I used to like Firefox 1.0, but with 1.5 and 2.0, they really turned it into a bloated and slow product, at least on Linux. (I stopped using Windows before Firefox was popular, so I really don't know what it was like on Windows. I am a
Kubuntu Feisty user and am using KDE.) I kept hitting bugs that people never heard of except for one of my friends who also uses Linux, the most annoying of them being that it would just stop rendering pages--it would go through the motions of loading the page and when it got to "Done", I'd still be seeing the same page. Or if I'd open a tab, I wouldn't see anything at "Done". Also, Firefox didn't pass the
Acid2 test, while Konqueror and Opera have for quite some time now. And I didn't like the ugly Windows 95-style form controls. Plus, I laughed at the idea of Firefox being the fastest browser because Opera and Konqueror sorely beat it in speed...
On Sunday, though, I decided to give Gran Paradiso 3.0a5 a shot because on the Ubuntu Linux IRC channels, I had heard that they were working on fixing bugs and improving OS integration on Linux (making form elements use the GTK or KDE theme, for example). I am now using 3.0a6.
There have been lots of improvements that I've seen so far. I finally see the form elements using my theme, it passes the Acid2 test now, it's a LOT faster, and they're fixing
the one bug I experienced on it!
The only downside so far is that I have to hack the MaxVersion of most extensions to use them, but thankfully Adblock Plus does not need any hacking.
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
(It was the only extension that did not.) It isn't hard, though, and I don't even need to rename the .xpi files to do this because Ark, the KDE archiver, can tell that they are zip files without the need to rename them. And with the Konquefox extension and the KDEFF theme, it blends very well into KDE!
I still much prefer KMail over Thunderbird for e-mail, but I am really enjoying Gran Paradiso 3.0a6! I am going to have a hard time choosing in the future...
Where to get it:
http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/in ... -download/