Firedog 1.2 - a smarter, faster, more stylish browser suite

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DMcCunney
Posts: 889
Joined: Tue 03 Feb 2009, 00:45

#161 Post by DMcCunney »

rokytnji wrote:
because various firedog addons don't work with later versions of firefox..
Which is why I get the addon window when opening Firefox 3.5.7. Other than that. Both firefoxes run flawlessly.
It sounds like you managed to have Firedog and Firefox 3.5.7 use the same profile, so what you see is what I'd expect.

The Firefox program and libraries install in the /usr/lib hierarchy, but the profile directory lives under /root/my-documents in the .mozilla folder.

Firefox stores add-ons, themes, bookmarks, cookies, passwords, the cache, and a variety of other things in the profile folder by default. (It's possible to have th4e cache placed elsewhere, and I do so.)

With Firedog (based on Firefox 2.0) and Firefox 3.5.7 sharing the profile, they'll attempt to use the same add-ons. How well this will work will depend on the add-ons involved. Some may not work in FF 3.5+, because of underlying architectural changes that break what they do. Others may work fine once FF 3.5+ has been told they will. The reverse is also true, though I expect better luck in getting extensions from FF 2 to work in 3.5+ than the other way around. There are a couple of ways of telling Firefox add-ons for a different version will work. I do it with an add-on. :P

One thing will be different: bookmarks. FF 2 uses a bookmarks.html file. FF 3+ uses an SQLite dtabase. So the two Firefoxes will be using a different set of bookmarks, and will gradually get out of sync. It's possible to have FF 3+ automatically back the bookmarks up to HTML, and specify where the backup gets put, so you could have FF 3 update the bookmarks.html file used by FF 2 at the end of each session. Doing it the other way around is possible - you can have FF 3 import a bookmarks.html file - but is probably not a good idea.

There are an assortment of ways to save screen real estate in Firefox. Look at View/Toolbars/Customize. Firefox here has the URL and search bars moved to the menu bar, with the nav bar and bookmarks toolbar (which I don't use) hidden entirely, and the status bar autohides until moused over. The Stop and Reload button are combined, and the menu is compressed to an icon which expands when moused over. I do this with CSS using the Stylish add-on, but it can be done via extensions as well.
______
Dennis

Frank Cox
Posts: 378
Joined: Sun 01 Nov 2009, 06:05

Re: Firedog

#162 Post by Frank Cox »

[quote} you can export the bookmarks, using the bookmark manager, and import them into firefox... it may need some pruning/moving after import...
[/quote]

Hi Scott

I exported the Firedog bookmarks into an html but when I try to import them into ff3.56 it does nothing.

Any ideas?

Frank Cox
Posts: 378
Joined: Sun 01 Nov 2009, 06:05

Re: Firedog

#163 Post by Frank Cox »

Frank Cox wrote:[quote} you can export the bookmarks, using the bookmark manager, and import them into firefox... it may need some pruning/moving after import...
Hi Scott

I exported the Firedog bookmarks into an html but when I try to import them into ff3.56 it does nothing.

On second look it installed them 4 times but it did not place the new FireDog toolbar where the original FF 3.56 was.
I open FF in safe and returned everything to default.
I re-imported the HTML file . I have the drop down list but not the add ons or the links in the address bar.

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sc0ttman
Posts: 2812
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Location: UK

Re: Firedog

#164 Post by sc0ttman »

Frank Cox wrote:I re-imported the HTML file . I have the drop down list but not the add ons or the links in the address bar.
The dropdown list of bookmarks in the location bar (address bar) is provided by the addon 'LocationBar2 '.. You can get it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4014

The toolbar (with all the other addons) is controlled by files other than the bookmarks html files. You will need to install these manually or edit the .js and .css files in the /chrome folders..

Installing them manually is the easy way, I think..

In short, importing the Firedog bookmarks will only add the bookmarks, not the addons which allow easier access to them, which need to be downloaded separately..

Hope this helps.
[b][url=https://bit.ly/2KjtxoD]Pkg[/url], [url=https://bit.ly/2U6dzxV]mdsh[/url], [url=https://bit.ly/2G49OE8]Woofy[/url], [url=http://goo.gl/bzBU1]Akita[/url], [url=http://goo.gl/SO5ug]VLC-GTK[/url], [url=https://tiny.cc/c2hnfz]Search[/url][/b]

DMcCunney
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Joined: Tue 03 Feb 2009, 00:45

Re: Firedog

#165 Post by DMcCunney »

Frank Cox wrote:
Frank Cox wrote:[quote} you can export the bookmarks, using the bookmark manager, and import them into firefox... it may need some pruning/moving after import...
I exported the Firedog bookmarks into an html but when I try to import them into ff3.56 it does nothing.

On second look it installed them 4 times but it did not place the new FireDog toolbar where the original FF 3.56 was.
I open FF in safe and returned everything to default.
I re-imported the HTML file . I have the drop down list but not the add ons or the links in the address bar.
FF 3.X replaces bookmarks.html with an SQLite database called places.sqlite. Imported bookmarks will appear under the Bookmarks menu choice, or in the Sidebar if you open that and choose Bookmarks as what it displays. (That's my default choice. I seldom use the bookmarks menu, preferring to display them in the Sidebar, and adding things by drag and drop.)

Extensions are another matter. You will need to manually add those you want from Firedog into FF 3.6. Which specific ones do you want? FF 3.X made changes in the underlying infrastructure for extensions, and some 2.X stuff will either not work or require coercion to install.
______
Dennis

thelash
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Location: Eltham, NZ

firedog in TEENpupmini2010

#166 Post by thelash »

I'm on dialup on an IBM T22, and installed teenpup because I liked the look of the apps available. Opera is the default browser, but I've discovered that firedog with fasterfox is significantly faster than Opera10 turbo at loading pages - at least on dialup.
I've also given ff3.6 a whirl on here, and it runs well but not as fast as firedog. Also starts with an annoying but harmless error message about a gconf file that I don't understand.
Love the layout of firedog, and have enjoyed setting up the toolbars etc to suit my needs.
Thanks very much!

Frank Cox
Posts: 378
Joined: Sun 01 Nov 2009, 06:05

Re: Firedog

#167 Post by Frank Cox »

sc0ttman wrote:
Frank Cox wrote:I re-imported the HTML file . I have the drop down list but not the add ons or the links in the address bar.
The dropdown list of bookmarks in the location bar (address bar) is provided by the addon 'LocationBar2 '.. You can get it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4014

The toolbar (with all the other addons) is controlled by files other than the bookmarks html files. You will need to install these manually or edit the .js and .css files in the /chrome folders..

Installing them manually is the easy way, I think..

In short, importing the Firedog bookmarks will only add the bookmarks, not the addons which allow easier access to them, which need to be downloaded separately..

Hope this helps.
Thanks!

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sc0ttman
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Location: UK

Re: firedog in TEENpupmini2010

#168 Post by sc0ttman »

thelash wrote:I'm on dialup on an IBM T22, and ... Opera is the default browser, but I've discovered that firedog with fasterfox is significantly faster ... at least on dialup.
I've also given ff3.6 a whirl on here, and it runs well but not as fast as firedog...
Love the layout of firedog, and have enjoyed setting up the toolbars etc to suit my needs.
Thanks very much!
Glad you like it, it seems to be popular on dialup...

And you're welcome Frank, hope this helped!
[b][url=https://bit.ly/2KjtxoD]Pkg[/url], [url=https://bit.ly/2U6dzxV]mdsh[/url], [url=https://bit.ly/2G49OE8]Woofy[/url], [url=http://goo.gl/bzBU1]Akita[/url], [url=http://goo.gl/SO5ug]VLC-GTK[/url], [url=https://tiny.cc/c2hnfz]Search[/url][/b]

Frank Cox
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Joined: Sun 01 Nov 2009, 06:05

Firedog is the cat's meow

#169 Post by Frank Cox »

Hi Scott:

I had all sorts of problems so I switched back to FireDog. It is significantly faster and the only problem I have is the annoying message on Google Docs that they soon will no longer support it.

I will take my chances and stay with FireDog until I am forced to change.
If I ever have to I will cut off updating as Firefox subscribes to the Peter Principle. They can't leave well enough alone.

Thanks again!

DMcCunney
Posts: 889
Joined: Tue 03 Feb 2009, 00:45

Re: Firedog is the cat's meow

#170 Post by DMcCunney »

Frank Cox wrote: I had all sorts of problems so I switched back to FireDog. It is significantly faster and the only problem I have is the annoying message on Google Docs that they soon will no longer support it.
It depends on what support you need. They are specifically dropping support for older browsers in Google Sites and Google Docs, because those products use newer web technologies not supported in Firefox 2.X. (They are dropping support for their own Chrome 3.0 as well.) FF2 is still supported in GMail (and they refactored the GMail code base to make IE 6 a fully supported browser. I don't want to think what that took to accomplish.)
I will take my chances and stay with FireDog until I am forced to change.
If I ever have to I will cut off updating as Firefox subscribes to the Peter Principle. They can't leave well enough alone.
Define "well enough".

Firefox attempts to be standards compliant. Current emerging web standards include HTML5 and CSS3. Do you recommend FF stop in its tracks and not try to support them?

Current FF development includes making plugins asynchronous in their own process, so if you are viewing something like Flash or a Java applet and the plugin crashes, it doesn't crash the browser. (This just came out of beta and is in FF 3.6.4.)

The fundamental issue you are dealing with is that emerging technologies are outgrowing older hardware. My Puppy box has a <1ghz processor, 256MB of RAM, and a slow HD. I normally use a static build of SeaMonkey 1.1.19 when I browse from it for performance reasons. FF 3.6 runs, but it's slow to invoke and sluggish when up. There's a fair amount of stuff I just don't try to do from the Puppy box (like watch YouTube video) because it simply doesn't have the power for the task. I'm constrained by hardware. But I knew that going in, and don't gripe about it. I don't expect everything else to slow to a crawl because the box I run Puppy on can't keep up.
______
Dennis

Frank Cox
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Re: Firedog is the cat's meow

#171 Post by Frank Cox »

DMcCunney wrote:Define "well enough".
DMcCunney wrote:
DMcCunney wrote:ney"]They get the browser working well and then update it until it starts running slow crashing.
Firefox attempts to be standards compliant. Current emerging web standards include HTML5 and CSS3. Do you recommend FF stop in its tracks and not try to support them?[/quote

No but how hard would it be to have a version for older browsers? The difference in speed in FireDog and FireFox on dialup is huge!

I understand you can't have all the bells and whistles with the older browsers but there are places in America that may never get broadband. I can live without the bells.

DennisCurrent FF development includes making plugins asynchronous in their own process, so if you are viewing something like Flash or a Java applet and the plugin crashes, it doesn't crash the browser. (This just came out of beta and is in FF 3.6.4.)

The fundamental issue you are dealing with is that emerging technologies are outgrowing older hardware. My Puppy box has a <1ghz processor, 256MB of RAM, and a slow HD. I normally use a static build of SeaMonkey 1.1.19 when I browse from it for performance reasons. FF 3.6 runs, but it's slow to invoke and sluggish when up. There's a fair amount of stuff I just don't try to do from the Puppy box (like watch YouTube video) because it simply doesn't have the power for the task. I'm constrained by hardware. But I knew that going in, and don't gripe about it. I don't expect everything else to slow to a crawl because the box I run Puppy on can't keep up.
______
I can run windows or Ubuntu on my 3 gb processor with 2 gigs of ram and still have the same problem, I live in the sticks and Satellite is a jopke , to get a decent speed it is 200.00 a month and you still can't use it for voip..

.

Do you have stock in Mozilla? :}

DMcCunney
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Joined: Tue 03 Feb 2009, 00:45

Re: Firedog is the cat's meow

#172 Post by DMcCunney »

Frank Cox wrote:
DMcCunney wrote:Define "well enough".
They get the browser working well and then update it until it starts running slow crashing.
Firefox attempts to be standards compliant. Current emerging web standards include HTML5 and CSS3. Do you recommend FF stop in its tracks and not try to support them?
No but how hard would it be to have a version for older browsers? The difference in speed in FireDog and FireFox on dialup is huge!
How hard? Very, which is why they don't.

I was startled when they re-engineered GMail to be fully supported in IE 6. That's probably the least standards complaint browser in common use, and web developers tear their hair trying to support it and say fervent prayers every night that it will die horribly, soon. The only reason I can see them undertaking the effort is simply that there are an awful lot of IE 6 installations still out there, despite Microsoft's best efforts to replace it. (For example, large parts of Korea still use IE 6, because businesses that deployed it wrote Active-X controls specific to it, and prefer to stand pat rather than undertake the effort and expense of rewriting their software. So Koreans who want to do things like online banking are stuck with IE6.)

I can only imagine what was required to do it, and shudder thinking about it.
I understand you can't have all the bells and whistles with the older browsers but there are places in America that may never get broadband. I can live without the bells.

You'll have to live without more than that.

What you are asking for is one or both of two things:

1) For Google re-engineer it's code base to have two separate branches in things like Docs and Sites: one branch using newer technologies like HTML5, CCS3, and newer versions of JavaScript to implement the things they are trying to add, and a second branch sticking to code usable by older browsers that will attempt to do the same things. The latter may not be possible, and would be a nightmare to keep in sync and feature compatible with the newer code if it was possible. Honestly, why should they even try?

I believe their thought is that the number of people they are aiming who will be unable to use the newer features because of low connection speeds or inadequate hardware will be a small enough fraction of the market that the effort can't be justified. I'm afraid they're right.

Don't use Google Docs or Sites. GMail is still supported, and you have alternatives to Docs and Sites.

2) For Mozilla to re-engineer Gecko to back port current technologies to older versions of their browser.

Once again, I doubt this is possible. I don't believe you could run FF2 on top of a current version of Gecko, and if you could, I don't think it would help. The stuff that makes it bigger and slower is in Gecko, and you would see the same issues.
The fundamental issue you are dealing with is that emerging technologies are outgrowing older hardware. My Puppy box has a <1ghz processor, 256MB of RAM, and a slow HD. I normally use a static build of SeaMonkey 1.1.19 when I browse from it for performance reasons. FF 3.6 runs, but it's slow to invoke and sluggish when up. There's a fair amount of stuff I just don't try to do from the Puppy box (like watch YouTube video) because it simply doesn't have the power for the task. I'm constrained by hardware. But I knew that going in, and don't gripe about it. I don't expect everything else to slow to a crawl because the box I run Puppy on can't keep up.
I can run windows or Ubuntu on my 3 gb processor with 2 gigs of ram and still have the same problem, I live in the sticks and Satellite is a joke , to get a decent speed it is 200.00 a month and you still can't use it for voip.
The fact that you are on dialup isn't Firefox's fault. Your constraint is a slow connection to the internet, and that will bite regardless of what browser you use. FF2 may perform better than FF3, but you'll still see issues.

I don't see issues on my desktop with a 1.8ghz CPU and 4GB RAM, but I have a fast broadband connection, so the stuff that bites you won't affect me.

You might want to look at a current version of Opera. Opera 10.51 features a Turbo mode, where access is via their proxy server. Data is compressed on their end before being sent to you, to increase throughput and improve performance on low speed connections. I don't think 10.51 is out for Linux yet, but it ought to be along shortly.
Do you have stock in Mozilla? :}
Mozilla has stock? :)

I like Mozilla, and prefer Mozilla products because I like the architecture. The ability to customize and extend the product has become an integral part of how I work.

That said, I do use other things as merited. Opera loads faster and renders faster here under Puppy than Firefox or SeaMonkey. Google Chrome is progressing too, and the 5.0 Dev branch adds a fledgling extension capability that allows me to do a few things I'm accustomed to under Mozilla. But as mentioned, some things I just don't try to do. Puppy is good but not magic, and I'm constrained by hardware on the Puppy box.
______
Dennis

Frank Cox
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Re: Firedog is the cat's meow

#173 Post by Frank Cox »

Well they finally stopped threatening to discontinue supporting Firedog and say now it is unsupported.

For what I do with it I see no difference so I have FireDog and it does everything i want it to and much faster than 3.whatever

The annoying warning is gone, I am a happy camper, for now.

thanks again Scott!

It is always easier to dismiss a minority, even a very significant one when you are not part of it.

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sc0ttman
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Re: Firedog is the cat's meow

#174 Post by sc0ttman »

Frank Cox wrote:thanks again Scott!
You're most welcome Frank.. I'm genuinely happy you like it... :D

I personally never have any problems with FF2 or Firedog, despite thier not being 'supported'...

I don't need support, I need a browser that works how I like it!!

:)
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DMcCunney
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Re: Firedog is the cat's meow

#175 Post by DMcCunney »

sc0ttman wrote:I personally never have any problems with FF2 or Firedog, despite thier not being 'supported'...

I don't need support, I need a browser that works how I like it!!

:)
In this case, "support" is specific to Google Docs and Google Sites, which are adopting newer web technologies FF2 can't handle. If you don't use Google Docs or Sites, you don't care, as everything else you do will probably work fine.

It will be a problem down the road, as advances in web standards start requiring browsers that simply can't run acceptably on the sort of kit Puppy tends to be used for, but for the moment, things like FireDog are good options.
______
Dennis

Frank Cox
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Re: Firedog is the cat's meow

#176 Post by Frank Cox »

The docs work for me.

toowoombalinux
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#177 Post by toowoombalinux »

G'day,
Interesting side-note. I mainly use a heavily customised Puppy 3.01 and I use Firepup. Now I find, to my amazement that many Puppy 4 programmes work fine in Puppy 3. But, alas FireDog is not one of those...
But, it does very interesting things to Firepup. Firepup normally runs very fast..very fast! It now positively screams! I have never use a Browser that operates so fast! Also, the customised toolbar is very cool.
The changes FireDog has brought to Firepup is astounding.
Cheers
Martin
BTW. It may not generally work in standard Puppy 3.01 as I have linked many Firepup libraries to the mozilla and firefox directories - I also have incorporated a later version of gtk2+.
Toowoomba Linux Community
[url]http://groups.google.com/group/toowoombalinux[/url]
Puppy Linux 301 - KDE 3.5.8

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sc0ttman
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#178 Post by sc0ttman »

I really should update the main thread and state more explicitly that Firedog is NOT compatible with other Firefox or Seamonkey installs..

Having said that, you're not the first to be pleased with the results of a mixed up Fire/Pup/Dog/Fox install... :shock:

Glad you like it, anyway! Don't forget to thank ttuuxxx for FirePup :)
[b][url=https://bit.ly/2KjtxoD]Pkg[/url], [url=https://bit.ly/2U6dzxV]mdsh[/url], [url=https://bit.ly/2G49OE8]Woofy[/url], [url=http://goo.gl/bzBU1]Akita[/url], [url=http://goo.gl/SO5ug]VLC-GTK[/url], [url=https://tiny.cc/c2hnfz]Search[/url][/b]

nekomaster
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#179 Post by nekomaster »

Will there be a updated version of firedog anytime soon? Maybe one based on Firefox v3.0.15 and without a million addons? Its a pain in the butt for me to have to uninstall all the addons in firedog 1.2 and update because firedog is the only way for me to get firefox working :\

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sc0ttman
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#180 Post by sc0ttman »

Will there be a updated version of firedog anytime soon? Maybe one based on Firefox v3.0.15 and without a million addons?
Try FF3 :)
Its a pain in the butt for me to have to uninstall all the addons in firedog 1.2 and update because firedog is the only way for me to get firefox working :\
Which Puppy version are you using? And which Firefox pets have you tried to install? I've got Firefox 3 working in 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3
[b][url=https://bit.ly/2KjtxoD]Pkg[/url], [url=https://bit.ly/2U6dzxV]mdsh[/url], [url=https://bit.ly/2G49OE8]Woofy[/url], [url=http://goo.gl/bzBU1]Akita[/url], [url=http://goo.gl/SO5ug]VLC-GTK[/url], [url=https://tiny.cc/c2hnfz]Search[/url][/b]

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