Mozilla Firebird project (formerly Phoenix) is a redesign of Mozilla's browser component, written using the XUL user interface language and designed to be cross-platform.

Changes in Current Version:

* New default theme
* Redesigned Preferences window
* Improved Privacy Options
* Improved Bookmarks
* Talkback enabled
* Automatic Image Resizing
* Smooth Scrolling
* Access to more preferences
* Profile Chrome
* Lots of bug fixes

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firebird/

*bounces around giddily while downloading*

I've been using the May 4 build, which is pretty good, with a bug here and there. Nice t osee that they closed 'em all up and actually got a release out!

http://ie.bric.de/

I switched to Firebird just a couple days ago, from my previous modded-IE (Crazy Browser: tabs & popup blocking). I'm very happy so far. There are some minor glitches and occasional crashes, but the interface is very nice, and I'm pleased with the bookmarks system. Also, I really like the clean properties menu. I don't mind having to enter advanced properties in the separate user.js file, but I wish I didn't have to restart the browser to make them take effect.

Maybe it loads faster or renders more accurately, I can't tell, but I don't really care about that. Anyway, Firebird is shaping up very well!

I am still using Moz 1.2.1; No Phoenix build past 0.4 currently works on my main system (also true for Opera 7.x and IE until I fix it with a reinstall). I will very likely use Opera 6.05/7.11 as my main browser when I do get everything straightened out and use Moz 1.4 beta or firebird as a secondary browser.

This is the evil thing, thats why I switched back to Mozilla.

Is it less now, or still crashes oftenly?

I've been using it heavily for the last couple days, with one crash. Since I'm on a loaned computer, I'm not sure if the crash was Firebird's fault or Win98's fault.

I was using the 5/4 build and it was pretty good, but the 0.6 release is even better. The upgrade to the bookmarks system is great. I've been waiting for that for awhile.

I haven't had any crashes (win98se), but I do notice after long browsing sessions I seem to start getting some weird interface anomalies. There's also the bug that sometimes makes the cursor freeze when you're typing messages on forums like this one.

As for speed, one thing that "seems" to make it a little snappier is that I've changed the cache from the default 50mb to 10kb. Who knows if that's really making anything faster, though.

Rob

It mostly crashes when you visit a java site

and sometimes even when you are sending mails........urgggh

BUT THAT WAS THE PREV. HAVEN"T TRY THE NEW ONE YET......
Please reply me, is it any good to get the new version?

I have been using Mozilla Firebird for about 2 months now. I think it is a great product in that it is a Gecko engine browser with lower memory footprint and higher performance than Mozilla. Customizable toolbar and theme switching without restarting is cool, and I think the new Qute theme is nice. Simplied options make newbies happy, yet advanced configuration can be done by "about:config". Other not-so-obvious changes include smooth-scrolling and a larger memory cache that improves performance. I also love the google search bar in that it can search in both English and Chinese. The concept of extensions is also great. Now I just need to see if Thunderbird will be great as well.

rocketsauce: I don't understand what the "10kb" cache means. I started with a new profile and the default disk cache is 50MB.

The change from 0.5 to 0.6 is quite big. I think you should try it. In fact I didn't encounter much crashes.

It crashes at least twice a day for me on same problem - auto complete. I have been using phonenix as my pimary browser since 0.4. I also use nightly builds of 0.6 for a long time.

There is an annoying thing with 0.6 - they removed the option to disale animated pictures. It has to be done in user.js manually.

I would like to know if the crash is reproducible, since I haven't encountered it.

Yes, many advanced options are removed. Maybe you can go to the Mozillazine forum to request them to re-enable the options?

There is an annoying thing with 0.6 - they removed the option to disale animated pictures. It has to be done in user.js manually.[/QUOTE]
I would like to know if the crash is reproducible, since I haven't encountered it.

Keep surfing without killing Firebird. Fill out some forms - i.e. search at IMDB, amazon or All Music Guide. Keep surfing. Search again for same value - press arrow down to use the autocomplete => sometimes Firebird crashe.


Yes, many advanced options are removed. Maybe you can go to the Mozillazine forum to request them to re-enable the options?

Too much work :)

Right. I went in to Tools/Options/Privacy/Cache and changed it from the default 50mb to 10kb. I read on a Netscape forum that some people felt it made the browser a little faster, so I decided to try it with Firebird. I have no idea if this is really making anything faster, but it seems to make pages load a little quicker...on my machine anyway.

Rob

Ahh... under Known Issues:

# Form auto-complete is still an unstable feature and may lead to crashes.
# Disabling of form auto-completion is not working.

:(

about:config

Also, read this carefully.

Well, it depends on the relative speed of your internet connection and disk. If you have a very fast (and low-latency) connection and a fairly slow disk (or not much RAM so very little in-memory disk cache) then re-retrieving all pages from the internet rather than using a local cache may be faster. In other cases local cache is usually faster.

You're right. I should have mentioned that I'm on dsl, so this "tweak" (if it is actually doing anything) might not be the best thing to do if you're on dial-up.

Rob

This smooth scrolling in Mozilla Firebird is scary sometimes. It reminds me of IE

RIV@NVX: I think I have mentioned about:config before in this thread, but I do think that it is not convenient. The link you gave me contains 12 pages btw It would take quite a long time to read it all carefully.

Annuka: Yes, you have figured it out. The auto-completion crash bug is mentioned, though I haven't encountered it myself.

rocketsauce/Delirium: It sounds like to me that changing the disk cache size to 10kb means disabling the disk cache.

I know that you mentioned it
But, again, if you read the thread I linked to carefully (especially Asa's response to my post which said similar thing you wanted), you would see why I said it again, loud and clear

It likes to crashes when i use the "reply" button on this very forum, but then i didn't delete my old profile, i just deleted that downloads.rdf so that could be it.

I also happened to use the Qute theme in .5 version, i think it was the best one, and its good that they now include this theme. Soon, after Mozllla 1.4 finishes, we will all use MozillaFirebird (Mozilla 1.5 Browser)

Just like the good book said (type in the URL line: about:mozilla).

Firebird is the best browser avaiable, but it won't be usefull to me as long they don't fix those GDI leaks in win32....

http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=196182

be sure to get the extended tab extension.

Never crashed here. Maybe I'm lucky

Don't think so. Nothing can beat Opera 7.11 for me. Mouse gestures (now you'll say there's a plugin for it but it does not support the two button gesture for forward and back which I use most often) and extraordinary speed (Mozilla and Gecko is so slowwww) is unmatched. Indeed it is so fast and feels so lightweight I don't think anything can ever come close to the rewritten Opera 7 engine (project Presto). I haven't seen a site it failed for a long time though everything is designed for IE these days. And "Open requested pop-up windows only" is good enough for me. And I also love the "Find in page search" that searches as you type.

I've messed around with it and like it, but I'm still sticking with MyIE. MyIE2 is more stable, I don't have to reinstall flash, shockwave, etc. and since it uses IE's engine, it renders pages the exact same way. It's a tabbed interface that's highly customizable and has built-in mouse gestures. Their forums are great and offer a bunch of plugins (similar to Firebird's extensions). Another reason I'm sticking to MyIE is for AI Roboform. It's the best form filler out there and it's compatible with Mozilla but I can't get it to work with Firebird. It works perfectly with MyIE2.

reason enough that i wouldn't use it

Opera 7.11 FINAL for Linux has been released! (w00t)

Changelog:

http://www.opera.com/linux/changelogs/711/

Download Opera 7.11 for Linux:

http://www.opera.com/download/

I wish FreeBSD one is coming soon with less number of bugs than the 6.12

Well, Opera 7 is cool.
And it can display Quadrone (http://www.quadrone.org/ - my favourite "IE sux" page) properly (alright, with minor errors)
But, there are some things I prefer Mozilla for:
1. Mozilla (Firebird) is opensource and completely free (no adds, no toolbar space and bandwidth wasted)
2. Mozilla (Firebird) is fully configurable via about:config
3. Mozilla is made for web developers (it comes with useful web developer tools)
4. Mozilla uses cross platform language called XUL - Opera is available, but it's not same codebase for all platforms
5. Mozilla nightlies are compiled every day - easy bug fix tracking
6. Mozilla Firebird has dozens of various extensions
7. Smoothscrolling is not present in Opera - IE has it (and it's best out there), Mozilla has it (it's not so good, but not bad)
8. Some pages I usually visit don't display properly in Opera (and they display properly in both IE and Mozilla)
9. Indeed, Opera is faster, but I personally don't like the way it loads pages (loading styles after creating page looks awful to me) - Mozilla handles it better
And perhaps some others I can't currently think of.
Opera is cool, interface is good looking (especially if you install Qute clone for Opera:)) and useful, but, for me, it can't beat Mozilla Firebird.

As somenoe said on MozillaZine forums:

i have updated to 1.31 about a week and half ago. it never crashed on me

one of the things i like most about mozilla is how all the information is out there. yeah there are bugs like in every software, but at least with mozilla you know about them, everything is out on the table. i just wonder how many bugs and security holes IE still has that microsoft is keeping out of the public's eye

There is an option in Bugzilla to submit a bug which shouldn't be announced publicaly (if you submit a security issue).
I don't know how many bugs of such kind were submitted, but it's a nice feature.

what's the easiest way of editing firebird's cookies ?

In Win2k/XP/2k3:
C:\Documents and Settings\(Username)\Application Data\Phoenix\Profiles\(profile name)\(random numbers/letters)\cookies.txt

@RIV@NVX
yea.. i found it .
1. what about per-session cookies ?
2. isn't there a nice GUI for manipulating all cookies ?

10x,
Dg.

Tools/Options/Privacy/Cookies

Rob

10x, Rob. but you cannot edit cookies this way. only delete...

Mozilla Firebird is made to attract potential users which don't know much... and I doubt that they need such features, that's why it's missing (I suppose).