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Firefox Friday Five
I'm back! I had to fend off Jay with my rusty saber -- and when that didn't work, I threatened to drop his iPhone on the ground (a very effective tactic if there's a Mac zealot that you're trying to coerce, incidentally). Anyway, British rules of engagement stipulate that I thank Jay for his help, offer him a cup of tea, and move swiftly along.So: Firefox! It's been another quiet week with no significant releases. Any moment now there'll be a flurry of activity... but until then, you'll have to make do with some tips and tricks and tidbits!
1. Custom save-to locations
If you've ever found yourself navigating your vast array of hard disks and folders to download a file to the correct place, I'm about to blow your mind. I don't know about you, but I don't want ONE directory for every download: I want drivers in one place, installers in another -- and when it comes to images of a lewd nature, I'm very particular about sorting things alphabetically (by cup size). That's why I use Save File To. It simply lets you download files to specific locations through the right-click context menu -- yay!
I mentioned the Home Tab Design Challenge few weeks ago, but as it had just begun there was nothing to show. Now there's been a ton of entries, and even the first round of votes have been cast. Head on over to the Top 10 to see the results of the first round -- or sign up to vote in the second round.
I can't work out whether the winner of the People's Choice Award will be the actual home tab design, or whether Mozilla will pick their own winner -- but either way, the current top 10 all look fantastic! This is yet another fine example of competition driving innovation: how long do you think it'll be before Google releases a new home tab design for Chrome...?
(The screenshot above is a still image from Alberto Moreno's home tab design video.)
As reported by our crack Israeli journalistic commando Erez, it seems Ubiquity has... died (or perhaps not). For such a grandiose and omnipresent moniker, you'd have expected Ubiquity to make a bigger splash, but after a year of development its status has been moved to 'indefinite hiatus'.
I'll mirror Erez's thoughts on the matter: it's a shame development has ceased. Ubiquity brought some futuristic-like innovations to Firefox -- if you've not toyed with it, you should give it a go! But obviously don't get too excited... because it's going to be a while before any further updates are released.
4. New Firefox 3.7/4.0 UI begins to appear in nightly builds, looks a lot like Chrome
Yup, I'm reporting on some new-look buttons. But damn, look at them! All rounded... and stuff. I told you it was a slow news week. The new Firefox buttons look REALLY like Chrome in my opinion -- take a look:
It's not just me that can see the similarity, right? Anyway, if you want to give the new buttons a go, grab a nightly 3.7a2 build.
5. And finally, the news you've all been waiting for: THE BROWSER BALLOT SCREEN
Firefox might be losing market share to Chrome... but not for long! In Europe, anyway. But considering the EU has long been a Firefox stronghold I guess this change will merely bolster Firefox's figures rather than upset the entire browser share landscape.
Of course, this is just the tip of the continuing anti-trust/browser war. Microsoft has already fired back by encouraging the EU to open another anti-trust case -- this time with Google as the focus. The 'Microsofting' (or rather, 'old Microsofting', as they've turned a new leaf, y'know?) of Apple and Google is going to come under a lot of scrutiny in the next few years -- but this is about Firefox, which will no doubt flourish in the de-monopolized EU browser market! Long live the Fox.
Firefox might be losing market share to Chrome... but not for long! In Europe, anyway. But considering the EU has long been a Firefox stronghold I guess this change will merely bolster Firefox's figures rather than upset the entire browser share landscape.
Of course, this is just the tip of the continuing anti-trust/browser war. Microsoft has already fired back by encouraging the EU to open another anti-trust case -- this time with Google as the focus. The 'Microsofting' (or rather, 'old Microsofting', as they've turned a new leaf, y'know?) of Apple and Google is going to come under a lot of scrutiny in the next few years -- but this is about Firefox, which will no doubt flourish in the de-monopolized EU browser market! Long live the Fox.
Comments
12
Subscribe to commentsLewisFeb 26th 2010 4:04PM
"De-monopolized"?
Since when has "monopoly" meant "*one* of their competitors have 35% market share"? Goodness me.
Sebastian AnthonyFeb 26th 2010 4:20PM
The original anti-trust case appeared because of Microsoft's OS monopoly, and the auto-installed IE.
LewisFeb 26th 2010 4:35PM
Sorry, for some reason I can't reply to your comment directly, so..
OS monopoly? Funny. I could have *sworn* that I'm writing this from a Linux box in a house with two other Linux machines owned by different people; it's just as well I'm imagining that because otherwise, that would totally undermine your argument. Even if I grant your premise that they have a monopoly on operating systems (they don't), that's a *pretty damn weak* monopoly if *one* competitor can get 35% market share in Europe.
Take away all the government agencies and corporations who run IE by policy (i.e. the people who will never see this ballot screen!) and you're probably looking at Firefox having a LOT more than that 35%.
"Having a majority of market share" is NOT the same thing as a monopoly. That's an abuse of language unbecoming a journalist.
In before "the EU says it's a monopoly therefore it's true"; I don't engage in that kind of "might makes right" power worship.
LewsFeb 26th 2010 4:40PM
And I'll add one more thing to that (since I'm on a roll): If those of us in the open source (Chromium and Firefox) world are going to win over the masses, I want us to do it *fair and square*. I don't want anyone to be able to say "they only won because of the EU". I want us to win it *because we are better*, and that we'll get whatever market share we got even though we're initially disadvantaged (as all other newcomers to a market are!).
OK, done now. :)
polobunnyFeb 26th 2010 6:18PM
I totally understand your argument about monopoly and the semantics of it.
This is market share, not monopoly. Microsoft cannot dictate what happens of operating systems, they just have a lot of their operating systems (and browsers for that matters) on the market.
The rest sadly is only another Linux user usual rant. You guys need to find something more convincing than yapping about freeing the people or acting as saviors. I'm not saying this in a bullying way, but it gets irritating. There's no "winning", there's different tastes. Live and let live, they said...
LewisFeb 27th 2010 4:35PM
Wow. Where did you see anything in that about "yapping about freeing the people or acting as saviors"? I'm no Stallmanite purist. I'm saying that I think open source will win in the end, just as we've got a massive chunk of market share already, simply by being better, and I don't want anyone to be able to say that we only did it because the government helped us do it. How is that a "Linux user usual rant"?
KeithFeb 26th 2010 4:37PM
'Save Link in Folder' and 'Save Image in Folder' have been around for a few years and I have been using them since their humble beginnings. I have looked at the 'Save File to' extension and I don't like the way you have to fill up your screen to get to the folder you require, especially if you have to get to your Profile folder, 7 sub-menu's! Spend 5 minutes setting up the 2 extensions I mentioned and it's a one click 'Save to' experience.
SleepingPandaFeb 26th 2010 5:00PM
Why isn't Apple under this same browser ballot scrutiny? Don't they likewise have their own home-made browser installed by default on their OS? Something is very wrong here.
polobunnyFeb 26th 2010 6:24PM
It's easier to point at the biggest guy of the bunch.
My idea is that there's an out of control Microsoft hater with enough power somewhere in the EU. :P
On the other hand I'm happy if the world could be freed from it's Internet Exploder shackles. The means of doing this however are absolutely repugnant and unfair in all the senses of the term.
Microsoft never locked you down to Internet Explorer. If you want you can go and download any other browser and use Internet Explorer only once.
sodapopFeb 27th 2010 12:35AM
Most of these lawsuits started in the 90s. Maybe you guys weren't old enough at the time. It's not so much about user percentages, but rather business practices. MS used unethical and sometimes illegal methods of coercion to obtain and expand their dominance. And yes, at this time Apple could probably be in trouble for some the same stuff. One key difference is that Apple makes its OS and software for the hardware it makes. They are a hardware and gadget manufacturer first. The main reason that Safari exists is because MS did not support OS9 and OS10 at the same level it did windows. Apple simply had to start making its own software to appease its users.
Sebastian AnthonyFeb 27th 2010 5:47AM
That's a good answer to the questions above, re: the effective monopoly by Microsoft -- if anyone up there is still reading :)
benFeb 28th 2010 3:30PM
At this point, I don't think you can call Safari Apple's browser any more. Safari is what you get when you compile Webkit nightly builds, and that's an open source project being developed jointly by (just the ones I know off the top of my head) Apple, Google, Palm, RIM, Nokia, the GNOME developers, and the KDE developers.
Plus, Apple is more than willing to link to third party programs- the download page on their website, which every Mac has a shortcut to in the menu, lists Firefox as number 5 and Microsoft Messenger for Mac as number 6.