2008/7/7 Carol Lerche <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > The UI seems pretty important to me, but obviously that's a matter of > taste. Not everyone likes tabbed browsing. Correct operation of websites > that fail with the extant browser. Direct availability of plugins and > addons. One example: scrapbook, a superb research tool. Another example > Google Gears (according to a recent mail being ported, presumably because > the browser is not standard). I am not familiar with the Firefox codebase, > and perhaps all these things are directly available so long as the Firefox 3 > engine is there, but if so, there desperately needs to be a detailed body of > documentation telling how to access these capabilities.
I certainly acknowledge that a) the sparse UI isn't for everyone and b) the UI is young and still needs some more work (and more features). It started out bare bones, and is slowly gaining important features as we go (recently URI autocompletion, find in page text, foundational support for global bookmarks, and other features appeared!). It should also be noted that tabs were part of the initial design, and were taken out both to prevent abuse of RAM and because we thought that it might be confused adjacent to the link sharing feature, which we felt was a really important addition for our target audience and collaborative learning. I'd consider adding them in light of recent engine improvements, assuming we can prove that kids navigate them naturally. Additionally, I'd love to see other individuals with interest porting other browsers to the XO. I think someone was working on this with Opera. Perhaps a more full featured Firefox could also be Sugarized. However, we designed the current Browse as is to be purposely sparse, to give kids the basics without overloading them with things that could get in the way. I think there's a place for Browse as a default browser, especially for kids under 8 or so, even if other more complex browsers appear as viable alternatives. - Eben _______________________________________________ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel