Filed under: Software, Internet Tools, Blogs
Firefox Mac team looking for feedback
For anyone who has ever wished that Firefox did this or that on Mac OS X - get ready to voice your requests and complaints. Jeff Smykil at Ars Technica is reporting that Colin Barrett of the Firefox team has left the door wide open for Mac users to submit requests for the browser, including a short list of things they already know are at the top of many users' lists (some of which are already planned). For example: Native Form Widgets (i.e. - web form buttons that look and feel more like Mac OS X a lá Safari / Camino / OmniWeb) are on the drawing board for Firefox 3, and a Unified toolbar is apparently "not completely hopeless." Performance is of course on the list (is it ever not?), but a big one that this blogger feels is fundamental to any Mac OS X app that deals with passwords also made the list: Keychain integration (Colin - does that count for my request submission?). We of course have 1Passwd, a password and identity manager that (among other things) integrates Firefox with the Mac OS X Keychain, but 1Passwd's $30 price tag understandably sets it outside of most user's budgets (though until Firefox builds this feature in, I definitely recommend 1Passwd as a happy customer).But don't stop there - Colin and the Firefox team want to hear your thoughts on these features, as well as all the others missing from the browser that you simply can't live without. In fact, they want all the email they can get their hands on, so head on over to Colin's blog to get the email address with which you can help make Firefox a better browser for the Mac.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
thunkdifferent said 11:45AM on 4-24-2007
Great, i hope they use some of the features I talked about in a blog yesterday at thunk different.
Here is the post:
http://thunkdifferent.wordpress.com/2007/04/23/shiira-browser-maximizes-os-104/
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Dave Chartier said 12:35PM on 4-24-2007
Just to make sure: don't tell us, tell them! I honestly doubt if Colin is going to check the comments on this post (or even the post itself) for your feedback. Send it straight to the source!
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Travis Bell said 12:44PM on 4-24-2007
Firefox is great but let's face it, OS X has a very particular look and feel to it's apps (thanks to Aqua) and whenever an app comes in that doesn't abide by these standards, it tends to look like ass. XUL is great for Windows and Linux but seriously, Firefox doesn't (and never has of course) felt like it was an native OS X app.
If you were to compare Camino and Firefox the differences are very obvious, and makes Firefox look even less than OK, but downright fugly.
I hope the Firefox devs gives us a native Aqua port of Firefox one day. The power of extensions native for OS X would be huge.
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Jim said 6:09PM on 4-24-2007
So many want Firefox's interface to change and yet hardly a thing gets said about the various new apps that roll their own interface(ie disco). It must be that Firefox simply isn't cool enough.
Plenty cool for me. The plugins are the biggie here.
The Mac version simply needs work on performance and losing the bugs. Maybe throw in a puff of smoke and dress up the icon so some of these overly cosmetic Mac users might think it's cool now.
BTW, if they add the keychain support, I certainly hope it's an option. I need my stuff to be portable.
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Mark said 2:57PM on 4-24-2007
Travis:
Well much of that 'fugly'ness is tied to the form widgets, which is easily fixed by using beatnikpad's aqua form widgets build (http://www.beatnikpad.com/archives/2007/03/29/firefox-2002), so aside from properly integrating this into the browser as they said they'd do for 3.0, I don't personally have a bone to pick on appearance.
The only thing I'd ask for is a better, smoother scroll more in line with Safari or how Firefox scrolls in Windows. I know it's a small thing, but it ends up being quite noticeable if you switch between browsers or operating systems often. I also agree with David; proper keychain integration would be happily welcomed, though I really do enjoy 1Passwd's integration into all my browsers, it'd still be nice to have similar support for my other OS X systems that lack the proper software.
I guess I should submit this properly, of course, as posting it here won't do them much good.
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Alex said 3:56PM on 4-24-2007
"I hope the Firefox devs gives us a native Aqua port of Firefox one day. The power of extensions native for OS X would be huge."
I hear people say this over and over, but guess what: All of Firefox's extensions are written in cross-platform XUL. So unless every extension author out there is willing to code an entirely separate version of their extension for the Mac version of Firefox, there is NO WAY to have a completely Mac-native Firefox AND the existing library of extensions.
It's one or the other (ie. Firefox or Camino). Take your pick.
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popo man said 4:37PM on 4-24-2007
@Mark (#5): It's not appearance alone, it's appearance *and behavior.* You know, the "and feel" part of "look and feel." The reason Firefox is such a piece of shit on the Mac is that the developers have taken too literal-minded and not contextual enough approach to porting it to the platform--and yes, that's what it is, a port. Ugh.
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AndyB said 5:26PM on 4-24-2007
I'll...provide...feedback...when...the...feedback...page...is...finished...loadi....................................................................................ng
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Bruno said 6:24PM on 4-24-2007
Firefox's appearance and "feel" are far (far) from its top problems on the Mac.
Stability, memory footprint and generally slow performance are right at the top. Firefox is a bloated clunky application.
Get more motion behind Camino and Safari (which accounts for the vast majority of Mac surfing). Yes, there are some days where I miss one or two Firefox extensions, but for the other 99% of the time I'm just glad I'm not using that train-wreck any more.
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Mark said 2:24AM on 4-25-2007
popo man:
It must not be as notable for me, I guess. I've adapted to the 'feel' of Firefox from my extensive use on other operating systems, so my use of it trumped my general use of Safari on OS X; the look is more of note than feel for me at this point.
I see what you mean regarding the feel being vital for users, though, especially if they wish to attract those that have long held to Safari for browsing.
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