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May 30, 2008

software

Download Day 2008 is all about Firefox’s ego

Posted May. 30, ’08, 7:08 AM PT by Derik DeLong
Category | Software

Firefox Download Pledge By now, all of you should know that Firefox 3 is imminent. Any day now, the finalized code of the new version will be compiled and released. Before people start using it, enjoying it, preaching it, they will be downloading it. That’s where you come in. You need to help set a Guinness book world record by doing exactly what you were going to do anyway. Well, I suppose you could also visit your parents and get them to download it as well.

I have no doubt Firefox 3 will get unprecedented downloads. For many Mac users, it’s the new Internet Explorer. They may prefer Safari, but they’ll keep it installed for compatibility reasons. Does that mean I won’t give it a real chance? Naw. I will. In fact, I like what I’ve seen in the RC. That said, it’s still not, and likely will never be, as Mac native as my refined taste dictates. Camino and Safari still rock my world, and the former has the same rendering engine.


7 Comments

krye said:

I'll keep it on the machine. Safari is my default. But on occasion, it hit a site that doesn't like Safari. I also like to preview my iWeb pages on Safari and Firefox just to make sure everything looks good.

May 30, 2008 7:49 AM
Simon said:

Since 3 years now I've been using FireFox. Mac and PC's as well.

Can't live without my plugins now ! ( Mouse Gestures, Download Bar, Grease Monkey, and soo many more ! )

That's probably one of the main reasons why I'm only using it.

May 30, 2008 8:06 AM
Nathan said:

Did anyone else notice Albania has more pledges than the US?
Seems a bit odd.

May 30, 2008 8:23 AM
PT said:

I prefer Firefox because everything is where it is suppose to be. Safari seems to be missing page info and doesn't look or feel right.

May 30, 2008 11:09 AM
New Englander said:

@ Nathan: US currently is 60,000+ up on Albania


I'm a recent Mac re-convert so I brought my love of Firefox over from the PC world. Like Simon said, gotta love those plugins.

May 30, 2008 5:12 PM
Kelmon said:

Same here, Derik. Firefox is a great browser but it's just not a great Mac browser, and probably never will be. The new theme sure is nice, and native widgets make it blend in a bit better (mind you, I actually preferred the widgets from FireFoxy), but they only cover the cosmetic aspects of an application and don't address the support of OS X system services. As and when they can do this, then I'll start to use Firefox more.

One thing I can say is that they will be supporting OS X Network Preferences in the first update release after v3.0 ships. The code necessary to do this has been developed and approved (I've been watching the bug for years now), but for some reason the option to use Network settings from System Preferences will not be enabled by default. That seems really odd to me. Still, it gives hope that other system services, such as the Services application menu, will be supported in future releases.

May 31, 2008 4:15 AM
Tim said:

This new version of Firefox has something that has converted me into a firefox user - when you zoom in images and text proportionally zoom as well! And it is no longer the ugly old windows looking app and is turning into a mac application :)

June 2, 2008 8:58 AM

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