Firefox Is Heading Towards Trouble
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There is some interesting reading here. Stuff like this is why I have trouble putting my trust in most open source projects. Mike Connor, a core Firefox developer, writes in his blog, "In nearly three years, we haven't built up a community of hackers around Firefox, for a myriad of reasons, and now I think we're in trouble. Of the six people who can actually review in Firefox, four are AWOL, and one doesn't do a lot of reviews. And I'm on the verge of just walking away indefinitely, since it feels like I'm the only person who cares enough to make it an issue." If Firefox's reviewing developers, the key people of any open-source project, have burned out on the project, Firefox is in a lot of trouble. Forget about trying to get new and better versions out. They're not going to be able to keep up on security fixes and bugs. For example, it used to be that if you ran Firefox you never saw annoying pop-up ad windows. That was then. This is now. See: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1774091,00.asp[^] Neville Franks, Author of ED for Windows www.getsoft.com and Surfulater www.surfulater.com "Save what you Surf"
I tried Firefox and quickly went back to IE. way too many minor annoyances that made the experience to frustrating. As far as I am concerned FF can die a slow and painful death, no loss to me.
"You're obviously a superstar." - Christian Graus about me - 12 Feb '03 "Obviously ??? You're definitely a superstar!!!" mYkel - 21 Jun '04 Within you lies the power for good - Use it!
Honoured as one of The Most Helpful Members of 2004
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There is some interesting reading here. Stuff like this is why I have trouble putting my trust in most open source projects. Mike Connor, a core Firefox developer, writes in his blog, "In nearly three years, we haven't built up a community of hackers around Firefox, for a myriad of reasons, and now I think we're in trouble. Of the six people who can actually review in Firefox, four are AWOL, and one doesn't do a lot of reviews. And I'm on the verge of just walking away indefinitely, since it feels like I'm the only person who cares enough to make it an issue." If Firefox's reviewing developers, the key people of any open-source project, have burned out on the project, Firefox is in a lot of trouble. Forget about trying to get new and better versions out. They're not going to be able to keep up on security fixes and bugs. For example, it used to be that if you ran Firefox you never saw annoying pop-up ad windows. That was then. This is now. See: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1774091,00.asp[^] Neville Franks, Author of ED for Windows www.getsoft.com and Surfulater www.surfulater.com "Save what you Surf"
To be fair, its major competitor, IE, wasn't being actively developed by MS in the past few years until FF appeared. At least, with OSS, people have the option to fork the code. If you want some feature, e.g., "transparent PNG support", with MS you have to wait 5 years (and pray for it to be present in IE7). With OSS, you can at least develop it by yourself, if this means a lot for you. I see dead pixels Yes, even I am blogging now!
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There is some interesting reading here. Stuff like this is why I have trouble putting my trust in most open source projects. Mike Connor, a core Firefox developer, writes in his blog, "In nearly three years, we haven't built up a community of hackers around Firefox, for a myriad of reasons, and now I think we're in trouble. Of the six people who can actually review in Firefox, four are AWOL, and one doesn't do a lot of reviews. And I'm on the verge of just walking away indefinitely, since it feels like I'm the only person who cares enough to make it an issue." If Firefox's reviewing developers, the key people of any open-source project, have burned out on the project, Firefox is in a lot of trouble. Forget about trying to get new and better versions out. They're not going to be able to keep up on security fixes and bugs. For example, it used to be that if you ran Firefox you never saw annoying pop-up ad windows. That was then. This is now. See: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1774091,00.asp[^] Neville Franks, Author of ED for Windows www.getsoft.com and Surfulater www.surfulater.com "Save what you Surf"
Yeah too true. I think FireFox is just a substandard browser. I prefer IE and Opera any day. Have you seen the list of bug fixes and security holes they published recently for FireFox? It was huge. Now the open source people are finally going to realize what MS has had to put up with for years: when your profile increases so does the negative attention from hackers etc. Honestly I just found that too many things didn't work in Firefox and it was much worse at blocking popups than IE with XPsp2. I know people love to hate Microsoft, but blindly by putting faith in a cobbled together open source browser? I won't be sorry to see it go. Opera has always been the best alternative to IE and by many accounts is far more widely used than FireFox and has a real company behind it paying real people to do quality work.
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There is some interesting reading here. Stuff like this is why I have trouble putting my trust in most open source projects. Mike Connor, a core Firefox developer, writes in his blog, "In nearly three years, we haven't built up a community of hackers around Firefox, for a myriad of reasons, and now I think we're in trouble. Of the six people who can actually review in Firefox, four are AWOL, and one doesn't do a lot of reviews. And I'm on the verge of just walking away indefinitely, since it feels like I'm the only person who cares enough to make it an issue." If Firefox's reviewing developers, the key people of any open-source project, have burned out on the project, Firefox is in a lot of trouble. Forget about trying to get new and better versions out. They're not going to be able to keep up on security fixes and bugs. For example, it used to be that if you ran Firefox you never saw annoying pop-up ad windows. That was then. This is now. See: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1774091,00.asp[^] Neville Franks, Author of ED for Windows www.getsoft.com and Surfulater www.surfulater.com "Save what you Surf"
Mike Connor's speculations made quite a stir in the Open Source Community a few days back but all is not dead for Open Source. Firefox did in a few months what SeaMonkey (Mozilla Application Suite) could not do in years. Just yesterday the Mozilla Foundation declared it official that the SeaMonkey (Mozilla Application Suite) 1.7 is the last version up the Development tree. They are literally abandoning SeaMonkey. Read more about the slow death of Mozilla. Asa Dotzler, in reply to concerns cleared the issue saying [Read more here]:
We're focused on shipping our premier applications, Firefox and Thunderbird, and any efforts we're spending on Seamonkey right now are devoted to maintaining the 1.7 branch with security and stability updates. Seamonkey is a fine testbed for Gecko improvements that will be a part of any application releases that come from the 1.8 branch.
So what is the Mozilla foundation left to deal with? What else! They have their finest products up in the Development tree. In fact Mozilla Firefox 1.1 is due June 01, 2005. Don't lose your trust in Open Source now. Who knows what you might see coming your way when the goods of Mozilla gets mixed with the better of Firefox. I certainly have not given up hope there... yet.
The beginning of knowledge is the fear of God
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Yeah too true. I think FireFox is just a substandard browser. I prefer IE and Opera any day. Have you seen the list of bug fixes and security holes they published recently for FireFox? It was huge. Now the open source people are finally going to realize what MS has had to put up with for years: when your profile increases so does the negative attention from hackers etc. Honestly I just found that too many things didn't work in Firefox and it was much worse at blocking popups than IE with XPsp2. I know people love to hate Microsoft, but blindly by putting faith in a cobbled together open source browser? I won't be sorry to see it go. Opera has always been the best alternative to IE and by many accounts is far more widely used than FireFox and has a real company behind it paying real people to do quality work.
Firefox isn't my browser either but development in the Open Source world is damn slow. Nevertheless, I am still reluctant to go back to Microsoft Internet Explorer especially after I came to know that there's a vulnerability in the browser that lets scammers to launch a phishing attack on your PC. Some even include a fake SSL signature padlock certificate to fool you and that too over the updated version of Windows, Service Pack 2.:wtf: Read it yourself. And, I thought Service Pack 2 was the most secure thing there is on this planet! We always are wrong about certain things that happen around us. The Open Source community around Firefox might have been dragging their development speeds, but who knows what might happen next? I still won't go back to Internet Explorer even if version 7.0 ends up with tabbed browsing and a promise of 50% more secure browsing.
The beginning of knowledge is the fear of God
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There is some interesting reading here. Stuff like this is why I have trouble putting my trust in most open source projects. Mike Connor, a core Firefox developer, writes in his blog, "In nearly three years, we haven't built up a community of hackers around Firefox, for a myriad of reasons, and now I think we're in trouble. Of the six people who can actually review in Firefox, four are AWOL, and one doesn't do a lot of reviews. And I'm on the verge of just walking away indefinitely, since it feels like I'm the only person who cares enough to make it an issue." If Firefox's reviewing developers, the key people of any open-source project, have burned out on the project, Firefox is in a lot of trouble. Forget about trying to get new and better versions out. They're not going to be able to keep up on security fixes and bugs. For example, it used to be that if you ran Firefox you never saw annoying pop-up ad windows. That was then. This is now. See: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1774091,00.asp[^] Neville Franks, Author of ED for Windows www.getsoft.com and Surfulater www.surfulater.com "Save what you Surf"
It sounds to me like the project started to end up being too much like 'work' and they lost interest in it. Life can be cool when you are 'the little guy making a run against a big guy like MS' but then as security issues start to creep in and people start to actualy rely on the stuff you build and find issues the glamour wares off and reality sets in.
George Carlin wrote: "Don't sweat the petty things, and don't pet the sweaty things." Jörgen Sigvardsson wrote: If the physicists find a universal theory describing the laws of universe, I'm sure the asshole constant will be an integral part of that theory.
My Blog[^]
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I tried Firefox and quickly went back to IE. way too many minor annoyances that made the experience to frustrating. As far as I am concerned FF can die a slow and painful death, no loss to me.
"You're obviously a superstar." - Christian Graus about me - 12 Feb '03 "Obviously ??? You're definitely a superstar!!!" mYkel - 21 Jun '04 Within you lies the power for good - Use it!
Honoured as one of The Most Helpful Members of 2004
I don't agree with your last statement, FF is useful if for no other reason than providing a way to check something works how IE is *supposed* to handle it, but that aside: I do agree with the part about small annoyances. There are just too many unidentifiable differences in experience from both IE and other Windows applications that makes working in FF a continual struggle. I am a big fan of software complying to standard user experiences, and appreciate how damned near impossible it is to get it right all of the time, but with IE around as a credible and conforming alternative I have no desire to use FF for actual web use (only for development).
Ðavid Wulff The Royal Woofle Museum
Audioscrobbler :: flikrDie Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen
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There is some interesting reading here. Stuff like this is why I have trouble putting my trust in most open source projects. Mike Connor, a core Firefox developer, writes in his blog, "In nearly three years, we haven't built up a community of hackers around Firefox, for a myriad of reasons, and now I think we're in trouble. Of the six people who can actually review in Firefox, four are AWOL, and one doesn't do a lot of reviews. And I'm on the verge of just walking away indefinitely, since it feels like I'm the only person who cares enough to make it an issue." If Firefox's reviewing developers, the key people of any open-source project, have burned out on the project, Firefox is in a lot of trouble. Forget about trying to get new and better versions out. They're not going to be able to keep up on security fixes and bugs. For example, it used to be that if you ran Firefox you never saw annoying pop-up ad windows. That was then. This is now. See: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1774091,00.asp[^] Neville Franks, Author of ED for Windows www.getsoft.com and Surfulater www.surfulater.com "Save what you Surf"
:sigh: It really bothers me when people spread around this FUD without doing their research. Take a look at that article...it's just sensationalist reporting at its worst. He, and perhaps the rest of the people on the internet (mainly the Slashdot crowd), really twisted what mconnor said. Read his clarifications here: http://www.steelgryphon.com/blog/index.php?p=39. There's also Ben Goodger's response here: http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/ben/archives/007715.html. Let's try not to blow this out of proportion. Firefox isn't dying. Ff 1.1 is going to take a little while to get out, yes. But let's remember that IE hasn't had a new version out for several years. I think what we should realize here is that, because MoFo projects are Open Source, we can all look inside and see what's going on. When you were a kid, you didn't equate growing pains to death. Why should we do so with a growing project?
[Cheshire] I can't afford those plastic things to cover the electric sockets so I just draw bunny faces on the electric outlets to scare the kids away from them... [RLtim] Newsflash! Kids aren't afraid of bunnies. [Cheshire] Oh they will be... -Bash.org
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I don't agree with your last statement, FF is useful if for no other reason than providing a way to check something works how IE is *supposed* to handle it, but that aside: I do agree with the part about small annoyances. There are just too many unidentifiable differences in experience from both IE and other Windows applications that makes working in FF a continual struggle. I am a big fan of software complying to standard user experiences, and appreciate how damned near impossible it is to get it right all of the time, but with IE around as a credible and conforming alternative I have no desire to use FF for actual web use (only for development).
Ðavid Wulff The Royal Woofle Museum
Audioscrobbler :: flikrDie Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen
What are these small annoyances? I haven't noticed them, and I've been using Firefox for a while (since it was called Firebird, anyway)... :~
[Cheshire] I can't afford those plastic things to cover the electric sockets so I just draw bunny faces on the electric outlets to scare the kids away from them... [RLtim] Newsflash! Kids aren't afraid of bunnies. [Cheshire] Oh they will be... -Bash.org
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What are these small annoyances? I haven't noticed them, and I've been using Firefox for a while (since it was called Firebird, anyway)... :~
[Cheshire] I can't afford those plastic things to cover the electric sockets so I just draw bunny faces on the electric outlets to scare the kids away from them... [RLtim] Newsflash! Kids aren't afraid of bunnies. [Cheshire] Oh they will be... -Bash.org
I was very careful to say "unidentifiable annoyances" because I am not a UI expert and I cannot easily list them off. One big one that comes to mind and gets me virtually every time I use FF is the wheel scrolling. It just doesn't provide the same experience or UI as every other Windows application I use so it becomes a conscious effort to use it correctly. I too have used FF since well into it's FB days, including a period of exclusivity to try and adopt it - like exposure to measles. :) Serious useability professionals make serious amounts of money for a very good reason - they can identify these things and the end result for the product is one that people can use flawlessly without even reaslising it. Office has always been a great example of this - even with the various shortcomings in its history it still worked perfectly. Most of the time you are performing tasks in an application you are not actually doing something unique to that software - shortcuts, menus, controls, etc. When you get so used to them that they become automatic reactions then using something that does it differently is an effort. Software doesn't compete on features, it competes on usability. The problem is not just a software thing, it's the same for every product out there. For example, people who drive French cars 90% of the time usually find it a conscious effort to drive a foreign car not because they contain different features but because they are presented and work every so slightly differently to how they expect. When I spend 90% of my time in front of a computer using applications and an OS with totally consistent experiences then switching to and from another application that does things even slightly differently is a major productivity problem, stress builder, and more.
Ðavid Wulff The Royal Woofle Museum
Audioscrobbler :: flikrDie Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen
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What are these small annoyances? I haven't noticed them, and I've been using Firefox for a while (since it was called Firebird, anyway)... :~
[Cheshire] I can't afford those plastic things to cover the electric sockets so I just draw bunny faces on the electric outlets to scare the kids away from them... [RLtim] Newsflash! Kids aren't afraid of bunnies. [Cheshire] Oh they will be... -Bash.org
The biggest problem with FF is it's habit of always wanting an internet connection handy. That's fine if you have an 'always on' connection, but being on dialup as I am it does tend to get rather expensive. I like to bring up a page, and then disconnect my modem while I read it. I also have a habit of walking away, leaving the page up so I can come back to it later. FF would wait a while and then reconnect the modem, tying up my phone line and wasting limited connection minutes. Remembering to manually set FF to offline use is a possibility, but then I have to set it back to online when I want to do anything later. Small annoyance number one. When browsing the forums here on CP I would never know where I was going to end up when I click on a message to read it, The page would just randomly scroll to where it felt like, and then I would have to scroll the message back into view. Annoyance number two.
"You're obviously a superstar." - Christian Graus about me - 12 Feb '03 "Obviously ??? You're definitely a superstar!!!" mYkel - 21 Jun '04 Within you lies the power for good - Use it!
Honoured as one of The Most Helpful Members of 2004
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I was very careful to say "unidentifiable annoyances" because I am not a UI expert and I cannot easily list them off. One big one that comes to mind and gets me virtually every time I use FF is the wheel scrolling. It just doesn't provide the same experience or UI as every other Windows application I use so it becomes a conscious effort to use it correctly. I too have used FF since well into it's FB days, including a period of exclusivity to try and adopt it - like exposure to measles. :) Serious useability professionals make serious amounts of money for a very good reason - they can identify these things and the end result for the product is one that people can use flawlessly without even reaslising it. Office has always been a great example of this - even with the various shortcomings in its history it still worked perfectly. Most of the time you are performing tasks in an application you are not actually doing something unique to that software - shortcuts, menus, controls, etc. When you get so used to them that they become automatic reactions then using something that does it differently is an effort. Software doesn't compete on features, it competes on usability. The problem is not just a software thing, it's the same for every product out there. For example, people who drive French cars 90% of the time usually find it a conscious effort to drive a foreign car not because they contain different features but because they are presented and work every so slightly differently to how they expect. When I spend 90% of my time in front of a computer using applications and an OS with totally consistent experiences then switching to and from another application that does things even slightly differently is a major productivity problem, stress builder, and more.
Ðavid Wulff The Royal Woofle Museum
Audioscrobbler :: flikrDie Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen
Tools->Options->Advanced->Use Smooth Scrolling will turn on smooth scrolling and provide you with the same experience you get in IE (it's turned off by default in Gecko. I'm not sure why. Although I'm positive a search through bugzilla might provide some insight). And I understand the rest of your post. I'll agree that UI guidelines are there for a reason and that maintaing consistency of usability throughout all applications on an OS is a very important goal. I think, though, that Firefox conforms really well to the Windows UI guidelines. At least, I don't feel uncomfortable using it. Whereas I can't say the same about IE. I get irritated every time I try to use the damn thing. Stuff just doesn't work the way I expect it to. I guess it's all a matter of preference though. You can keep your inferior browser... ;)
[Cheshire] I can't afford those plastic things to cover the electric sockets so I just draw bunny faces on the electric outlets to scare the kids away from them... [RLtim] Newsflash! Kids aren't afraid of bunnies. [Cheshire] Oh they will be... -Bash.org
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Tools->Options->Advanced->Use Smooth Scrolling will turn on smooth scrolling and provide you with the same experience you get in IE (it's turned off by default in Gecko. I'm not sure why. Although I'm positive a search through bugzilla might provide some insight). And I understand the rest of your post. I'll agree that UI guidelines are there for a reason and that maintaing consistency of usability throughout all applications on an OS is a very important goal. I think, though, that Firefox conforms really well to the Windows UI guidelines. At least, I don't feel uncomfortable using it. Whereas I can't say the same about IE. I get irritated every time I try to use the damn thing. Stuff just doesn't work the way I expect it to. I guess it's all a matter of preference though. You can keep your inferior browser... ;)
[Cheshire] I can't afford those plastic things to cover the electric sockets so I just draw bunny faces on the electric outlets to scare the kids away from them... [RLtim] Newsflash! Kids aren't afraid of bunnies. [Cheshire] Oh they will be... -Bash.org
David Stone wrote: Tools->Options->Advanced->Use Smooth Scrolling will turn on smooth scrolling and provide you with the same experience you get in IE I already have that option activated. :) The experience is not the same though. A wheel click in FF always feels like you have to press it harder than in other applications - now obviously you don't so it must be the user experience it gives. Pressure sensitive mice buttons would be cool for gaming and graphics work though. David Stone wrote: UI guidelines I sort of half-disagree here: UI guidelines have nothing to do with anything because as you go on to say the success of a UI always comes down to preference. Consistency of usability does matter though. I didn't mean to suggest that FF got it's UI wrong and others have got it right, just that conformity is the important thing. There is a reason that IE and many other Microsoft applications have non-standard behaviour from an outsiders pov - it's so they work as the user will expect them to. It's only really clever people like us that ever complain. :)
Ðavid Wulff The Royal Woofle Museum
Audioscrobbler :: flikrDie Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen
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The biggest problem with FF is it's habit of always wanting an internet connection handy. That's fine if you have an 'always on' connection, but being on dialup as I am it does tend to get rather expensive. I like to bring up a page, and then disconnect my modem while I read it. I also have a habit of walking away, leaving the page up so I can come back to it later. FF would wait a while and then reconnect the modem, tying up my phone line and wasting limited connection minutes. Remembering to manually set FF to offline use is a possibility, but then I have to set it back to online when I want to do anything later. Small annoyance number one. When browsing the forums here on CP I would never know where I was going to end up when I click on a message to read it, The page would just randomly scroll to where it felt like, and then I would have to scroll the message back into view. Annoyance number two.
"You're obviously a superstar." - Christian Graus about me - 12 Feb '03 "Obviously ??? You're definitely a superstar!!!" mYkel - 21 Jun '04 Within you lies the power for good - Use it!
Honoured as one of The Most Helpful Members of 2004
- This should help with your dialup problem. 2) The scrolling offset isn't random. It's offset by the amount of space that the last post took up. So if you're reading a freaking huge post and then click on a different post, the page won't focus on the new post, it'll keep you where you are. But since the large post has collapsed, the forum has moved back up the page. This is an issue with the forum code rather than Firefox. Nowhere in the SwitchMessage javascript function does the code call the focus() method on the tr for the message header. IE does this nicely for you, sure. But it's non-standard. It's another case of IE doing its own thing.
[Cheshire] I can't afford those plastic things to cover the electric sockets so I just draw bunny faces on the electric outlets to scare the kids away from them... [RLtim] Newsflash! Kids aren't afraid of bunnies. [Cheshire] Oh they will be... -Bash.org
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David Stone wrote: Tools->Options->Advanced->Use Smooth Scrolling will turn on smooth scrolling and provide you with the same experience you get in IE I already have that option activated. :) The experience is not the same though. A wheel click in FF always feels like you have to press it harder than in other applications - now obviously you don't so it must be the user experience it gives. Pressure sensitive mice buttons would be cool for gaming and graphics work though. David Stone wrote: UI guidelines I sort of half-disagree here: UI guidelines have nothing to do with anything because as you go on to say the success of a UI always comes down to preference. Consistency of usability does matter though. I didn't mean to suggest that FF got it's UI wrong and others have got it right, just that conformity is the important thing. There is a reason that IE and many other Microsoft applications have non-standard behaviour from an outsiders pov - it's so they work as the user will expect them to. It's only really clever people like us that ever complain. :)
Ðavid Wulff The Royal Woofle Museum
Audioscrobbler :: flikrDie Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen
A wheel click in FF always feels like you have to press it harder :wtf: Ooooookay. Y'know David, you're not exactly the most normal person on the face of the planet. Maybe you shouldn't be the one to talk about conformity. ;P Pressure sensitive mice buttons would be cool for gaming and graphics work though. That's why the Xbox controllers are pressure sensitive. Provides for a great experience. If I want to creep forward in Halo 2, I just press the stick up very slightly. Or if I want to squeeze of one round in my fully-auto SMG, I just squeeze slightly. Very cool. And I wish I had the same experience while playing CounterStrike.
[Cheshire] I can't afford those plastic things to cover the electric sockets so I just draw bunny faces on the electric outlets to scare the kids away from them... [RLtim] Newsflash! Kids aren't afraid of bunnies. [Cheshire] Oh they will be... -Bash.org
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A wheel click in FF always feels like you have to press it harder :wtf: Ooooookay. Y'know David, you're not exactly the most normal person on the face of the planet. Maybe you shouldn't be the one to talk about conformity. ;P Pressure sensitive mice buttons would be cool for gaming and graphics work though. That's why the Xbox controllers are pressure sensitive. Provides for a great experience. If I want to creep forward in Halo 2, I just press the stick up very slightly. Or if I want to squeeze of one round in my fully-auto SMG, I just squeeze slightly. Very cool. And I wish I had the same experience while playing CounterStrike.
[Cheshire] I can't afford those plastic things to cover the electric sockets so I just draw bunny faces on the electric outlets to scare the kids away from them... [RLtim] Newsflash! Kids aren't afraid of bunnies. [Cheshire] Oh they will be... -Bash.org
David Stone wrote: That's why the Xbox controllers are pressure sensitive And the reason why my dad will never, ever, be able to win against me in an an XBox FPS. :rolleyes: David Stone wrote: Ooooookay. Y'know David, you're not exactly the most normal person on the face of the planet. Maybe you shouldn't be the one to talk about conformity. You're talking to yourself again... ;)
Ðavid Wulff The Royal Woofle Museum
Audioscrobbler :: flikrDie Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen
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I was very careful to say "unidentifiable annoyances" because I am not a UI expert and I cannot easily list them off. One big one that comes to mind and gets me virtually every time I use FF is the wheel scrolling. It just doesn't provide the same experience or UI as every other Windows application I use so it becomes a conscious effort to use it correctly. I too have used FF since well into it's FB days, including a period of exclusivity to try and adopt it - like exposure to measles. :) Serious useability professionals make serious amounts of money for a very good reason - they can identify these things and the end result for the product is one that people can use flawlessly without even reaslising it. Office has always been a great example of this - even with the various shortcomings in its history it still worked perfectly. Most of the time you are performing tasks in an application you are not actually doing something unique to that software - shortcuts, menus, controls, etc. When you get so used to them that they become automatic reactions then using something that does it differently is an effort. Software doesn't compete on features, it competes on usability. The problem is not just a software thing, it's the same for every product out there. For example, people who drive French cars 90% of the time usually find it a conscious effort to drive a foreign car not because they contain different features but because they are presented and work every so slightly differently to how they expect. When I spend 90% of my time in front of a computer using applications and an OS with totally consistent experiences then switching to and from another application that does things even slightly differently is a major productivity problem, stress builder, and more.
Ðavid Wulff The Royal Woofle Museum
Audioscrobbler :: flikrDie Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen
David Wulff wrote: One big one that comes to mind and gets me virtually every time I use FF is the wheel scrolling Me too. In IE I do this quite often: Hold wheel button down Move mouse up/down to scroll the page Release wheel button to stop scrolling This is the behavior provided by the IntelliPoint drivers, and therefore is "correct" by default. This gesture did not work in FF (don't remember what version I looked at) because FF decides that holding the wheel button down should do nothing. :^) --Mike-- LINKS~! Ericahist updated! | 1ClickPicGrabber | CP SearchBar v2.0.2 | C++ Forum FAQ Strange things are afoot at the U+004B U+20DD
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David Wulff wrote: One big one that comes to mind and gets me virtually every time I use FF is the wheel scrolling Me too. In IE I do this quite often: Hold wheel button down Move mouse up/down to scroll the page Release wheel button to stop scrolling This is the behavior provided by the IntelliPoint drivers, and therefore is "correct" by default. This gesture did not work in FF (don't remember what version I looked at) because FF decides that holding the wheel button down should do nothing. :^) --Mike-- LINKS~! Ericahist updated! | 1ClickPicGrabber | CP SearchBar v2.0.2 | C++ Forum FAQ Strange things are afoot at the U+004B U+20DD
Works for me. It's an option though, so maybe it is/was off by default. That said, it has problems - occasionally, it gets "stuck". In fairness, this isn't unique to FF... a depressing number of Windows programs have faulty UIs for wheel scrolling. One of the most infuriating things about the "skinning" craze of not too long ago was a host of programs that broke scores of behavioral conventions along with their intended appearance changes. :sigh:
Shog9
I'm not the Jack of Diamonds... I'm not the six of spades. I don't know what you thought; I'm not your astronaut...
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There is some interesting reading here. Stuff like this is why I have trouble putting my trust in most open source projects. Mike Connor, a core Firefox developer, writes in his blog, "In nearly three years, we haven't built up a community of hackers around Firefox, for a myriad of reasons, and now I think we're in trouble. Of the six people who can actually review in Firefox, four are AWOL, and one doesn't do a lot of reviews. And I'm on the verge of just walking away indefinitely, since it feels like I'm the only person who cares enough to make it an issue." If Firefox's reviewing developers, the key people of any open-source project, have burned out on the project, Firefox is in a lot of trouble. Forget about trying to get new and better versions out. They're not going to be able to keep up on security fixes and bugs. For example, it used to be that if you ran Firefox you never saw annoying pop-up ad windows. That was then. This is now. See: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1774091,00.asp[^] Neville Franks, Author of ED for Windows www.getsoft.com and Surfulater www.surfulater.com "Save what you Surf"
Poves my theory that all successfull OpenSource projects are vitally dependent on a very small number of main contributors.
Pandoras Gift #44: Hope. The one that keeps you on suffering.
aber.. "Wie gesagt, der Scheiss is' Therapie"
boost your code || Fold With Us! || sighist | doxygen -
David Stone wrote: Tools->Options->Advanced->Use Smooth Scrolling will turn on smooth scrolling and provide you with the same experience you get in IE I already have that option activated. :) The experience is not the same though. A wheel click in FF always feels like you have to press it harder than in other applications - now obviously you don't so it must be the user experience it gives. Pressure sensitive mice buttons would be cool for gaming and graphics work though. David Stone wrote: UI guidelines I sort of half-disagree here: UI guidelines have nothing to do with anything because as you go on to say the success of a UI always comes down to preference. Consistency of usability does matter though. I didn't mean to suggest that FF got it's UI wrong and others have got it right, just that conformity is the important thing. There is a reason that IE and many other Microsoft applications have non-standard behaviour from an outsiders pov - it's so they work as the user will expect them to. It's only really clever people like us that ever complain. :)
Ðavid Wulff The Royal Woofle Museum
Audioscrobbler :: flikrDie Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen
David Wulff wrote: A wheel click in FF always feels like you have to press it harder than in other applications The wheel button generally does double-duty in Firefox, opening up links in a separate window if clicked, while doing the standard drag-scroll thing otherwise. This can be frustrating, if (like me) you tend to keep the cursor off to one side of the window (a location favored by web designers for tower ads). It's a small thing to get used to, with nearly the whole window still available to click in... but it can be a subtle annoyance (not as annoying as not being open links in a new tab though, at least for me). Far more annoying in my book is the fact that Firefox's drag scroll doesn't capture mouse input - so if the mouse is dragged outside the window and released, Firefox will still be scrolling next time your cursor enters.
Shog9
I'm not the Jack of Diamonds... I'm not the six of spades. I don't know what you thought; I'm not your astronaut...
