Tag: firefox

Foxbrowsing: So Far, So Mixed

Which browser? I changed my answer from Chrome to Firefox about 3 months ago. Firefox remains my answer to the browser question on the lap/desk.

What about on ioS? I’ve started using FoxBrowser on iPads recently, and appreciate the bookmark synching. It doesn’t bring all the add-ons down to the tablets, though. For example, I use LeechBlock to stop myself using reddit (and other sites) between 8am and 8pm in Firefox. On iPad, I have to use the self-discipline add-on to my self.

I should get Foxbrowser for my iPhone as well. I don’t spend much time in the browser on the phone, but that might change when I switch from Safari to Foxbrowser.

Thanks to Mozilla for Firefox, and to Simon for Foxbrowser!

Back To Firefox From Chrome

After my daughter’s school started using Chrome, it seemed that the browser wasn’t big enough for the both of us. So I switched back to Firefox.

In a way, my switch away from Chrome was prompted by the success of Google for Education, and of Chromebooks. At school, my daughter Maddie uses one of the over 50,000 Chromebooks purchased by Montgomery County, Maryland, for use in K-12 schools.

Maddie has to sign in to her school Chrome account to do some of her homework. She does so on the office computer, otherwise known as dad’s laptop. When she started doing this, strange things happened to my browser, to the extent that Chrome no longer seemed like home to me. At first I thought about coexisting in Chrome, and set up a Chrome account for myself.



Then I considered switching to a different browser, and came up with multiple reasons for switching back to Firefox. It would be simpler to use a different browser from the one Maddie uses. I’m still a little annoyed at Google for discontinuing Google Reader. I was curious about what had happened in Firefox while I was away. Some recent browser comparisons favor Firefox over Chrome and other browsers.

Firefox this time round? So far, not bad.

Chrome Versus Firefox

I don’t like the post title: can’t the free/open source browsers get along? If there’s any versus, shouldn’t they line up against the common enemy, and amidst the smaller tribes?

But Chrome and Firefox don’t seem able to get along, at least not on this (Windows XP) laptop. Every time I’ve had them running at the same time, Flash has crashed.

As an early adopter, albeit one with a little early adoption fatigue, I am using Chrome. In fact, I’m using it to post this. But many of the other things I’d like to adopt early come in the form of Firefox extensions, and Chrome doesn’t yet support extensions. I’ll give just one example of a new(ish) extension: Mozilla’s own Ubiquity.

There are also some extensions I’ve got used to, such as Copy as HTML Link and FoxyTunes. I may well be heading back to Firefox, while keeping an eye on Chrome development.

Firefox 3 on the 17th: Let’s Raise a Guinness!

Download Day - EnglishThe Mozilla foundation just announced their expectation to ship Firefox 3 this upcoming Tuesday, June 17th. My own expectation is that I will download it on that very day, and that enough other people will do so that Firefox 3 will capture the Guinness World Record for the Most Software Downloaded in 24 Hours. How about you?

Weaving With Firefox

You may have read about the project recently announced by Mozilla.

This project will be known as Weave and it will focus on finding ways to enhance the Firefox user experience, increase user control over personal information, and provide new opportunities for developers to build innovative online experiences. (I added the emphasis to this quote.)

Om Malik explained the idea behind Weave as follows. “If you lose your computer, you can download Firefox, log into your [Mozilla Services] account and you can restore all that information.”

A question I haven’t seen addressed in any of the posts I’ve read about Weave is: what if I use multiple browsers, including, but not limited to, Firefox? I don’t like the idea of any particular browser becoming the platform on which I rely.

I like the idea of “the web as platform” with the browser being the thing I use to access the platform, rather than the platform itself.

Forrester Fumbles Firefox

Good news: Charlene Li notes that video highlights from Forrester’s Consumer Forum are available online.

Bad news: “Note that you need to use Internet Explorer to use the navigation and see the slides.” Perhaps there is a certain logic to that. It may well be that Firefox users already know all about what Charlene calls “The Groundswell.”

Bottom line: you can still see and hear the video of Charlene and the other speakers, even if you can’t see the slides, with Firefox (and, I presume, pretty much any other browser).

Nokia n810 Internet Tablet

One of the most Googled posts from the early days of this blog is the one in which I wondered about Firefox on the Nokia n800 internet tablet. Well, you can now get an n800 for well under $300 and put Firefox on it.

Before you rush to buy me an n800, please note that Nokia has just announced the n810, and the n810 seems like the more appropriate birthday/Christmas present for me this year.

Editing Flickr Photos Using Picnik

Picnik has teamed up with Flickr to bring photo editing awesomeness to all Flickr users, reports the possibly biased Peter Picnik. The more impartial Mike Arrington also has the story. “The deal has been signed and implementation will occur sometime in the next few months.”

I created the image in the post from a photo already on Flickr, initiating the edit by clicking on the “edit in Picnik” icon above the original. No, that doesn’t mean that I used a time machine to go ahead a few months. It means that I’m using the Picnik add-on for Firefox.