It’s a long time since I wrote a review here, so it’s nice to be back! This review is posted using Mozilla Firebird 0.6.1+.
Firebird is for you if you want just a browser -- a very good one -- and nothing more. Remove mail, news, messenger and composer (if you don’t know what these are, then surely you are looking for Firebird) from Mozilla and you have the Firebird. All of 6.8MB for Windows and with tabbed browsing, it is surely the thing that can give M$ a run for their monopoly.
But how does Firebird threaten IE?
If you’ve been using IE all along, these are some of the things you are missing.
Tabbed Browsing: When you open 10 sites, IE has a window each for everyone. I agree that the experience is better is XP, which stacks up all related windows. In tabbed browsing, you get all sites inside a single browser window and the result is a clutter-free desktop.
Pop-up blocker: Pop-up windows are those stupid windows that creep up when you open a site or sometimes when you close it. Haven’t you ever wanted to bid them bye. Pop-up blocking helps you do just that. Only windows you ask for will ever be opened for you!
Page Zoom: Hold down the [Ctrl] key and press the + key and you can zoom into the page. Holding down the [Ctrl] key and pressing - key will zoom out of the page. It is not just text resizing as in IE, even images get bigger and smaller, as in Opera.
And most of the IE keyboard shortcuts works just as such: Ctrl+D to reach the address box, F5 to refresh, Ctrl+Enter to auto-complete URL with https:// and .com.
Do download these Browser Extensions
True to Moz traditions, browser extensions enrich your experience. Among the big lot, I love the Tabbrowser Extensions which just gives complete control over tabs and the All-in-One Gestures which help with mouse gestures as in Opera.
Should I really use Firebird?
Firebird is open-source and is based on Mozilla, the same code which powers Netscape. Competition for Firebird is more from Opera and if you are already an Opera fan, you might not be too impressed with Firebird. The strength of Firebird is more about its open source background and web standards compliance.
Installing Firebird
There’s no installation for Firebird (as of version 0.6.1). You just have to unzip the files to your preferred directory and run the program ’’MozillaFirebird.exe’’ in the directory.
Links
Download Firebird
https://mozilla.org/products/firebird/
https://texturizer.net/firebird/
Browser Extensions for Firebird
https://texturizer.net/firebird/extensions.html
Tabbrowser Extensions
https://white.sakura.ne.jp/~piro/xul/_tabextensions.html.en
All-in-One Gestures
https://perso.wanadoo.fr/marc.boullet/ext/extensions-en.html#vers08
Themes for Firebird
https://texturizer.net/firebird/themes.html
Mozilla Homepage
https://mozilla.org/