Full Screen Firefox: CloudBook vs. Eee PC
February 16th, 2008 by Avram PiltchIf you’ve been following my CloudBook journey, you know that one of the first things I did with the CloudBook was log in to WordPress and write a blog post. I noticed, at the time, that I had to scroll a lot to see what I was working on and to perform simple WordPress tags, like inserting an image. Having to scroll a lot is not a problem inherent to the CloudBook; it’s a problem inherent to any computer with a native resolution of 800×480. These days, 480 pixels of height just doesn’t fit what it used to.
JAmerican suggested in the comments section that I try running Firefox full screen to get more screen real estate. I hit F11 and noticed a sizable difference. I tried the same thing on the Eee PC and was surprised to see a noticeable difference between full screen Firefox on the two machines. Just look at these screen shots.
First of all, let’s see the difference between the CloudBook’s Firefox in regular mode and in full screen mode.
As you can see, I can’t even view the top of the WordPress content area in regular mode. Now let’s take a look at the CloudBook in full screen mode.
Ahh, that’s much better. You can even see four lines of text and the first four categories in the category menu. Now, let’s see if Firefox on the Eee PC is any different.
You can almost make out a fifth line of text and a fifth category. That must be a good 10-15 pixels extra. Perhaps there’s a way of tweaking the appearance settings on the CloudBook to make up the difference but, by default, there’s a noticeable difference. With only 480 pixels to play with, every pixel counts!
February 16th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
You might want to use the Minifox or Minifox Flat themes, they allow for more screen estate in both windowed and fullscreen modes.
February 16th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Your doing good job, but could we get some videos of it, and boot times from cold and suspend
something to help us with the speed of it like video of opening applications. Thank you
February 17th, 2008 at 12:26 am
Asus obviously spent more time tweaking the themes for Firefox, OpenOffice, and other applications to make sure they look as good as possible on a small screen. In Firefox, the toolbars and icons are smaller.
But you can also use some Firefox add-ons to get rid of the toolbar altogether in full screen mode, at which point the two screens should look identical.
I prefer the Autohide extension because it’s pretty easy to customize:
http://www.krickelkrackel.de/autohide/
But you can also use Fullerscreen:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4650
February 17th, 2008 at 7:09 am
Firefox uses the window manager’s frame, fonts, icon settings.
There should be some sort of “control center” for all the window manager settings - tweak them.
(say: “thank-you Everex” as you do so, it might help)
Another request, in Firefox, do:
edit -> preferences -> advanced -> encryption -> security devices
Is Firefox using the C7-M hardware crypto engine?
February 17th, 2008 at 7:37 am
Well, I was a little bit wrong there …
Right click the Firefox menu bar in a blank area (to right of “help” will do) …
Select “customize”
Checkmark “use small icons”
That should give you a few more pixels.
February 17th, 2008 at 7:46 am
The desktop panel (dock) should be similar …
Right-click a blank area, select “configure panel” (or “configure dock” whatever they called it)
Make it vertical, glue to the right or left side of the display where you have a lot (800) pixels;
tweak sizes and other options to taste.
- - -
I stuck my website link above - not because it has anything interesting on it, but because the
css is designed for display sizes down-to 320×240 (or smaller).
February 17th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Look at the screensnaps again. The EeePC is somehow using less pixels at the TOP of the screen when Fox is in full-screen.
February 21st, 2008 at 10:21 pm
I use full fullscreen in firefox. try it.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1568
April 4th, 2008 at 1:35 am
Mike Cane: Good eye. Its probably a difference in how the two different Operating Systems function with Firefox; more specifically, how they display the scroll bars, tool bars, etc.
April 7th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Hey good comparison. If you upgraded wordpress you’d get rid of that extra warning line. Also shortened your blog title, it would fit on one line which would free up even more space! Every pixel counts!!