I have three browsers installed on my system. I mostly use the Firefox nightly builds for my day to day browsing, but I also have Internet Explorer for random compatibility issues and Chrome for fulfilling my inner-geek's desire to tinker. I wish I could say that I also have Opera and Safari installed, but Opera tends to annoy me and Safari just runs like a dog. I'd apologize to the Opera and Safari fans that may read this, but they're just browsers, guys.
Anyway, Internet Explorer 8 (beta) looks as native as can be in Vista. Microsoft followed its own interface guidelines very well and created a browser that blends into Vista beautifully. Chrome, while not following the standards, is also very nice to look at with added animations that really spruce up the presentation and increase the initial wow factor. Then, we have the "ugo" of the group, Firefox. It's the only one to use a window menu, still. The default theme, even if you download an extension and remove the menu, looks like a cheap knock off of a Vista minded theme. It takes the Vista blue menu color and applies it to all of the toolbars at the top of the window. It just doesn't look right.
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Before you beat me with sticks for insulting your favorite browser or collect as an angry mob and storm my apartment with torches because I'm being sexist, you have to understand that I like Firefox. I wouldn't use it if I didn't like it. I'm just not blind enough to lie to myself and say it looks good, at all. Sure, the Mac version is nice enough looking, but the Vista version is just horrendously ugly. There's too much blue to be tolerable. There needs to be some kind of differentiation between the various aspects of the browser window and, overall, less bulk. Internet Explorer and Chrome have both proven that the window menu is no longer needed, so that should go first. Once that's kaput, let's color up that address bar with a new, sleeker design. Nothing gaudy is needed, just something simple like the other guys are wearing these days.
The guys at Mozilla can fix this. If they can manage to make a browser that makes a sizable dent in Internet Explorer's market share, they can surely make that piece of software look somewhat presentable. There are hundreds of talented artists out there who contribute to open source projects all of the time. How about some of them get hired? You don't need to buy stock in Revlon or Versace to make that girl look good. You just need to get her out of her ten year old sweats and into something a little more modern and respectable. If you don't do it for her, do it for me, please. Until that happens, though, I hate to say it, but, Firefox, you're kind of ugly.
