Firefox 4 Beta 4 was originally scheduled for a release on August 20, but blocker bugs kept the team from releasing the version on that day. Four days later, and Firefox 4 Beta 4 has finally been released.
The next major iteration of Firefox comes closer to the first release candidate which is slated for an October release date. At least three additional beta releases will follow before the appearance of the release candidate.
Firefox 4 Beta 4 continues where the last beta left off. Firefox Sync is enabled by default, and the Tab Candy, Tab Sets, we mean Tab Groups feature has been renamed once more, at least in this beta build. The feature can now be accessed with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Space.
firefox4 beta4
Direct2D rendering is still not activated by default on Windows. Windows users who want to turn the feature on should take a look at Enable WebGL, Direct2D Rendering In Firefox 4 Beta for instructions on how to turn the feature on.
The release notes have not been updated yet, which makes it difficulty to find out if other features have been added or modified in the new release. We will conduct some speed tests right after the publication of this article, and update it accordingly once they are done.
Update
Firefox 4 Beta 4 manages to score a 97 out of 100 in the Acid 3 test, a 200 and 9 bonus points in the HTML5 test. It still lacks behind speed wise both in the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark and the Peacekeeper browser benchmark, but manages to close in slowly but steadily.
The browser overall feels pretty stable after some first testing and shows great progress overall. It won’t be as fast as Opera 10.60 when it comes out, but the difference won’t be significantly noticeable, and that is all that counts.
Firefox 4 Beta 4 has not officially been announced yet. The beta is as usual available on the official Mozilla FTP server. Except an official announcement later today.
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I am waiting for this release mainly to test Tab Groups.
still haven’t come out… when!?
If you updated from Beta 3, the tab groups button won’t be in the tab strip by default. You have to drag it back in through the customize window.
Great information, thanks Gluxon.
If you updated from Beta 3, the tab groups button won’t be in the tab strip by default. You have to drag it back in through the customize window.
Just loaded it up and it seems a bit better than I remember it being. I started using OPERA as my default awhile back. I still think OPERA is the best for my system but will give FireFox another try for a while.
KOR-
I’ve updated to this version few minutes ago and it’s seems very stable and the new Sync feature is just awesome !
long time lurker but don’t post that often. Noticed something odd for me in FF4 b3 and 4. My hard drive activity immediately after clicking a link is just way too much. This doesn’t happen using FF4 b1 or b2. Used resource monitor and it is indeed coming from my profile folders cache. I created a new, blank profile and started FF with that profile, still the same result. While loading a web page my hard drive is almost off the charts even long after the page is loaded.
guichi, can you do me a favor and test the following: open about:config in firefox, filter for browser.safebrowsing.enabled and set the value to false? Then try again and see if the hard disk activity goes away.
Thanks martin but it doesn’t help much. Seems to be a longstanding issue since some b3 candidates. Some others on neowin are having the same issue.
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=1969673
Where do you get the info for this article?
According to what I’ve read, beta 5 will be the last beta before the release candidates start.
Re “… was originally scheduled for a release on August 20, but blocker bugs kept the team from releasing the version on that day. Four days later, and Firefox 4 Beta 4 has finally been released”, this seems misleading – the release is time-stamped Aug 18 so they obviously weren’t squashing bugs in the days preceding and following Aug 20 – I suppose a lot depends on what you mean by “originally scheduled”.
Look here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mozilla_Firefox. I know it is not official..