Mozilla Firefox stuff.
Always wanted to set a Guinness World Record? Well, now you can by simply downloading the soon to be released version 3 of the Firefox webbrowser. You don’t even have to install it. A download will suffice, thank you. But while you’re at it, why not give it a try.
How do you participate? Go pledge at the Download Day 2008 site that you’ll download Firefox 3 when it gets released. They’ll send you a reminder when it’s going to happen.
Here’s a weird Firefox add-on installation error-message:
Looks like Firefox 2.0.0.x isn’t the same as 2.0.0.2.
Update: Fixed it with some notes from AMO a.k.a. version-number hacking.
And another official one down! Less than a week ago Microsoft upped their browser to a 7.0 version. This time it’s the Mozilla Foundation. Mozilla Firefox is now a 2.0.
Yes, improved tabs, RSS discovery, looks, spell-checker for form-fields with downloadable dictionaries,… Get Firefox. If you dare.
I wonder how many extensions are borked this time. Let me tell ya in a minute…
if ((bWebDeveloper || bWebDesigner) && bFirefox) { try { var oNewExtension = new cExtension(); oNewExtension.fetchXPI = fnFetchURL("www.getfirebug.com"); oNewExtension.installXPI(); if (oNewExtension.success) { console.log("Firebug installed successfully."); var oFurtherOptions = getElementById("divTellUser"); oFurtherOptions.innerHTML = "About FireBug" oFurtherOptions.innerHTML += "FireBug Screencast" oFurtherOptions.innerHTML += "FireBug Overview" } } catch(e) { throw "Next time Gadget, next time!" // Take a look at the lower right corner... } }
Now if only I were able to debug that… 😉
Now, after Safari, iCab, Konqueror & Opera 9 beta, it’s Firefox’ turn to comply with the ACID2 test. David Baron has built a special development version of Firefox that fixes some rendering issues that kept it from complying before. You can see the screenshot of ACID2 in action on his Flickr account.
Now, why is seeing a smily face a good thing? Well, hopefully, this will bring about full cross-browser handling of CSS. And hopefully the times of hacking around for browser differences is coming to an end. IE7 fixes a lot of CSS-bugs, but apparently is not fully compliant to all CSS-standards. So the questions remaining: When will it be incorporated in the regular Firefox? When will IE(7) comply?
The grand prize winners of the Extend Firefox competition are in. One of them is the one I use on a daily basis. In fact it’s the biggest reason why I’m using Firefox as my main browser. Props to Chris! 🙂
But IMHO the Web Developer toolbar is only usefull for us web developers (and people who are affiliated to them). Anyway, here are the three winners:
Grand Prize Category Winners:
- Best New Extension Overall:
Reveal by Michael Wu- Best Upgraded Extension:
Web Developer by Chris Pederick- Best Use of New Firefox 1.5 Features:
Firefox Showcase by Josep del Rio
I’ve installed Reveal and am evaluating as of writing. Can’t say I like it. It’s … just bizarre. 🙂
While browsing to Yahoo! this bar on top struck me. Click to enlarge:
Apparently Yahoo! is promoting the Search Bar, which is standard issue in Firefox. Guess they want us to change the default Google setting. 😉
This in turn made me think of the times I used that Search Bar. Probably once, the first time I installed Firefox.
Normally if I want to do a search I hit CTRL+T (new tab) and call up my homepage, which still is the Firefox branded Google homepage. (BTW, ALT+HOME gets you to the homepage.)
It’s an old habit. And you know what they say about old habits…
But thanks to Yahoo! who reminded that there was such a thing as the Search Bar. I’m wondering if and how I can remove it. 🙂
In other news:
Extend Firefox Contest Finalists :: Mozilla Update:
We are happy to announce the finalists in our Extend Firefox Contest, a contest held to award the best and brightest extension developers in the Firefox community. The contest asked entrants to create Firefox Extensions that are innovative, useful, and integrate with today’s Web services. Over 200 Extensions were submitted to the contest. Many thanks to everyone who entered and everyone who helped spread the word about the contest.
Rather, this is a test post with the ‘Deepest Sender‘ blog extension. Like the ‘Performancing’ one quoted in an earlier post. Just to see how this one fares.
Update: The post got through allright… 🙂
Guess I’ll have to download the entire updated 1.5.0.1 package. Oh well… better than an endless download/update loop. 🙂
Update: Well, it seems that the update also failed on my WinXP box. 🙁
Update 2: If you’ve found that your automatic update to Firefox 1.5.0.1 went less than ideal, go visit Mike Beltzner’s blog. He’s collection user-experiences of the update process. One Five OH! One: was it good for you? He’d probably wants to hear some success stories too.
If you are planning to build or rebuild a site this year you may wonder at some point which browsers you should support. If not, you should! Just looking at your new design in IE 6 is no guarantee it works and behaves the same in any other browser.
Not that long ago the browser shortlist consisted of IE 6, combined with IE 5, IE 4 & Netscape 4. And maybe some other occasional ‘weird’ browser. But times have changed and are changing. IE 4 & Netscape 4 are ancient history, support for IE 5 has been dropped in most cases by Microsoft itself. And there are emerging new browsers, either driven by innovation or security issues.
So what browsers should you support today and for the upcoming year(s)? Simple question, simple answer: Check your visitor stats and build/optimise for what they use.