Well I guess I should join the Firefox 3 review bandwagon. I’ve been using Firefox 3 since beta 5, which came bundled with the new version of Ubuntu. I also upgraded my browsers on both my PC and MacBook, so I got an impression of the browser’s functions, bugs and most importantly speed on all of the three major platforms, except Vista of course, but Vista sucks, so why bother. Get your read on, I’ll be starting with:
Windows XP SP3
I’ve been using Firefox on XP for a long, long time and there were a lot of plugins which ceased to function. The most important ones worked, though. So I uninstalled all of the old ones and gave some alternatives a shot. The upgrade went pretty smoothly, although the plugin compatibility check took a considerable amount of time. What you can really notice is the increase in speed. As a matter of fact, it runs almost as quickly as on Linux. I don’t like the theme they used for XP, though it’s interesting to see that the larger Back button isn’t stupid design at all, on the contrary, it makes work faster.
Ubuntu Linux 8.04
Loads up in three seconds, a real rocket! Firefox 3 integrates with your GTK+ theme, so you’ve got some cool visual consistency going on which is actually an exception in Linux. A problem many reviewers forget to tell you about is that even though this is great for GNOME or XFCE, KDE 4 ain’t no beauty with FF3. It just uses the ugly default GTK theme if you don’t do any tweaking. Uuuuugly… If you want to use Firefox with KDE 4, I recommend you use this theme.
Firefox is a great browser for Linux and is probably the most widely used one, but note that even though the final version of FF 3.0 is far better than the beta, it crashes more and has more bugs than the other major browser, Opera 9.5 for Linux. I personally experience the worst crashes when trying to print stuff.
Mac OS X
It’s probably got something to do with my config: Firefox 3 needs about 8-10 seconds to load in Mac OS X. I like the way they changed the theme for the Mac, now it looks like a part of the OS, so thumbs up for that. Somehow, I can’t get ScribeFire to work with Firefox on the Mac - it’s a big problem for me, so currently I’m staying with Flock on the Mac, because FF 3.0 crashes repeatedly when I’m doing complex stuff, like running a lot of tabs with Java and Flash or have more than 10 tabs open at the same time.
Are you using Firefox 3? How do you feel about it?
Well, a lot of time has passed since my little article about the ten apps I immediately install onto a default Linux setup. And time in open source means evolution! I’ve switched to a few apps that really make my desktop experience more enjoyable because of speed, stability and beauty.
Let’s see what we got…
I’ve always been an Amarok fanboy, then I switched to GTK+ and with it to Audacious. But it has never been the same. Banshee, which is now at version 1.0, has everything you need, and MORE. Podcasts, Internet radio, album artwork, it’s just liek Amarok, only in my opinion, better, prettier and simply the best player for GNOME out there. It has integrated iPod support too. Rhythmbox is just nothing compared to Banshee.
Opera (the new one, 9.5)
Until you’ve tried he new 9.5 version of the Opera browser, you have no idea how fast the Internet can be. The Opera team did a great job, redesigning their flagship browser from both the inside and outside. Because of Qt it may look a wee bit better for you KDE folks out there, but hey, I’m using it on GNOME and it still looks slick. Oh, and Opera is now officially one of the few popular browsers which don’t lag on Digg.
It’s a mind-mapping application. What, you don’t know why you should use a mind-map? Hm, well, that’s OK with me, if you don’t want to boost your productivity for like 50%…
An open source Limewire clone, with all the functions, minus the adware/spyware/whatever other doo-doo they put into it. I’ve been searching for a stable p2p app for Linux for quite a long time, I hated aMule and gtk-gnutella-what’s-its-face was a bit too spartan for my taste. It does BitTorrent too, so there’s no need for a special client for that (or just use Opera).
It’s really hard to describe this app! Well, yeah it is an app launcher, but at the same time it’s so much more. Please check the main site, it does a good job saying what power GNOME Do gives you. And don’t let the name deceive you, it works on KDE too (didn’t test this!).
Have fun testing these cool apps out!
Finally, the long-awaited Ooo office suite, the best and most popular open source office suite sponsored by Sun Microsystems, has released an official beta of Openoffice.org.
Image from the softpedia screenshot archive
Version 3 has got a bunch of new features, these are my favourite improvements:
- Full Mac OS X Cocoa support (no need to install the Neooffice port anymore!), which means Mac users finally got an official Openoffice version! GoodbyMicrosoft Office for Mac!
- OpenOffice.org 3.0 is now able to open files created with Microsoft Office 2007 or Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx, file formats).
- Impress, the PowerPoint alternative, supprots multiple screens
- New, fresh icons
And lots more.
Download it you guys, obey the Internetling!
If you’re in a dilemma, just use this post which quickly describes some of the most popular (though not all) desktop environments and window managers. The desktop environments and WMs listed here can easily be downloaded from your distribution’s respective package management system (type “apt-get fluxbox” in your terminal to get fluxbox with apt, for instance).
GNOME
Simple and polished, a bit slower than you’d expect, fairly customizable. GTK!
KDE 3
More windows-like, lower learning curve, lacks cool themeing. Extremenly customizable. Qt.
KDE 4
“Awesome” factor, lacks cool themeing although the default one looks very nice, a bit unstable, faster than you’d expect.
XFCE
GNOME-like, much faster, good GTK integration, nice themeing, simplistic
Enlightenment
Low system requirements, dock, a bit strange (higher learning curve).
IceWM
Very low system requirements, Windows-like, simple, fast, soe me nice themes out there
Openbox
The “geeky” Blackbox-inspiredWM. Right click, menu. Extreme keybinding support. XML configuration files.
Fluxbox
Blackbox fork (thanks guys). More themes!
Links
- http://xwinman.org/
- http://freshmeat.net/articles/view/639/
My anime addiction has made me download tons of anime this week, so I was sometimes forced to use the proprietary Realmedia .rm and .rmvb files. While the compression quality is outstanding, I tried to find a good replacement for Real Player on Linux.
On Windows I use Real Alternative and on my Mac the free Real Player (it doesn’t seem as bloated as the Windows version).
And then i stumbled upon a player called Helix. The Helix DNA is the base of Real Player, but the Helix player works only on Unix systems. I’m still testing it, but according to a few Google searches I did it should play well with Real media formats.
Off to Kanon!
