Firefox is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X, and today I’m focusing on the Mac OS X edition of Firefox 3.0Firefox on the Mac is quite different from Firefox on Windows. If you use Windows as your main operating system, you will notice that Firefox fits into Windows very well, and integrates with the rest of the operating as well as most of the other programs on Windows. Most of the programs on Windows don’t integrate very well, so Firefox seems very normal.
However, in Mac OS X, the programs are all very integrated with each other. For example, with Safari, downloads are downloaded to the “Downloads” stack and a progress file is shown while the file is downloading. However, Firefox doesn’t have this level of integration with the system. In fact, Firefox feels like a foreigner to Mac OS X.
Unlike most Mac OS X programs, when you press the plus on Firefox, it actually maximizes the program, which is different from a program like Safari where pressing the plus button only removes scroll bars. Firefox also has slightly more pixelated buttons than Safari or other Mac OS X programs. And when you click on menu on a web page, the items are shown in a drop down menu, unlike with Safari where a menu pops out and you use your pointer to move up to down, and the menu grows in size as you scroll down the list. However, with Firefox, the drop down menu requires scrolling with the mouse, and it stays the same size. It certainly isn’t as elegant as Safari.
These are all very important things that Mozilla needs to improved on for Firefox on Mac OS X. As it stands, Safari has better features and certainly a better interface. The only thing that Firefox has to fight Safari with are add ons, but they aren’t like most Mac OS X programs. Any Mac OS X fan or someone who likes integrated programs would use Safari.
Firefox on the Mac is, simply put, a Windows application that’s been ported over with a Mac OS X looking interface. However, it still lacks the kind of detail behind a native Mac OS X program, and Mozilla certainly needs a lot of work on it. Although Firefox 3.0 was a major improvement in terms of interface over Firefox 2.0, it seems that Firefox remains a program meant to remind Windows switchers of the operating system they once were on.
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