Paul Thurrott on Firefox 4

It's not a bad write-up, though Thurrott still is a Chrome+IE9 (naturally) guy. I just don't get why the tech crowd is so into Chrome. Beyond some under the hood stuff (like a separate instance for each tab and installing extensions without restarting), speed is the only thing it has on Firefox 4 and Thurrott himself said the speed difference on modern browsers isn't dramatic. Firefox 4's interface is heavily Chrome-inspired (see this post in order to de-Chrome it). Okay, it lacks the ability to create standalone applications, but unlike Thurrott I much prefer pin-tabs anyway (a feature first available in the Chrome Browser, not just ChromeOS, which Firefox improved on by making links outside the pinned website's domain open in new windows--I love that since it makes the pinned website stickier). If you really want standalone apps, get Prism.

Here's what Firefox has that Chrome doesn't:

• A modern bookmarking system. Chrome's is pre-Netscape 4.0x and pre-IE5. In other words, it's a 20th century bookmarking system in 2011.


• A good history interface, including the ability to reopen recently closed tabs. I use this all the time (Chrome has that, at least you can reopen the last closed tab by either right-clicking the tab bar or doing Ctrl-Shift-Tab; you can keep doing it to open previous closed tabs in order of closure). Also, you can access your history without having to open a separate window/tab which is really nice. You can also search and delete items at the same time, something Chrome won't let you do.


• A full-screen mode that includes a compact hideaway tab and navigation bar. Finally they got rid of the grey line at the top when it's hidden so you have the best of both worlds: real fullscreen and full browser functionality when you need it. And with the bookmark sidebar you get access to your bookmarks when you need them with a simply Ctrl-b without having to leave fullscreen.


• A larger and richer extension ecosystem. Many people say this bogs down the browser because people have too many extensions. I say: use a little self-control and only keep the ones you really need active. Of course this would be a lot easier if, like Chrome, Firefox allowed extensions to be turned on and off without restarting.


• Mouse Gestures that don't screw up the right mouse button in OSX and Linux. Not an issue for the Windows-using majority, though.


• Customizability. My Firefox 4 is much different in appearance than the standard. restored the menu bar, added back the RSS icon in the address bar, restored the status bar, and removed the status bar-like functionality from the address bar. My Firefox basically looks like the old Firefox 3.6 with tabs on top and the new theme. This isn't something you can really do in Chrome. Paul Thurrott does list this as an advantage of Firefox.

As for the lack of search functionality in the location bar, I've used Smart Keywords on Firefox for years to search from the location bar. Actually, I used pretty much the same feature on IE4 (via QuickSearch.exe from IE PowerToys) way back when and missed it when I moved to Linux until I'd discovered that it had been implemented in Mozilla's browser (no doubt it had been there for a long time without my knowing about it).

Maybe it's the task manager. I have to admit that does make me drool (no, not literally).