Re: Fennec 1.0b4
 

Answer: for now, you don't! If you want to do these features you can vote or contribute at Bugzilla (example), put it in your bookmarks or sync with Weave, or you use your uberleet hacker browser.

You press the newly appeared Blue 'Back' Arrow at the right of the address bar.

Your use-cases, while not meaningless, do not make the browser unusable; on the contrary, the browser gives a kiosk-style, full focus web experience.

Perhaps the font is hard-coded in HTML whereas that font does not exist. Or you didn't erase your old Fennec profile.

The memory footprint, unlike MicroB it uses Xulrunner, so that alone uses more memory, and hence it'll never be as lightweight as MicroB. I'd disable MicroB at first, and its probably compiled with debugging enabled. Also, as of now WebKit renders JS faster than Gecko.

Re: Fennec 1.0b4
 

It's a good thing to offer people different options instead of forcing them to use some predefined application. For example some people may prefer the Fennec UI instead of Micro B UI.

Re: Fennec 1.0b4
 

Hi Dex, MicroB is a seperate project by Nokia, Mozilla Fennec is a revival of an earlier project called Mozilla Mobile. When Nokia started with MicroB the Fennec project was not yet (re)born.

Changes in MicroB are open source and backported when applicable. E.g. Gecko will receive improvements from all these projects. Mozilla and Nokia collaborate together, but each have different commercial priorities as well.

The projects serve a different purpose. Fennec's primary platform is Maemo, but also ports for Windows Mobile are planned. Nokia has no interest to port MicroB to other platforms (but you are free to do so, the source is there).

If you compare Fennec 1.0 betas with MicroB on N8x0 you also see very different way of using the browser, each having their own advantage and disadvantage depending on many factors. The Gecko-based browser on N900 and Fennec 1.0 betas are more alike. For example, because both assume finger-based touchscreen usage.

Re: Fennec 1.0b4
 

Some pages were surprisingly beautiful, which was great.

I ran into a fit to width type problem with a NY Times article. It displayed just fine at first, but the type size was so tiny that only my strange, myopic eyes could read it. So I zoomed it up to a decent size, and the edges of the article disappeared and you'd have to do a lot of backing and forthing to read the article. I wished for the infamous fit to width button and thought bad thoughts about Qole or whoever used to crusade against fit to width.

I was sorry to see that Xmarks wasn't available as an add-in, but the one Firefox is hyping was available. I don't like the bookmark manager Firefox is hyping -- it's slow and big and demands the equivalent of two passwords. Xmarks is the one to go with, I think.

Re: Fennec 1.0b4
 

Hi allnameswereout, thanks for yo very informative reply. That makes sense!

I know it's nice to have options, but it's nice to understand what makes the options different.

In terms of the stuff that goes on behind the scenes, is there any significant difference between the way Fennec works and the way MicroB works? (I know the UI is pretty different) Are they both roughly the same in terms of performance? Though surely if MicroB has matured since the N770/N800, in theory, that should be the better/more optimsed of the two?

Anyway, enough random guessing/musings. Thanks again for taking the time for such an informative reply.

Dex

Re: Fennec 1.0b4
 

I don't know the version of mozilla used in microb on the n900, but on the n810 (diablo) it is "still" a 1.9.a6 (firefox 3.0alpha1) where fennec uses a 1.9.2/3 (firefox 3.6/7) code base for it's rendering engine.

There has been a lot of improvement between ffx3.0 and 3.6/7 on the rendering engine (and the javascript engine, but I don't know if mibroB use it).

Re: Fennec 1.0b4
 

The biggest difference between MicroB and Fennec is XULRunner. Fennec uses the non-native XUL for its UI (which results in some slowdowns but increased portability) while MicroB (or, as it's likely to become more commonly known, Maemo Browser) uses the native Hildon, which results in a more "cohesive" experience on Maemo and better performance.

Re: Fennec 1.0b4
 

isn't possible to use the newer engine of Fennec in microb? (like someone used the webkit in the microb) ^_^

Re: Fennec 1.0b4
 

Sure, but you'd have to patch it up to work with eal.

Re: Fennec 1.0b4
 

mmm i'm not a developer so I cannot image how >.<, but this is a very good new for me, because it wuould improve alot the default browser (n8xx and n900...but mainly dhe n8xx series, they need it more xD) a os 2008's microb with this engine wuould give really a big choice to the "browser garden" of the tablet, expecially for the plugins!!!