Firefox Update 3.0.6: Stability Improvements and Security Fixes Released 138.0

[kemical]

Yes, Mozilla has turned the Firefox 4 beta knob all the way up to 11 and there's another level to go (the beta 2 is expected next week) before we should expect an RC. While we wait, we can try the new 'Do Not Track' feature which has made its debut in beta 11 and aims to provide increased privacy.
After activating it from the Advanced windows in Options, the 'Do Not Track' function will send a header 'telling' websites that you want to opt-out of third party, advertising-based tracking.
"The advantages to the header technique are that it is less complex and simple to locate and use, it is more persistent than cookie-based solutions, and it doesn’t rely on user’s finding and loading lists of ad networks and advertisers to work.," says Mozilla Privacy Lead, Alex Fowler.
To test out the new feature just get the Firefox 4 beta 11 from this page

Ref: Firefox 4 beta 11 brings 'Do Not Track' feature | TechConnect Magazine

 

[stueycaster]

I found a few tweaks for the Firefox interface. Using them I was able to put the Firefox button and the tabs on the same bar plus change the color of the button and add a hover color. It makes for a huge window for the web pages. Plus it puts the Go/stop/reload button on the left end of the address bar where it belongs.

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I attached a copy of my userchrome.css file to show how it's done just in case someone else thinks it is as cool as I do. The userchrome.css file is found in:

C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\your profile number.default\chrome

Save my attachment, change the file extension to .css and add it to your profile. then you could change the RGBA numbers to whatever to specify your own colors. Go to:

Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization\Personalization\Window Color and Appearance

Click: Advanced appearance settings - Color 1 - Other. Find your colors and it displays the RGB values. Change the RGBA numbers in the userchrome.css file then save it.

This works on my Firefox 4 Beta11. I worked on 8, 9 and 10 too. Do not try this on Firefox 3. It really messes that one up.

I found all of this on various wep pages. It would be hard to find all of the pages where I found the info. That's why I didn't supply those links. So I put my own tweaks here instead. Here's where I found the one about putting the button and tabs on the same bar. At least I remembered that one.

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Update: Oops. My userchrome file needs to be named (userchrome.css). Without parentheses.

 

[cybercore]

Firefox 4 Beta 12 released


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Firefox 4 Beta is based on the Gecko 2.0 Web platform. Please read below for more detailed information about what's new in this version of the beta release, as well as the known issues.

This Firefox 4 Beta is considered to be stable and safe to use for daily web browsing, though the features and content may change before the final product release. At this time many Add-ons may not yet have been tested by their authors to ensure that they are compatible with this release. If you wish to help test Add-on compatibility, please install the Add-on Compatibility Reporter - your favorite Add-on author will appreciate it!

Check out what’s new, the known issues and frequently asked questions about the latest version of Firefox. Please tell us what you think using the feedback tools provided as part of the beta. We appreciate your input!

 

[cybercore]

Mozilla has urged users to update their graphics cards' drivers if they want to take advantage of Firefox 4's hardware acceleration.

Last Friday, Benoit Jacob, who works on Mozilla's platform engineering team, spelled out why users should verify that their computers, especially PCs powered by Windows, have the latest graphics drivers.

"When we turned these features on by default in nightly builds around September last year, and then in [Firefox 4] Beta 7, crash statistics and bug reports quickly showed that bugs in graphics drivers were often making these features misbehave," Jacob said in a Link Removed due to 404 Error. "We reacted by selectively disabling these new features on buggy drivers, based on the large amounts of information collected by beta testers."



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[stueycaster]

My video card doesn't support Hardware Acceleration. I was getting some horrible videos on YouTube using Firefox. I found I needed to disable Hardware acceleration in Flash Player Settings. Now all my video looks great.

To disable it:
Find a flash video online.
Right click somewhere on the video window.
Click - settings.
Select the first Tab.
Deselect - Enable Hardware Acceleration.

This will be the last computer I buy where I cheap out on the video card.

 

[reghakr]

Thanks for the info stuecaster.

 

[magiccottage]

Firefox 4.0 RC1 now released. It has disabled one of my favourite add-ons though despite my changes to about:config to ignore the check!

 

[stueycaster]

Try running this extension: Add-on Compatibility Reporter.

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Then when you go into the add-ons menu don't enable Add-on compatibility checking.

 

[cybercore]

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With Firefox 4, Mozilla wraps up a development cycle that took more than year and declare the current Release Candidate of the browser suitable as the final code.

Mozilla on Wednesday announced it would ship the final version of Firefox 4 on March 22.

The upgrade will be available for downloading at approximately 7:00 a.m. PT next Tuesday.

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[cybercore]

Mozilla | Firefox


It seems that Mozilla has been busy seeding its FTP servers because Firefox 4 FINAL is now available for download.


-- Windows (US)

-- MAC OS X (US)

-- Linux (US)

Lots of new stuff in this release, including:

Newly redesigned user interface

JaegerMonkey JavaScript engine

Hardware acceleration

Built-in sync feature

Support for HTML5, CSS3 and WebGL



Source: Firefox 4 FINAL - Available now! | ZDNet


~~~~~~~~~


Edit:


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Official Links Updated Mozilla | Firefox

 

[Mitchell_A]

Interesting to see the stats on how quickly Firefox 4 has been rolling out:
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[cybercore]

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Firefox 4 includes 5 security-related changes, all of which are under the covers. The user has no settings for them and may never notice them, but they're important nonetheless.

All 5 involve HTTP headers. These are blocks of data sent from the server to the client and vice-versa. 3 of the changes are headers sent from the server to the client, and 2 from the client to the server.

 

[kemical]

Mozilla has released Version 4.0.1 of the Firefox browser. This version fixes several security and stability issues.

 

[kemical]

A new beta to play with:

Having already went through the Aurora stage, Mozilla's next Firefox release, version 5.0, has went into public beta and is now available for download from virtually anyone running a Windows, Mac OS or Linux system.

The Firefox 5.0 beta comes with multiple fixes as well as goodies like:

- support for CSS animations

- support for switching Firefox development channels

- moved Do-Not-Track header preference (for easier discovery)

- improved canvas, JavaScript, memory, and networking performance

- improved standards support for HTML5, XHR, MathML, SMIL, and canvas

- improved spell checking for some locales

- improved desktop environment integration for Linux users

Reference

Download

 

[kemical]

Firefox 5.0 has gone final. Release notes to follow.

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[magiccottage]

Don't know where that is from, but 5.0 final is not yet on the Mozilla official site and was not due for release until the 21st.

 

[kemical]

As per usual these links are provided to be used at the users own risk. If you don't want to use them then please don't.

Just to clarify the above:

It comes as a surprise that Firefox 5.0 has undergone faster development unlike the former Firefox 4 build that gone through 12 Beta and 2 RC builds prior to release of its final version. After releasing 7 Betas of Firefox 5, Mozilla has now released the final build of Firefox 5.0 (available for download via Link Removed) and the official release of browser is expected on June 21. Firefox 5 Final can be downloaded for Windows, Mac and Linux in various languages. Try out this latest build if you can’t hold yourself!

Download Firefox 5 Final for Windows, Mac and Linux [Direct Download Links]

 

[kemical]

Firefox 6Beta anyone?

The changelog for Firefox 6.0 includes the following:
- The address bar now highlights the domain of the website you're visiting
- Streamlined the look of the site identity block
- Added support for the latest draft version of WebSockets with a prefixed API
- Added support for EventSource / server-sent events
- Added support for window.matchMedia
- Added Scratchpad, an interactive JavaScript prototyping environment
- Added a new Web Developer menu item and moved development-related items into it
- Improved usability of the Web Console
- Improved the discoverability of Firefox Sync
- Reduced browser startup time when using Panorama
Firefox 6.0 beta is available herefor Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Reference

 

[kemical]

Mozillas dev channel is now hosting Firefox 7:

The Aurora channel for Mozilla's Firefox browser is now hosting a new version which is ready for testing, a Firefox 7.0 build that's supposed to offer lower startup times, reduced memory usage, improved syncing (bookmarks and passwords sync instantly) and better font rendering.
The Firefox 7.0 Aurora release also includes new web and server technology and tools that 'allow developers to build performance tests directly into the browser'. Of course most users were probably just happy to hear (well, read) reduced memory usage.
To get the new Firefox Aurora build, for PC, Mac OS or Linux, just see this page

Reference

 

[kemical]

Mozilla has released Version 5.0.1 of the Firefox browser. This update contains two bug fixes.