Firefox 3.0

So, those of you who read this and know me will know I'm a fairly strong supporter of the Foxy web browser known as Firefox. This past week Mozilla released version 3.0 of Firefox, and I wanted to share some thoughts.

It wasn't a good start: upon installation 6/16 of my extensions (including 2 absolutely "cannot live without" ones) weren't compatible. The new address-bar is interesting, but I'm wondering where it pulls data from, as upon installation it knew I liked achievement sites, and yet I have my history disabled. As a privacy nut, I have concerns about what's being stored, and what isn't (if I say don't remember any history, it shouldn't remember anything about where I've been).

Haven't had any problems with speed/performance at all. Some have raved about how smooth the page scrolling is, but it looks the same to me as any other version. Memory usage seems to be slightly better, although it's WAY to early to say for sure (and to be honest, the mem usage problems of FF are somewhat exaggerated).

Haven't decided yet if I'll go back or not, but my initial impressions are not good. Admittedly though, I'm tough to please, most people will be completely tickled with this version. I just don't see any reason to stick with v3, but a lot of reasons not to. Perhaps if my "must-have" extensions become compatible then I might be more inclined to stick with v3, but given that there are extensions which aren't even v2 compatible that I really love and that have made me want to stay with v1.5.x on most of my machines I won't hold my breath.

Now for the rant:

I've been with FF since pre-version 1.0. It's amusing to me to look at its evolution as it started out as a lean no-frills browser that was supposed to be for the hardcore crowd. The idea being that if you didn't want a feature, you wouldn't have to have it, and if you did want a feature, that's where extensions came in. Now, it seems that feature-bloat has occurred with it, as with each version comes new advanced features that I don't really want, but are added from a marketing POV (so that when tech blogs & such can do those side-by-side comparisons of FF vs IE it doesn't look one-sided). I want the old FF back, where the goal is to create a minimal platform where extensions provide the functionality. If that were the case, then one of the big goals would be extension compatibility. One of the problems for me with FF is that I don't really care for the browser, but love the extensions, and as such I become very dependent upon them. The problem though is that every time a new version of FF comes out, half the extensions I use are no longer compatible (it's one of the reasons I still use v1.5.x on most of my machines). For me, that's a showstopping problem, and I'm not convinced the FF devs realize how much of an issue it is. I find myself now in a position on this machine where I either A) have to live without functionality I've become used to, or B) go through the pain-in-the-ass process of uninstalling v3 and reinstalling an older version along with all my extensions. That's not the kind of situation that is going to win support and/or adoption of the browser from the masses. One of the big criticisms of Microsoft is that they force features down your throat that you simply don't want. Now we see the same thing happening with the Mozilla team with Firefox, and the hacker in me can't help but feel his heart hurt a bit at that realization. I'm not going to go all hippie-ish and say that they "sold out", but there is a greater sense that there's less of a difference between FF and IE now (security issues aside) than there used to be.

I should quit now, but only one round to go (round 4 predictions)

Okay, admittedly my predictions this year have been less than stellar, but only one more series to go:

Detroit vs Pittsburgh - Tough series, both teams are on huge rolls right now. Both are looking extremely impressive, and both have been dominating the competition thus far. They match up very well too, both have great offense, solid goaltending, and solid defence. I'd give the slight edge in defence to Detroit, and the slight edge in offense to Pittsburgh, and goaltending I'd say they're about equal (Osgood has been much better than his stats indicate, and Fleury hasn't quite been as spectacular as his stats would indicate). Tough series to call, but I'll give the edge to the Wings for two reasons: home ice and experience. My prediction: Detroit in 6.

Round 3 predictions

I don't even want to think about my round 2 results (LOL), so I'm going straight to round 3 predictions. Hopefully I'll do better (I suppose I couldn't do any worse....)

Eastern Conference

Pittsburgh Penguins vs Philadelphia Flyers - Interesting matchup. So far the Pens have absolutely dominated the competition, whereas the Flyers barely squeaked by the Caps, and then had a relatively easy go against the suddenly inconsistent Habs. This will be a much different test for Pittsburgh, as neither Ottawa nor New York had anywhere near the physical presence or defensive mindset of the Flyers. As well, Biron is simply playing outstanding. Really tough one to call, but I can't see the Pens completely falling apart given their outstanding start. My prediction: Pittsburgh in 6.

Western Conference

Detroit Red Wings vs Dallas Stars - Holy crap is Marty Turco a goaltending god or what? I watched all 4 OT periods of that last Sharks/Stars game and he was simply amazing. Looking extremely calm and confident right now. The team playing in front of him looks pretty good too, they looked a bit shaky at times vs the Sharks, but managed to persevere and come through. Detroit OTOH completely obliterated Colorado in round 2, and is simply on a roll right now. Really close matchup, in many ways this matchup was destined to happen -- the two teams were #1 and #2 in the Western conference for a good chunk of the season until Dallas slipped a bit in the later going. Flip a coin, but I really like Dallas's experience, and even though Osgood is playing about as well as he ever has, there's no doubt which team has the better 'tender. My prediction: Dallas in 6.

Xbox Live Orientation

Came across this while watching the latest Sessler's Soapbox. It's a funny vid of a hypothetical Xbox Live Orienation, and it's gets everything just about completely bang on.

http://www.g4tv.com/xplay/videos/21418/Xbox_Live_Orientation.html

Round 2 - My wife's predictions

My wife's turn:

Eastern Conference

Detroit vs Colorado - Colorado in 6
San Jose vs Dallas - Sharks in 6

Western Conference

Pittsburgh vs New York - Pittsburgh in 6
Montreal vs Philly - Montreal in 7

Round 2 Predictions

Okay, now that round 1 is over and it's already official I won't do as well this year as last year (I was wrong with only 1 series in all of last year's playoffs), it's time to move on to round 2. Here's my pics:

Eastern Conference

Montreal vs Philadelphia - I watched a good chunk of the Flyers/Caps series, and in particular that game 7 in which the Capitals were flat out robbed by some absolutely horrible officiating. The Flyers were clearly outplayed by a younger, more enthusiastic Capitals team, but found themselves on the winning side of the series due more to luck than anything else (IMHO). And that was against an (at-best) average Capitals team. Montreal looked rock solid in all but 2 of the games against Boston (the execptions being #5 and #6 where they really looked tentative). They're young, but unlike the Capitals they are a much more complete team, and are coming off of a very strong performance in game 7 against Boston. I don't think this one's even going to be close. If there's a sweep in round 2, this will be it. My prediction: Montreal in 4.

Pittsburgh vs New York - Wow, how about that Malkin guy eh? Sidney who? ;) Okay okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but right now the Pens look like the team to beat in the East. Everybody knew the offense would be there, but Fleury looked absolutely rock-solid in net and goaltending was the biggest question mark about this team going into the post-season. If Fleury can keep it up, the Pens could very easily go all the way this year. New York played very well against a completely flat New Jersey team, but they are an aging team, and I don't think they have the depth, enthusiasm, or determination to get past the Pens. My prediction: Pittsburgh in 6.

Western Conference

Detroit vs Colorado - DING! Fight! This should be the best series of round 2. These two teams have history going back a long ways, and it's the first time they've met in the post-season in a long time. A lot of people are looking at Detroit as the clear favourite, but I actually think this series is quite close. Colorado looked very good disposing of Minnesota, and Detroit looked quite shaky at times vs Nashville. This one may very well come down to goaltending, and I don't think there's any question that the Avs have the edge in that regard. Should be close, but my prediction: Colorado in 7.

San Jose vs Dallas - This one's also pretty tough to call. San Jose looked very vulnerable against a gritty Calgary team in round 1, and Joe Thornton played well in game 7, but was almost invisible for the rest of the series. Dallas on the other hand surprised many with their "upset" of the defending Stanley Cup champs. Really close series, but San Jose is still my pick to go all the way. My prediction: San Jose in 7.

Round 1 - Comparison With TSN

Another thing I commonly do is compare my predictions with those of the "experts" at TSN. For those unfamiliar, they have a panel of hockey people who make predictions along with a monkey who spins a wheel to randomly pick a winner for a series. What's interesting is that oftentimes the monkey does better than the experts. :)

The picks from the people at TSN for this year can be found here.

So how did I do? Here's the breakdown:

Bob McKenzie 6-2
Mike Milbury 5-3
Darren Pang 5-3
James Duthie 5-3
Maggie the Monkey 5-3
Adam "Pedle Zelnip" 5-3
My wife 2-6

So basically I was about the same as the people at TSN. Here's hoping I can improve in round #2.