Melio
2004-03-12, 03:42 PM CST
Firefox 0.8 I386 linux - Review
System Specifications
Manufacturer: Custom Build
Processor: AMD-64 3000+ @ 2ghz
Motherboard: VIA K8T800 Northbridge Chipset/VT8237 Southbridge Ethernet: RealTek 8110C/8110S Dual Layout 10/100/1000MBs
Sound: RealTek ALC655 (AC97 v2.3)
RAM: 1GB DDR
Hard Drive: WD 40gb IDE
Video Card: Nvidia GeForce Ti 4400
Display Setup : Dual Monitor support
Video 1 : 19i KDS Avitron Flat CRT
Video 2 : 19i Envision Flat CRT
installed drives: CD-RW – HP 9500 Series
Installed OS: Fedora Linux CORE 1 2.4.22-1.2174.nptl i686 athlon i386
Overall description of the program and it's purpose.
Firefox 0.8 is a prerelease of Mozilla's team of coders latest browser creation that really knocked me out of my chair when I first fired this up, it was simple to install, even easyer to use and this thing keeps on getting better with the use of themes, extensions and simple to add Search engines.
Some of the features of firefox include
Tabbed Browsing – multiple web pages within one browser, it opens links in the background directly into the tabs so you can click the tab when your finished within your current web page tab. It's kinda a no brainer to use so no further description is required.
Pop-up Blocker - Annoying Popups got you ticked? This blocks em, doesnt even require effort to configure, it's part of the build,
Customizable Toolbars – you can add, remove items, make new toolbars in short, do whatever you want with the buttons on your browser.
Extensions – Plug-ins, when I first fired up Firefox, I found a short list of Extensions available, that list grew, and it continues to grow rapidly – they link directly to the extentions listing right on the firefox homepage, and installation is a snap, click and download it. Firefox already knows how to handle it. With basic knowledge of industry standards such as XML, CSS and JavaScript, you can even create your own extensions.
Standard Autocomplete feature – basicly you start typing in an address, it remembers from history where you have been, starts showing you a list of relevant addresses that matches your current critera simultaniously as you type. This also works within forms for things like labeled forms that match other site forms. Such as an Address field on a form structured page.
Pretty slick Search Feature – not only does it have an independent search box within the browser, you can insert your favorite search engines, this works a lot like extentions and it makes it ultra convenient. Currently there are hundreds of search engines avialable to Firefox.
Internal downloaded files manager – every time you download something with firefox it knows to associate it with various applications such as fileroller but you can customize this for every file type you download – it has presets already configured, but are easly changed for instant gratification. The manager also makes it very easy to find what you just downloaded, and you can specify where the downloads go too.
Customizable Themes – themes can change anything from the buttons, to the whole browser appearance. These function simular to the extensions so grabbing themes you want is simple and easy as well ..
Not only did I find this browser stable, reliable and easy to use. I found it to be a direct replacement to internet Explorer on my previous Windows XP installation, so with that, I should mention that this browser runs on several platforms. But since this review is for fedora. I should stick to the basics here :) Fedora and Firefox are an excellent match.
Other notes
Installation is very simple, there are RPM's available to make install Firefox system wide, these can be found here (http://dag.wieers.com/packages/firefox/).
The linux GTK version is 9.1MB and the GTK2 and XFT version is 8.6MB
A link to some screenshots of the program running under Fedora
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/productIconFirefox.png
Assessment on the installation out of 5
5 of 5 – perfect – this installs easly, no issues in fedora at all
Assessment of the ease of use out of 5
4 of 5 – Almost perfect – mozilla hates it when you try to open several browsers at the same time under the same profile. All browsers in linux do this, it just makes browsing and surfing the web with smoothness a little quirky – but with tabs, as long as you know to open things in new tabs. It makes it a lot smoother.
Assessment of the features out of 5
5 of 5 – Perfect – Features are upgradable, easy to get to, simple to add.
Assessment on the quality of the program out of 5
5 of 5 – Perfect – not a single crash or glitch yet. Altho this is a gamma release of sorts, 1.0 version isnt out yet. I'm really impressed.
An overall assessment out of 10 (All 4 marks added up, and divided by 2)
19 out of 20 points possible. / 9.5 Score
Firefox 0.8 is an excellent browser, completely upgradable and customizable.
System Specifications
Manufacturer: Custom Build
Processor: AMD-64 3000+ @ 2ghz
Motherboard: VIA K8T800 Northbridge Chipset/VT8237 Southbridge Ethernet: RealTek 8110C/8110S Dual Layout 10/100/1000MBs
Sound: RealTek ALC655 (AC97 v2.3)
RAM: 1GB DDR
Hard Drive: WD 40gb IDE
Video Card: Nvidia GeForce Ti 4400
Display Setup : Dual Monitor support
Video 1 : 19i KDS Avitron Flat CRT
Video 2 : 19i Envision Flat CRT
installed drives: CD-RW – HP 9500 Series
Installed OS: Fedora Linux CORE 1 2.4.22-1.2174.nptl i686 athlon i386
Overall description of the program and it's purpose.
Firefox 0.8 is a prerelease of Mozilla's team of coders latest browser creation that really knocked me out of my chair when I first fired this up, it was simple to install, even easyer to use and this thing keeps on getting better with the use of themes, extensions and simple to add Search engines.
Some of the features of firefox include
Tabbed Browsing – multiple web pages within one browser, it opens links in the background directly into the tabs so you can click the tab when your finished within your current web page tab. It's kinda a no brainer to use so no further description is required.
Pop-up Blocker - Annoying Popups got you ticked? This blocks em, doesnt even require effort to configure, it's part of the build,
Customizable Toolbars – you can add, remove items, make new toolbars in short, do whatever you want with the buttons on your browser.
Extensions – Plug-ins, when I first fired up Firefox, I found a short list of Extensions available, that list grew, and it continues to grow rapidly – they link directly to the extentions listing right on the firefox homepage, and installation is a snap, click and download it. Firefox already knows how to handle it. With basic knowledge of industry standards such as XML, CSS and JavaScript, you can even create your own extensions.
Standard Autocomplete feature – basicly you start typing in an address, it remembers from history where you have been, starts showing you a list of relevant addresses that matches your current critera simultaniously as you type. This also works within forms for things like labeled forms that match other site forms. Such as an Address field on a form structured page.
Pretty slick Search Feature – not only does it have an independent search box within the browser, you can insert your favorite search engines, this works a lot like extentions and it makes it ultra convenient. Currently there are hundreds of search engines avialable to Firefox.
Internal downloaded files manager – every time you download something with firefox it knows to associate it with various applications such as fileroller but you can customize this for every file type you download – it has presets already configured, but are easly changed for instant gratification. The manager also makes it very easy to find what you just downloaded, and you can specify where the downloads go too.
Customizable Themes – themes can change anything from the buttons, to the whole browser appearance. These function simular to the extensions so grabbing themes you want is simple and easy as well ..
Not only did I find this browser stable, reliable and easy to use. I found it to be a direct replacement to internet Explorer on my previous Windows XP installation, so with that, I should mention that this browser runs on several platforms. But since this review is for fedora. I should stick to the basics here :) Fedora and Firefox are an excellent match.
Other notes
Installation is very simple, there are RPM's available to make install Firefox system wide, these can be found here (http://dag.wieers.com/packages/firefox/).
The linux GTK version is 9.1MB and the GTK2 and XFT version is 8.6MB
A link to some screenshots of the program running under Fedora
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/productIconFirefox.png
Assessment on the installation out of 5
5 of 5 – perfect – this installs easly, no issues in fedora at all
Assessment of the ease of use out of 5
4 of 5 – Almost perfect – mozilla hates it when you try to open several browsers at the same time under the same profile. All browsers in linux do this, it just makes browsing and surfing the web with smoothness a little quirky – but with tabs, as long as you know to open things in new tabs. It makes it a lot smoother.
Assessment of the features out of 5
5 of 5 – Perfect – Features are upgradable, easy to get to, simple to add.
Assessment on the quality of the program out of 5
5 of 5 – Perfect – not a single crash or glitch yet. Altho this is a gamma release of sorts, 1.0 version isnt out yet. I'm really impressed.
An overall assessment out of 10 (All 4 marks added up, and divided by 2)
19 out of 20 points possible. / 9.5 Score
Firefox 0.8 is an excellent browser, completely upgradable and customizable.