Good day all, this is the Angry Systems Administrator. I’ve been rather quiet of late, however, Mozilla has released a major upgrade to their web browser, Firefox.
I’ve been using Firefox since version 1, so I know my way around it. This version introduces some major changes “Under the hood” and a lot of things people took for granted are now gone. First, some of the good things.
Firefox has always had issues with memory utilization. In some cases, it could swallow all the available resources on a computer. The new version, Firefox Quantum, seems to have addressed this issue, at least I haven’t seen any of the problems I used to.
Firefox also seems to load web sites a bit faster, and seems to start up a bit faster as well. I’m not running any benchmark tools, this is just my opinion. Of course, there are some downsides as well. To begin with, I hate the interface. Some time ago, Mozilla took away the footer bar, ostensibly to “Give user more screen space to view web pages.” I actually liked that footer and had a plugin that put it back. Mozilla also moved the tabs from below the bookmarks tool bar to the top of the browser.
This is taking a lot of getting used to. If you are a Google Chrome user, you won’t mind, however I don’t use Chrome that much and I do mind a great deal. If I wanted to use Google Chrome, (Which I do have), then I would.
This brings me to my biggest complaint, plugins and Add-ons. Mozilla instituted a new programming protocol, and this required all the Add-on programmers to re-code their applications. A lot of Add-ons are actually no longer supported by their developers, and others are being rewritten and put through quality control. However, the developers of some of my favorite Add-ons and themes have basically said, “Screw it!” and walked away from their apps.
Some of these Add-ons are very popular, and one I have used for years is called Speed Dial. Basically, it allowed me to have as my default home page have a panel with my favorite web sites and a small update window. The replacement I’ve found is not as well developed. Another very popular Add-on is NoScript. It’s been unavailable since Firefox 57 came out. The developers have been working like mad to bring it into the new browser, and a version was just deployed as I write this review. (I’ve looked at it and disabled it. It’s not ready yet)
Another Add-on that I miss is one called “Minimize to tray.” This was a little utility that would put Firefox into the tray instead of the task bar. I don’t know if a new version will ever be developed. I found this to be incredibly useful. I hope someone does or Mozilla codes the option into future versions of Firefox.
It will take a while to get used to the interface. Without a doubt, developers will work to make Add-ons that people like. One of the problems I’ve seen with developers is they keep fixing things that aren’t broken to “Make them better and easier to use.” Microsoft is notorious for this and we’ve seen how badly they can screw up. (See Windows 8 and Server 2012) Repeated blows to the heads finally convinced Microsoft to put the start menus back. (I suspect there were a few flat out death threats from major corporate accounts as well)
I’m going to keep working with FireFox and see how it handles. I distrust Google chrome and despise Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and its replacement, Microsoft Edge. For those who flat out hate what Mozilla has done, I would recommend Pale Moon. This is a fork of Firefox and maintains the original interface and works with the older plugins. Give it a try, just remember, your milage may vary.
Thank you
~The Angry Systems Administrator~
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