September 09, 2005.

Intro/History

Mozilla's Firefox is an open-source web browser designed with simplicity of use and end-user experience in mind. Since its public release in September 2004, it has risen to 8.71% US market share, mostly at the expense of Microsoft's Internet Explorer which has fallen to 86.56% according to NetApplications.com (In some markets, like Finland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Croatia and Poland, Firefox holds more than a 20% share). Its superior security and ad-blocking features, along with tabbed browsing, better CSS support, and streamlined interface has made it a media darling and has attracted over 86 million downloads.

Now with the release of version 1.5 (Beta), available as a free 4.9 MB download from Mozilla, users can enjoy a web-surfing experience that's faster (with "fast-back and -forward" features), more secure (with the new "Clear Private Data" feature and the cumulative improvements of 12 months worth of updates), and- most importantly- an improved underlying Gecko rendering engine (with over 21 months worth of improvement from the version that shipped with Firefox 1.0). Moreover, since no web-browser will ever be "finished" (after all, when will the Internet itself ever be "finished?) its even got an improved auto-update feature, which like the Windows XP operating system, automatically and unobtrusively ensures that users will always have the most up-to-date version installed.

Although Firefox is a cross-browser product (available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, etc), for purposes of my review and screenshots, I've used the Windows version on an XPsp2 machine. It should also be said that I'm staunch SpreadFirefox supporter. :)

Fast-Back and Fast-Forward

Fast-Back and
Fast-Forward

I couldn't put it any better than MozillaZine did: "The Back and Forward buttons in older versions of Firefox 1.0.x retrieve the page from the local cache rather than the Internet, but Gecko still has to reparse the HTML to rerender the page, which can take a while with more complex pages. With this new feature, the rendered page is kept in memory, which makes Back and Forward performance much faster (almost instantaneous). In addition, going back or forward to a page cached in this way shows the page exactly how it was when you left it, in compliance with section 13.13 of RFC 2616."

Tabbed Browsing

First there was Adam Stiles' Netcaptor. Then MultiZilla for Mozilla, Mozilla 0.9.5, Opera 6, Phoenix 0.1 (later renamed Firefox), Safari, and Netscape 8 added tabbed browsing as well. IE 7 will have it later this year and there's a tabs-capable toolbar for IE 6 now, too. It seems tabs are pretty much a mandatory browser feature these days. My favorite Firefox 1.5 innovation is tab re-ordering (inspired by the MiniT extension): users can now drag the tabs around to re-order them. It's a perfect example of a unobtrusive new feature that 'Just Works' as you would naturally expect it to. As in previous versions of Firefox, tabs sport a visual cue (FavIcons) alongside the page title to quickly differentiate them. I still like the placement of IE 7 (Beta)'s New Tab Button better, though (but why the blank button, MS?).

Tabs can now be dragged and dropped into new positions to rearrange them- indicated by purple arrow. (Click to enlarge).

Security

The first 5 updates to Firefox, 1.0.1 through 1.0.5, largely revolved around security fixes. We live in an insecure world- that's true no matter what browser you use. One of the largest reasons FF has been so successful has been its relative level of security when compared to IE. By default, it doesn't open ActiveX or VBScript- two of the leading inroads for malicious code. With the 1.5 release, the FF team has not only incorporated all of the cumulative security updates, but more importantly has implemented a new Update System (see below) which will promote quicker adoption among FF users of new security patches. Now, instead of needing to download an entirely new browser (something that entry-level users are less likely to do), the new system allows the Mozilla folks to release smaller-filesize patches automatically… much like rival Microsoft's IE does.

Clear Private Data (Click to enlarge).

The new Clear Private Data feature (formerly "Sanitize") for secure browsing seems to come as a direct response to Apple's Safari RSS "Private Browsing" feature. Microsoft has jumped on the bandwagon, too with IE 7's "Delete Browsing History". Select the "Clear Private Data" option in the tools menu and Firefox will scrub your profile of sensitive information (which you select in the dialog) such as browsing history, saved form information, passwords, history, cookies, cache, and other personal data.

Gecko Rendering Engine

When Firefox 1.0 was released in September 2004, the underlying rendering engine included was already a 9-month-old build chosen for stability. With the new 1.5 release, the FF team has included a much improved beast 'under the hood' that is both more capable and speedier. Scalable Vector Graphics support, for instance, has been included. Note that I'm not talking the browser code but the engine code itself, so you can expect very robust support, indeed. The SVG format, long favored by developers and web designers but unsupported by the major browsers, allows for true vector-quality graphics unavailable with either GIF or JPEG formats, as well as smaller file sizes (with faster downloads).

New Gecko features (things like Cairo replacing GFX, XULRunner, etc.) are now available. Unfortunately for us web designers out there, it still doesn't pass the Acid2 test, but I've read that subsequent major releases (Firefox 2.0) will. One welcome improvement for web designers is the rendering/handling of min- and max- widths, which has reportedly been fixed.

Web designers will find this list of HTML, CSS2 and CSS3, JavaScript, and DOM improvements impressive along with SVG and <canvas>-tag support. They've added native XML support, which ought to speed up AJAX development.

Exisiting Feature Improvements

'Live Bookmarks' Feed Discovery Icon
displays all of the feeds (Atom, RSS 2, etc.)

A few of the existing Firefox features have been updated and improved, too. The new Extensions Manager allows extensions to be installed into additional places such as the profiles directory or application directories. This will allow 'cleaner' extension updating in the future, and facilitates Uninstalling, Enabling, and Disabling of extensions. The Options window as well as Printing have seen improvements, too. Shrink To Fit will save a lot of paper/ink, and I applaud Microsoft for adding the feature to IE 7 as well. Live Bookmarks (Firefox's term for RSS and Atom Feeds) have evolved a bit, too. The orange feed discovery indicator icon has been moved from the bottom right corner of the window up into the URL bar, right where Apple's Safari RSS puts it. This seems like a much more intuitive spot, and clicking on the icon now displays the Feed as a rendered XML page- again, just as in Safari or IE 7. From this page, users can choose to "Add a Live Bookmark" of this feed to their bookmarks (that is, subscribe to the feed).

Other Standard Stuff Found In All Browsers

All of your favorite features from Firefox 1.0.x have carried over into the new 1.5 version. Of course these are now available in the other leading browsers, as well, although with inferior implementation: Search Bar (with built-in Google, Amazon, Yahoo, etc engines). Find bar is your standard "find within this page" dialog except it's inline and doesn't popup to obscure anything on the page. Bookmarks, History, Text-Zooming, JavaScript and CSS support are all there as you'd expect. You can still change the GUI with Themes and add functionality with Extensions.

Auto-Update

Update Options. (Click to enlarge).

One of the major complaints about Firefox 1.0.x is the updating process: It's considered too complex for an average everyday consumer. Every time Mozilla released an update, users had to download it and re-install it over their existing version. The new Update System is intended to "just work" for a beginner user like my Mom, who doesn't want to have to think about it. With the auto-update feature enabled, Firefox will periodically check for updates on Mozilla's servers, and automatically download and install the latest patches, fixes, and updates. Unlike earlier versions of Firefox which required users to re-install the entire application every time there was a security update, version 1.5+ can now download smaller "patches" and apply them as needed, drastically reducing download times and unnecessary user interaction. The Mozilla team also hopes that this will lead to quicker widespread adoption of its latest releases and a more secure overall web environment

Screenshots of Firefox checking for, and then updating to the subsequent build using the new Update system. (Click to enlarge).

Conclusion

The Mozilla team has delivered a quality update of what's already the best browser on the market. The Auto-Update feature alone makes Firefox 1.5 worth installing simply to relieve some of the hassle of staying current with security patches, etc. Any web designer will appreciate the improved support for web standards built in to the Gecko engine, and I'd be curious to see if Firefox's SVG support translates into higher adoption among web designers for the image format. As far as the rest of the improvements noted above, it's all just icing on the cake for me. Although after a few days browsing with features like "Fast-Back" and "Fast-Forward", you'll find it hard to go back to any other browser.

September 09, 2005.