Firefox Download Day is Coming!

ID:43501
 
May 29 2008, 6:39 am (Edited on May 29 2008, 6:50 am)
Download DayIn honor of the rather soon release of Firefox 3, I've decided to start a discussion.

What is the best feature of Firefox you never use?

For me personally, it's the extensive bookmarking features. Especially in Firefox 3, Firefox has some really good bookmarking tools. Allowing you to tag and search your bookmarks nearly instantly with the new address bar, as well as the new "Smart" bookmarks that customize kinda like the "Smart" playlists in iTunes. I've never really messed with bookmarks, and always found them a bother. But I'm pretty good at pulling sites back up with Google, so it's rarely a problem. To a large degree, Google is my bookmarking system.
May 29 2008, 7:08 am
My only reason I haven't upgraded: An hour and a half of downloading just for features I probably won't ever use. I used FF3 in Arizona and none of the new features made an impact on me. FF2 with extensions is fine for me, heh.
May 29 2008, 7:55 am
Good point. The updates aren't revolutionary, at least not for me. They are just nice. However, for many people the new address bar options are going to be revolutionary, and I can bet that other browsers will follow in its footsteps soon(assuming FF3 is the first at it).

Another nice thing is the increase in speed and the decrease in RAM consumption(something that is probably handy in your case). I honestly haven't really tested these things, but I haven't had a problem with it taking over 500MB of RAM on my home machine, as I have with FF2.
May 29 2008, 12:58 pm
It better not crash. I've had terrible luck with 2.0.0.14 and it's really starting to get on my nerves. The browser crashes at least every hour, if not more frequently.
May 29 2008, 1:01 pm
I'm ready, but Firefox 3 won't run on my old computer and OS. =(
May 29 2008, 5:39 pm
I've never had Firefox crash (except from my own stupidity) nor have I ever had it take more than 100MB of RAM.
May 30 2008, 12:07 am
There's a few things that bug me from the start with it. Probably the most annoying, is that "quick find" has no buttons in it, so you can only actually find the first instance of whatever you're trying to find. Adding ".findbar-container>* {display: -moz-box !important;} " to userChrome.css is a workaround for that, but it such a stupid change that I shouldn't need a workaround for it to begin with.

The other thing that bugs me is with history. Sorting works fine, until you go to search for something. I normally sort by last viewed, but when I try to find something it becomes sorted alphabetically.

The "Save and exit" is nice too, except for the fact that if you have "Do not ask next time" checked off, the option to "Save and exit" is gone forever with no option to change it without delving into about:config where you need to change "browser.warnOnQuit" back to true.
Jun 3 2008, 11:24 am
Wow, so nobody has a "best feature" that you never use? I was trying to spark conversation, but I guess I missed the mark on that one.

Nick: The quickfind bar(I assume you mean ctrl+f) does have buttons for me, but I normally use the F3 button for next anyways. I don't use history, so I can't comment. I just save my tabs on close, so it hasn't been an issue, but I can see how a "Save and exit" option would be great, but worthless if it is disabled with another feature.

Airjoe: I haven't had a problem with FF3 crashing. It has been rock solid since the RC.

Nadrew: You must be a pretty light browser than, FF2 could quickly get into the 300MB RAM stage with just a little flash. I also recommend making sure you are measuring the swap file usage too, because if you don't have a lot of RAM, then it will get swapped and taskmanager doesn't calculate swap as well by default(its and extra column header you can enable).

ACWraith: Really? I thought FF3 worked even on 9x systems. I think it's time for an upgrade.
Jun 3 2008, 11:52 am
Danial.Beta wrote:
Nick: The quickfind bar(I assume you mean ctrl+f) does have buttons for me, but I normally use the F3 button for next anyways. I don't use history, so I can't comment. I just save my tabs on close, so it hasn't been an issue, but I can see how a "Save and exit" option would be great, but worthless if it is disabled with another feature.

Ctrl+F brings up the regular "Find" bar, that had buttons also, but I have it setup that simply typing when not in any inputy box acts as find also (and is called "quick find" rather than "find". History wise its nice for those things that I've already closed. I typically have way too many tabs open (73 at the moment =P) so closing things, or even just finding things I didn't at some point think important enough to bookmark is handy.

Saving on exit is supposed to be a new built-in feature with FF3, but as mentioned, Ticking the box disables it and there's no indication of the feature anywhere in options. (Set "browser.warnOnQuit" to true in about:config and see if you had noticed it or not, you might just have assumed it was a different dialog (an addon may have also disabled it by default if you're using something else for saving sessions)).

Otherwise it definitely seems a little easier on the system which is nice. Other than that I think the only thing still new is the address bar which I've yet to decide if I like or not (I think I'd like it if the page titles were bold to make them stand out a little more, or that the urls are a shade of gray.
Jun 3 2008, 1:05 pm
Danial.Beta wrote:
Airjoe: I haven't had a problem with FF3 crashing. It has been rock solid since the RC.

Good to hear, because 2.0.0.14 blows. :[
Jun 3 2008, 2:33 pm
"ACWraith: Really? I thought FF3 worked even on 9x systems. I think it's time for an upgrade."


9x is not in the system requirements.

Whenever I try to get a new computer, some important appliance breaks or I just plain run out of money. I can barely afford $25 to amplify speakers on a $15 TV. Any more outlandish suggestions, Richie Rich?