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February Fifth Firefox Friday Five!
(Can you tell that I'm trying to spice things up around here?)We've actually been discussing how to 'sass-up' Firefox Friday Five. Interviews with Mozilla developers? Add-on creators? Perhaps we could even get a perspective from competitors -- how does Microsoft intend to combat Firefox? With Chrome and Firefox both being open source and effectively having a shared code base, can either one of them ever be dominant?
Anyway, another quiet week from Mozilla itself, but there's been plenty of news about Firefox -- so let's get going!
1. Firefox for Mobile is coming to Android, thank God
I think we all knew Firefox would come to Android eventually, we were just getting a little nervous -- what with the Nokia/Maemo version being released, and no news of any other version except a stillborn Windows Mobile alpha.
It's still early days for the Android version (it's just a full port of the desktop version at the moment), but one has to assume, with Android taking off and the Google Tablet possibly on its way, that Firefox for Android is now a priority for Mozilla.
Only a month ago we were reporting on FF 3.5 being the most-used browser on the Internet! Well, now Microsoft has the pleasure of pinching the crown from Mozilla and perching it atop IE8's head.
The blog post from Microsoft doesn't mention the fact that Firefox 3.6 came out in January, though. But having said that, Firefox relied on the continued deprecation of IE6 and 7 to reach its position at the top! I wonder how long it'll take FF 3.6 to get back to a 20% market share though...
3. Mozilla confirms infected add-ons made it through security to the official Firefox add-ons site
The two add-ons in question -- Sothink Web Video Downloader and Master Filer -- have been found to contain viruses, both of the password-stealing Trojan horse variety. The infection occurrs as soon as the user opens Firefox -- and uninstalling the add-on does not uninstall the virus! Usual virus protection software should detect the infection, though. Mozilla admitted that their malware-scanning software did not pick up the infected add-ons, but they've made changes to ensure they're detected in the future.
This is just proof that no browser is inherently more secure than any other -- it's simply a matter of which browser is attacked by miscreants! It's a classic argument: 'Linux is more secure because only 2% of all computers use it -- and thus only 2% of virus writers'. The same goes for Firefox, and if Opera ever accumulates more than 10 users, it would be the same story.
I can't remember the last time I used the menu in Firefox -- other than to 'bookmark all tabs' (and you can do that by right-clicking a tab now!) It's even become quite popular to hide the menu with add-ons like Hide Menubar -- perhaps that's why the Firefox menu in 4.0 has been reduced to a single orange button (incidentally, if you haven't tried the Firefox 4.0 theme add-on, you really should.)
Anyway, this study from Mozilla Labs wants to identify how often we use the menu, which buttons we use most, and how long it takes to click those buttons.
I can't actually find a way to take part in the test -- anyone one know how?
I did say news was a bit thin this week... and so I give you Operetta! It makes Firefox look like Opera 10.5, and it only works on Windows. My windows theme is a dark grey Windows 7 Aero-glass thing, and it goes together very nicely with Operetta!
Ultimately though, there are prettier themes for Firefox (and you can see in the screenshot above, it actually interacts with the Fx4 theme quite well!) Perhaps it's targeted at Opera users to ease the transition to a non-dinosaur browser?
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That's all for this week -- again, if you have any ideas on what you'd like to see in the weekly Firefox column, let us know in the comments.
Comments
15
Subscribe to commentsMark BowytzFeb 5th 2010 3:11PM
How about some "under the hood", advanced level tweaks? Firefox pranks you can do like the the Fart Extension for Chrome?
Sebastian AnthonyFeb 5th 2010 5:44PM
I'm not sure I can condone pranking, especially in the work place... but under-the-hood type hacks we can do!
starhawkFeb 5th 2010 3:56PM
You need the test pilot addon to take part in Mozilla Lab's test/surveys. I installed it and it told me when the menu test started. I never use the menu for anything and hide it too so I am not sure my results will be typical.
And by the way your comment "This is just proof that no browser is inherently more secure than any other -- it's simply a matter of which browser is attacked by miscreants! It's a classic argument: 'Linux is more secure because only 2% of all computers use it -- and thus only 2% of virus writers' " shows a complete lack of understand of the pros and cons of various operating systems and or web browsers. Never trust anything unless it is open source and the security of a web browser is completely different from the security of the same web browser with addons BHOs and so on installed.
Sebastian AnthonyFeb 5th 2010 5:44PM
Ah, an add-on! Of course. Thanks.
I don't know how open-source = trustworthy, unless you actually look at the source of every program you run on your computer... :)
Sure, some platforms are inherently more secure than others, but I think every OS has been compromised by now...?
Alex MFeb 5th 2010 3:57PM
You have to install the Test Pilot extension to take part in those kinds of tests: https://testpilot.mozillalabs.com/
Sebastian AnthonyFeb 5th 2010 5:44PM
Cheers!
JarasMFeb 5th 2010 8:23PM
Hey, let me clear up a few things.
"It makes Firefox look like Opera 10.5"
No, it makes Fx look like Opera 10.2. 10.5 uses Aero features more excessively and puts tabs on the titlebar (on Aero-enabled systems of course), which, as we can see, Operetta does not. You can look up screens here http://labs.opera.com/news/2009/12/22/
"Perhaps it's targeted at Opera users to ease the transition to a non-dinosaur browser?"
Or perhaps at envious Firefox users trying to pretend they're not using the Brontosaurus of the browser world.
Sebastian AnthonyFeb 5th 2010 8:29PM
Thanks for the clarification -- I don't use Opera, as you can tell!
(And, for the sake of argument, I use Chrome as my primary browser... :P)
JarasMFeb 5th 2010 8:37PM
No problem, anytime. Chrome I can respect, I was pretty close to switching to it myself, if not for the recent 10.5 Opera alpha. Coupling with this skin http://my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/info/?id=9281 it's the slickest thing ever. But I guess I'm getting offtopic here :P
Sebastian AnthonyFeb 5th 2010 8:39PM
Well dang, if that ain't the shiniest theme I ever did see.
(Nice try... now we know you're a Lifehacker rather than a Download Squaddie :()
JarasMFeb 5th 2010 8:44PM
Well darn, doublepost. Could you please delete one? I intended to link to the original skin source.
Don't worry, they're not treating me too well there, I've never gotten a commenters account and I don't think I've ever received a single reply :P
Sebastian AnthonyFeb 5th 2010 8:45PM
You know, I don't have an account for commenting there either. I thought the activation email never came through or something... but maybe they only accept a certain... calibre...
jarasmenFeb 5th 2010 8:51PM
I *do* have an account, but to play with the big boys in the comments you gotta get promoted or something (otherwise your posts end up hidden by default). Hell if I know about the criteria.
tracker1Feb 8th 2010 3:38PM
I've been using Personal Menu myself for about 4-5 months now, browsing on my netbook was painful without it. I have my toolbar icons and address bar on the same line, with the "Use Small Icons" checked, without the menu bar, and with small icons, I can get a few more lines of text on my netbook. I honestly like the layout of chrome, but really wished it used the native OS borders, and colors for tabs.
BenjieFeb 14th 2010 9:20AM
Important addon for every firefox users.......
AFOM