Tuning Firefox for Opera lovers
Hello.
I have been an Opera user for about 5 years, but when developing pages I use Firefox because he offers me more convenient means for catching errors, validation, etc., besides, it is useful if the everyday browser and work tool are different.
But the fact is that in Firefox, with all its advantages, the default settings make the operators all the time feel like visiting. I am not talking here about the interface, namely about the behavior of the browser. I tried to change it and here are the steps I took:
UPD: while writing, the topic has increased so much that it can be more likely called Firefox tutorial tool - take a look inside, even if you are not an operator. If you are an experienced FF user, then welcome with your clarifications and comments :)
What bothered me the most was the way Opera and Firefox behave when navigating Forward / Back - Opera instantly shows everything, no matter how deeply you navigate the tab history. Firefox, as if possessed by IE, for some reason downloads most of the pages again from the Internet, so instantaneous speech cannot be used. In addition, if you filled out the form in the Opera, and returned to it using the Back command, all the fields you filled in (except the password) will remain filled, but since Firefox reloads the page data will be lost.
I wanted the browser to not reload the page when returning back, but to show me exactly the one I had seen before. To be honest, Opera by its behavior violates the RFC ( Section 14.9.2 of RFC 2616 ). For example, if you were 'logged in' on the page and then logged out, you can click Back and see its contents. This can be considered as a security breach, imagine a computer in an Internet cafe where you looked at the mail and left, and another user starts clicking back.
But we are experienced users and we know what we are doing, so we went:
')
browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers
This is where the Fastback settings are made is the number of pages that are stored in memory for a quick transition by the Forward / Backward commands.
The default is -1, respectively. the browser itself decides how many pages to save, depending on the RAM:
I have 4 GB of RAM - I set this parameter to 15 - I don’t mind the memory.
Please note that this parameter sets the number of pages not for the tab, but for the browser in general.
browser.cache.check_doc_frequency
The default is 3, i.e. update cache based on Last-Modified and Control-Cache headers. I propose to change the value to 0, then Firefox will refresh the page cache with each new browser launch.
Opera generally ignores cache settings when navigating Forward / Back. To refresh the page, you must execute Refresh or Reload. Firefox behaves more consistently, namely:
Information from here:
All this would be great, but many sites abuse Cache-Control: no-store , as a result, user time and traffic are wasted. Unfortunately, the above-mentioned option (browser.cache.check_doc_frequency) does not disable this behavior of the browser, respectively, if you need full compliance with the behavior of the Opera, you must use a software that changes the headers, for example, Proxomitron
browser.cache.memory.capacity
Current usage can be found here: about: cache? Device = memory
I had it set to 30MB by default, I increased it to 96, but did not notice any changes.
browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo
In Opera, I used to close tabs without any thought, because I have a long list of closed pages.
It is not clear why, but in Firefox, it is limited to 5 by default, changed to 30.
network.http.pipelining
Briefly: this option allows in the same connection to the server to send several requests simultaneously, rather than sequentially (waiting for the response to the previous ones). Read more: www.mozilla.org/projects/netlib/http/pipelining-faq.html
Opera has pipelining enabled by default, so we include it. In order for parallel requests to work, Keep-Alive ( network.http.keep-alive = true) and HTTP 1.1 ( network.http.version = 1.1) are needed.
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests
Some manuals recommend setting the maximum number of requests to 30. I would not advise this, the HTTP / 1.1 specification does not limit the number of requests, but recommends 2 to Keep-Alive in general. I left the default value - 4.
UPD: As Alaunquirie clarified, in Firefox, there is generally an internal limit of this parameter to 8.
network.http.max-connections-per-server
If you set too many numbers here, some servers may define as many requests from your IP as DDOS attack and your requests will be processed at best, one at a time, and at worst your IP will get banned and you will have to wait until you are allowed access again .
I set it to 8 (I’ve seen exactly this value on the sites for setting up Opera), although in FF 3 it’s 15 by default.
Network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server
As I wrote above, RFC2616 recommends a maximum of 2 Keep-alive requests. In Firefox 3, the default is 6, so be it.
network.http.max-connections
Limits the number of maximum simultaneous Fire Fox connections. It can be easily raised if you have fast internet and you like to open tabs in the background, which are loaded while you continue to watch the main page. I have it installed with 16MB / s Internet at 64.
nglayout.initialpaint.delay
If in Opera you have included such a parameter as Browsing-> Redraw Instantly, then it makes sense for you to do this in Firefox. This parameter determines how long after the first information is received, to start rendering. It makes sense on fast channels. The disadvantage is that the page can be redrawn more often.
The default value is 250ms, I set to 0 and am satisfied.
I got used to the quick search in Opera by pressing ' . 'or' / 'and' , 'to search the URL.
In Firefox, this exists in F3 or Ctrl-F, but it annoyed me that the panel did not disappear after the search, plus when I called the search again, it contained the old value and I had to erase it.
Googling, I found that I was too lazy - when I clicked ' / ', the search on the page behaves exactly the same as in the opera (and the apostrophe - ' searches in the links).
I tried to set the comma and period I was used to, but I was surprised that in Firefox you couldn’t change the keyboard shortcuts!
But since this is an FF, I found the keyconfig addon, which adds the ability to edit abbreviations. Unfortunately, there are no QuickFind commands in it, and you need to create them yourself - click on “Add a new key” in the keyconfig and add:
And we assign the keys we are used to.
I have not yet figured out what to change yet, but with pleasure I use Firefox configured in this way.
upd
In Opera, I often use the context menu command for the selected text “Go to Web Address”, which inserts this text into the address bar and navigates to the URL / searches in the search engine. Thanks to the commentators, I found a great addon for FF URL Link , which not only adds this functionality, but also provides additional features and options for fine-tuning.
I have been an Opera user for about 5 years, but when developing pages I use Firefox because he offers me more convenient means for catching errors, validation, etc., besides, it is useful if the everyday browser and work tool are different.
But the fact is that in Firefox, with all its advantages, the default settings make the operators all the time feel like visiting. I am not talking here about the interface, namely about the behavior of the browser. I tried to change it and here are the steps I took:
UPD: while writing, the topic has increased so much that it can be more likely called Firefox tutorial tool - take a look inside, even if you are not an operator. If you are an experienced FF user, then welcome with your clarifications and comments :)
Introduction: everything I did was tested on Firefox 3.0.5 with 16 MB / s Internet, CPU Core Duo 6300 and 4 GB of RAM. It may be that on your configuration you will achieve very different results. Almost all changes are carried out in about: config, if you are not sure that you need the option, it is better not to change it.
Quick Navigation
What bothered me the most was the way Opera and Firefox behave when navigating Forward / Back - Opera instantly shows everything, no matter how deeply you navigate the tab history. Firefox, as if possessed by IE, for some reason downloads most of the pages again from the Internet, so instantaneous speech cannot be used. In addition, if you filled out the form in the Opera, and returned to it using the Back command, all the fields you filled in (except the password) will remain filled, but since Firefox reloads the page data will be lost.
I wanted the browser to not reload the page when returning back, but to show me exactly the one I had seen before. To be honest, Opera by its behavior violates the RFC ( Section 14.9.2 of RFC 2616 ). For example, if you were 'logged in' on the page and then logged out, you can click Back and see its contents. This can be considered as a security breach, imagine a computer in an Internet cafe where you looked at the mail and left, and another user starts clicking back.
But we are experienced users and we know what we are doing, so we went:
')
Turn on Fastback:
browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers
This is where the Fastback settings are made is the number of pages that are stored in memory for a quick transition by the Forward / Backward commands.
The default is -1, respectively. the browser itself decides how many pages to save, depending on the RAM:
RAM Pages 32MB 0 64MB 1 128MB 2 256MB 3 512MB 5 1GB 8 2GB 8 4GB 8
I have 4 GB of RAM - I set this parameter to 15 - I don’t mind the memory.
Please note that this parameter sets the number of pages not for the tab, but for the browser in general.
Customize cache
browser.cache.check_doc_frequency
The default is 3, i.e. update cache based on Last-Modified and Control-Cache headers. I propose to change the value to 0, then Firefox will refresh the page cache with each new browser launch.
Opera generally ignores cache settings when navigating Forward / Back. To refresh the page, you must execute Refresh or Reload. Firefox behaves more consistently, namely:
- Cache-Control: no-cache Firefox will not store the page on disk, but it will be saved in memory cache and. for example, with the Back command, the cached page will be displayed.
- Cache-Control: the no-store page will not be stored either in memory or on disk, and any attempt to display it will complete the full POST / GET request.
Information from here:
restlet.tigris.org/ds/viewMessage.do?dsForumId=4447&dsMessageId=981443
blog.httpwatch.com/2008/10/15/two-important-differences-between-firefox-and-ie-caching
All this would be great, but many sites abuse Cache-Control: no-store , as a result, user time and traffic are wasted. Unfortunately, the above-mentioned option (browser.cache.check_doc_frequency) does not disable this behavior of the browser, respectively, if you need full compliance with the behavior of the Opera, you must use a software that changes the headers, for example, Proxomitron
Increase the amount of memory for the cache:
browser.cache.memory.capacity
Current usage can be found here: about: cache? Device = memory
I had it set to 30MB by default, I increased it to 96, but did not notice any changes.
List of closed tabs:
browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo
In Opera, I used to close tabs without any thought, because I have a long list of closed pages.
It is not clear why, but in Firefox, it is limited to 5 by default, changed to 30.
Parallel HTTP 1.1 Requests
network.http.pipelining
Briefly: this option allows in the same connection to the server to send several requests simultaneously, rather than sequentially (waiting for the response to the previous ones). Read more: www.mozilla.org/projects/netlib/http/pipelining-faq.html
Opera has pipelining enabled by default, so we include it. In order for parallel requests to work, Keep-Alive ( network.http.keep-alive = true) and HTTP 1.1 ( network.http.version = 1.1) are needed.
Maximum number of parallel queries
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests
Some manuals recommend setting the maximum number of requests to 30. I would not advise this, the HTTP / 1.1 specification does not limit the number of requests, but recommends 2 to Keep-Alive in general. I left the default value - 4.
UPD: As Alaunquirie clarified, in Firefox, there is generally an internal limit of this parameter to 8.
Maximum number of server connections
network.http.max-connections-per-server
If you set too many numbers here, some servers may define as many requests from your IP as DDOS attack and your requests will be processed at best, one at a time, and at worst your IP will get banned and you will have to wait until you are allowed access again .
I set it to 8 (I’ve seen exactly this value on the sites for setting up Opera), although in FF 3 it’s 15 by default.
Maximum number of persistent (open) server connections
Network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server
As I wrote above, RFC2616 recommends a maximum of 2 Keep-alive requests. In Firefox 3, the default is 6, so be it.
Maximum number of connections:
network.http.max-connections
Limits the number of maximum simultaneous Fire Fox connections. It can be easily raised if you have fast internet and you like to open tabs in the background, which are loaded while you continue to watch the main page. I have it installed with 16MB / s Internet at 64.
Delayed Start Page Rendering
nglayout.initialpaint.delay
If in Opera you have included such a parameter as Browsing-> Redraw Instantly, then it makes sense for you to do this in Firefox. This parameter determines how long after the first information is received, to start rendering. It makes sense on fast channels. The disadvantage is that the page can be redrawn more often.
The default value is 250ms, I set to 0 and am satisfied.
Remained very little:
I got used to the quick search in Opera by pressing ' . 'or' / 'and' , 'to search the URL.
In Firefox, this exists in F3 or Ctrl-F, but it annoyed me that the panel did not disappear after the search, plus when I called the search again, it contained the old value and I had to erase it.
Googling, I found that I was too lazy - when I clicked ' / ', the search on the page behaves exactly the same as in the opera (and the apostrophe - ' searches in the links).
I tried to set the comma and period I was used to, but I was surprised that in Firefox you couldn’t change the keyboard shortcuts!
But since this is an FF, I found the keyconfig addon, which adds the ability to edit abbreviations. Unfortunately, there are no QuickFind commands in it, and you need to create them yourself - click on “Add a new key” in the keyconfig and add:
- For the usual QuickFind:
gFindBar.startFind (gFindBar.FIND_TYPEAHEAD);
gFindBar._setFindCloseTimeout (); - For QuickFind on the links:
gFindBar.startFind (gFindBar.FIND_LINKS);
gFindBar._setFindCloseTimeout ();
And we assign the keys we are used to.
I have not yet figured out what to change yet, but with pleasure I use Firefox configured in this way.
upd
In Opera, I often use the context menu command for the selected text “Go to Web Address”, which inserts this text into the address bar and navigates to the URL / searches in the search engine. Thanks to the commentators, I found a great addon for FF URL Link , which not only adds this functionality, but also provides additional features and options for fine-tuning.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/48485/
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