Firefox 4.0 Beta 1 Released 190
balster neb writes "Mozilla has released the first Beta of Firefox 4, the next major version of the popular web browser. Apart from the new 'Chromified' tabs-on-top UI, there are many major improvements in performance and HTML5 support. This release also adds support for the new WebM video format. Other changes include faster DOM and CSS performance, improved UI responsiveness, hardware 2D acceleration, experimental WebGL support, and better JavaScript performance (though this beta does not include the new JaegerMonkey JIT engine). More details on the Mozilla blog."
Option to use the old UI? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Option to use the old UI? (Score:5, Informative)
Just tried it out. You can enable the menu toolbar, and move the tabs back to the original position.. So yes.
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I understand, preferences are preferences, but tabs on top always made the most sense to me. The address bar is an attribute of the current tab that you looking at. Going back and forth in history, all are functions within the context of the tab- so it makes sense that the address bar isn't global. ...but like I said, preferences are preferences.
Re:Option to use the old UI? (Score:5, Insightful)
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It's title bars that don't make sense, imho. They're a hack that waste screen space to compensate for the limitations of mouse-based WMs.
Re:Option to use the old UI? (Score:5, Insightful)
tabs are a hack by applications to make up for the failure of the traditional WM model and it's inability to handle large numbers of windows.
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Pretty much. See Uzbl: the "uzbl-browser" doesn't come with tabs. You can get "uzbl-tabbed", a version that provides tabs to switch between multiple instances of uzbl-browser, but many users manage them directly with their WM.
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It is fun to see this whole tiling, unix-philosophy, vim-keybindings UI train of thought start to take off. You know how many of these projects have come into being in the last 10 years?
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You can go further: tabs are a hack by applications to make up for the failure of the traditional WM model and it's inability to handle large numbers of windows.
Umm, not really. Tabs are based on the idea of "stacking" or grouping related "papers" together. That's perfectly natural on a real desk, unless you think you need to have every "open" paper on your desk to be visible.
The GP is correct. Titlebars are unnatural and just waste space, having no parallel to anything we might use when managing a real desk. Every function of the titlebar and window border can be accessed without actually interacting with them in any WM worth its salt. They do waste a lot
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I wasn't talking about tablets and phones. I was talking about keyboard based tiling WMs, like Awesome, wmii or ratpoison.
And it's not exactly a new concept:
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Except for the ones that are landscaped, also for a reason.
Also, on-screen viewing is a different medium than print, and the degree to which what is optimal for the latter is also optimal for the former is quite limited.
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Once a line length exceeds a certain distance, it becomes hard to move your focus directly to the next line of text. You have to scan the line in reverse, or re-read the start of the lines.
This doesn't change whether the text is on paper or on screen.
Anyhow, I have never understood the need people have to maximize applications. I much prefer being
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Sure, but the trade-offs with other inefficiencies do change in between print and on-screen viewing. For one thing, your monitor size is fixed in both dimensions, so the choice to maximize or use a narrower display has consequences in how much text you can read
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Um, yes, it is inconsistent. At present, I have three visible web browser windows, four visible terminal windows, an e-mail client and two rows of icons across my two displays. To realize that with maximized windows, you'd need 9 monitors.
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Agreed, 100%. Now, if Mozilla would fix their damn binary builds for Linux so that my CUPS printers work again....
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Personally I feel that an unused window title bar is wasted space.
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I've got a "tree" of tabs on the left side of the browser (maximizes vertical space, since everything I use now is widescreen) where tabs spawned from a page are indented under that tab. I can expand and collapse branches.
The new "chrome" way makes no sense, and doesn't make anything better. I'm a bit surprised they didn't try this style out - it's a big improvement for
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Re:Option to use the old UI? (Score:5, Informative)
However, I liked tabs on top of the addressbar, feels more intuitive.
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There are Minefield builds [mozilla.org] available for Linux. Just don't rely on them for important stuff.
I completely agree.
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Re:Option to use the old UI? (Score:5, Funny)
I just want my browser to be functional--and not force me to dig around in some new UI just to do simple stuff like printing.
yeah, ctrl + p, that was a bitch to figure out, all different than anyone else has ever done it before, and just for the sake of being different.
Oh yeah, and they put it in the top-level of the page menu, which should take a complete retard at least 15 seconds to find.
I really think you should pick better examples.
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Change is fine--if it is an improvement. Change for change's sake is just annoying. Personally, I don't find Chrome's interface an improvement in any way. I couldn't give a shit about the "clean look" fad myself (AFAIC, Steve Jobs can take his one-button mouse and shove it up his iHole). I just want my browser to be functional--and not force me to dig around in some new UI just to do simple stuff like printing.
Don't blame Apple for this one, that stupid "no menu" look is Vista's doing. Apple tried to go the tabs-on-top route with Safari 4 but luckily listened to its users and reverted to the old way.
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I personally love it every time some bit of popular software changes their UI, even if I hate the change the internet gets slightly more amusing for a time. This is especially true for Firefox, there are still people winging on about how terrible the Awesome Bar(tm) is, and now we'll all get to live with people complaining about Chromifying their UI.
Change for change's sake is just annoying. Personally, I don't find Chrome's interface an improvement in any way.
But a useful change, and a superfluous change
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In fact, the sole gripe I have is that they made "tabs on top" a boolean option instead of just making the various bars (tabs, toolbar, bookmarks, whatever any extension adds) reorderable at will. The new layout code conflicts
I'll never let go, Firefox. I'll never let go. (Score:5, Funny)
I've heard that Chrome and Opera perform better at this point than Firefox, but I can't help it...I just like the way Firefox "feels". I can't give it up.
WHY CAN'T I QUIT YOU????
Re:I'll never let go, Firefox. I'll never let go. (Score:5, Informative)
Why do you need to? Chrome renders pages faster, sure, but I don't really give a shit about a couple of milliseconds rendering time. Chrome has isolated tabs, but crashes more than Firefox anyway (at least for me).
Finally, when you have a really nice open source browser that isn't entirely controlled by a giant behemoth that knows everything about you, why not use it? Seriously, do we need to be throwing more power Google's way?
P.S. Gecko is still much faster at some things, i.e. image rendering and animation.
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Why do you need to? Chrome renders pages faster, sure, but I don't really give a shit about a couple of milliseconds rendering time.
We're talking real-world (not synthetic benchmarks, but actual page loads) improvements of 100% or more, probably due largely to the fact that Chrome can execute Javascript on something like a reasonable schedule.
Chrome has isolated tabs, but crashes more than Firefox anyway (at least for me).
For me it's quite the reverse. And I'm running dailies!
Finally, when you have a really nice open source browser that isn't entirely controlled by a giant behemoth that knows everything about you, why not use it?
Chrome isn't "entirely controlled by a giant behemoth" either, it's based on WebKit. And Chromium is entirely open-source so if you really want to, you can see what's going on in there, change things, et cetera. Meanwhile, every time I've ever
Re:I'll never let go, Firefox. I'll never let go. (Score:5, Insightful)
P.S. Gecko is still much faster at some things, i.e. image rendering and animation.
If every damned site out there wasn't overusing Javascript that might be a compelling argument.
A lot of sites with heavy image content scroll smoothly in Firefox, Opera, and even IE, but struggle along at about 5 fps when scrolling with the webkit browsers. That's my main issue with Chrome.
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We're talking real-world (not synthetic benchmarks, but actual page loads) improvements of 100% or more, probably due largely to the fact that Chrome can execute Javascript on something like a reasonable schedule.
Um, I'm talking real world too, I don't really look at the benchmarks. 100% faster at something I already feel is more than good enough is a whole lotta nothing for me. You may feel differently, of course, but the point of my original post was to point out that you shouldn't feel its somehow nerd-wrong not to switch from Firefox.
If every damned site out there wasn't overusing Javascript that might be a compelling argument.
I think it will become important, if/when Canvas gets traction. I've made some stuff involving multiple layers of transparent PNGs with transiotns between them using javascript. Fir
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While I have never seen the speed increases that everyone has (yes, studies, studies, studies -- but in my real world use it doesn't make a difference) Chrome simply doesn't have a viable AdBlock and thus is totally useless for me. YMMV.
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Chrome simply doesn't have a viable AdBlock and thus is totally useless for me. YMMV.
Do you find AdBlock 2.0 on Chrome 6.x inadequate, and why?
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Unlike on Firefox, AdBlock for Chrome doesn't actually block the ads from loading. It simply prevents them from displaying.
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> We're talking real-world (not synthetic benchmarks, but actual page loads)
I'd be interested in the data here. Can you point me to a particular page you're thinking of?
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Gecko may not be as fast as WebKit or Presto, but come on... comparing it to Trident?
Fastest to slowest:
WebKit/Presto, Gecko, (insert from 5 to 10 imaginary rendering engines here), Trident.
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Ok, here's a single counterexample to prove you wrong:
http://web.mit.edu/bzbarsky/www/mandelbrot-clean.html [mit.edu]
Try it in the Firefox 4 beta, and compare it to the latest Chrome release.
The reason you got modded down is probably because you made a dramatic, blanket claim without backing it up with facts.
Incidentally, browser performance isn't a simple yes/no issue -- it depends on a number of different pieces of technology. E.g. there's DOM and CSS, graphics, and Javascript. Chrome, for instance, does Javascript
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Ok, here's a single counterexample to prove you wrong:
http://web.mit.edu/bzbarsky/www/mandelbrot-clean.html [mit.edu]
Interesting example. Here are some results using a 7-year-old laptop (a newer PC would probably be a lot faster).
454ms - Opera 10.60
553ms - Firefox 3.6.6
661ms - Epiphany 2.30.2
992ms - Chromium 6.0.453.0
The two WebKit browsers were the slowest, while the Presto browser was fastest. It's not always so, of course.
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Ok, here's a single counterexample to prove you wrong:
Faster in Presto than Gecko. My Blanket statement stands. Oh, did you mean my other non-blanket statement? Yeah.... maybe you should put away the fan mode and start thinking critically.
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Your blanket statement was to the effect that Gecko is always the slowest of the bunch, comparable to only Trident (what specific area of performance you never mention, implying performance of everything). Such are the ingredients of a troll.
Anyway, I've done a stupid thing and compared Opera 10.60 with the FF4 beta (not 3.6.6 as per above poster), just for you.
On my PC, Opera and FF4 are approximately neck-to-neck on the above benchmark, with FF4 having a small but consistent lead of about 10-15%. On zoomi
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I know you post was probably just a joke, but still, I'd highly recommend you check out Chrome seriously if you haven't. I'm not the type of person that cares about benchmarks or static screenshots. The thing I value most of all is that intangible "feel" of the software that you allude to, and I don't know what exactly it is, but Chrome "feels" much, much better than Firefox - PARTICULARLY if you're running Linux (Firefox on Linux compared to Firefox on Windows/Mac is like Data vs B4. Sure they look exac
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WHY CAN'T I QUIT YOU????
Slashdotter Extension, duh.
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Firefox has way more add-ons and plugins. ..
Adblock+flashblock+noscript+webdeveloper_toolbar+firebug+TorButton+betterprivacy+bugmenot+taco+passiverecon+sessionmanager+skipscreen+colorzilla+greasemonkey+httpseverywhere+measureit+showip+tabmix+viewsourcechart+tamperdata+mozillasniffer+trackmenot+xmarks.
I can't imagine browsing without these add-ons. Chrome doesn't have them. Opera doesn't have them. IE. . . bwahahahaha!
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What spyware? As far as I know the vast majority comes from plugins, not Firefox itself (Flash, Adobe Reader, etc). The second vector of attack is Javascript, but not only they're usually fixed very soon, you can use NoScript to stop them.
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Try it safely on your PC with Firefox Portable 4b1 (Score:5, Informative)
At PortableApps.com, we released the portable package of Firefox 4.0 Beta 1 yesterday soon after 4.0 Beta 1 dropped. It's a great way to test the latest beta without impacting your current Firefox install since it runs self-contained from a single directory. You can even install it to your Desktop or Documents folder.
Try Mozilla Firefox 4.0 Beta 1 out today with Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition 4.0 Beta 1 [portableapps.com]
Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition 4.0 Beta 1 homepage [portableapps.com]
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Nice, thank you! Definitely going to give this a shot tonight.
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Mod up, please. Informative post, excellent product. Put it on your thumbdrive.
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Wow that's a great idea, if only there were some futuristic operating system that kept apps self-contained inside a single icon of some sort... that could be drag and dropped from one place to another... you could put them side by side in the same folder and stick a version number at the end of the name then run whichever you wanted.
The future is going to be soo cool, I can't wait.
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Wow that's a great idea, if only there were some futuristic operating system that kept apps self-contained inside a single icon of some sort... that could be drag and dropped from one place to another... you could put them side by side in the same folder and stick a version number at the end of the name then run whichever you wanted.
You can do this on Windows for most apps (it depends on how they're written) and there's no OS AFAIK that force its apps into a single folder (or icon as you put it - but encoding an app into an icon would be idiotic). On OSX most apps are delivered in a single folder, but it's not OS enforced and does not guarantee that you can run multiple versions of the app as it may still store it's settings/user data in such a way that they conflict.
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Thanks for that!
Copied places.sqlite, cookies.sqlite over to the portable version and I had my 3.x browsing history synced to 4beta.
Under XP/Server 2003, only extensions that don't work correctly are Forecast Fox and BetterPrivacy. Add to SearchBar, FlashBlock, and oldBar work even though people have said it's incompatible.
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Several Reasons (Score:2)
Several reasons that the portable installer stomps all over a zip file:
1. The portable installer is a smaller download
2. The portable installer doesn't require any external software to extract it
3. The portable installer automatically detects an existing instance of the PortableApps.com Platform, offers to install into it, and tells the menu that a new app is installed so it can display it.
4. The portable installer makes it easy to have options like whether to install additional languages without having to
Not bad (Score:5, Informative)
After some UI tweaking, I got it looking and behaving like Firefox/Mozilla always has, and I'm left with a browser that's slightly faster and has better interfaces for some things. The drag-to-resize text fields in all websites is wonderful. The new extensions management interface is nicer but will take some getting used to.
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The only thing I want to know is whether Vimperator still works on it.
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True, but to be fully fair, resizeable textareas were available as a Firefox add-on since at least March 2007 via the Resizeable Textarea add-on [mozilla.org], three months before Safari 3 was announced and released as a beta.
Re:Not bad (Score:5, Insightful)
Why would it matter who came up with any given feature first? In software, all ideas are recycled.
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To us perhaps. To marketing department it is not. To fanboys it most certainly is not!
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All ideas are recycled. Not just in software.
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I would like to see how it compares to other "Modern" Browsers in terms of speed. Lately Firefox (which was supposed to be the fast and light Mozilla) has been running at speads that beat IE but not the other browsers. I would love to see Firefox compete with the other guys as well.
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There are three areas that significantly slow down web browsers:
1: Javascript/CSS execution. This is where almost ALL the effort is concentrated. My take on it is to generate less javascript/CSS, and do more of the work ahead of time on the server side. Instead of a page that can display in 64 different ways, pre-generating 64 static pages can make the site more responsive for the user.
2: Layout/rendering. Various tricks can be used, including (but not limited to) spaceholders, rendering to off-screen
WebM (Score:2)
So... where are the encoders for WebM? Don't give any links to Windows-only programs as it's useless to OSS users.
Re:WebM (Score:5, Informative)
First result on google for webm.....
I've been using it for a week now... (Score:2)
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What you were using was a test build, not the actual beta. As you can tell by the fact that the actual beta is different from the build you were using...
Remove the big ugly orange button (Score:3, Informative)
For those of you who don't like the big ugly orange button, Download Squad [downloadsquad.com] tells you how to change its colour or make it transparent.
WEBSOCKETS!!! (Score:5, Informative)
Still no SVG in img tags (Score:2)
I know there have been some problems with Firefox supporting SVG in img tags but I was still sort of hoping they would've sorted it out for 4.x, it's a nice feature (and from a security standpoint they could just go with one of the "lesser" SVG standards that don't include scripting).
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SVG in img tags and background images is going to be in for FF4, but will land in a later beta.
Official Linux and Mac 64 bit builds (Score:3, Informative)
4.0 will be the first version with first class 64 bit support from Mozilla.
For some reason, the 64 bit builds aren't on the main download site, but are available here:
http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/4.0b1/ [mozilla.org]
Linux and Mac only at the moment, I assume Windows 64 bit builds are to follow in later versions.
From the greatly improved performance scores, It appears that the tracing JIT is finally enabled on the Linux 64 bit version.
Now where's my 64 bit flash adobe?
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While it's technically true that unused RAM goes to waste, RAM that isn't used by programs is typically used for disk cache, which does speed things up (sometimes a lot). So lower RAM usage is still a plus.
Re:First Post !! (Score:4, Insightful)
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Thanks I was wondering what the heck was the matter with 4.0
It looked so bad that I figured that it couldn't be an issue for every one but I couldn't find anything on Google about it.
Now I can put 4 through some paces and see if I will replace chrome with it.
"Faster" for who? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Well how out of date are you talking?
I am using it on a P4 single core which is pretty dang old and it works just fine.
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Well I decided to run sun spider on both Chrome and FF4
Chrome wins by a lot.
RESULTS (means and 95% confidence intervals)
Total: 847.0ms +/- 25.3%
FF4
RESULTS (means and 95% confidence intervals)
Total: 1245.0ms +/- 3.7%
This is only one test and it is on an old single core P4 so maybe multi cores will do better. FF4 may do better on other bench marks, and FF4 is an early beta.
Also I ran the test on Chrome first so any catching that may have been done would have benefited FF4.
But
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Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
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Even Internet Explorer 6 got one in Windows XP SP2.
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Re:Now hopefully... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Download Helper doesn't seem to detect any videos.
DownThemAll is incapable of actually downloading anything.
Firebug is rendered completely inoperable. The menu is there but empty and the statusbar icon doesn't do anything.
FireFTP is even more inoperable than Firebu
Re:WebM/VP8 support (Score:4, Funny)
Does this diego.viola support reading English text?
Is it possible to read the article summary without me having to paste it in this message?