Filed under: Software, Freeware, Internet, Internet Tools, Open Source
CocoaFox Minefield
Firefox is fantastic... on Windows. I don't think there is much argument that Firefox is sorely lacking when it comes to fitting in to the OS X environment. Camino is a great alternative for those seeking a browser with the Gecko engine, but it doesn't have nearly the flexibility and expandability of true-blue Firefox. Lucky for those who wish to keep the expandability of the Fox but have a sleek Mac-like browser, Mozilla has started development on a Cocoa based version of FireFox codenamed Minefield. Being a native application, the Minefield will have all the goodies of a real Mac browser like native GUI objects and OS X spell checking. Before you all rush off and announce that this is your next main browser, keep in mind that these are early development builds, and crashes, missing features, and bugs all come with the territory. Running Minefield from a disk image broke my dock, and I had to restart the dock process to get it working again. [via MacUser]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
andy said 10:26AM on 8-17-2006
wow, its firefox, lol, erm. it has the same mac-like look as firefox to. hhmmmmm
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Kroc Camen said 10:29AM on 8-17-2006
I think you misunderstand. Minefield is the name of the trunk. It's not a cocoa-spin off. Cocoa widgets in webpages are being planned for Firefox 3, which is currently on the trunk and hasn't been branched yet.
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K said 10:59AM on 8-17-2006
You had to restart the dock?! Oh my God! The horror!
Open Terminal > Type > Killall Dock
!!!
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James Huston said 11:01AM on 8-17-2006
This wont be a native Firefox. It will still run a XUL interface, otherwise extensions wont work, ask the Camino devs about it. That means it will still be slow at doing things like creating windows. Cocoa Firefox is mainly about replacing form widgets and updating the drawing routines to use Cocoa calls over Carbon calls.
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Ralph said 11:03AM on 8-17-2006
While not a free alternative (well, it's free but you get a nag screen occasionally) I'm a big fan of OmniWeb. http://www.omnigroup.com/omniweb
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Jon said 11:03AM on 8-17-2006
For those who do not want to use something that buggy, you could always try the beta of Firefox 2.0 (Bon Echo). I use that and haven't had any problems.
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Michel said 11:09AM on 8-17-2006
why slow ?
nothing force "XUL" to be slow. it justs need improvement.
the use of cocoa could help and will also allow firefox to use some specific functions of cocoa not available in carbon.
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Jeffrey Lee said 11:14AM on 8-17-2006
Minefield is just as memory intensive as Firefox on OS X. I hope that this is just a symptom of its stage of development and not a "feature" like in Firefox.
I do like the fact that it is moving to Cocoa though.
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James Huston said 11:15AM on 8-17-2006
XUL will always be slower than native, it's the nature of the beast.
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Alex Hillman said 11:35AM on 8-17-2006
so, i'm confused. This is built on cocoa? or it uses cocoa widgets for interface objects (inputs, buttons, etc)?
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Wry Cooter said 11:35AM on 8-17-2006
Its truly hard to tell, because most of what I read about Cocoa Firefox is a bit convoluted about where it exists on the family tree. As if Camino never existed, or does not exist. Which is confusing if you use Camino every day, which is both Cocoa, and Gecko, but lacks that Firefoxy plug in goodness. But I think it is a Firefox branch they are making cocoa, rather than an earlier gecko branch, which is Camino, which I fear, is merely going to be left to die.
Wikipedia would probably get me up to speed, but I don't really know exactly what it is blogs like Boom Swagger Boom are discussing, with the assumption that everyone is on the same page.
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Joshua Ochs said 11:53AM on 8-17-2006
All this does is use Cocoa widgets INSIDE WEB PAGES. This has nothing to do with the main application. Indeed, since extensions are frequently written with XUL in mind, dropping XUL for the interface means no extensions (and you become Camino).
It's a trade off - do you want Firefox extensions or a native GUI and interface? You cannot have both.
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David Moss said 12:07PM on 8-17-2006
"Minefield" is the code name for Fx 3.0, so it sounds to me as it will replace Carbon widgets with Cocoa, but still also use XUL, which has been pointed out is what Eztensions are based on.
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solipsism said 12:27PM on 8-17-2006
A Cocoa version of Firefox is nice and all, but it's going to have to come a long way in order to prevent me from using Apple's already full featured, built-in, intuitive browser, Safari.
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tim said 1:08PM on 8-17-2006
I used to think the same thing about firefox on a mac, but i still used it because of the extensions, i NEED them. now i have a 17" macbook pro, and firefox runs like a dream!!!!! so rather than changing browsers, just get a macbook or pro :).
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Adrian vG said 1:24PM on 8-17-2006
It looks and feels just like firefox and firefox 2... I'll stick to Safari or try to learn to like Camino.
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Jeremey said 2:11PM on 8-17-2006
Give Flock a try... it supports extensions (unlike Camino) and it looks a LOT better than either Firefox or Camino, IMO.
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Mike said 3:58PM on 8-17-2006
Firefox's appearance doesn't really bother me. The whole reason to use Firefox is for the extensions, and there are a lot that I can't live without. I don't like Camino at all, since it doesn't support extensions. If I wanted a Cocoa browser I would use Safari.
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Daniel McMahon said 3:52AM on 8-18-2006
Notably, you can run Firefox alongside Minefield simultaneously, if you'd like to try it out but don't want to commit.
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David Latapie said 7:16AM on 9-13-2006
No you can't - Bon Echo won't let you start Minefield and vice-versa. Maybe Firefox 1 allows you to do so, I did not try.
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