We normally don't review web browsers, but what better topic for discussion is there? Most of us use browsers every day of our lives and, if you're like me, rely on them to do your job...
Personally, I use Mozilla for 98% of my work and play. It blows all other browsers away in stability and features if you ask me. Opera is the only one that comes close to Mozilla in speed and features, but it seems too bulky to me for some reason. Konqueror is a good browser that has come a long way recently in the advancement department and is one to watch in the future. Galeon (built on Mozilla framework) has some nice features, but overall is a very mediocre browser in my opinion compared to its parent. Netscape is just too AOL for me, and Internet Explorer is one of the poorest excuses for a browser I've ever used.
Mozilla just fit the bill... until now, that is.
MadHunter and I were discussing Linux web browsers earlier this week and he brought up Mozilla Firebird, the newest browser offering to be released from the Mozilla developers. What is Firebird? It is the next generation of the Phoenix project. Or should I say Phoenix to the second power? Mozilla's site describes it like this:
"Mozilla Firebird is a redesign of the Mozilla browser component, similar to Galeon, K-Meleon, and Camino (TM), but written using the XUL user interface language and designed to be cross-platform."
Mozilla Firebird is available for the following platforms:
Linux
Mac OS X
Solaris
OS/2
BeOS
AIX
Windows
When I had the chance to sit down and take a look at this browser, I wasn't really expecting to be impressed enough to inspire an entire review, but obviously I was because here we are. This browser is the beginning of something wonderful. I say it's the beginning because it is very obvious that it is a work-in-progress and is pre-1.0, but let me tell you it is pretty impressive for such an early build. Where do I start? Hmmm... Let's start with the basics.
Installation
Installation was too easy. All that is involved is to download the tarball and extract it to your preferred location. Since I was only testing the app, I just placed the extracted folder in my home directory and symlinked to the MozillaFirebird script that resided there. Not a bad installation, huh? Quick and dirty.
The browsing experience
From the start, Firebird is stripped, sleek, and fast. The interface is minimal, but very user friendly. I had no trouble getting used to the feel of it, as it is very similar to Mozilla. The browser features some of the same amenities as it's parent, such as:
Tabbed browsing
Popup window blocking
Address bar searches
Browser themes
Customizable toolbars
Sidebar enhancements
There were a few noticeable glitches and bugs present in this pre-release, but nothing that hindered the abilities of the application. One of the major bugs I found was in the rendering of the scrollbar on the right side of the browser. When you click and drag it to view a long document, it artifacts pretty heavily. It does not repaint itself very well at all and it can get messy. You can fix the issue for the short term by refreshing the page or browsing to a new one. Another thing I found (though it was very infrequent) was that form post buttons on web pages did not function at all. I would need to reload the page to get it to work. Like I said, this was infrequent and expected for such an early release. For all those people who love to pick at what I write, please note that I am well aware this is a very early version and do not expect it to perform perfectly. I thought I should make that clear. As a matter of fact, this release performs very well indeed for a 0.6 version. There were few other bugs, and nothing really important, such as themes not loading properly without first restarting the browser... when others load on the fly just fine. Most of the bugs were merely cosmetic and something I'm sure will be addressed by the developers by the time 1.0 rolls out.
How about plugins? Well, to tell you the truth, they work just fine. You can use Mozilla plugins supported in the list found at Mozdev.org, or if you are feeling adventurous (i.e., lucky), just start hacking the unsupported ones in yourself. I won't tell. Mozilla Firebird supports Adobe Acrobat, Java, Macromedia Flash, MPlayer, and RealPlayer out of the box, but I've heard of other plugins working as well with a little coaxing.
Configuration
Configuration of the browser is inherently the same as Mozilla, but has been refined quite a bit. The layout is streamlined and easier to navigate. I am pretty comfortable with the settings inside Mozilla and still have to 'hunt and peck' sometimes to find exactly what I'm looking for. The new layout is much more coherent than it's predecessor. The basic layout is similar to that of most apps built for the KDE/QT environment. All available categories are shown on the left side of the window as clickable icons. When they are activated, the options of the right side of the window change. From there you can get more granular with your settings. Mozilla should adopt this layout for it's flagship browser.
Browser Extensions
This has got to be the single most coolest feature I have ever seen in a web browser (expect Microsoft to rip this off in the near future). Firebird can be completely customized with browser plugins, or extensions, that enable some of the finest features available today. Extensions are accessible through Firebird's options dialog. They can be loaded and unloaded with the click of a mouse, and are installed through the internet from their extension library. At the time of this writing, there are 48 extensions available for download from their online library. To install any of the extensions, simply click on the installation link and the rest is automatic. After the extension is installed, all you need to do is restart the browser. No fuss, no muss. After the extension is loaded, you can load/unload it with the click of a button as well.
This was the big selling point to me, to be quite honest. I like the fact that I can customize my browsing experience to exactly the way I want it. It's the closest thing to building my own browser I can get without actually doing just that. I have to admit that some of the extensions available really seemed pretty pointless to me, but to others they might be invaluable... but for the most part, there are some pretty nice productivity-enhancing plugins that really make the browsing experience more powerful. It allows you to be more involved with the experience, rather than simply surfing around, you can interact with your environment.
Tweaking the browser
Just like mainboard manufacturers like Abit who support and encourage the overclocking crowd, Mozilla Firebird is built for tweaking and is encouraged. I am a speed freak, so I enabled pipelining and tweaked the browser to speed up page rendering. This was as simple as editing a text document (user.js to be precise). I closed the browser, opened user.js and added the following lines:
After these additions were made, our test system caught on fire because it was so damn fast. The browser burned a hole right through the screen. Well, maybe that's a slight exaggeration... but only SLIGHTLY. Firebird got hot! Loading even the slowest pages was almost instantaneous. Granted, we have a 3MB connection to the net here, but pages are still slow to load on some web sites, but Firebird made a huge difference after it was "enhanced". I think I'm in love.
At the end of the day
When it's all said and done at the end of the day, Mozilla Firebird is an excellent browser. Even though it has a few bugs, it still packs a mean punch and I believe that by the time it is in it's 1.0 release state, we will have a serious contender for the browser throne. The developers of Firebird know what they are doing.
Since there is no real installation to worry about, I would recommend downloading and giving this browser a try. It's well worth the time. The only thing I can suggest to avoid any issues (and this may just be me being over protective of my systems) is to backup your Mozilla preferences and settings before using Firebird. I was a little concerned it might overwrite my Mozilla settings, so I backed everything up just in case. So far so good though... I've had no issues as of yet.
Give it a shot and see what you think. You'll be glad that you did. Long live Mozilla Firebird!
