It’s been a long time coming, but Firefox 4 has finally been released. There is a lot of hype around this long awaited release, but why all the fuss? Why hasn’t any other browser had this sort of attention? I suppose the best way to find out is to take a look ourselves!
If you haven’t already, you can grab a copy here: https://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new/. The download is about 11MB so it shouldn’t take too long to download at all. Once installed you get the chance to check all of your add-on. Before the browser is even open the first disappointment has struck as it tells me that most of my current add-on’s are not compatible and will be disabled!
When it opens (5 seconds after clicking the icon) the first thing that strikes me is how clean its new interface looks. It’s much like Chrome, and even has a feature of chrome – no status bar at the bottom. The bar you see in the screenshot is the “add-ons bar”. They’ve taken a page out of Chromes book and used a popup URL box when you hover over a link. I like that idea.
After clicking just a few links, already it seems faster but that could be down to the disabled add-ons from the setup process. I hope it’s not, I could take a personal liking to Firefox again after my hard chosen move to Chrome as my primary browser.
So what else is new? The first feature I found was in Options, and that’s Firefox Sync. This allows you to synchronise Firefox across your devices, including your bookmarks, history, passwords, and just about everything else to do with your Firefox profile. You’ll need an account to use it, but the wizard to create one is quick and easy.
It does disappoint me that the majority of my add-on’s don’t work on Firefox 4. As an Dental SEO Programmer I rely on those add-on’s to make my working life just that bit easier. For that reason alone I’ll have to fall back to Firefox 3 for a little while until developers catch up.
Here is a small list of add-on’s that don’t work:
- All-in-one gestures
- Google Global
- Google Toolbar
- Live https Headers
- MeasureIt
- Screengrab
For me these are very helpful add-ons that I find it hard to live without, especially the gestures add-on which makes it quicker to switch pages and perform certain tasks using only the mouse.
My overall opinion of Firefox 4 is mixed. I like the new interface and I love the speed, but the lack of support for older add-on’s does disappoint me. The fact that developers haven’t caught up also disappoints me with the number of release candidates there have been the last few months.
Overall I can see it being a great browser once the add-on’s are sorted out. Once that happens, I’ll try and give it another chance as my primary browser, but until then, I can’t see myself giving it the “awesomeness” status.
