Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Opera 9.5 and Google Chrome
Opera launched Opera 9.5 which fixed a lot of the issues that I had mentioned earlier. The most important change made, which fixes a long standing quarrel I had with Opera, was that an option was added to switch to the next tab after closing the current one. This makes Opera's behavior consistent with that of most other major browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome etc.) Here are some issues that still prevent me from making Opera my default browser:
Lack of a "Safari" style RSS reader: The Opera RSS reader uses the each-RSS-item-is-an-email model. I prefer the Safari (or IE7 or Firefox with Sage) each-feed-is-a-rendered-page model.
Can't move Personal Bar next to the menu: This is just a convenient space saver. In Firefox, I can move the Bookmarks Toolbar in Firefox right next to the menu. Thus giving me some more browsing space while retaining quick access to my favorite bookmarklets.
Adblock and UserJS UI primitive compared to Firefox: While Opera does possess ad blocking and user scripting capabilities, the UI exposed for both is very primitive as compared to Firefox. For example, there is no easy way to white-list websites using the Opera content blocker.
No built-in spell checking: While spell checking can be enabled in Opera, it is not at seamless and easy to use as the spell checking built into Firefox and Safari.
Firefox is catching up: One of Opera's most compelling and unique features was the full page zoom. Unfortunately, with the release of Firefox 3.0, Mozilla has replicated this very useful feature in Firefox and made it more useful by adding the capability to remember the zoom level for each website. And Opera's other selling point, speed, is also being threatened thanks to Mozilla initiatives such as Tracemonkey.
When it comes to speed, Google claims that it's freshly launched Chrome browser is the fastest. However, Chrome also comes with a most unique feature that no other browser possesses (well, except maybe IE 8:) per tab processes and a browser task manager.
It also steals features from:
- Firefox
- Instant bookmarks
- Firefox extensions
- Application shortcuts = Mozilla Prism
- Dynamic tabs = Tab Mix Plus
- Simpler Downloads = Download Statusbar
- Safari
- Incognito Mode = Private Browsing
- Opera
- One box for everything = Opera 9.5 address bar
- New tab page = Speed Dial
Closing the last tab closes the browser: Closing the application should only happen when the user clicks on the big red X at the top right corner or chooses exit from the File menu.
Lack of web feed support: RSS feeds, Atom feeds etc. mean nothing to Chrome. Hopefully a feed capable version will be available soon.
No built-in spell checking: A must for all bloggers.
Extended Validation Certificate UI is lacking: While Chrome supports EV certificates, the UI used to display them is primitive compared to Firefox, Internet Explorer and Opera.
Installs in Local Application Data directory instead of Program Files: This is a big issue. It effectively means that every user will have to install and run his own copy of Chrome. There are many other negative ramifications of this decision. This thread on the Chrome Google Group has details.
Website Issues: Certain websites are slow and buggy. Facebook and Hotmail are two major ones.
Crashes: For a browser that is supposed to be crash resistant by design, I have had it crashing a decent number of times. Look at this thread. And finally,
No Adblock: Chrome lacks an ad blocker. While it seems unlikely that Google will ever release one, Chrome is open source, so perhaps we will see a third party extension soon.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Safari on Windows Redux
Back when Apple first released Safari for Windows, I posted about 10 things that were broken about it. Now that Apple has released the first non-beta version (3.1) let's revisit that list:
- Can't add custom search engines.
- Double clicking on the tab bar to create a new tab doesn't work. Fixed!
- Ctrl-Enter in the address bar doesn't autocomplete to www. .com. Fixed!
- Middle clicking on a tab doesn't close it.
- Can't close the last tab.
- Grabs IE and Firefox bookmarks by default but doesn't display them in the Bookmarks menu. Doesn't grab Opera bookmarks.
- Doesn't use the standard RSS icon.
- Doesn't follow Windows UI conventions. Cannot resize using any border. Fixed!
- Breaks Fitt's Law! There is a one pixel hole in the maximized Safari at the top right corner. Moving the mouse to the top right corner and clicking closes the maximized window underneath Safari! Fixed!
- Complex font rendering broken e.g. Devanagari. Fixed!
Another improvement in Safari 3.1 is a hidden preference to enable GDI+ based text rendering on Windows (ClearType!) More details here.
Link
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
10 Things Broken In Apple Safari on Windows
Apple released Safari 3 Beta for Windows with a lot of fanfare. Unfortunately they did a lot of things wrong. Other people have already written extensively about the lack of ClearType support and crashes. Here are 10 other things that Apple did wrong.
- Can't add custom search engines. Firefox, IE7 and Opera all support this.
- Double clicking on the tab bar to create a new tab doesn't work. Works in Firefox, IE7 and Opera. (Neither is there a New Tab button that I can drag to the tab bar.)
- Ctrl-Enter in the address bar doesn't autocomplete to www. .com. Neither does Shift-Enter to www. .net nor Ctrl-Shift-Enter to www. .org. Firefox supports all three and IE7 and Opera support the first. Opera can be customized to support all three.
- Middle clicking on a tab doesn't close it. Works on Firefox, IE7 and Opera. Perhaps because Macs don't have middle buttons? (Opera's problematic close behavior has been blogged about before.)
- Can't close the last tab. You can in Firefox and Opera.
- Grabs IE and Firefox bookmarks by default but doesn't display them in the Bookmarks menu. Doesn't grab Opera bookmarks.
- Doesn't use the standard RSS icon. Firefox, IE7 and Opera all do.
- Doesn't follow Windows UI conventions. Cannot resize using any border.
- Breaks Fitt's Law! There is a one pixel hole in the maximized Safari at the top right corner. Moving the mouse to the top right corner and clicking closes the maximized window underneath Safari!
- Complex font rendering broken e.g. Devanagari
