Mozilla 1.7, Firefox 0.9 Release Candidates Out

An anonymous reader writes "mozilla.org have released what are expected to be the final release candidates for their next versions: Mozilla 1.7RC3 (MozillaZine article; download) should iron out any final bugs in what will replace 1.4 as the new stable branch and Firefox 0.9RC (MozillaZine article; download) features the new default theme ported from Mac OS on Windows (though please bear in mind that the theme is nowhere near finished yet). The final releases of these versions are due very soon."

I hope they fix the slow loading issue !

[Zanek]

My main gripe with Mozilla is that when you leave it alone for about 30 minutes or so and come back, it takes like 15-50 seconds to be active again, which is extremely annoying (loading it from virtual mem ?). They really need to fix that
Also, some pages like WashingtonPost.com have a problem where it is constantly reloading itself (perhaps a JS error).

IE

[swordboy]

Is there a mozilla variant out there that mimicks the look and feel of IE yet? Jokes aside, I really hate installing mozilla only to uninstall it everytime because it simply doesn't work with my old habits.

Sigh...

Torrents

[FortKnox]

Anyone wanna seed the firefox d/l?

Anyone notice that there are editor holy wars (vi emacs), distro holy wars, but no 'browser' holy wars (yeah, ie vs mozilla, but that windows vs linux... I'm talking all in linux). Stuff like 'theme isn't finished' would be jumped on by the 'other browser' elitists. So linux needs a second open source free browser project so we can have a browser holywar.

Differences between Linux and Windows HTML engines

[commo1]

Has anyone noticed differences between the HTML engines in Mozilla? Using Mozilla/Firefox on a Linux distro, there are certain style sheets that do not display correctly (mostly hidden behind a graphic or otherwise), but seem to work fine under Mozilla/Firefox in Windows. An example is www.aicipc.com.

Re:Very clean!

[FattMattP]

Can Firefox disable animated images now? Or stop them when you hit the ESC key?

Nowhere near finished, but due out soon?

[OblongPlatypus]

Why do they put a default theme that is "nowhere near finished" in a product that's "due very soon"?

Yes, I know Firefox is "for those on the cutting edge", and I guess we shouldn't expect cutting-edge products to be completely finished in every respect, but Firefox is the only open source product most of my Windows-using friends are willing to even try. It would be a shame to hamper its continued spread by making the default theme an unfinished one.

Re:Very clean!

[chromaphobic]

Yeah, Firefox did a great job of importing my bookmarks, from frickin' Internet Explorer, which I don't even use, but not the bookmarks from the previous Firefox (0.8) install. Real helpful.

Ah well, at least it's not IE.

Am I the only one..

[Anonymous Coward]

Am I the only one that both on windows and linux find the mozilla to be faster at startup, better working with plugins and more stable?

Excuse me but on real heavy load (like 60 tabs of large pages) mozilla manages well when firefox at least to me with the official binaries crashes.

I'm talking about the 0.8.

Re:Nowhere near finished, but due out soon?

[Alby]

And I'm having problems installing a new theme over this disgusting new default ... anyone else having the same problem? Did the architecture for themes really change that much from 0.8 to this release?

mozilla vs. firefox/thunderbird?

[buttahead]

what are the benefits of using firefox and thunderbird over using the normal mozilla?

I've been using mozilla for a long time, and haven't had a reason to try the new offsprings, so I'm mainly looking for an overview.

Can't beat Konqueror's font rendering though

[headkase]

I keep coming back to Konqueror simply because the font rendering is simple the best looking. I really hope Firefox's font rendering get's addressed before 1.0.

Firefox 0.9 RC1 on Windows theme problem

[kryptkpr]

I just happened to swing by the mozilla page today before the story broke, and happily downloaded and installed the release candidate.. It was on my system for about 5 minutes, and now I'm back to 0.8

The new default theme looks UGLY... so I figure ok, I can change it. Every theme I tried from the themes site didn't work (wouldn't install) .. so I figure they just haven't been updated, so I went to the bugzilla entry about themes and found some 0.9-upgraded themes.. downloaded just fine, but I was unable to switch to the new theme even after a browser restart ... the hideous new theme just wouldn't go away! (but I kinda like the new theme selector)

As an extra irrotation, someone decided it's a good idea to change the hotkey that opens the downloads window.. that was the last straw for me.

I wish there was a smooth scrolling autoscroll.

[Anonymous Coward]

Where Mozilla and Firefox are concerned, you can have Autoscroll as an extension but it'll be jerky and flickery. You can get a smoothscroll extension that will scroll really smoothly, BUT it is not integrated with autoscroll and may never be.

So if you're looking for smooth autoscroll, IE remains the best.

It is the only reason I keep using IE.

Problems with .9 rc

[Anonymous Coward]

I noticed a couple problems with .9rc so i reinstalled .8 until .9 is released. A couple of them were stylesheets didn't show up correctly, not all the themes/extentions worked yet. I realize that these can/will be fixed, but I will wait to install it until they are, I really like my mouse gestures extention that I couldn't get to work on .9 rc.

I think I am going to like firefox's new extention manager/updator as well, looks cool.

All in all it looks like a good release, with just a couple bugs to iron out. Then the authors of the extentions need to update them too. :)

Copies IE's settings???

[Anonymous Coward]

I just installed it. It looks good and all, but can anybody explain why the heck it copied the settings from IE, overwriting the settings I was already using? I had the browsers set up differently for a reason!

Jeez. It even copied the geometry settings.

And the banner ad at the top of this page has scrollbars on it for some reason. But who cares about ads?

Re:Big deal

[coolsva]

You will never know what you are missing until you look without prejudice.

I personally resisted the move to firefox (on non IE browser) for long, trying alternative browsers and giving up because one small function/feature is missing. The last straw with IE was when the web sites started getting popups inspite of the google blocker. That plus the undesirable images that come in webmails or websites made me switch.

FYI, the killer feature I like in firefox is its ability not to load any image in the current site/page that is not from that site, sure fire way to kill all those ads.

Only problem I see is the way firefox works in linux (KDE) vs windoze (esp the backspace key). guess, I just need to learn to use alt-arrow

Re:Big deal

[Anonymous Coward]

For me Firefox loads just as fast, if not faster, then IE does.

Re:Nowhere near finished, but due out soon?

[brokenwndw]

I think that about hits the nail on the head.

From Ben Goodger's weblog: [mozillazine.org]

The transition from the Qute theme has caused quite a stir, and pleas for constructive responses have been widely ignored. All I can say to those upset with how this was negotiated is that in a perfect world, things might have been done better, this isn't that world, it is a more complex and interesting dynamic than has been made public, there is no use in crying over spilled milk, so get over it.

Those of you who have attacked Kevin and Stephen should be ashamed of yourselves. Calm down, take a chill pill, or you'll severely limit the likelihood that anyone that matters will listen to you. Say what you will about me, but be constructive about the new theme or kerz and other MozillaZine moderators will lock your accounts. I have disabled comments since I'm not interested in hearing people bellyache any more. We (myself, VDT, marketing, etc) are frankly sick of it.

Good software development is not done by committee, it requires strong leadership and tough decisions. Time will tell whether or not this was a good one. I think it was, and expect to be vindicated by the release, and the continual improvement and commitment to excellence that the theme's authors have promised.

Yes, he may eventually be "vindicated", but what I see here is a worrisome attitude towards the user and developer communities. "We (I) know what's best, no matter how many people in the community present reasoned arguments to the contrary. If you complain about our decisions you're just a whiner, and we're going to censor you to the extent we can. Oh, and we have hidden secret information we're not telling you, so you can't possibly know what we're talking about." It's walking on thin ice at best, juvenile and egotistical at worst.

I love Firefox and I plan to use 0.9 when it's released (possibly with the Qute theme installed separately). But, whatever you think of the new theme aesthetically, I think the surprise move and disrespect for the community response speaks poorly for the project. They have a good product, which is why it was able to survive multiple name changes and the "loss" of direct AOL support, and I think it'll survive this. But it doesn't encourage me to contribute to Mozilla development, and it'll probably mean I'll pay more attention to alternatives when people mention them.

Open source: live by the community, die by the community.

Not true

[Sycraft-fu]

Many users will whine on and on about the most trivial differences. Case in point:

We used to use Eudora around here. I don't know why, it was before I got hired. Well we have lots of people that STILL USE IT! Version 3 even. We try to push them towards Thundirbird. I mean there is nothing I can think of that Eudora does that Thundirbird doesn't (other than suck) and lots of things it can't do. Also an e-mail client is an e-mail client. I mean they all get your mail, list it, and let you reply.

Nope. There is man who bitch and whine and refuse to change. It's too hard to learn, they say. A Eudora skin would make my life much easier, though I'd reeally rather they learn the new interface (it takes what, 10 seconds to learn?)

So never say "people won't care because it's a little different. They can, and will, for some damn reason.

Re:Very clean!

[Halvard]

No shit. And the prior theme was better.

Re:Very clean!

[Karn]

Hey, why don't you pick on a piece of software that is past a 1.0 release!

Fine, I'll take my .9 release of a browser whose API changes enough to break older extensions while you enjoy the bug-ridden, ActiveX adware/spyware/trojan installing, non-popup blocking piece of shit known as Internet Explorer.. Welcome to the monopolist's world, where a simple disabling of a javascript open function takes 10 years to implement, and running Adaware and Spybot to remove shit that you didn't ask to be installed makes you feel like you still own your computer.

Windows 95

[mslinux]

A company that I consult for still uses *a lot* of Win 95 Machines. Of course, like everyone in the win32 world, they are begining to have lots of problems with spyware, adware and various other sorts of crapware that seem to do little more than destablize their computers.

Long story short: I did a fresh install of Win 95 C (the latest and greatest version of 95) and proceeded to download Mozilla 1.6 stable and 1.7rc3 and Firefox. However, none of these browsers would work... just a brief start-up splash-screen and then... nothing.

I know 95 is old, but Mozilla is a must these days. I'm no bug-hunting, bug-reporting expert, but could anyone on /. confirm that this is a known issue that'll be fixed or there exists a work-around for?

Thanks

Re:Very clean!

[linicks]

How can we let Mozilla know that we aren't happy with the new default theme? I realize that it is not complete, but I really don't like where it's going. I can't even make out what the "new tab" button is supposed to be.

Anyone else like or dislike the new theme?

Re:Can't beat Konqueror's font rendering though

[frodo from middle ea]

Besides, Konqueror does an excellent job of displaying non english websites. I can't get firefox to display websites which use non-english dynamic fonts, even if I install those fonts locally.

But konqueror does a very good job with these fonts (provided they are installed locally), and what's more the anti-aliasing in Konqueror imakes fonts much cleaner and easier to read than firefox. And I have compiled firefox from source with GTK and what not.

But at work where I have to use firefox, as there is no KDE, I'll be eagerly awaiting the 0.9 build for solaris, for they have fixed these 3 bugs which have annoyed me for quite some time.

205893 [mozilla.org] - Loading lots of images makes Firefox stop repainting.
229600 [mozilla.org] - Installing 2 extensions without restarting re-launches extension-installer for previous installed extensions.
For a comprehensive list see bigger-picture [squarefree.com]

Btw, for all Solaris users, Althought the download page of Firefox has a link to Solaris tarballs, they are non existant, i.e. 404.

Re:Very clean!

[teslatug]

That still doesn't make them stop with ESC, which is very irritating when using public computers (i.e. no saved settings).

Be warned HCI is crap

[oliverthered]

Firefox has great standards compatability, but has piss poor HCI.

URL fails to load -> url blanked

Switch from one tab to another while url loading -> old url displayed.

Page fails to load because of DNS lookup -> stored in the menu bar cache!.

Download -> gets sent somewhere whithout asking, doesn't tell the user that anythings happended.

Download again -> creates a new file blar+1 no continue/overwrite prompt or anything.

Close browser while downloading -> canceles all your downloads.

Download more than one extension -> get anoying prompts that are incorrect!

etc... etc.... etc.... etc.....

Firefox has to be one of the most anoying pieces of software I have ever used.

I only use it because it's more standards complient and faster than the alternitives.

Re:Mozilla/Firefox Whitelist

[Tokerat]

The best way to make images more theft-resistant is to put them in a lightweight Flash movie that loads them up. I have a whole website designed in Flash which loads content dynamically, and it uses 116k for the whole site. It's true someone could score the URL and just load it directly. If you put the images in the SWF, the size will increase and someone could save and "decompile" the SWF.

If you don't want to go the Flash route and stick to straight HTML, cut your images into smaller squares and use CSS or tables to assemble them in the browser. That's more of a pain but casual image theft is less likely when someone has to paste together 16 thumbnail-sized images.

Don't take features away from our broswer. Remember: no matter what you do, someone can always take a screen shot. Your content will never be secure on a computer, so don't try to make it.

Portable Firefox (Run from a USB key)

[CritterNYC]

For anyone who's interested, Firefox 0.9 now supports the ability to run from a USB key without any major changes AND be able to take your entire profile with you. I've repackaged the Firefox 0.9 Release Candidate as a ZIP that will create an 8.1Mb install of Firefox on your USB key, complete with a built-in profile. Full details of the changes (if you're curious, or so you can try it yourself) as well as a ZIP are available here:

http://johnhaller.com/jh/mozilla/portable_firefox/ [johnhaller.com]

Any commentary or questions on this new feature can be addresses in this thread on mozillaZine [mozillazine.org].

Re:Very clean!

[AoT]

I had all kinds of screwyness on osx. I had two of the damn firefox icon popping up and disapearing on the dock over and over again. I'm still using firebird at this point cause I don't feel like making the switch yet, when I did last time none of my anything worked.

Re:Not impressed...

[cK-Gunslinger]

Hmm..

gay
adj. gayer, gayest
1) Showing or characterized by cheerfulness and lighthearted excitement; merry.
2) Bright or lively, especially in color: a gay, sunny room.

Whether or not this was the meaning the original poster intended, it seems to describe the 0.9 theme quite well.

I think the only thing worse than insensitive people are you over-sensitive, paranoid bastards. Lighten up!

Re:I hope they fix the slow loading issue !

[bogado]

They use that to change the adds, you keep reading the document and the add change while you reading. Maybe some sort of "double buffer" would make that reloading less noticeble.

Re:Not true

[devnullify]

Right, like there are viruses (that can infect Thunderbird) that don't have to be saved as a file before they can infect your machine. Your virus scanner scans created files right?

I've never understood the point of e-mail virus scanners. They're nothing but a source of problems.

firefox on the mac? just use camino

[OmniVector]

i feel ya. they treat os x like a 3rd rate platform. it wasn't until pinstripe was made that i actually thought they even noticed the mac platform.

anyways, as i've tested every major version of firefox for the mac for the past year or so, this one miserably failed in a few short seconds:

• middle click with a three button mouse doesn't open a tab
• form widgets are still not native

and with that, it was closed and deleted immediately. maybe they'll fix those two things that are absolustely essential to me one day. oh well, in the mean time i'll just stick with camino (which is buggy as shit right now).

Re:CSS3 Opacity added

[cookiepus]

Looking at the release notes on the Mozilla side of the browers, I see they've added support for CSS opacity, very cool. Not something I'd incorporate into the core design of my pages yet, but I might toss it in as a bonus to Moz users.

Eh? I am not sure if the CSS opacity they're refering to is different from what I am thinking of, but CSS Opacity won't be a "bonus" to Moz users. Take a look at the (never finished) page in my sig. Click on the image. You see those yellow "sticky notes" that show up? Do they look transparent to you?

If they do, you're using MSIE (or maybe the new Mozilla?)

So it's not like it's something new Mozilla has as an advantage over other browsers. It's something Moz is catching up to. The page in my sig was done at least a year and a half ago and the transparency has been a "bonus" for MSIE users. Mozilla didn't barf on the code (It's standard IIRC) but it just showed the yellow as Opaque.

If these guys mean something else by CSS opacity, I am sorry to rant.

Re:Yes it can stop animated gifs

[Saint Stephen]

It doesn't appear to be possible to install the AdBlock extension in the Firefox 0.9RC or recent CVS builds. Adblock is highly desirable. Is it possible to install it?

So

[Anonymous Coward]

Do they now let us know why yahoo mail passwords cannot be stored?