Fog Creek Software
Discussion Board

Any reason to switch from Firebird to Mozilla?

My only thing with Firebird is that it takes 3 seconds to load.

I heard Mozilla loads faster. Or am I imagining things?
Wednesday, January 28, 2004

Firebird definitely starts much faster than Mozilla on any computer I used.

It is logical, because Mozilla contains the whole suite (e-mail application, IRC client, HTML editor) but Firebird is only the browser.

David Majda
Wednesday, January 28, 2004

I use Firebird at home on Win2K and Mozilla at work on SGI.  They're the same as far as appearance and performance, IMHO. has some toolbars and stuff for Mozilla that aren't available for Firebird yet, but they're just buttons to get instant access without going into options.

I like Firebird because it's just a browser - not all the other stuff.  The same reason I uninstalled Microsoft office and put down Open Office - so much less bloatware.

Wednesday, January 28, 2004

As of 1.4+, Mozilla IS Firebird.

(Plus some other stuff).

Wednesday, January 28, 2004

Mozilla might load faster than Firebird because it stays in memory and in your systray when your computer boots ( with the default installation of W2K anyways... )

Firebird doesn't seem to do so, so the first time loading might be long depending on your machine.

Make a shortcut to MozillaFirebird.exe with the -nosplash command-line option, it might load faster.

Eric V.
Wednesday, January 28, 2004

Doesn't everybody leave their browsers running 24x7 anyway?  Who cares if it takes 3 or 33 seconds to start - it just happens once when I login.  With the tabbed viewing feature common to both Mozilla and Firebird (that feature is enough to make me *never* use IE again) no matter how many pages you have open it's only one window's worth in the Windows toolbar.  Sweet.

Wednesday, January 28, 2004

I used Firebird 0.9? and now Mozilla 1.4. Firebird had some crashes and instability for me and some content didn't render properly (read: MS specific websites sometimes looked crappy). Mozilla performs much better in both areas.

I also thought load time of Mozilla was dog slow. I did the -nosplash option mentioned above and bam, it loads very fast.

Mozilla is a good upgrade, seems to fix some issues, and seems to break nothing. 

Bored Bystander
Wednesday, January 28, 2004

Switching from unexisting Firebird(0.9 current is 0.7) to deprecated Mozilla(1.4 current is 1.6)?
Besides, Firebird IS Mozilla.
As long as you dont need any other Mozilla-Component except the Browser, go with Firebird.

El Macho
Wednesday, January 28, 2004


If you want tabbed browsing AND need IE's compatibility, take a look at the Avant browser.  I like Firebird but there are some sites (particularly intranet apps) where IE is required.

Wednesday, January 28, 2004

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Firebird's Extension system. Is that available on Mozilla? If not, then there's NO WAY I would ever use Mozilla proper. There's some amazing extensions available for Firebird.

Brad Wilson (
Wednesday, January 28, 2004

Firebird's extension system is available on Mozilla.  In fact it originated in Mozilla- Firebird is an "unbloated" offshoot of Mozilla. 

Most XPI extensions designed for Firebird or Mozilla will work in the other.

John Rose
Wednesday, January 28, 2004

Firebird and Mozilla have NOT been merged yet.  The browsing engines are the same, but the UI is different.

There are a few extensions that aren't available in one or the other.  The options panel in Firebird is simplified but not as flexible either.  There is currently no official installer for Firebird either, but unzipping it is easy.

Richard P
Wednesday, January 28, 2004

Yes, Firebird is not just the Mozilla browser. It uses a newere UI "toolkit" that better seperates the application code from the UI code.  And the UI stuff is faster.

fool for python
Wednesday, January 28, 2004

Thanks guys. I asked because I read in a mag how Mozilla presumably starts 'faster', that's all I care about.

I don't like keeping in around in the taskbar, so I start it when needed.

Minimize to tray would be nice...
Thursday, January 29, 2004

Generally, it is believed that FireBird loads faster than Mozilla, at least if properly configured. However, I still like Mozilla Core because it has more features.

Shlomi Fish
Sunday, February 1, 2004

*  Recent Topics

*  Fog Creek Home