gHacks technology news » firefox beta http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:29:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Mozilla Firefox 3.6 Beta 3 http://www.ghacks.net/2009/11/18/mozilla-firefox-3-6-beta-3/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/11/18/mozilla-firefox-3-6-beta-3/#comments Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:36:20 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=18641 The Mozilla Firefox developers have released a third beta version of Firefox 3.6 just a week after releasing the last beta version of the web browser. This beta version was not listed in the Firefox roadmap and could come as a surprise to many Firefox users who expected that a first release candidate would be the next public release. The bug list over at Bugzilla lists 83 fixes in this version of Firefox of which two have been classified as blockers and 13 as critical. The release notes on the other hand list two new features in Firefox 3.6 beta 3 which sound interesting:

# (NEW) Changes to how we allow third party software to integrate with Firefox in order to prevent crashes.
# (NEW) The ability to run scripts asynchronously to speed up page load times.

Firefox users who are interested in upgrading to this latest beta version should read the known compatibility issues which are listed in the release notes to ensure that Firefox 3.6 Beta 3 will run properly on their system. Updates are available for all supported operating systems and languages. The easiest way to upgrade is to check for a new version from within Firefox by going to the Help > Check for Updates menu. Another option is to visit the official beta page to download the version of the web browser from there.

As usual this new beta version breaks a few add-ons which need to be forced to be compatible with the Nightly Tester Tools.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/11/18/mozilla-firefox-3-6-beta-3/feed/ 5 Firefox 3.6 Beta 2 http://www.ghacks.net/2009/11/11/firefox-3-6-beta-2/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/11/11/firefox-3-6-beta-2/#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:59:48 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=18394 The Mozilla Firefox development team has released the second beta of the upcoming Firefox 3.6 web browser. Firefox 3.6 which is still slated for a late 2009 release will succeed Firefox 3.5.x the current public stable branch of the Internet browser. The new beta version of Firefox 3.6 comes with more than 190 changes to previous versions including several critical stability fixes and more than a dozen major fixes to various editions of the web browser. The update is therefor recommended for all Firefox 3.6 users who are not already running the beta 2 release.

Interested users can check out the list of changes in the release over at Bugzilla sorted by severity of the fix.

Firefox 3.6 beta 2 is available for download at the official Mozilla Firefox beta download page. It is available there for all supported operating systems and languages. Users who are already running an earlier version of Firefox 3.6 can also perform an update check in the Help menu to initiate the download and installation of the latest beta version directly from within the web browser.

The release notes are posted below:

What’s New in Firefox 3.6 Beta (revision 2)

Firefox 3.6 Beta is built on Mozilla’s Gecko 1.9.2 web rendering platform, which has been under development for several months and contains many improvements for web developers, Add-on developers and users. This version is also faster and more responsive than previous versions, and has been optimized to run on small device operating systems such as Windows CE and Maemo.

* More than 190 bug fixes from the last beta to improve performance, stability, security and features.
* This beta is available in more than 45 languages – get your local version.
* Users can now change their browser’s appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas.
* Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.
* Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.
* Support for the WOFF font format.
* Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.
* Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.

Have you been trying out Firefox 3.6 already? If so, what is your impression so far?

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/11/11/firefox-3-6-beta-2/feed/ 4 Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 http://www.ghacks.net/2009/10/31/firefox-3-6-beta-1/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/10/31/firefox-3-6-beta-1/#comments Sat, 31 Oct 2009 08:37:09 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=17920 The Mozilla developers have finally released the first beta of Firefox 3.6 after releasing two release candidates for the beta previously. Firefox 3.6 will be the next installment after the Firefox 3.5x branch and is still slated for a early 2010 release. The Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 is build on the Gecko 1.9.2 web rendering engine opposed to Firefox 3.5 which is based on Gecko 1.9.1. The developers have added several new features and improvements to the Internet browser including:

  • Users can now change their browser’s appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas.
  • Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.
  • Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.
  • Support for the WOFF font format.
  • Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.
  • Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.

The most noticeable feature in Firefox 3.6 up to this point is the performance increase. New web technologies are great for web developers but websites that make use of them are still rare. The addition of Personas support – which brings the option to change the basic appearance of Firefox without restarting the web browser – raised questions by some users who preferred that it would remain an add-on that could be installed by the Firefox users who wanted the functionality. Now everyone, even those that never make use of the appearance changing features, are stuck with yet another module in Firefox.

Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 is available for direct download at the Mozilla website. Users who are tempted to try the latest version of the web browser should keep in mind that most add-ons will not work right out of the box. Installing an add-on like the Nightly Tester Tools is recommended to force compatibility.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/10/31/firefox-3-6-beta-1/feed/ 4 Mozilla Posts Firefox 3.6 Beta and 3.5.4 Release Candidates http://www.ghacks.net/2009/10/15/mozilla-posts-firefox-3-6-beta-and-3-5-4-release-candidates/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/10/15/mozilla-posts-firefox-3-6-beta-and-3-5-4-release-candidates/#comments Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:37:46 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=17292 firefoxThe first release candidate of the upcoming Firefox 3.6 Beta has been posted at the Mozilla ftp server. Next to it the second release candidate for Firefox 3.5.4 which is also available at the ftp server. Both releases are so called release candidates which means that they are close to the final version. Firefox users who want to give those versions a try can download them directly from the ftp server or one of the mirror ftps. Both final versions of the Firefox release candidates that have been posted are slated for a final release in the upcoming week.

Firefox 3.5.4. is a stability and security update for the latest stable release of Firefox. Users who are concerned about security might want to consider switching to the release candidate right now to patch the security holes.

The release candidate for version 3.6 Beta of the web browser on the other hand promises better performance not only executing JavaScript but also for other factors like starting Firefox or loading pages.

You can download both versions of Firefox from the Mozilla ftp server.

Firefox 3.5.4 RC 2
Firefox 3.6 Beta RC 1

Firefox users who do not want to install beta and release candidates need to wait until October 21 which is the scheduled date for the Firefox 3.5.4 release.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/10/15/mozilla-posts-firefox-3-6-beta-and-3-5-4-release-candidates/feed/ 1 Firefox 3.5 Preview http://www.ghacks.net/2009/06/09/firefox-35-preview/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/06/09/firefox-35-preview/#comments Tue, 09 Jun 2009 08:58:23 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=13400 firefoxThe Mozilla Firefox team has released a new version of the upcoming Firefox web browser. The version is called Firefox 3.5 Preview by the team and is listed as Firefox 3.5b99 on the Mozilla ftp site and about pages in the web browser. Users who are already working with the Firefox 3.5x branch can update the web browser by going to help > check for updates. This checks if a new version of Firefox is available with the option to download the new version right away.

The Firefox team has put up a What’s New page on the Mozilla website asking beta testers to test some features specifically in this release. Webmasters might want to stay away from this release as it seems to break some site functionality. One thing that I noticed right away was that some features of the Wordpress admin interface were not working properly anymore. This includes the capability to upload and add images to the blog post (the image uploader loads in the same tab as the post) and the word count.

firefox

There are probably other problems that users will encounter over time both in Wordpress but also other software suites. I will go back to Firefox 3.5b4 after finishing this post. The only Firefox add-on that was found to be not working was the Microsoft .net Framework Assistant 1.0.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/06/09/firefox-35-preview/feed/ 10 Web Browser: Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/13/web-browser-firefox-31-beta-3/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/13/web-browser-firefox-31-beta-3/#comments Fri, 13 Mar 2009 08:41:41 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=11168 The third beta of the Firefox 3.1 web browser has been released by the Mozilla development team just a few hours ago. It can be downloaded from the official website in all supported languages and for all supported operating systems. The release notes contain information about the improvements in this beta version of the Firefox web browser including performance and stability improvements with the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, native JSON support, private browsing improvements, improvements to the Gecko layout engine with one of the effects being faster content rendering and support of new web technologies such as CSS 2.1 and 3 properties, offline applications and audio and video elements.

The very same page lists a few known issues of the Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 web browser. This includes a Google Mail bug (can be resolved by reloading the page), no new window creation when dragging tabs on the desktop, choppy OGG audio and video playback on old computers and SSL website loading problems after returning from private browsing mode.

Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 will access the user profile on the computer if another version of the Firefox web browser is installed. Several of the installed Firefox add-ons are at this time not compatible with the latest beta version of Firefox and will fail to load unless the user forces compatibility with Nightly Tester Tools.

web browser firefox 3

Users who do not want to mess with their default installation of the Firefox web browser can download and use a portable version of the beta instead.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/13/web-browser-firefox-31-beta-3/feed/ 4 Download Firefox 3 Beta 1 early http://www.ghacks.net/2007/11/20/download-firefox-3-beta-1-early/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/11/20/download-firefox-3-beta-1-early/#comments Mon, 19 Nov 2007 23:09:31 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2007/11/20/download-firefox-3-beta-1-early/ The Mozilla Firefox team is currently spreading the first Beta of Firefox 3 to all mirrors and will make the announcement soon that the new version of Firefox 3 is available for download. The release can be downloaded early from the Mozilla ftp site which is always among the first to be updated with the newest releases.

The Firefox 3 Beta 1 is available in roughly 20 localized editions and several operating systems including Windows, Macintosh and Linux. You should note that this is still a Beta version and should not be used in a work environment. While more than 11800 bugs have been found and resolved including the most urgent and prominent ones more than 700 are still unsolved.

You should also note that most browser add-ons (only Adblock Plus was working) will not work in this Beta release of Firefox unless you give them a treatment with the Nightly Tester Tools. You do find a short review of the new features over at Mashable.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2007/11/20/download-firefox-3-beta-1-early/feed/ 2 Firefox 2.0 Alpha download http://www.ghacks.net/2006/03/23/firefox-20-alpha-download/ http://www.ghacks.net/2006/03/23/firefox-20-alpha-download/#comments Thu, 23 Mar 2006 08:32:21 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=363 projects website and download the alpha version. Take note that it could be unstable on your system.]]> The firefox team released a first alpha version of the upcoming firefox 2.0 browser to the public. You can take a look at the projects website and download the alpha version. Take note that it could be unstable on your system.

Bon Echo Alpha 1 is a developer preview release of our next generation Firefox browser and it is being made available for testing purposes only. Bon Echo Alpha 1 is intended for web application developers and our testing community. Current users of Mozilla Firefox 1.x should not use Bon Echo Alpha 1.

[tags]firefox, firefox 2.0, alpha, browser[/tags]

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