In fact, as of right now, the proposed Windows Vista skin looks a lot like Internet Explorer's, while the proposed OS X skin is reminiscent of Safari. There will also be two separate sets of Windows icons: one for Vista and another for XP.
Mozilla is also working on a standard theme for Linux, but this is a bit trickier, since there are many different Linux distributions and desktop-styles.
Honestly, it's nice to see the team working on a visual refresh for Firefox 3. But we kind of like the standard Firefox look and feel. We can open Firefox on a Mac, PC, or Linux machine and pretty much know where the menus are without struggling with a new menu system. Of course, most computer users don't find themselves switching back and forth between 3 or more operating systems on a regular basis, so we might just be in the minority here.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-21-2007 @ 10:23PM
David Chartier said...
This is great to hear, as Firefox's UI really sticks out in a bad way on the Mac.
I also hope one of those new features is a better way of handing cache; seeing Firefox gobble up over 1.2GB of Virtual Memory over one or two day's of medium-heavy use is getting old.
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10-21-2007 @ 10:24PM
Twist said...
Only problem is it is just a theme. I wish they would just use the system native UI elements so that Firefox would finally play nice with ShapeShifter. Sure Camino on the Mac does that but I am hooked on my Firefox extensions.
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10-21-2007 @ 10:24PM
kdmurray said...
I'm glad to see a move like this from the Firefox folks. As an admin in a medium-sized corporation one of the things holding us back from pushing out Firefox to the masses is the reaction of less-technical end-users who wouldn't be able to handle the switch.
If we can put in Firefox and make it look to some degree like Internet Explorer, we won't lose as much productivity to the complaining of exasperated end-users.
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10-21-2007 @ 10:26PM
michael said...
I still prefer IE7 over Firefox due to security and speed, but Firefox 3 looks really nice. So far.
Maybe I might switch when it comes out.
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10-24-2007 @ 8:22AM
Mohammed Nour El-Din said...
I really like Firefox more than IE. But I guess we all like the standard view of Firefox. We don't need such skins. It may affect Firefox performance.
They need to care more about the memory. Firefox still killing the memory of the machine. They should care about these issues more than skinning.
They also need to make better invest in the RSS reader.
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11-11-2007 @ 12:35PM
g2g591 said...
I love the incredible speed up.
Also @ michael:IE more secure than Firefox?! How many drugs are you on!?
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12-14-2007 @ 7:05PM
Ziggy said...
I found a firefox 3 concept via flickr, not sure of its authenticity but you can view it at http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=2110985971&size=l
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