Firefox 13 Released, Debuts Brand New Tab Page and Homepage 320
MrSeb writes "Mozilla has officially released Firefox 13. Unlike Firefox 12 (or 11, or 10, or indeed many of the recent Firefox versions), Firefox 13 is an important release with a handful of much-needed features that are long overdue. There's a new New Tab Page launcher, with your favorite and most-used websites, and a new default home page with one-click access to Bookmarks, Settings, Add-ons, etc. SPDY is on by default, too, which should help ameliorate the perceived speed difference between Chrome and Firefox. Finally, the developer tools (Page Inspector, Style Inspector, etc.) have been tweaked and updated!"
The new-tab page isn't a chrome invention (Score:5, Insightful)
I've seen this news all over the web since yesterday, however, the "new tab" page as it is, isn't a Chrome feature, it actually comes from Opera, which had it way before Chrome existed.
Version 4.9 (Score:3, Insightful)
In the normal scheme, its really just 4.9.
***YAWN***
Re:The new-tab page isn't a chrome invention (Score:2, Insightful)
What? Speed Dial is nothing like this. Chrome, Safari, and now Firefox show your most frequented websites/pages, Opera's new tab page is just a bookmark grid.
Why do Opera fanboys feel the need to convince everyone that Opera invented the web?
Tab launcher garbage was first thing I turned off (Score:5, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The new-tab page isn't a chrome invention (Score:2, Insightful)
They didn't invent tabs, and FF has adblock. It may not be built-in, but it still works pretty much the same, and more flexible.
Remember FF makes profit out of ads (indirectly), so a built-in ad blocker is a bit of a suicide.
FUCK (Score:2, Insightful)
Fuck Mozilla's fucking releases every fucking other fucking week. Want me to pay attention to a new release? then don't bombard me with requests to update, or call versions barely worth an increment to the patch level a fucking release. Buy a clue and stop ruining what was a pretty decent browser. As ColdWetDog already joked, only for real, you're actually making IE look good again. The level of fuckitude necessary to reach that level of fuckedupness is almost unfuckingbeliveable.
Can't please everyone (Score:4, Insightful)
Speed dial is one of the first things I disabled when I tried Opera. Now I need to get rid of it in Firefox too.
Re:I'm 10 Versions Behind Using Firefox 3.6.28 (Score:2, Insightful)
If you are fine with 40+ security vulnerabilities with it!
Remember Firefox is the only modern browser with no sanboxing still either. Seriously even IE 9 is better than 3.6 as it is old. There is ESR extended support for corporations which is based off of FF 10 and is much slimmer and gets regular security updates. I left Firefox after 4 and use Chrome and IE 9, but I have to say FF 12 is very slim, and very light even compred to FF 3.6.
Re:Okay... (Score:4, Insightful)
They were fixed in Firefox 7: http://www.gadgetvenue.com/firefox-7-to-use-up-to-50-percent-less-memory-08114900/ [gadgetvenue.com]
If by fixed you mean browser usability was sacrificed in order to make the apparent memory usage drop, then yes. My biggest complaint with these memory "improvements" is in regard to image handling:
- Images are now decode-on-draw meaning they display slower and background tab images are not decoded. Browsing an image gallery or some other image-heavy site is now obscenely painful in Firefox.
- Decoded images on background tabs only live for 10-20 seconds and then are discarded at which point they must be re-decoded when the tab is activated. Long-lived tabs like Gmail now flicker every time you switch back to them as images are re-decoded.
These are just the two that come to mind right away. Luckily they can be fixed by tweaking some about:config settings (image.mem.decodeondraw and image.mem.min_discard_timeout_ms). Unfortunately many cannot be fixed so easily.
I'm really tired of the Firefox devs choosing (usually wrong) user complaints over good design and usability practices.
Conentrate on the browser part (Score:5, Insightful)
I love Firefox and use it every day, but I'm getting a little tired and confused with some of the features they keep putting into the core. I've always thought one of the great things about Firefox is the extensions; and while other browsers offer similar 'add-on' concepts, Firefox just seems to do it better. Why aren't they concentrating on just making a seriously good browser engine and then leaving the extra stuff to the extension developers. Or, if it's something important, get with the extension developers and help them out, offer a 'Firefox suggested extension package' that downloads and enables extensions by default. That way, all the 'normal' users get the cool goodies, and the rest of us can turn them off or uninstall them all together if it's not something we need.
For instance, the new development centric stuff they have in FF13 is nice. But it doesn't hold a candle to the development tools that have been in IE9 and Chrome for some time. I use Firebug for all my web debugging needs in FF and it works wonderfully. Get with those guys and improve their already awesome extension. Don't try to re-invent every cool extension and add it to the core. Not everyone needs it, not everyone wants it. Just build the fastest, most standards compliant browser out there that offers an amazing extension engine and you'll have a winning browser.
Re:The new-tab page isn't a chrome invention (Score:2, Insightful)
Heh. No. They used Opera because it had a ton of features that Netscape didn't have and Mozilla hadn't ripped off yet.
Opera earned the elitist attitude us fanboys have for it.
Re:And Not One Fuck Was Given.... (Score:5, Insightful)
I just fear FF 3.6 becoming the new IE 6...