Flashes of Panic

A few months ago I posted a list of problems with Firefox on OS X which eventually led me to go to Camino as my default browser instead. With the 1.0 build out now, I thought I’d give it another whirl. I downloaded one of the G4-optimized builds described on Mozillazine and set it running.

There’s no question that it’s quick; the custom build, in particular, is really fast. It reports itself as Firefox 0.9.1+, however; I also installed an “official” 1.0 build from mozilla.org to confirm that I had the real thing. (It does look like the G4-optimized build was not 1.0. Hmmm.)

Leaving out the scrolling issue, which I resolved, my problems were three:

• Links from other applications open as new windows, not new tabs.
• There doesn’t seem to be a keyboard shortcut for “go to home page.”
• There’s no go-away icon on the tabs.

The good news is, the first one, opening links from other applications, is fixed in 1.0. This was a major speed bump for me. However, still no go-home keyboard shortcut, and still the same unfamiliar close-tab button. (Jeremy didn’t like that either, but his other two items were fixed, so he’s all good now.) The bad news is, I’ve added a fourth item:

• Form widgets are depressingly Windows-like, not Mac-like.

The second item, Julie pointed out, has a bug in Bugzilla; I just voted for it. (It’s worth complaining where you’ll be heard.) I’ve heard of an extension which supposedly handles the third, but it appears to be uneven in its Mac support; it’s not working for me. There are rumors that there will be another incremental 1.0 release for Mac OS X to handle “UI issues” which might include my last item, but I can’t find any confirmation of that on the Mozilla site.

It looks like I’ll be sticking to Camino for a bit longer. The latest nightly is… interesting.

Now Playing: Within Your Reach from Hootenanny by The Replacements