Friday, March 11, 2005
Acquire the Fire(fox)
After 10 years or so, I've finally moved beyond Netscape. Until earlier this week Netscape 7.1 had been my browser of choice (on the PC). Then it stopped playing nicely with Blogger comments, which meant I couldn't make snarky remarks on other people's Blogger-based blogs. Clearly, this was not acceptable.
I've had Firefox (based on the old Netscape code) installed on the PowerBook for a while now (though Safari is still my browser of choice there). So I went ahead and installed in on the PC.
Two words: Lovin' it!
Very similar to Netscape with the tabbed browsing and the pop-up blocking.
Blogger comments work again (although something was hinky systemwide earlier today). A warning message pops up when I hit the back button during Blogger edit preview letting me know I'm about to lose unsaved changes in my post, which is a great plus.
Another nice feature is being able to have a new tab created when I click a link in Eudora. With Netscape it would load the new page on top of whichever tab was active. Now I get the new info without losing whatever I had been doing when I clicked the link. Sweet.
But the best thing is the context-changeable search field. From the navigation toolbar I can search Google, Amazon, IMDb, Wikipedia, and a couple dictionaries without first navigating to their .com website. Want the lowdown on Star Wars? Change the search drop-down to IMDb, type in Star Wars, and away you go. Want to check the Amazon Sales Ranking of Forgiving Solomon Long? Change the drop-down to Amazon, type in the title, and you're there ... with a quickness!
I don't regret sticking with Netscape for so long. It did what it was supposed to do, but it started to lose its backwards-compatibility and it was time for a change. So thanks and farewell old Mozilla code. Welcome and huzzah new Mozilla code.
And, in case you were wondering, FSL is currently ranked #145,057 at Amazon.
I've had Firefox (based on the old Netscape code) installed on the PowerBook for a while now (though Safari is still my browser of choice there). So I went ahead and installed in on the PC.
Two words: Lovin' it!
Very similar to Netscape with the tabbed browsing and the pop-up blocking.
Blogger comments work again (although something was hinky systemwide earlier today). A warning message pops up when I hit the back button during Blogger edit preview letting me know I'm about to lose unsaved changes in my post, which is a great plus.
Another nice feature is being able to have a new tab created when I click a link in Eudora. With Netscape it would load the new page on top of whichever tab was active. Now I get the new info without losing whatever I had been doing when I clicked the link. Sweet.
But the best thing is the context-changeable search field. From the navigation toolbar I can search Google, Amazon, IMDb, Wikipedia, and a couple dictionaries without first navigating to their .com website. Want the lowdown on Star Wars? Change the search drop-down to IMDb, type in Star Wars, and away you go. Want to check the Amazon Sales Ranking of Forgiving Solomon Long? Change the drop-down to Amazon, type in the title, and you're there ... with a quickness!
I don't regret sticking with Netscape for so long. It did what it was supposed to do, but it started to lose its backwards-compatibility and it was time for a change. So thanks and farewell old Mozilla code. Welcome and huzzah new Mozilla code.
And, in case you were wondering, FSL is currently ranked #145,057 at Amazon.
Mikesell
2 Snarky Remarks:
Unknown, at 12:48 AM
I'm a fan of the original trilogy, but I like the eye candy in the new movies (but I wouldn't say I'm fannish). I haven't bought the DVDs for the original films, though; most of the "new" effects in the first film were a turn-off.
I never used Avant on my PC, but I have their PDA utility. How does Firefox compare to their browser?
I never used Avant on my PC, but I have their PDA utility. How does Firefox compare to their browser?
Are you a Star Wars Fan?