Browsersphere

Anyone who has downloaded Firefox nightly builds is likely familiar with the Minefield moniker that replaces “Firefox” wherever that application title is used in a typical Firefox build.

I have been testing the latest Minefield builds the past couple of nights, and tonight I was notified of an update and subsequently downloaded it.  In the new version, which is identified by the following user agent string:

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9b3pre) Gecko/2008012804 Minefield/3.0b3pre

…the new Firefox theme icons have started to appear.  These changes were recently alluded to in a post by Alex Faaborg.  As of the latest build, the reload, stop and home icons have been updated.  The back and forward navigation buttons have yet to change, presumably because work is still being done on the new Keyhole design and functionality.

The icons that have changed look exactly as presented at Alex’s blog.  Unfortunately, I have to say that I’m not a fan of the change.  Perhaps once the Keyhole changes are in place things will flow a little better, but the new icons have a bit of a “childish” feel to them that I just don’t like.  However, having once been a Firefox theme developer, I know all too well that everyone has their own, often very strong, opinions one way or another about the various Firefox themes.

Given that, what do you think of the change?  Furthermore, what do you think of the new Keyhole approach?  If you haven’t had a chance to see them in action, give one of the latest nightly builds a try.  Minefield is stablizing at the moment since Mozilla is getting close to releasing a third beta of Firefox 3.

If you’re as into following web browsers as I think you are, you probably already heard that an internal Microsoft build of the next version of Internet Explorer, which will be dubbed IE8 (and not something else), recently passed the Acid2 test.  The news spread quickly, as it was featured on sites like Slashdot and Digg, and was relished, praised and congratulated by many, and met with some criticism by others.  Robert Scoble gave kudos to Microsoft and the IE team; Opera Watch called it an “exciting and positive step in the right direction for Microsoft and the Web;” Simon Willison gave some technical examples of what the news means, Slightly Ajar called the news “a great win for standards;” Dave Shea called it a “huge leap forward.”

On the more skeptical front, both Asa Dotzler and Slightly Ajar questioned just what exactly the IE team meant when they referred to “IE8 standards mode.”  Furthermore, Dave Massy responded to some criticism and other questions about the forthcoming browser.  When Bill Gates was asked about some of the secrecy that has surrounded the release in a recent interview, he expressed surprise and allowed that there aren’t any deep secrets about what is going on with the development of the browser.

To say that all the recent ramblings have gotten people talking about the browser would be an understatement.  Beyond sparking interest in IE8’s handling of the Acid2 test, the buzz has spurred ideas and suggestions about what other features should be included in the release.

If you’ve gotten through this post and you’re still itching for more information about IE8, which is reportedly due out in the first half of this year, the original announcement at the IEBlog is packed with details, including the checkin log from when the feature landed in the central IE build, a Channel 9 interview features IE GM Dean Hachamovitch and Architect Chris Wilson, and a post titled IE8 Expectations, written by Jonathan Snook, is one of the better written posts on the subject, including everything from details about the underlying Trident rendering engine to predictions about what will and won’t be supported.  So be sure to give those links a read as well.

The following comes from CSS3.info:

Dave Hyatt has recently checked in to the WebKit repository some basic support for using the ClearType text rendering system, which uses a different algorithm for subpixel anti-aliasing than the current CoreGraphics libraries do. Windows users will find that this makes text in Safari look similar to text in other web browsers and elsewhere on the system.

For more information on some of the caveats of the new feature and how you can try it out yourself, be sure to read ClearType rendering forthcoming for Safari on Windows? in its entirety.

I created a rather lengthy post over at my personal blog tonight titled How to Contribute to Firefox.  Rather than cross-post it here, I figured I’d at least share the link, since it’s probably relevant to a lot of the readers here (or at least I hope it is).

In case you didn’t catch it already, the first beta release of Firefox 3 is now available to download.  Head on over to the beta releases page to get your copy, but remember that even beta builds aren’t recommended for those with weak stomachs

A couple of articles were written recently discussing the relative silence from the Internet Explorer team regarding the next version of the web browser, Internet Explorer 8.

Internet Explorer 8 Buried and Asphyxiated in Microsoft Utero takes the approach that Internet Explorer is losing ground to Mozilla’s Firefox 3.0, and that being silent about the future of IE8 isn’t helping things.

A Seattle P.I. article on the subject focuses entirely on the Internet Explorer team and how their silence has started to alienate web developers dependent on development-related news to make sure their websites will continue to work in Internet Explorer with the next release, whenever it may happen.

I’m a little surprised to see that the Internet Explorer team isn’t a little more sensitive to the whole going AWOL thing, given that they all but vanished from the face of the earth for several years before finally deciding to work on Internet Explorer 7.

It’s also a shame that they haven’t really made an effort to become more transparent now that IE7 is out in the wild and getting so much feedback from the web development community.  The Seattle P.I article says “it’s not like an open-source project, where features are determined in a largely transparent process.”  But why not?  I remember before IE7 was released, the Internet Explorer team was soliciting feedback from everybody about the types of CSS support they would be adding and what major bugs they’d be fixing.  Even if they can’t reveal the big features in an open forum at this juncture, it seems like they could throw a bone or two in developers’ direction by discussing things like CSS support that are well-known, well documented, and waiting to be implemented by anyone and any team that so chooses to implement them.

Anyway, given that the Internet Explorer team has decided to remain tight-lipped about its next browser release, we can put IE8 in the “vaporware” category, somewhere in between Duke Nukem Forever and the Phantom.

I stumbled upon CSS Contents and Browser Compatibility today via etc..  It has a side-by-side comparison of web browser support of CSS features broken down by selectors, pseudo-classes, declarations and experimental declarations.  The web browsers compared are IE 5.5, IE 6, IE 7, Firefox 2.0, Safari 3.0 (Windows), Opera 9.5 Beta, iCab 3.0 and Konqueror 3.5.7.

It’s not surprising to see that as you scroll down the page semi-quickly, a majority of the red shows up in the Internet Explorer and iCab columns.  Beyond that, it looks like Firefox and Opera deserve some props for having only one red box each for the features in the first three categories.  Konqueror’s not far behind with about two-and-a-half, depending on how you count the “Incorrect” implementation for background-attachment.

What stands out, though, is the support for experimental features.  Konqueror leads in that category with support for three features, Safari’s next with support for two-and-a-half, and then Firefox and Opera with two each.  The other browsers fail to even register in this area (again, not surprisingly).

See anything else interesting in the stats?  Post a comment.

This “minor player” is very minor, and I suppose you could say it’s hot off the shelf.  It’s called Lightbrowser, and according to its developer, version 1.0 was just finished yesterday:

I have entitled it Lightbrowser. Lightbrowser is, as the name implies, a very light web browser. It very fast and renders web pages faster than Safari or Firefox. I developed it using leoaprd [sic]. The rendering engine is WebKit. Bookmark capability will be added shortly.

The developer’s home page can be found at Xiotios Software, and you can download his browser to play around with on your Mac from here.

According to the Opera Desktop Team, a new alpha build of Opera 9.5 was made available on Friday.  Among the new features and fixes:

• Fixed an ordered list bug
•  Users can now select an external View Source editor
• APNG 1.0 support added for use in web pages and skins
• Notification improvements
• Stability and rendering engine fixes
• Fixed Internet Explorer bookmark import

The new build is available to download for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Firefox 3: Preview of the User Interface is almost two months old at this point, but it covers some of the upcoming UI changes in Firefox 3, otherwise known as “Gran Paradiso.”

Discontinuous selections allow you to select text from various parts on a page without respect for continuity, all at the same time. Private browsing allows you to put the browser into a state where none of the details of your browsing activities are stored locally on your computer. The bookmark overhaul will allow things like tagging, extended meta data search, synchronization and export into various formats. Furthermore, microformat detection will bring Operator-like functionality to the base browser.

For the full list along with some screenshots, be sure to head on over to Firefox 3: Preview of the User Interface.