I’m such a glutton for pain. Yesterday I decided to install Firefox and make it my default browser. I don’t have a problem with Opera itself, but since most sites still fail to support web standards (rather than just the two most popular browsers, IE and FF), I resolved to join the rest of the herd cool kids and use Firefox exclusively.

I’ve been using Firefox on-and-off since it was still called Mozilla Phoenix 0.5, then Firebird, and finally to the name it has now. The last version I used with some regularity was 1.5. The bare-bones default install seems like a good idea, as I can completely customize FF to my liking. Firefox boasts an extensive add-ons library, with new extensions being uploaded every day or so. Finally, since it’s open source, anyone can scrutinize the underlying code. The reality, though, is quite different.

Firefox has never really caught my fancy. It is slow to launch, sluggish to use, and noticeably slower to load pages (important as I still find myself using dial-up connections). The memory issue (it’s not a bug, it’s a feature" – copied verbatim from Microsoft’s quotebook) is well known and, last I checked, still not fully resolved. The much-ballyhooed add-ons library is filled with vanity extensions with no practicable utility, or caters to narrow demographics with no widespread appeal. Most FF users can probably live with less than a dozen core extensions (Adblock, Greasemonkey, FlashGot). It’s also a bit annoying since it requires a restart to take effect. Same with the Theme Editor, wich is a major hassle when I’m shopping around for a new look. In Opera, skins load immediately after downloading, and I can change it just as easily. And I do not understand why search engines must be installed as an extension.

And the open-source nature of FF is oversold. Very few actually look at the code, fewer still would understand it. Being open-source is not a cure-all, as Debian’s broken OpenSSL random number generator has shown. It takes more than eyeballs to make bugs shallow. (Disclosure: I use a lot of open-source applications, I even used to use Linux as my primary OS.)

Since I’m trying to ease into Firefox from Opera, I decided to emulate as much of the built-in functionality from Opera as I can. Opera has a built-in adblocker, which one can update by updating the urlfilter.ini file from the User profile. I decided to use Firefox’s Adblock Plus extension. Opera has an excellent sidebar (called panels), so I downloaded Firefox’s All-in-One Sidebar extension. Opera introduced Speeddial, and it quickly spread to other browsers. I chose Fast Dial as the nearest Speeddial clone. In a surprising change, the refresh and stop buttons in Firefox 3 have been unmerged. Opera popularized the Reload-Stop button, and I prefer it that way, and so I installed the Stop-or-Reload Button extension. Opera again innovated the browser world by introducing the trash button, which can undo closed tabs. The nearest Firefox equivalent is the Undo Closed Tabs Button. Opera’s Wand button is another great innovation, as it’s a better, more secure way to input login data to webpages. Firefox’s Secure Login extension seems like a passable equivalent. Opera can use userscripts to tweak certain websites; and the ability to use them is built-in to the browser. In Firefox I had to install Greasemonkey just to use the userscripts. Opera’s old progress bar (still available by changing the settings) is very informative, and gives me an idea of how fast, or slow, the website is loading, and which elements are slowing it down. In IE and FF, we get a green progress bar. The Extended Statusbar gives Firefox the same effect. Other minor Opera functionalities I can’t live without are emulated in Firefox extensions Bookmark This Page Plus and Copy and Go.

I no longer use Opera’s RSS feeder (having migrated to Google Reader), so I didn’t download the buggy, crash-happy RSS readers in Firefox (Sage, NewsFox, etc.). I also don’t need Notes, the bittorrent client, or the IRC client. I also don’t need the M2 email client (Mozilla Thunderbird Portable is better IMO). Opera has all these and more built-in, yet it’s installer is not appreciably bigger than Firefox’s. And unlike FF, Opera is still snappy and responsive. When I finally installed all the extensions I needed, FF crashed. It refused to run a couple of times, until I closed Thunderbird, which was also running at the time. I guess Mozilla siblings aren’t too keen on sharing the same resources.

But despite all these, I will persevere. Firefox has captured the hearts and minds of the masses, and has therefore become a de facto internet standard. Websites that are coded primarily for IE (including Microsoft sites like Hotmail) will accept FF as an alternative. I will still keep Opera, but I will try not to use it for a month. This gives me enough time to evaluate FF, giving it a fair hearing. I’ve done this before, with FF v1.0 and FF v1.5. I’ve come away disappointed both times. I hope that FF has improved its stability, responsiveness, and speed (1-out-of-3 ain’t bad). Otherwise I’ll come running back to Opera, the best way to experience the internet.

(BTW, I’m using a 3G connection to post this. When I lost my connection temporarily, Firefox froze for a couple of minutes, almost taking this post with it.)