In short, Firefox 2.0 treats a feed the same way it does a website: content to be displayed. It doesn’t take advantage of the adaptability nor the customization capabilities that RSS brings to the table, and doesn’t “manage” data so much as dump it into a table and then display it.
Policy Changes?
- Default-Browser Theft
Not only does Firefox 2.0 offer less of a reason to leave your old browser than 1.5 ever did, it also doesn’t give you much of a choice either. In Firefox 2.0, the default action is to make Firefox 2.0 the default browser on startup, and to make sure it stays that way. Unlike its predecessor, it doesn’t ask. As a matter of fact, that’s unlike all the other competition too come to think of it. The only way to change that is to go to the options page and disable default browser association. - Hidden 3rd-Party Cookie Options
Firefox has always been about controlling your information: what goes in and what goes out has traditionally been left up to the user. But with Firefox 2.0, the Mozilla Foundation obviously decided that users couldn’t be trusted to safely decide for themselves whether or not they want to enable the installation of 3rd party tracking, advertising, and adware cookies on their PC. Now users have to navigate to a hidden options page few know of to change that. Why? We don’t know… Sounds like something Firefox fanboys would accuse Microsoft of doing.
But the Bugs were Busted?!
Not really. See, the Firefox team is too busy implementing an SQL-powered favorites sidebar, adding more Google-powered (read: bought & paid for) features to Firefox to spend much time fixing bugs that have been Firefox since its creation, like the copy & paste bug, the search-whenever-you-click bug, and many others that constantly turn Firefox’s loyal users into Opera and IE7 users instead.
Conclusion…?
We don’t know where Firefox went wrong. That’s our conclusion. With Firefox 1.5, it seemed that Firefox would continue to improve and innovate – to make a difference in the browserscape. Now it seems Firefox’s biggest goal is money, and lots of it. Free videos, Google alliances, trapping users… that just doesn’t sound like Firefox. If you told us 6 months ago this would happen, we would’ve called you crazy.
Obviously, something is very seriously wrong. Firefox is supposed to be a (cuddly) community-driven web browser, renowned for its Open-Source roots and supposedly-friendly developers/community. It’s supposed to be about the user – however it seems that the Mozilla Foundation has forgotten what gave it its initial boost: people looking to get out of Microsoft’s Corporate world. People were looking for something a bit more informal, something where the ultimate goal was the user, and his/her satisfaction. It seems Firefox has lost its way somewhere along the passage to fame.
and the default theme of opera is better? it looks like it was written in java or something. so ugly! firefox doesn’t have the most amazing default theme ever, but at least it looks decent under the classic theme in win xp…
umm heres a novel idea… don’t use it? I mean even the the firefox developers would agree open source is about choice. if you dont like it and think you can do it better your actually welcome to give it a shot then let over 2mill people download your product and tell you how much they think it is a disgrace upon mankind. I guess this is why people as close minded as you are biased journalist instead of degree sporting software engineers.
I like the new Firefox toolbar icons and the first run page. The 80’s are coming back in weird ways it seems.
I really like the new Firefox, the theme is straightforward and simple. A browser is NOT about how good it looks, it is about productivity, what can you DO with the browser. IE7 fails for the simple reason that so much clutter and graphical “niceties” drag your attention from the important stuff – the content.
Welcome page? Please. You look at it once, stop whining. Incidentally, I didn’t see any “green” colouring as a result of that blending, are you still thinking your drawing with paint on a canvas?
The other browsers have their merits, but please, if your going to write a summary about a browser concentrate on points which actually have importance. Not random stuff to pad out your article to more than one page.