Firefox On A Mac Now Enjoyable
December 1st, 2005
My only problem thus far with my new machine is Firefox. Firefox is far and away my favorite browser, but the Mac version feels clunky and slow, to put it nicely. For the past few weeks I have been switching from Safari to Camino to Firefox to Omniweb and I just couldn’t make up my mind.
A Customized Solution
Tonight I stumbled across a G4-optimized Firefox 1.5 release (there is also a G5 version). The author even has a small list of extensions he updated to be 1.5 compatible and a link to a theme which makes Firefox look more like Safari.
The optimized version definitely feels more responsive and the theme feels a bit more mac-ish than the default (probably because of its resemblence to Safari). On top of the performance and aesthetic improvements, the list of extensions that he has updated included all of my favorites. Firefox nirvana has been achieved once again.
P.S. If you are wondering what a few of the buttons are in the screenshot above they are two extensions I have added.
- Backpack Pages: This extension gives you access to all your Backpack pages at the click of a button. It is very handy.
- Del.icio.us: Adds two buttons. One for your Del.icio.us homepage and the other can be used to tag the current page you are browsing.
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[...] Firefox has finally reached version 1.5 for all available systems and is a highly recommended upgrade for all owners of this great browser. There are also G4 and G5 optimized versions for those with the appropriate processors. Lastly, John Nunemaker has some tips to make Firefox look more like a Mac application and hide its multi-platform feel (which is about the only drawback making me use Safari nearly full time). [...]