my everyday browsing. I keep being tempted by its extensibility and then by Camino's beautiful simplicity combined with Gecko's compatibility, but Safari keeps pulling me back by just having enough of everything to keep my happy.

Great security, great CSS, good enough Javascript, elegant keyboard shortcuts and terrific Cocoa features such as spellcheck add up to more than the sum of their parts. As great as Firefox is on the Windows platform -- and it's shockingly good there -- I just can't recommend that anyone but the most ardent tinkerer use it full-time on the Mac. Not unless you want to spend nearly as much time modifying your browser as using it. No thanks.