Date: 2008-11-02 11:52:02 Created: null
I'm writing this using Mozilla 1.0 for BeOS, and it doesn't feel bad at all. Some stuff doesn't seem to be the way I would like them, but this may have to do with habits and insufficient experience as well as actual need for fixes in Mozilla. The tabs don't seem to be working out perfectly. That I can't set new things to automatically open in a tab instead of a new window I can accept (remains to be seen if I can get used to it as well :-), but new tabs seem to mess badly with the editability of the address bar as well, which feels very hampering right now. We'll see what happens in the future, I should try 1.0 for other OSs as well and see if it's the same. It's great to have a really up to date web browser for BeOS anyway! No matter how nice and friendly Opera 3.62 is, it doesn't get any more up to date. And the number of days before it expires is getting low as well :-) ...
Hmmm, I wonder if I'm somehow on track to solving the tab problem now ... Focusing a different window seemed to make some kind of difference ...
Update on September 8th 2002, 23:17
Downloaded and installed Mozilla 1.1 for Windows today, and it's been a very pleasant meeting so far. While I've had dubious experiences with the tabbed interface under other operating systems and in previous Mozilla versions everything seems to work great here and now. Clicking with the middle mouse button on a link opens it in a new tab, and there are proper options in the right click menu as well. One pretty major badness for a seasoned Opera user though: you can't set it up so that all previously open tabs are re-opened if you close and restart Mozilla. That's not fun, but maybe it'll show up shortly. They've been very fast in copying Opera features so far :-) ...
Another thing I'd heard would be in Mozilla by now was mouse gestures. I was unable to find any mention of them however, but Niclas quickly provided me with suitable links (see the externals). Installation was done right through the installation webpage, just the way you want it! A restart was required (that made you lose all but the last open tab), and then you just configure which button you want to use and so on in the new addition to the preferences. The gestures aren't the same as in Opera, most notably (for me at any rate) not the back and forward gestures. But I found a text snippet a short distance down the page saying that that's coming very soon. Good work guys :-) ... Otherwise their list of implemented gestures seems very rich. 29 gestures are supported so far, not much need for the keyboard if you memorize all of these :-) ...
Will I abandon Opera for Mozilla now? Probably not. Not yet at any rate. I definitely want to keep all my tabs over shutdowns and restarts (including history please) before I go anywhere more permanently. But once that happens, and the back and forward gestures I know and love comes back, there's no telling where I might end up :-) ... Until then I think it can at least minimize my use of Internet Explorer even more.
Update on October 5th 2002, 13:34
Here I am, still in Mozilla. Might seem like a resounding victory for the browser, but in fact it's been a bumpy ride inbetween now and the last update. Windows has been through some very heavy crashing periods, and it has seemed like there was some connection to use of Mozilla. Too much and too often, so I've been using Opera quite a bit again (not IE of course, what's the world coming to?). Now I'm thankfully on the third day of not crashing (without knowing what has made the difference of course), back in the new and flashy Mozilla 1.2a and with a slew of tabs (plus sidebar! Never thought I'd come to that) open for good measure. 11 tabs, not bad at all ... I still don't think they save properly on exit, but I'm getting into the habit of saving the session before quitting, and that works well as long as it doesn't quit unexpectedly on you ...
Update on October 15th, 2002
Seems you can lose new bookmarks if you crash at the wrong time too. I know I added some before a crash that I couldn't find afterwards. Re-added them and exited nicely, and they're still here. Very strange, and no filed bugs about it that I could find. I don't usually use bookmarks much, but while working on this school project I've got started on them, and that means I want them to be there after adding too.
Update on January 19th, 2003
This is long overdue, but I still should point out that I solved the crashing problems and that they had nothing to do with Mozilla. Me playing too much with memory settings in BIOS, that was it :-) ... Things have been very solid ever since.
Update on March 2nd, 2003
Trying out Mozilla 1.3b now, and it feels great. They recommended not to install it on top of older versions, so for a change I didn't, just to be sure. Nevertheless, it still kept all my bookmarks and settings, very cool! I then went on and installed the latest versions of Optimoz and MultiZilla right away. Things have improved notably in some areas I really care about. Multizilla now seems a lot better at saving your tab session on exit and reloading it again next time you start. That's been a pet annoyance of mine for a long time, and hopes of it being fixed was actually the main reason I got 1.3b (MultiZilla always wants very recent versions of Mozilla for its latest versions). It might be my mind, but it also feels like things are just a little bit faster overall.
And the installation program now talks about the Gecko Runtime Environment, how stylish :-) ...