Filed under: Software, Internet Tools, Universal Binary
Optimized Firefox 2.0 for G4, G5, and Intel Macs
Whenever there is a new release of Firefox I anxiously await Neil Lee's optimized version. Neil aims to please, and he just announced on his blog that he has whipped up optimized versions of Firefox 2.0 for G4, G5, and Intel Macs. Please keep in mind that this optimized version can't use the Firefox icon, or the Firefox name. You'll see a variant of the icon to the right, and the app will identify itself as BonEcho. Why? As Neil explains the name and icon are for official builds only, and this ain't official, baby.One of the nice touches in these builds are the Aqua form widgets, but there is a version with the Firefox default widgets if that's your cup 'o tea. Anyway, get to downloading and thanks, Neil!
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rom said 5:49PM on 10-26-2006
I am really curious as to why Mozilla's Firefox team could not OFFICIALLY release these builds. I mean, optimizing for the G4/G5/Intel should not be that much of a problem, right?
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escargot said 5:52PM on 10-26-2006
The name and icon aren't really a problem. Just copy/paste the Firefox icon over from your old Firefox application, and rename BonEcho.app to Firefox.app. Sure, the application is still identified as BonEcho in the menu bar, but everything else looks Firefoxy.
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Adrian vG said 6:03PM on 10-26-2006
Why not optimized? G4, G5 and Intel are the only macs today (almost)...
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Mark D. said 6:11PM on 10-26-2006
This is what I was looking for, I used an Intel optimized 1.5.0.4 of Firefox that launched in one bounce, but the default 2.0 would take 3 or more (a real letdown, despite the nice new features, since I'd become used to quickly firing up Firefox for a hop to some favorite blogs.) Also, the recommended add-ons in the article raised my hopes for using Tab Mix Plus, though I can't get the close button to appear on the tabs, so it looks like I'll either have to go without or use the far-right close button only.
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Riscky said 6:16PM on 10-26-2006
Simple reason why Mozilla will not released Optimized builds, like Neils, ElFurbe or mine... doing the QA on optimized builds can be a tangled mess. Then toss on portability issues that may arise.
Other Links:
ElFurbe:
http://firefoxmac.furbism.com/ (been doing optimized builds longer than most... for PPC)
Mine:
http://risckyworkings.com (one, if not the first, to do optimized intel builds)
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Brian Baute said 6:29PM on 10-26-2006
I'm on Mac 10.4.8 and I installed FF 2.0 yesterday. Everything is working well except a seeming problem with Flash. I can't view YouTube videos or most multimedia content on ESPN.com. I installed Flash 9 but it didn't make a difference.
Will the Intel-optimized build remedy this?
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Ben said 7:26PM on 10-26-2006
http://www.furbism.com/firefoxmac/
Is wonderful, and also has a very nice alternative icon in use.
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Jim C. said 8:29PM on 10-26-2006
Besides renaming "BonEcho.app" to "Firefox.app" and changing the icon in the "Get Info" window (which is what escargot mentioned in Post #2), you *can* get the application labeled as "Firefox" in the menu bar to complete the transformation.
Simply go the the BonEcho/Firefox application and control-click on the icon, and choose "Show Package Contents." (be sure you've quit BonEcho first). In the new window that opens, navigate through Contents -> Resources -> en.lproj. Once inside the "en.lproj" folder, open up the file "InfoPlist.strings" in TextEdit or some other plaintext editor.
In the InfoPlist.strings file, the first line will read:
CFBundleName = "BonEcho";
Change that to...
CFBundleName = "Firefox";
Be sure to save the file, and then close the Finder window. Relaunch BonEcho/Firefox, and it should now read "Firefox" in the menu bar. Obviously, you could also rename it to anything else that you think might be better.
I have no idea if this will break anything in BonEcho (hasn't yet on my machine), so please proceed with caution. Otherwise, that's how you do it!
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Navstar said 9:41PM on 10-26-2006
What's the benefit of using "optimized" builds? How are they optimized? Firefox seems plenty quick to me.
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muaddib420 said 10:51PM on 10-26-2006
navestar:
firefox is pretty quick, but i just downloaded bon echo for my macbook and believe me, it's much quicker! probably a 50% improvement in load times and no herkiness when scrolling down. try it out!
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Dan said 11:04AM on 10-27-2006
@ Brian Baute
I have the exact same problem, while others don't seem to experience any problems at all. Kind of odd, if you ask me. I've been trying to solve this problem all day long and was an quarter of an inch from going totally insane when I saw you post - THANK YOU! So, I'm not crazy, which is a very comforting thing (to me at least).
Unfortunately I haven't solved the problem, so I too am looking in the direction of BonEcho to see if this could rescue me from insanity. The flash players on myspace-pages are defunkt too.
/Dan
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Dan said 11:12AM on 10-27-2006
Nope, BonEcho doesn't solve anything regarding this Flash issue, unfortunately. Bugger.
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Dan said 2:23PM on 10-27-2006
@ Brian Baute:
Finally!!
With a some help from leading Danish Mac board on Macnyt.dk, someone managed to come up with a solution. You need to remove (and eventually delete) ALL 'flash player.plugin' you can find in local/global libraries, after which you go to the adobe site and download the UB version. From there on it should work perfectly. At least, the myspace music players and youtube site work fine on my FF now.
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Ryan said 3:18PM on 10-27-2006
Where can one find the version without the widgets? I like how they blend in the Mac, but the text font appears small on my computer and I'd rather give up looks over readability. On the main page there is only a G5 widget version.
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BobbyW said 10:55PM on 10-27-2006
What is the deal with the widgets? widgets aren't even mentioned in the help file. What widgets are they talking about?
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PaperQueen said 9:26AM on 10-28-2006
Thanks to Dan for the Flash fix—I was in the same boat.
Gotta love TUAW......
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Ray Marotta said 3:13AM on 10-29-2006
There is only ONE WAY to fix the problem with flash etc and having Bon Echo Builds be recognized as "Firefox" Builds and I have and answer on my site, Drumsticks of
Mozillazine Fame, who also builds Firefox G5 Optimized versions, has found how do to make this quick fix and I have the steps detailed on my site, InTheMac.com, in the Second Post...
This Fix will allow your Bon Echo Builds to work on ALL Sites that are looking for "Firefox" as the Browser, sites like MSNBC etc.
Try going to MSNBC and see if fly-outs work before the fix and make the quick fix and they go back to MSNBC,
Now the site works 100%, As all the rest of your sites will...
Best Regards,
Admin, Ray Marotta, InTheMac.com.
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