Firebird for OS X officially out.

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
So Firebird is out for the Mac, officially--what do people think? I like it, though I can't get the scroll bars to be visible for some reason, which makes it hard to use. Very fast, though.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 14
    willywalloowillywalloo Posts: 408member
    Supposedly this will be the biggest version of Mozilla in the future.



    They want to break up the code and have separate applications that do the different things for the web.



    If you look at it this way, "Why have all of those differnet resources open in Mozilla ('Net, Composer, Email, and the other two Apps) when you usually just use the Internet browser?" it seems overkill to have a program that opens up all resources everytime.



    They are moving to the more 'simplistic' route of having one application = one task: internet browsing = internet browsing, email gathering = email client.



    And it is a good idea; it's what Apple does (with AppleWorks in limbo) with iCal, iMovie, Safari, etc... Even though I dislike this company: the MacBU @ Microshaft creates better programs than their counterparts on windoze, such as Word, Excel, Chatting, etc. Adobe and Macromedia also follow these footsteps.



    Camino will continue as OS X only, as it's purpose is to give an Aqua interface to Mozilla, but Firebird will head the way of the current Mozilla browzer in the way of running on a wide range of systems, with speed.
  • Reply 2 of 14
    mrmistermrmister Posts: 1,095member
    And I reiterate--can anyone get it to show scrollbars?
  • Reply 3 of 14
    chychchych Posts: 860member
    My god, this browser looks like windows, from the buttons, preference window, scrolling, etc... I can't stand it!!!
  • Reply 4 of 14
    escherescher Posts: 1,811member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by chych

    My god, this browser looks like windows, from the buttons, preference window, scrolling, etc... I can't stand it!!!



    I second that (negative) assessment. Firebird stinks! I deleted it within minutes of downloading it. Why would anybody choose a stinky bird over Camino?



    Escher
  • Reply 5 of 14
    Its good to see that there are third party browsers being built but Safari is clearly the winner. Eventhough it is still in beta.
  • Reply 6 of 14
    cubedudecubedude Posts: 1,556member
    I stopped using Camino before Safari was released. Too buggy for me(kept crashing).



    Anyways, I think Firebird will be used by most of the hardcore Linux/Open-Source people, but most will still stick with Safari.
  • Reply 7 of 14
    mrmistermrmister Posts: 1,095member
    If anybody uses it, let me know on that scroll bar problem.
  • Reply 8 of 14
    I haven't seen your scrollbar problem on teither of three Macs I've tried.



    I suggest you trash the preferences and the app and start it clean.
  • Reply 9 of 14
    hobbeshobbes Posts: 1,252member
    Not bad, not great. Certainly fast. UI is OK, not super, lots of quirks. Safari's tab behavior is oodles better.
  • Reply 10 of 14
    1337_5l4xx0r1337_5l4xx0r Posts: 1,558member
    In linux, I still prefer Galeon (compiled against GTK2) to firebird, and on Mac, it does nothing Camino and safari don't do. However, like Mozilla, this is one to keep an eye on. The project is quite young.



    AFA Mozilla, it's not like when you fire up Mozilla browser, mail and composer and IRC (groan) are loaded into memory. I think the split up is for clarity, ease of debugging/contributing code, and to make Moz more lightweight.
  • Reply 11 of 14
    1337_5l4xx0r1337_5l4xx0r Posts: 1,558member
    Also, as a user of Gentoo linux, nothing is as annoying as a friggin 9 hour compile for a freaking web browser (Mozilla), as you are compiling all that extra stuff. I've only recently figured out how not to compile the cruft.
  • Reply 12 of 14
    bartobarto Posts: 2,246member
    There is no reason why the average end user on Mac OS X should use Firebird. If you want Aqua/KDE, go Safari. If you want Aqua/Mozilla, go Camino. Because Apple has a 1st rate mail client and a good web browser, I don't see Firebird/Thunderbird for Mac OS X ever catching on.



    But if you use Windows, Firebird/Thunderbird is a godsend.



    Barto
  • Reply 13 of 14
    groveratgroverat Posts: 10,872member
    Firebird .6 on Windows is very nice.
  • Reply 14 of 14
    mcqmcq Posts: 1,543member
    Yeah, Firebird for Windows is great... other platforms, not sure why you'd use it though. OS X I'm pretty much using Camino/Safari all the time now, Firebird is interesting but I'll wait a couple months to see what progress is made for the OS X version.
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