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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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...
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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.
September 13 2006 at 6:52 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyNotably, you can run Firefox alongside Minefield simultaneously, if you'd like to try it out but don't want to commit.
August 18 2006 at 3:52 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyFirefox'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.
August 17 2006 at 3:58 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyGive Flock a try... it supports extensions (unlike Camino) and it looks a LOT better than either Firefox or Camino, IMO.
August 17 2006 at 2:11 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyIt looks and feels just like firefox and firefox 2... I'll stick to Safari or try to learn to like Camino.
August 17 2006 at 1:24 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI 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 :).
August 17 2006 at 1:08 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyA 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.
August 17 2006 at 12:27 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply"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.
August 17 2006 at 12:07 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyAll 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.
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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