Enjoy the simple look of the Opera browser? Take a look at FXOpera – a great theme for Firefox. This complete theme will overhaul the entire Firefox interface to make it look more like it’s browsing competitor. The whole theme works fine, looks great – why have you not downloaded it yet? You can pick up FXOpera at the Firefox Add-ons website.
Need another simple theme for Firefox? FXOpera will be a great find for you. This great theme mimics some of the sleekness of the Opera theme and gives it a Firefox-like makeover.
Did you know that Opera already has a Tab Candy-like feature? No? Neither did the anybody else apparently.
Let us end this week with one more win in the Firefox column.
Over at Download Squad, they have been doing some really interesting browser testing. In a 4-way HTML5 speed test, Firefox 3.7 beat Internet Explorer 9, Opera and Chrome. The Video really speaks for itself, but if you want to learn more – be sure to check out this post over at DownloadSquad.com.
Sure, there might only be six people in the world using the Opera browser, however you do have to admit those six people have a pretty nice looking theme for that browser of choice. Would you like to give Firefox the look and feel of Opera 10? If so, read on.
Both the Operetta and Operetta Advance themes for Firefox will give you that Opera look and feel you have been looking for. The main difference between the two themes is that Operetta has the tab bar in the usual location (under the bookmarks) and Operetta Advance will move the tab bar to the top of the browser (on top of the menu). So you have two choices to work with, depending on where you want the tabs bar.
Here is what Operetta looks like in action.
What are you to do when you need to switch to another internet browser in a hurry? Sure we all love Firefox, but some of us use maybe two or three other browsers for the Web too. How can you quickly leap into Safari, Opera, Chrome or even Internet Explorer from Firefox? Very easily.
Open Links in Chrome – As the new kid on the block, it took some hunting to find a good way to switch to Chrome in a hurry. The Chrome View add-on for Firefox is what you need. This extension lets you open the page your currently viewing in Firefox, via Google’s new Chrome browser.
Open Links in Internet Explorer – Switching from Firefox to Internet Explorer is something we have been doing for some time now. There are two great add-ons that allow you to do this. The first is IE View. This extension gives you the ability to open any page you have open in Firefox, in Internet Explorer. An even better alternative though is IE Tab. IE Tab will embed Internet Explorer inside of your Firefox tab, so you don’t really even have to switch browsers.
Open Links in Opera – Ah, yes Opera. The girl at the dance with all the features that nobody uses. Just in case you might want to hop over to Opera usage for a while, there is OperaView. This too will give you a new context menu item that will let you open the target link in Opera. Great for web developers or people who just like to be “different”. (don’t worry, we won’t tell anybody)
Open Links in Safari – Lastly, the new pretty boy on the block (at least for Windows users) before Chrome took the spot, Safari switching can be done with an add-on too. Safari View (mac) and Safari View (win) get you from Firefox to Apple’s browsing delight very quickly.
In a comparison with Internet Explorer 8, Safari, and Opera 9.5 I think Firefox 3 so far wins hands down. To get a better idea of what you can expect though from the next generation of browsers, Cnet has put up a nice round up of all the latest for you to browse through and see what you like and hate about each.
The section on how it compares to the others was the most enlightening of all:
Firefox remains the best browser on the whole, with great features, impressive improvements all-round, a revised bookmarking system and thousands of add-ons to make it easy to perfectly customise.
The improvements in performance are stellar, it’s got some well-integrated features than everyone will use (resumable download manager, tag-ready bookmarking) and it offers, overall, a better, richer Web experience. We’re behind Firefox and we hope that when the final release is out it’ll be just that little bit better to boot.
More great news for the Mozilla crew! Is there something the other browsers are getting or doing that you wish Firefox 3 would try to do too?
This is a ‘bit of news that might have been missed by some. It looks like Firefox 3 continues to gain praise for having a significant reduction in the amount of memory it uses over Firefox 2.
Over at Ars Technica this is what they are saying:
During intensive browsing with approximately 50 tabs, I have found that Firefox 3 generally consumes less than half of the memory used by Firefox 2.0.0.12. Firefox 3 is also snappier and more responsive when switching between tabs and performing other operations that typically lag in Firefox 2.0.0.12 when the browser is experiencing heavy load.
This is great news for any Firefox fans out there. Over the recent years the memory problems seem to be the big sticking point for a lot of people. Has this mountain of an issue finally been solved?
+ Firefox 3 Goes on a Diet, Eats Less Memory than IE and Opera
Want to view, edit, publish video for the Web without worrying about having the right plugin, or doing the right version for the right people depending on the video method they like the most?
Well both Mozilla and the Opera people are getting behind a movement to do just that.
Looks like the solution will be to use some open source technology mixed with a new tag to make embedding video in web pages easier.
Opera and Mozilla officials say the changes to their browsers will offer a new level of ease for Web developers using open-source tools to embed and stream their video. If video encoded in Ogg Theora plays directly in the browser, everyday Internet surfers would not have the burden of downloading extra plug-ins for their browser to play the video.
A lot of other good points are made in this PC World article on the topic. We don’t need a plugin to view images – why should we need one to watch video?
Will Firefox be moving into the mobile market? Well, I don’t think it will be happening anytime soon. If it does happen eventually though, Opera might become even more of a non-player in the browser market. Found this interesting ‘bit of news over at Download Squad.
Baker says developers are working on a mobile browser, but says it’s a long term goal and nothing users should expect to see anytime soon. While the Minimo project is based on Mozilla, it isn’t an official product and it’s still a few (dozen) steps behind Opera Mobile when it comes to speed and performance.
It might be a lot of promise and “maybe” right now, but if it does happen I have a feeling that the people using Opera’s mobile browser will feel like the ones using the desktop Opera. Lonely.
Related Reading: Download Squad | Interview with Mitchell Baker
