Mozilla.org has finally released version 0.6 of Firebird, the project formerly known as Phoenix. Version 0.6 includes a new theme as well as a host of new features. It can be downloaded from here.
Mozilla Firebird 0.6 Released
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Adam Scheinberg
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Woo!
And it’s a darn fine update. Recent bv.frs have been pretty rock-solid. Get it now.
I meant to type “builds” but somehow typed “bv.frs”. Odd. Oh well … this gives me a chance to again express my <3 for Firebird.
Excellent so far. Worth the wait!
I’m using it right now – gorgeous. Even the default theme is great!
…even if the name sucks.
Not that am goin to be judging firebird 0.6 by looks only, am just curious about the new theme they put on it. Anybody here with screenshots?
it looks more like standard XP ones
http://www.brokenwatch.net/images/firebird-0.6.png
It looks nicer to me (compared to 0.5). You can see the new preference layout also in this pic.
Have just downloaded it. What I can say — wow! And finally they fixed this annoying bug with “load images from originating web site” checkbox…
Too bad it loads slower than Mozilla 1.4b with quickstart on my Cel 266 (6 sec versus 3 sec), so it’s not my default browser yet.
First, great browser. I still use 0.5 under Gentoo/OpenBox here as my default browser. Still waiting for Gentoo guys to update portage so I could get 0.6
Second, the new name is not so good. They couldn’t keep Phoenix because a BIOS maker already had that copyrighted, so they switched to Firebird which already exists at http://firebird.sourceforge.net ? Not a very sane idea…
All in all, a great browser. Better and faster than Mozilla on my machine. I just hope they fixed the font rendering issues in this build…
If any of you use XP’s new start menu, and have Mozilla Firebird listed as your default browser on it, right click it and click on preferences. You’ll see, instead of Firebird’s preferences, mozilla’s preferences.
The default theme I think isn’t so hot. I love the Chimera theme for it, though I don’t use any of the buttons hehe…
Firebird’s a fine name, still in the vein of Phoenix, but they did step on some toes with FirebirdSQL who got quite upset..
In fact it “feels” faster than my 1.5 week old nightly.
Congrats to the team. I was using the nightly build as my default browser since I downloaded it, and the 0.5 release before that. I only wish that the theme had a better throbber, which I still like for visual clues(call me old-fashioned if you want). The theme is fine, but I want a better throbber; btw, does anyone know if that can be replaced without getting rid of the whole theme?
Congrats again to the team.
So except from looks, would you say Glendale is more buggy than latest Seamonkey?
I still don’t get it, but not stick to Phoenix! I steal another opensource projects name! That just ain’t right!
Lates nightlybuild was unusable, a complete disaster…now I’m happy again let’s see if they fixed the bugs that made it crash so often.
Firebird is ahead of IE and Mozilla right now.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Phoenix (Firebird, Mozilla Firebird, whatever) and I’m about to download 0.6 to replace my 0.5 install … BUT you’ve got to love these entries in the “known issues” list:
– Form auto-complete is still an unstable feature and may lead to crashes.
– Disabling of form auto-completion is not working.
Seems like if autocomplete could lead to crashes, that disabling it might be an important thing. Just struck me as funny to see those items together on the list.
Otherwise, looking forward to 0.6 – as 0.5 is quite excellent already.
0.6 has me worried. How stable is it before I try?
the pic link posted earlier doesn’t seem to be working. I can’t use this till the portage boys put up a good ebuild. Anybody else got any screenies of what I’m missing
?
0.6 is fine, from what I’ve seen so far.
I know they (MozillaFireBird team) say to create a new profile and delete all the old files and I’ve always done so but this time I was tired to loose all my settings (password mainly) so I didn’t delete the old directory and I didn’t create a new profile.
It seems to be ok and I still have all my old settings
Did somebody try this too?
The trick is to copy out your bookmarks.html, userchrome.css and your theme file, and then copy everything back. That’s what I’ve been doing.
Problem I moved the bookmarks file over while MozFb was running, and got it overwritten and lost ’em! Oh well. (Can’t blame Fb for that hehe)
Why can’t I simply select all and delete. I could always do this with Mozilla.
well, i am using firebird 0.6 for about two weeks already. this “article” is no “news” at all… in fact, I am typing this text on firebird 0.6.
People don’t give a crap about XUL or what every crap they use, they want a compact, fast and stable browser. Maybe they should look at what Apple has achieved, namely a 3MB browser download that looks fabulous.
Mozilla gurus, if you are there, replace the whole bloody upper layer with native front ends and user the gecko rendering engine for the back end. You have saved NO TIME by using XUL and the only thing you have achived is piss alot of loyal supports and push them towards better alternatives.
Have to disagree with you…
Being able to use the same browser, with the same themes, the same extensions and everything between linux and windows is great.
Besides, what is bad about XUL… It’s not quite as snappy as native frontends, but look at how much and how easily you can customize it, and the fact that those customisations will work on both OS’s, and I have to say I would prefer XUL to a native front end. And it also means they can develop faster (Less time trying to code each platform individually)
“Form auto-complete is still an unstable feature and may lead to crashes.”
and
“Disabling of form auto-completion is not working.”
Uh…
The preferences window is perfect, simple and to the point. And d@mn web surfing is fast compared to IE!!!
Only thing missing is a checkbox to enforce accepting only cookie from originating site(to refuse off-site tracking cookies) like KDE’s Konqueror.
This browser reminds me of Apple’s Safari.
Firebird 0.6 may not be as fast as Safari, may not look as great either (your personal opinion), and may be a larger download.
But it’s cross-platform, customizable, open source, has themes, netscape plug-ins (apparently Safari can do this as well?) can be used with it etc.
As with anything it’s all personal opinions, I personally prefer Opera and K-Meleon to Firebird (based on Phoenix 0.4/5) but the Firebird team are by version 1.0 going to have a great browser.
I think the Firebird developers would disagree with you.. YOU have been using the nightly builds which do not = 0.6.
I say that the developers would disagree, since a developer reported the release today.
Yes, indeed…
0.6 is very stable, the only thing that can make it crash *sometimes* is the autocomplete thingie, but that feature also works most of the time
I guess Iwill have to wait for it 🙁
But it’s cross-platform, customizable, open source, has themes, netscape plug-ins (apparently Safari can do this as well?) can be used with it etc.
Plus, it has customizable mouse gestures and an assload of other extensions as well.
I’ve never seen Safari so couldn’t comment on it, but I certainly have no complaints with Firebird.
>> it’s cross-platform, customizable, open source, has themes, netscape plug-ins (apparently Safari can do this as well?) can be used with it etc.
Personally, I don’t want it to be customizable using custom themes.
Imagine if ever app you use would need custom themes.. *shudder*
So far its working great. Way better than IE, the Links toolbar actually works!! Cool thing is you can bookmark straight to the links toobar. I havent had it crash yet, unlike opera and ie that crash too often for my liking (or tolerance level)
btw, anyone know the shortcut in IE where you type in a site eg. osnews and hit ctrl+shift+enter and it fills in the www. and the .com for you. I tried this in mozilla and it works but does .org instead. Anyone know how to set it to .com?
about:config -> browser.fixup.alternate.suffix (it’s .com here)
I do understand (I think) your point, customizing an app with a theme tends to mean it looks nothing like the rest of your system which some can’t stand.
But on the other hand if a X-platform app looks like Windows like Firebird does, you could download a GNOME or Motif or… theme if your using it on a *NIX etc to match the system.
How do I install this with true type fonts enabled on Linux? That’s the only thing holding me back.
BTW: Photon would of beena better name. Speedy, eternal, short, sounds good in many languages since its a real scientific word, futuristic, short and I picked it =)
When Phoenix was a variation of the official browser
there was a need for its own unique name.
When the new tree starts with the former Phoenix as the
browser for Mozilla it will have a muy cool name.
Mozilla.
That is what the wider world of users we hope it will
inevitably gathers will call it. That is what its
users have always called it.
What is the sound of one hand clapping ?
Hint: It starts with an M.
When you end your journey you will arrive at the place
you started , only to know it for the very first time.
And that place’s name will be:
Mozilla.
Rest in Peace Firebird . You are not long for this world.
I look forward to when they officially get rid of the bloated mozilla. Right now in XP and on my Linux box I use Thunderbird and Firebird. The new linux thunderbird nightly has gtk2 support, which means its friggin beautiful.
Too bad Photon is already the name of at least two companies, KAI’s C++ compiler, QNX’s desktop environment, and numerous scientific computing programs. The problem with these “name clashes” is that all the cool names are already taken. Say what you will about how stupid OSS software names are, at least “knibbles” doesn’t conflict with anything
All the companies using Photon as a name have no relation to a browser and will not cause user confusion. THe only reason Phoenix name had to be changed was because it could cause confusiong with the browser from the other company. As long as the user is not going to confuse the two it is perfectly legal.
Phoenix seems very similar to galeon, a browser that uses the Mozilla projects Gecko rendering engine in combonation with the gnome libraries. How to the two compare?
You can grab the xft2 enabled binaries from:
http://pryan.org/firebird/
I am posting this from FireBird 0.6 with XFT2 support, and I am using Bitestream Vera fonts. It looks really nice !!
I also voted for Photon as the name.
This was before they announced that Phoenix would become
the browser for the Mozilla project.
I still maintain in the future, if someone asks what broswer you use, the short answer will always be Mozilla.
well, i am using firebird 0.6 for about two weeks already. this “article” is no “news” at all… in fact, I am typing this text on firebird 0.6.
It was released only yesterday; there’s no way you’ve been using Firebird 0.6 for 2 weeks. Sure, recent nightlies say “0.6” in the About Firebird box, but they were not the 0.6 milestone.
Photon is the name of QNX microGUI ….
IT LOOKS A MILLION TIMES BETTER!
I’ve been using pheonix and now firebird as my main browser for quite some time, and it’s great to see it evolve into something I can really use. It has most of the features that I require in a browser, and it seems to do the job in a simple and straightforward manner. I don’t mind the XUL interface, I’m not sacrificing much in terms of responsiveness and it fits in with the rest of my system (windows classic). Good job team, can’t wait to see it in the main branch.
Excuse me, but I have once again ask:
– what is the purpose of reduction if unpacked archive takes 17MB
– preferences s*cks – much worse than Mozilla – that unalligned tree-view on the right side (privacy section) with mixture of buttons is a bit messy
– on my “old underpowered?” Duron650, 256MB RAM i get some UI delays, while I haven’t seen it happening with my Mozilla + Pinball theme for ages – btw Pinball should be used as a default theme, imo the coolest one 🙂
– access to the rest of options via about:config is bad idea – it should be somehow part of preferences panel – I miss some options and searching them in about:config list is not imo optimal
– I think that it would be enough to have Firebird as a browser-only Mozilla version – new UI does not seem to be any easier to use than old one and imo because of those various issues Firebird is not better product than Mozilla, and that is something I can’t easily get into …
So far – sticking with Mozilla …
btw: how do I simulate Mozilla’s edit/preferences/navigator/internet-search functionality?
-pekr-
This browser does nothing better than Mozilla. It is incredibly stupid to use it for the ‘next Mozilla’ whatever that means.
Firebird 0.6:
– the same memory footprint
– about the same disk footprint
– slower to launch
– slower to run
– UI that is markedly clunkier than Mozilla
– less stable than Mozilla 1.4b
– renders like a monkey on crack
– screams “made by braindead people”
I have a bad feeling about the fate of Mozilla. Firebird is not a good browser today, doesn’t have a good design, and is bound to go up in flames.
That just sounds like a troll to me.
“I have a bad feeling about the fate of Mozilla. Firebird is not a good browser today, doesn’t have a good design, and is bound to go up in flames.”
Did you read the Mozilla roadmap? Mozilla developers admitted to the bad design of Mozilla. They talked about how there is not a clear boundry between components, and between the interface and backend. They also said that XUL was originally to cut down on time when porting systems but because of these problems, it took them just as long.
Now I don’t mind XUL at all. Somekind of theming is needed for cross platform apps to conform to the interface the user is using. Also I don’t really have speed problems on a 450 MHz comp except first draw with tons of tabs are slow.
“slower to launch”
Mozilla Firebird developers believe it a hack to use quicklaunch, which it is. They are aiming for fast startup in general. See how fast Mozilla can do that. Though I know some will say who cares, all that matters is percieved, but when you are using a dirty hack, you don’t care as much about fixing the root of the problem.
“screams “made by braindead people””
Read my comment about design
“UI that is markedly clunkier than Mozilla ”
In general, that is your opinion. Most people have loved it. Also the new Options dialog is better for end-users but they still allow you to customize everything.
I really like how I run my system. Safari theme (Never put up on a theme site, mentioned in threads once or twice), no status bar, NiceTitles (only in forum, great kind of tooltip that shows URL, my main need for statusbar), and DownloadStatusBar (better then download sidebar and the dialogs, beautiful now that they fixed the Linux crash)
“renders like a monkey on crack ”
Not sure teh basis for this, has rendered everything just perfect for me.
“less stable than Mozilla 1.4b ”
Sorry, can’t attest to this one, Im running a buil thts maybe two weeks old, but it runs beautifully.
one complaint…the statusbar is huge! way to big for my liking..
other than that…its pretty cool
With “xft” enbled, the visual is really very cool…:-)
See it: http://www.crvendramini.kit.net/imagens/mozilla_firebird/06/mozilla…
I am getting “Connection timed out” when trying to load your image. I would like to compare it to the one I posted earlier in the thread and see how your XFT build text rendering compares to mine with ClearType.
“Too bad it loads slower than Mozilla 1.4b with quickstart on my Cel 266 (6 sec versus 3 sec), so it’s not my default browser yet.”
Moreover, on the first launch in the session it loads even 12 sec, not 6. But why does the loading take less after that? AFAIK, it doesn’t remain in memory when I close the last window (unlike Mozilla)… This is strange.
This is by far the best update i’ve seen. I started useing it at .3 or .4 and this wipes the floor with any update before. Although given, this has been in the pipes for a while
.
Im glad to finaly have firebird run’n.
The feature i have to love is its configurability. I dont know if this is a new feature, but its brilliant. about:config in the address bar give you many options (however, download a special preferences extension and you ge tal of them)…
Great, theam, great browser, great everything… I will be recommending this to everyone!!!
I don’t understand one thing – if someone has issues with the product, then he/she is a troll?
Points concerning UI are pretty valid. I really think that someone saying he/she likes FireBird UI more than Mozilla’s has to be on some drugs 😉
FireBird UI is one step back and if Firebird developers don’t recognise it sooner than later, it is gonna hurt Mozilla’s name. It is definitely not simplier in use and in fact seems inconsistent. What is e.g. tools/java-script-console goof for an end user escapes my thinking. They should simply take Mozilla, remove non-browser component menu items, resort a bit and be done. The worst part is stripped down and redesigned preferences editor … idea of about:config is flawed, as it can’t be easily searched.
-pekr-
=They sound trollish if they have really stupid issues with the product.
=As to Fb’s UI: At least I can actually configure it, I can’t really with mozilla. How is Fb’s UI inconsistent?
=Re about:config, an average user is not going to go through that. There’s a pretty prefs panel available for ‘everyone else’.
=Getting rid of just menu items and leaving in a lot of redundant code is just…stupid. Sorry. Commonsense should really show you how stupid that idea is.
don’t talk about common sense to me if you are not even able to recognise what do I mean – I never said the reasons for why Firebird exists are not valid! Of course I don’t mean removing menu items only.
What my “common sense” misses is, how you are now able to comfortly configure FB, while not able to configure Mozzila 🙂 But maybe you could explain me, if I miss (at least for me) some important feature, how “consistent” it is to go and visit about:config 🙂
For the FB future I hope they add some other configuration options to config dialog.
-pekr-
For instance, I have no back, forward, home, stop buttons, I do them all by keyboard shortcut. All I have is a combined menu and address bar and the bookmark shortcut bar. I never could do or figure out how to do this in Moz. In Fb, I just rightclick the toolbar space and click Customize, and I can drag things around to my heart’s content.
As to the about:config thing, I’m guessing it would be kind of like the KDE-menus thing. Either you bombard the user with 1001 different options s/he could tweak, or leave the more advanced settings to those who know how to configure them safely.
The neat thing about Fb is that if you want to add some functionality to the browser, in your case access to about:config, you can write an extension yourself and it will allow you to extend Fb the way you want.
phoenix.ragweed.net
<a href=http://phoenix.ragweed.net>http://phoenix.ragweed.net
I love it!
Nice overall, but wish they released with GTK2 and/or XFT support. Guess, I need to make my own…arg…my default on rh8/flux.92
i recant my comment in error of reading last ones…arg on me…
Another feature that I like about Mozilla / Firebird is that
the right-click menu doesn’t have an “Open in new window” option for links that are really javascript OpenWindowPop
That’s for all Javascript links, not just Javascript pop ups. Javascript accesses functions and variables on the current page, so its not very practical to transfer that to a new window (although I suppose it is possible of course).
Yes, is there anyone who has built Firebird .6 with xft yet…the ones posted thus far are month (and longer) older…
This is up to date:
http://pryan.org/firebird/iarnell/MozillaFirebird-xft-0.6.tar.bz2
My one major criticism’s of the Linux community is that on one hand it is saying that Linux is the one saving grace of the computing world, and on the other it is criticizing seemingly every effort to make it just that. Mozzila Firebird looks a damn fine browser to me… It does what it sets out to do, and does it well.
The guys working on this project are putting a lot of effort into fixing a number of flaws in Mozzila, many of which the end-user will never be aware of, and should be applauded for their efforts.
The new Mozzila roadmap just makes sense, if you already haven’t done so, read it! Here’s a small sampler:
‘The reasoning behind these new roadmap elements comes down to preferring quality over quantity. We must do less, but better, and with sound extension mechanisms, so that (for example) the community does not fight over user interface pigeon-holes such as the main menu items.’
Steven Macdonald.
i downloaded it, installed it (well theres no installer in windows like their used to be so i created a folder for it and extracted to that folder) and ran it. It (firebird) asked me did i want it to be my default browser, and i said no, im perfectly happy with mozilla 1.31 as it stands…. so first thing i notice is the sidebar which i really like is gone, i pressed F9 and nothing. no sidebar. i can see there is a reference to sidebar in view sidebar but where is my nice google search with search results gone ? i looked briefly in about.config and i can’t see a reference to it there. To be honest i prefer the look and usability of moz as it currently stands, i hope this is not the future of mozilla if so i’m disappointed. Please feel free to point out the obvious if i’m missing something here with this release.
cheers
anyweb
how about ‘imported Mozilla bookmarks’ as well, makes sense to me.