Firefox observers often ask me: “What’s all the fuss about? It just surfs the web.”
You’d think this would be frustrating—I did surrender any semblance of a normal adolescent life to work on Firefox, after all—but few people understand that this is actually the highest compliment they could offer. Building “just a browser” that “just surfs the web” was the original intent. These were the same people sighing that Google just searched the web 7 years ago.
You’d be hard pressed to believe it with the ongoing media circus, but Firefox has humble origins in a product that—if everything went as planned—was designed to be invisible to the person using it. I remember sitting on IRC with Dave, Ben and Asa painstakingly debating feature after feature, button after button, pixel after pixel, always trying to answer the same basic question: does this help mom use the web? If the answer was no, the next question was: does this help mom’s teenage son use the web? If the answer was still no, the feature was either excised entirely or (occasionally) relegated to config file access only. Otherwise, it was often moved into an isolated realm that was outside of mom’s reach but not her son’s, like the preferences window.
This policy emerged from our basic belief that, for the 99% of the world who don’t shop at Bang & Olufsen, a technology should be nothing more than a means to an end. Software is no different. In this case, people had plenty of obstacles to the web already—popup ads, spyware, and that damn monkey who gets punched and keeps coming back for more—before Netscape decided that the only way to surf was with the aid of twelve managers, fourteen not-so-subtle links back to AOL web properties and other inane gadgetry. This is why, even though plenty of people made fun of us for it, Ben’s original “Why Firefox?” document celebrated that “Firefox offers 2% more space to web pages than Mozilla, 4% more than Internet Explorer, and a whopping 10% more than Opera.” Giving people unadulterated access to the web became something of a religion, and every wasted pixel, button or dialog that impeded it was a demon that nagged at us. Every time someone was “pulled out of the dream”, every time they had to stop and realize that they were using a browser called Firefox and not just the amorphous “Web,” was a personal failure.
I believe this kind of development focus is most responsible for Firefox’s success today. I love asking someone what they love most in Firefox, watching them fumble for a moment, and then stammer something to the effect of “it’s…it’s just better.” The fact is that for most people, there is no one life-changing feature in Firefox, no “ah ha!” moment; the Big Thing is the sum of a thousand little moments where Firefox worked with them, not against them. If it does nothing else, I hope Firefox reminds software developers that despite “Internet time” and the constant pressure to reinvent, usability is still king. That the press is covering Firefox so intently suggests the maturity of the industry and the gradual departure from “Next Big Thing” mania.
Of course, the idea that software should be invisible to its users is somewhat sobering to its developers. Ask any seasoned programmer if coding is an art or a science and he will invariably claim the former. The frustrating difference is that art is inherently an end unto itself, created to be consumed and enjoyed. People enjoy the painting, but software is just the paintbrush. Until some programmers come to terms with the hard realization that nobody actually wants to use software for the sake of using software, I fear we will be forced to cope with ever more task panes and other distractions that seem to serve no purpose other than to remind us that someone worked late hours creating the program.
January 23rd, 2005 at 11:21 am
I don’t know about your mum is but I am a 40 something school teacher with basic computing skills. I downloaded firefox last week and love it. It works for me. It’s quick and easy to use. My husband is impressed too. Brilliant!
January 23rd, 2005 at 12:44 pm
Firefox Nation
There is no greater example of the power of blogging and open source marketing than the rise of the Firefox Web browser. Firefox isn’t just a browser. It’s a religion. The Mozilla Foundation has seemingly done everything right in getting
January 23rd, 2005 at 12:55 pm
Two main features I love: (1) tabs and “open link in new tab”, and (2) File -> New Window doesn’t make me scroll over to make my choice. What I’d like: (a) google search history and (b) google search terms highlighted. I miss my google toolbar.
January 23rd, 2005 at 1:44 pm
Jason, there’s a google toolbar for Firefox too!
https://addons.update.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?application=firefox&version=1.0&os=Windows&category=Search%20Tools&id=33
January 23rd, 2005 at 3:42 pm
I read an article about you on excite news - and your story sounds very familiar to my husband’s. He’s been working with computers since he was 12 years old (he’s now 22) and has always been all for the open source movement. He hasn’t developed any web browsers - not quite his repertoire.
We both have PowerBook G4’s w/ Mac OS X and Firefox works great on them. We’ve been using it for quite some time now and can easily say it is the best browser out there!
We’ve downloaded it on almost every person’s computer that we know or have come in contact with. I guess you can say we’re heavy promoters of Firefox (I also use Thunderbird for my e-mail - awesome as well).
We have our own web development company (ar-den.com) and Firefox is an essential tool for us. We love everything about it!
Also, we noticed you use Wordpress for your weblog - as do we! =) I’m sure you would agree with me that WP is one of the best weblog engines out there, too.
Keep up the good work.
January 23rd, 2005 at 10:07 pm
Should the same parsimonious strategy apply to all software widely used? Should a word processor, for example, avoid features that mom doesn’t use to write correspondence or her son doesn’t use to write a high school report?
January 23rd, 2005 at 10:30 pm
I love firefox becuase of how many extensions I can add onto that helps me browse the internet effectively.
One specific one that I love the most is adblock. It gets rid of annoying and flashing advertising with a touch of a button. Although I realize this runs counter to many of the websites that thrive on advertisement but it is something that I feel is essential. I think they can make their advertisement effect like Google does with text rather than annoy the heck out of me with flashing orange/red/blue/pink colors in my face.
And of course the idea that I should have as much space as possible to use the web is wonderfully well thought out.
Thanks and good luck in the future!
January 24th, 2005 at 12:25 am
Firefox is any webdesigners dream browser. It really is my religion, and I want to thank you for your “surrendering any semblance of a normal adolescent life to work on it”.
January 24th, 2005 at 1:41 am
Really interesting account of the origin of Firefox. Just one thing puzzles me. I’m an almost happy ffx user because (a) it hardly ever crashes or freezes on me (b) there are neat popup controls and search features. But the controls for appearance (font style and font size) strike me as rather awkward and difficult — meaning perhaps that I just didn’t manage to suss this one out fully yet. I’m an older user and my eyes are not what they were, but it sounds from your account as if that may have been one of the target groups, so the shortage of help is puzzling. Perhaps some of the difficulty is not browser-related, if some web pages are designed to have their fonts/styles changed and others not, but anyhow more documentation of this sort of effect would be welcome.
terry
January 24th, 2005 at 3:27 am
Terry,
you can increase/decrease the font size for easier reading by pressing [Ctrl] and + / - .
Kudos to Blake. Using FFx since the Phoenix 0.4 days. :)
January 24th, 2005 at 4:08 am
I am a 47 year old guy who has been on a computer for the past 11 years. My son turned me on to Firefox and I have never looked back. I heartily recommend it to all everyone I can, it is the best. Thanks for all the hard work you have put into it and I look forward to seeing what you do in the future. Your folks must be proud!
January 24th, 2005 at 6:06 am
Kuddos! Kuddos!
I’m so very impressed with FireFox. It’s speed with loading pages vrs the slow IE sold me immediately. Along with the size of FFx vrs the pondering size of IE.
I’m rural, with a very sad dial-up that on a good day may exceed 26.4k….*sobbing*…. so, speed is very important to me.
Thank you for all that you’ve done. I smile in anticipation at what else you’ll create.
Once upon a time, i understood what was going on in the computer world. Now, i sit on the sidelines jes grinnin at what you younguns are creating.
Again….. kuddos!
January 24th, 2005 at 4:11 pm
Great job on FF, man. I’m a big believer in KISS (keep it simple, stupid), and FF is great. A few incompatibilities are well worth it. Please don’t make it complex with the 2.0 rev.
January 24th, 2005 at 4:54 pm
I’m a 63 year old ‘geezer’ who remebers when there wasn’t even such as thing as TV, and everything electronic ran off of vacuum tubes. Nonetheless, I’ve been working with computers since about 1982 (I did a substantial re-write of the old CP/M operating system back then) and have been an avid supporter of the Open Source development model, and have run a small hosting service for the arts and local tech community since about 1995.
In spite of my advanced age I believe that as far as the Internet is concerned, I “get it” better than most of the folks at Microsoft and it gives me a real kick in the pants to see someone come up with something as right on as Firefox. The guiding principles behind your work are directly in line with the spirit on which the Internet was designed and built. Right ON!!! dude. Keep up the good work.
January 24th, 2005 at 5:39 pm
Blake:
First I’d like to congratulate you and the other people involved in developing Firefox. I have used it off and on for a couple of years now. I do believe that its somewhat faster than IE (my regular browser), but have never really made the complete switch from IE yet. There comes a point (and I am at that point) where the incremental gains I receive from FF are not worth the switchpain any more. Some of my friends use FF because they have bought the open source and/or anti MS (why only MS, and not IBM or AOL I don’t know :) religion spiel, but not being very religious myself, I don’t really see a desperate need to alter behavior.
That being said, I think Firefox has a couple of nifty features that come in handy. It just looks weird to a long time IE user though.
January 24th, 2005 at 6:05 pm
I don’t want to sound rude or insensitive. I loved FireFox, but lately I can hear nothing but Blake Ross. I congratulate with him, but is there anybody else that have been involved in FF development? Ben Goodger, lead engineer (not much older, 23) didn’t get any coverage at all. Again, I love the software, but I don’t like protagonism.
January 24th, 2005 at 6:32 pm
I like Firefox but it’s missing two things that keep me using Safari. It needs toolbar icons to change text size and a close button on each tab, not one single button way over to the right.
Add those items and I would switch.
January 24th, 2005 at 6:34 pm
OK, here’s one for you. I tried three times with Firefox to submit the previous message but got an error to “enter authorization code”, which I had done.
I had to use Safari to post these messages.
January 24th, 2005 at 7:01 pm
Firefox has been great for me. No popups is a wonderful thing. I just wish that Yahoo would come around and fix its e-mail program so that the fonts and some of its formatting features work correctly. Also, for Kris who posted earlier, you can close an individual tab with one click of the scroll button on your mouse (or you can right click and use close tab on the menu).
January 24th, 2005 at 7:04 pm
Invisibility of software prompts my comment. I’ve used FF since July 04. I use it a lot. IE is maintained well & parked in the garage.
I detest over-worked crowded screens. multiple-shortcuts.
visual pats on the back to those who falsely invision I need or want extraneous BS I’d likely use 4% of the time, and have to look at 100% of the time.
You are on the right track.
Fast performance with the emphasis on functions available, unseen.
Nearly any graphic artist will attest to this fact.
The most effective work is a reduction of and to essentials.
The drafts and preliminary work ups far outnumber what will eventually be seen.
Congratulations on work well done, and adherance to simple concepts.
January 24th, 2005 at 9:12 pm
Be it comic strip, typography, website navigation or software design, good design is invisible. Firefox is invisible.
Thanks for the great work.
January 24th, 2005 at 10:16 pm
me like no active x
January 24th, 2005 at 10:44 pm
If “Kris” posting here did her homework, she would find an extension that places a close button on each and every tab. In addition, font sizes can be customized with a userChrome.css file. As for authentication errors and resorting to Safari, perhaps you have something configured wrong?
January 24th, 2005 at 10:51 pm
Sorry, “Kris”, I realize now you most likely meant web content text size (not browser text size). There is an extension for that as well. :)
January 24th, 2005 at 11:53 pm
Ok, its good, but the program start takes forever! (Win 98)
January 25th, 2005 at 3:49 am
Hi all,
Yes firefox takes a little while but I have a way to get around that on my website. Very easy to do, and no this isnt one of those reg tweaks.
http://blogtechemail.blogspot.com/2005/01/firefox-systemtray-extension.html
What this will allow you to do is like IE have firefox running all the time in the back ground. So when you come to using it, it starts incredibly fast.
This is even faster then firefox builds which have been made for my Athlon 64bit CPU.
Realy check it out
January 25th, 2005 at 4:07 am
Erm, to my Recollection, safari doesnt have Tabbed browsing? i’ve looked all over and cant find it… If you have it and no one else does, you’ve either added the support yoursel,f in which case, get it the hell in the Safari Repository, or you’re lying :)
January 25th, 2005 at 5:55 am
Great philosophy.
Sorry to get into specifics but can you please sort out the Find functionality in 1.1 and not leave it to 2.0.
This fails to meet user expectations (mine anyhow) by being the only program to pop up in the bottom like that. And it’s unreliable (the / sometimes comes up; it doesn’t always apply to links; if it selects a link I can’t press return to follow the link).
In short, Mozilla 1.7 (or so) actually had this right.
January 25th, 2005 at 6:34 am
I feel that way about Camino but not about Firefox. I use a Mac and after minimizing and then maximizing I can’t type in forms or type in web addresses in that window, so no Firefox does not blend in and give me just a way to access the Internet. Because I didn’t like the way Microsoft treated me, I bought a Mac, but the Firefox developers don’t understand it. ALthough Safari is a wonderful browser on many accounts it is not compatible enough for most web sites and the latest version requires an OS upgrade.
January 25th, 2005 at 7:21 am
Loading tabs in background was an “a-ha” moment for me, though that happened with mozilla nightlies years ago. ;)
Keep on strong!!
January 25th, 2005 at 8:10 am
Science or Art? Craftwork!
Blake posted about Software design and raised the question, whether programming would be art or science. Actually, I think none of the above. It’s craftwork. I used to walk around on pottery street markets quite a bit, back in the…
January 25th, 2005 at 8:57 am
One thing that really irritates me about firefox is that there is no link from the about box to about:credits. I know Blake, Ben, and Asa did more work tha anyone else but everyone in about:credits has helped the project in someway.
January 25th, 2005 at 9:00 am
firefox religion is a lack of knowledge, hype, software for the stupidest
January 25th, 2005 at 9:12 am
Blake, I love Firefox. It is a joy not to have my browser crash several times a day, or bog down because I won’t allow the latest Macromedia flash update because I really don’t want video/animated ads streaming across the page I am trying to view.
One thing though, it took me a while to get access to pdf files in a manner that I found comfortable and ituitive. At first Firefox seemed to lock up or worse, ignore that I wanted to view a pdf. I am not even sure how I tinkered to get it to work well. I think I had to download a plug in, maybe not. I did have to add in the pdf file type in the option in downloads and have it set to open with AcroExch. I know some people who downloaded Firefox but don’t generally use it because they think it doesn’t work with Acrobat.
Now that I have it configured, I prefer the dialog box and the manner that Adobe works to the method in IE. But it wasn’t intuitive to get there.
Anyway, just some thoughts on an impediment to wider usage. PDF files may need to be recognized by default, their use is just so widespread.
Thanks for a great product!
January 25th, 2005 at 10:24 am
www.steunfirefox.nl
January 25th, 2005 at 10:38 am
With the proper set of extensions Firefox can become a very fierce fox. That aside, out of the box I fell in love with FF. My initial usage came from the days of Firebird. I had heard of it from the “Old” TSS.
It’s wild to think about the experience I had with browsing back then in comparison to now. I owe my all my browsing enjoyment to you Blake for starting the fire that has light up the internet — Thanks!
January 25th, 2005 at 1:21 pm
I love firefox, because out of the box, its not much to look at. I think this is good, because it means its not confusing to first time users, who perhaps dont know that much about computers.
I think firefox should start a marketing campaign, something like a three day challenge. Day one, get used to tabs, day two, install themes, and day there install extensions.
If people arent convinced by day three, with what firefox can do, or its security features, then perhaps its not going to be for them.
I am not a Microsoft hater, but I do disagree with their business practices. Studying a degree in Business & Technology, I do feel Microsoft are responsible for anti-competitive strategies.
I believe in choice.
Which is why I will be supporting firefox for years to come, trying to get as many people I can to switch, or at leased make them aware of a alternative.
P.s. If anyone from firefox development is here, I really do believe you should bundle this with firefox. It makes the program so much faster, I recommend it to all of you with firefox.
http://blogtechemail.blogspot.com/2005/01/firefox-systemtray-extension.html
January 25th, 2005 at 2:22 pm
Great overall.
But I am having font problems in the rendering of Yahoo Mail that is not happening in Mozilla. Any idea what is happening?
January 25th, 2005 at 10:51 pm
I just wish that Google’s Desktop Search will also index pages browsed with Firefox in the same way it does for IE. But I will never go back to IE!! The tabbed interface and bookmark management (including live bookmarks) are absolutely excellent.
January 26th, 2005 at 2:56 pm
I’ve been using Firefox since, well, before it was called Firefox.
In addition to being a user, I also am a developer. I think I agree with you about the art/science stuff, but in slightly different terms. In my mind, coding is an art. To me that also means making the most user friendly product, the product with the right features, and the product that people don’t need to think about (i.e. invisible). That is an art to accomplish, and what I strive for in the things I do. I can show anyone how to write a GUI app, but to make it useable?
January 26th, 2005 at 6:50 pm
I like the RSS bookmark combination!
January 26th, 2005 at 8:21 pm
I think Blake has answered the question quite effectively. If the software gets in the way of doing the job, then the software has not been well designed or though out. Firefox is perfect in that it offers an encompassing browsing experience without getting in the way.
Time that more open source software though about this. No need to mimic Microsoft or others. Redevelop it so that it does the job without getting in the users way.
Cheers
January 26th, 2005 at 10:37 pm
Great article. The usability focus is key.
But to quickly attempt to answer your question” “If Firefox is really all about creating a seamless interface to the web that ultimately makes the program itself fade into the background, how can you be against the Windows/IE integration? Huh? Huh?”
My answer is that Microsoft’s crime was not bundling but the prevention of bundling. They have every right to bundle IE with Windows. The integration helps users because it’s more convenient to get everything you need out of the box than to have to download all the pieces and integrate them yourself.
No, what Microsoft did that was so criminally wrong was to threaten retaliation against OEMs like HP and Compaq that wanted to sell Windows PCs with Netscape pre-installed. They forced OEMs to *unbundle* alternatives to IE, and that was the real crime, not *bundling* IE itself.
Regards,
Ganesh
January 26th, 2005 at 11:45 pm
“IE is not just bundled with Windows; its bolted into it, meaning I can, for example, type in a web address from a folder window. The benefits of this are unclear to me” -> You don’t see the benefit of go to any window that’s open and type in an url to surf to it ??? You REALY want to startup a new program for that ? Or typing ‘z:’ in a browser window ?? You don’t see the point of that ?
Look closer
January 27th, 2005 at 12:01 am
Firefox is great but the real issue I have is with the concept of themes and extensions. These are powerful but they are clumsy. There needs to be some better way for users to save their theme and extensions preferences such that when they move to a new computer or reinstall those type of settings can be loaded for them easily. It’d be nice if there was a Firefox website that users could register at and Firefox would auto save/load their settings for them on-demand. It’d have to be seamless so as to fit with the Firefox way of things but it’d be great. Most users use at least two computers (home & work) on a regular basis and it’d make life a lot less confussing if their browser behavior didn’t change based on their location.
My other complaint is that extensions and themes seem to change a lot and yet aren’t compatible with the newest Firefox releases on the FF release-date. Some concentrated effort to stabalize these extensions would be good. Sadly I have a lot of trouble with my favorite extensions: Optimoz Tweaks, MiniT, and PRGoogleBar.
January 27th, 2005 at 12:34 am
Safari does have tabbed browsing option - I went away on business for 5 days and when I came back my son had somehow installed it ! I must asking him how he did it. I used to hold the apple key down and press the mouse button to open a link in a new window - When I do it now it opens the link in a new tab.
January 27th, 2005 at 5:54 am
Someone said: You dont see the benefit of go to any window thats open and type in an url to surf to it ??? You REALY want to startup a new program for that ? Or typing z:\ in a browser window ?? You dont see the point of that ?
Look closer”
Not if it compromises the security of my PC. I only use IExploder to keep Windoze updated and that’s it. I switched from Netscape to Mozilla 0.6 and from Mozilla 1.7 to Firefox. I just don’t know how people still use IE, I guess ignorance is bliss.
January 27th, 2005 at 9:55 am
Safari has tabbed browsing in any of the latest updates but you need to enable it in the preferences. Safari->Preferences then there is a button at the top called Tabs. Check the enable tabs checkmark and then you can also change the default behavior there as well.
This being a firefox thread though I love firefox and its the only browser I use on windows and linux - On the Mac I prefer safari it just feels and runs more like os x than firefox although I have both installed on all of my Macs for when a web page is incompatible with safari.
I have converted my whole office to firefox here at work 50+ users and anyone else I run into still using the horribly insecure, and spyware infested IE.
Thanks for the great work keep it up. I think your philosphy is a lot like Apple and OS X - It just works.
January 27th, 2005 at 4:52 pm
Everything Old is New Again
It’s kind of fun to see old (but good) ideas about usability and feature bloat return to the forefront in a product. Those of us who remember the night-and-day difference between the Macintosh and MS-DOS (or even Windows 3.1) think of this as axioma…
January 28th, 2005 at 12:51 am
[…] ong software developers because I believe this, but I have hope, reading Blake Ross’ musings on his baby Firefox, that the idea may gain traction in the Free Software world, and hopefully also th […]
January 28th, 2005 at 2:57 am
To CatThief:
I was able to find the extension for text size but there is nothing that will give me a close box on each tab. Yes, there is an extension for that but it doesn’t work in OS X. There is one that supposedly closes the tab on doubleclick but Firefox tells me it is not a valid installation file or won’t work with my version of FF (I have the latest).I can’t use MouseGestures because that prohits the dragging of pictures and text off a page. I’ve tried every possible combination of my 5 button mouse and I had to disable MouseGestures to reenable selection of text.
The idea of extensions is wonderful but there are too many incompatibilities at this point. Maybe someone out there will make a usable ext for tabs with close boxes for OS X.
Pretty please… :-)
January 28th, 2005 at 3:10 am
Major apology here.
I finally was able to reprogram one of my buttons to the keystrokes for “close tab”…and it worked!!!
I’m a happy camper now. :-)
January 28th, 2005 at 3:14 am
Oh, crud. I just realized it closes only the front tab but not the one I click on. That requires selecting it first.
Drat. :-(
My previous plea is reinstated.
January 29th, 2005 at 2:05 pm
I’m 110% in agreement with Blake about program clutter. Most programmers seem to think the more commands, menu items, keyboard shortcuts etc. we provide the more powerful the program will look and therefore impress people. In reality this is far removed from what the “average” computer user wants or needs. Power users are a different breed and it is especially challenging designing software to to satisfy these two diverse groups of users.
I’ve been writing software for over 20 years and with my latest product, Surfulater I am incredibly focused on keeping the user interface as clean and lean as I possibly can while still providing a level of functionality that will satisfy most of the people most of the time. For those interested Surfulater it lets you save Web content and works with Firefox and IE.
Firefox is a fine browser, but I don’t find that I’m especially compelled to use it. My biggest gripes are start up time and overall performance. Alt+Tab to it and I have to wait too long before it is responsive when I have more than a few tabs open. Small anomalies like Alt+Enter in the address bar open a new tab, but Ctrl+Click is required to do the same thing on a Toolbar button are irksome. Why couldn’t they both be either Alt+ or Ctrl+? And the Help is pretty minimal.
Happy Surfing or Surfulating,
Neville
PS. I’d welcome any comments on Surfulater re. usability and usefullness.
February 3rd, 2005 at 5:29 pm
[…] February 3, 2005 The Firefox religion Blake Ross on the design of Firefox. Filed under: General Programming | Permalink | Comments » The URI to […]
February 7th, 2005 at 11:53 pm
[…] instigator of the Firefox browser. On his blog, Ross himself answers the question "What’s all the fuss about?" "Chief Lizard Wrangler" at Mozilla, Mitchell Baker recalls the cha […]
March 1st, 2005 at 5:03 am
[…] inning battle, losing wars
You’ve heard how much fun it is to work on Firefox. But as with everything, there are ugly sides. One of these sides has be […]
April 8th, 2005 at 1:54 pm
I am in the process of developing the community aspects for an open source start up and am wondering what you consider to be some of the better resources for this particular aspect of the open source development effort?
April 16th, 2005 at 8:37 pm
[…] once.” My mom doesn’t want tiling. Or cascading. Or panels. She just wants a simple way to keep multiple sites open, and it’s because Firefox provides only that—without all th […]
April 25th, 2005 at 11:14 am
Blake, after recently downloading Firefox i have realised how much work you have put in to it.
It is truly a shame that no1 credits you for it, it would truly be a ‘WOW’ thing for me if i could even BEGIN to know how 2 create a browser.
What an achievment. You really should be proud, and for any1 who cant see what effort you put in this, such a shame. Yet from me - it was all worth it, congratulations mate!
May 11th, 2005 at 3:40 am
Lived with IE for so long it didn’t seem there would ever be a better option [have also tried Opera..blah!] But firefox has lit up my web life. The tabbed browsing is magic [and I figured out the mouse scroller to delete an unwanted tab some time ago..by accident!], and IE users have to wait for IE7 [maybe], coupled with Longhorn, before they get it? Get a life. But you have no idea how difficult it is to persuade some of my people to use it; they still enjoy the 20th Century! Congrats to all!!
May 17th, 2005 at 7:31 am
everyone must delete their little blue e. the fox is so much better.
May 17th, 2005 at 5:00 pm
Thanks for bringing us FireFox. I use it exclusively except on certain sites that insist on IE. I am doing everything I can to talk up FF and get others to make the switch. I just got my shirt in the mail and I have stickers on my car and Thermos.
Long live the Fox!
May 28th, 2005 at 10:00 pm
I love using Firefox but I have a problem with it locking itself up when downloading graphics or files. If I have a couple of windows open and am downloading files, updates or graphics, everything works fine for about 30 minutes and then it stops.
I have XP/sp2, 512MB RAM and the system runs fine the rest of the time.
Great product. Just seems to have this small problem…
December 27th, 2005 at 1:34 pm
I’m a Linux user and I like Firefox and Thunderbird, but the 1.0 releases are too sluggish and the 1.5 final releases are too buggy. (I’ve checked, they’re known platform-specific bugs)
The only thing that’s kept me from switching to Konqueror exclusively (My ad-blocking is browser-independant) is the lack of support for GMail’s advanced interface and the lack of acceptable Qt themes.
As for Thunderbird, I like it, but I’m considering writing my own RSS reader since Thunderbird’s RSS support is VERY broken and GMail plus it’s Atom feed should take care of e-mail handling for me. (And no GTK+-based RSS reader I can find supports auto-preview)
December 29th, 2005 at 2:46 am
Firefox is awesome! a year back, i was still “surfing” the web with IE4 and a 56k dialup, and you can imagine what kind of experience it is when you have 5 pop-up windows, 7 pop-unders with 56k while youre trying to load startrek.com! then, while i was at school, i heard about firefox and because my dad hat finally gotten broadband at home, i decided to try it out on my dads computer, since i had the only account with admin rights. ;) i downloaded version 0.9 (i think) and was blown away! it was fast, it looked way cooler than IE and i had none of those becursed Pop-ups and unders. ive used it ever since. and when i finally got internet on my own machine, the first thing i did was downloading firefox and getting rid of that stupid IE shortcut on my desktop. Thnak you very much for FIREFOX! it saved my (web)life!
January 5th, 2006 at 3:49 am
East or west, firefox is the best (=
January 12th, 2006 at 6:23 pm
The second I found the spreadfirefox site, (And I did a long time ago…been using firefox since 0.8 etc, etc) I said, “Oh look, they found religion. Using the same evangelical techniques developed by Christians.”
Nice of others to catch up with me ;).
March 22nd, 2006 at 2:12 pm
I loved firefox on my Windows machine, realy nothing came close. But now on my iMac Safari wins for dead simple reasons of having close buttons on the tabs and displaying SELECT boxes and Radio Buttons correctly with the Aqua theme.
Move the tab buttons and give me Aqua!
August 3rd, 2006 at 9:40 pm
I’d really like to say my thanks for Firefox as well. :) It’s a great religion. It’s also a web-designer’s dream when it comes to keeping up with the W3C. It’s like IE would rather build its own Internet than to adhere to some simple standards! Down with IE! :)
October 19th, 2006 at 12:33 pm
I couldn’t agree more with Zac, the tabbed browsing, searchbar, etc, are nice for the user, but the full appreciation of firefox comes to anyone who has attempted modern web design. Before using firefox, CSS, for example, was a nice gimmick, but with firefox the awesome power it represents is fully realized. No more IE hacks and ugly java scripts!
November 5th, 2006 at 11:07 am
[…] Tab Mix Plus is finally out for Firefox 2. It didn’t take actually take that long, but it surely felt like a very long dry spell. As Blake Ross once said, Every time someone was “pulled out of the dream”, every time they had to stop and realize that they were using a browser called Firefox and not just the amorphous “Web,” was a personal failure. […]
November 8th, 2006 at 11:34 am
All I can say is Firefox Rocks!
November 12th, 2006 at 4:14 pm
[…] Hype. That’s really it. There was a lot of hype about Firefox taking over the web. That was good (in a way), but this is the downside of that. Now browser stats are all the rage. A year ago almost nobody cared about them. Now it seems everyone does. Firefox isn’t about a monopoly or fighting one. It’s about providing choice and innovation. That’s what it does. Firefox grows when it innovates and the rest of the industry doesn’t. Perhaps that’s really what browser stats guage? Market share is a measure of browser innovation and users acceptance (or disappointment). Yep, there’s that word again (”user”). It’s about the “user”, not the browser. Remember that. Blake has said this before. So yes, the statistical drop between June and July is pretty meaningless regardless of how you look at it. […]
November 15th, 2006 at 4:02 pm
I can not use Firefox 1.0.7 on the web site www.bcentral.com which is a Microsoft web site.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Craig
November 16th, 2006 at 8:52 am
I’ve encountered a few issues with Firefox over the last couple of months.
I use Ffx on several seperate PCs (Win98, 2K & XP). Occasionally, I find the “CPU Time” counter in Windows Task Manager spiralling up to 20-30 minutes, sometimes even a couple of hours! The only way to sort this out that I have found is to close Ffx and reopen it - until it happens again. It’s a more frequent occurance under Win2K and does not help during online shopping! Could this be due to a CPU/buffer overflow?
I have been using the Firefox Google Toolbar for the last few months and can honestly say it’s a great thing to have. :-)
Oh, nearly forgot - Google Mail looks so much better in Ffx than ANY other browser I’ve used to date (** compare Opera 9.02 Build 8585 and Firefox 1.5.0.8 and Firefox wins! **)
Tremble before the power of the Gecko!
KK
November 16th, 2006 at 11:26 am
I have been using firefox for about6 months now and just recently, about a month ago, i reinstalled my xp. I loaded but didn’t update my viral program and surfed the web since with no virus program running (i also disabled windows firewall). I went to run my virus scan and spyware and reg cleaner and discovered i had been surfing for a month with no virus or firewall. NO VIRUSES IN COMPUTER THANKS TO FIREFOX!! If i had used Internet Explorer wel………..
Thanks for this invisible browser what a tool for the net!
Microsoft could take a lesson from you. Did you know that the new IE. release was cracked in about 4 hours?
November 16th, 2006 at 1:38 pm
Mozilla sucks!I’ve had it for a few years and Ive tried various configs,but it crashes gets popups popunders
November 16th, 2006 at 5:00 pm
All I can say is Firefox has helped this granny surf the web. It absolutely changed my life and my world forever! That is not hyperbole, it’s just fact. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
November 20th, 2006 at 10:41 pm
Y’mean there’s other web browsing software???…
November 24th, 2006 at 1:32 am
Thanks for Firefox!Everywhere I go I promote it, it is the best browser by far.Have just everything I need.Keep a good work!Greetings from Serbia.
December 4th, 2006 at 9:27 pm
Firefox is pretty fine by me. I am finding some sites now that are no longer compatible with Apple’s Safari (Mac user, yes) but are fine with Firefox. To use Yahoo’s new mail beta program, I have to use Firefox. Too bad Yahoo’s beta is so doggon slow. I reverted back to their old mail. BUT, it got me to Firefox and I love it! Thanks for forsaking your life to build it. From an old programmer - can you say C/PM and Assembly Language? :) Just for the info - found this site using “Stumble” - another very worthy program build.
December 9th, 2006 at 4:27 pm
Well i too love ff…but i switched to flock coz it has amazing bookmarking feature:)
but anyways it is build on top of firefox:)
December 17th, 2006 at 1:42 pm
I\’l be back… :)e
December 21st, 2006 at 7:57 pm
Open source sucks… there is no payday for the people who don’t have money… exploitation of the ignorant is what this is.
December 22nd, 2006 at 12:37 am
[…] The Firefox Religion […]
December 26th, 2006 at 8:13 am
I’m dying to use Firefox, but can’t get past the screen reading Can’t find Server. What can I do to get aboard?
January 2nd, 2007 at 9:37 am
I just had to add to this list of people that love Firefox . So many of my friends had told me about Ff extolling its virtues but I had always poo-pood them - until the day I downloaded IE7! When I did that I discovered how unwieldy it had become with so many things added that I would never use. I also discovered that the flash player I had didn’t work with the new IE install, even after installing an updated version of adobes flash player - zilch. I then took my friends advice and downloaded Firefox - still zilch with the flash player, then I saw there was an Ff version of the adobe flash player - Hurrah, it works!!! Thank you Firefox for being so light and airy in comparison to IE7S lead balloon….
January 14th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
I loved the article “Firefox Kid” published in the International issue of IEEE Spectrum (November ‘06. All the best for you next visionary project - parakey!!
March 21st, 2007 at 6:25 am
“does this help mom use the web” is a very practical question in making websites. Firefox has indeed made my own mom a more active internet user. Specially because it helps her check what windows we’ve closed as soon as she comes up from behind us.
April 4th, 2007 at 10:30 am
[…] But I see no reason why its simplicity doesn’t appeal to the masses. Maybe they haven’t seen it yet. I think those that have might have a reaction like this commenter on Blake Ross’ blog: I am a 40 something school teacher with basic computing skills. I downloaded firefox last week and love it. It works for me. It’s quick and easy to use. […]
May 5th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
FIREFOX RULes
hello i am manoj,from india pursuing my engineering in compscience and in my class we frens always discuss abt firefox and esp blake ross…… firefox s the best browser till date….
May 20th, 2007 at 5:15 am
I find Firfox incredibly frustrating. You often have a window that you can’t type in. You have to click on another window then click back on it again. It also often won’t allow you to move a window elsewhere. You drag it somewhere else on the screen just for it to jump back again. Furthermore it crashes with monotonous regularity. It’ll even hang when you “Quit Firefox”. The only thing I like about it over Safari are the Tabs. That’s it.
June 3rd, 2007 at 10:11 am
Bravo….Finally someone who realizes that not everyone is a computer nerd….I just started using this infernal thing and to tell the truth I had no clue as to what the hell I was doing….Firefox was a gift from someone who understood that the layman has no clue as to what HTML and all the other stuff is or does…I now use Firefox exclusively….and am trying to create my own addon….I now read some code and can find things easier ….all thanx goes to the creators of Firefox….by the way I am a 44 year old male who has not the first clue to what my potential is…..I first was looking for a program that would help me find the hidden urls in emails and help with pbb2 but I have since surpassed that and now I am looking forward to haxin the Chrome….
Much Cali. Love for Firefox and Mozilla…..
Long Live the free inet……..
Respectfully , Cali.Convict
July 21st, 2007 at 2:07 am
I have been using FF for a year or so and its just amazing
I am a believer of the KISS principle and FF follows it beautifully. It is simple enough to be used by my mom and powerful enough for me with all the addons.
The first thing I do when I touch a computer other than my own is install firefox.
Its simply great
July 28th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
my parents just got their first computer. (their third actually, but the first they’re actually using.) the first thing i taught them was to download firefox, and install it.
they are now comfortable with using the computer, and this one won’t rust like the last ones did. and i didn’t have to go through the trouble of converting them from ie.
February 7th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
I am a young Firefox user and was introduced to Firefox by a friend. The main reasons I like Firefox are speed, security, and customization.
My school has Firefox installed on iMACs with Mac OS X tiger. Firefox seems to run much slower on them then my windows based computer and their windows based computers. I was wondering why this is and if this would be fixed in Firefox 3. The speed of web pages loading isn’t the issue, but rather how long it takes to start up.
A friend told me this is because Firefox isn’t optimized for Mac. I was wondering if you could offer some feedback on this.
While I was writing this I realized another great feature of Firefox-the built in dictionary. I’ve corrected probably a dozen words while writing this.