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Mozilla Tree Closes for 1.0

fire-eyes writes "After many years, the Mozilla cvs tree just closed for 1.0. " It's been a long time coming. And I'm glad that on Unix we still have a browser war since Konqueror and Mozilla are both excellent browsers. Congratulations to every developer who committed a line of code, but mostly to you guys in the middle who had to wrangle the whole project.

37 of 717 comments (clear)

  1. Google cache... by thenextpresident · · Score: 3, Informative
    --
    Jason Lotito
  2. Need testers now! by lw54 · · Score: 5, Informative
    Remember Mozilla 1.0 will still be a test release. This means the debug and QA menus will still be there.

    Don't assume that just because it's 1.0 means that it's perfect.

    Many people will try Mozilla for the first time in 1.0. People more than ever need to go out there and download [linux, mac, win32], test, and give bug reports.

    If you want to help open source but can't hack the code, this is your chance to help! :-)

    1. Re:Need testers now! by CanadaDave · · Score: 5, Informative
      "Many people will try Mozilla for the first time in 1.0. People more than ever need to go out there and download [linux [mozilla.org], mac [mozilla.org], win32 [mozilla.org]], test, and give bug reports [mozilla.org]"

      Yes I totally recommend doing a bug report if there is something about Mozilla that you really hate. Bugzilla is excellent, and far nicer than OpenOffice.org's IssueZilla. I don't know why, I just hate IssueZilla, it never works well for me, and seems slower.

      I've been submitting bug reports for Mozilla for a while now. Sometimes I miss a previous bug, and so mine ends up being a duplicate, but I actually managed to find 2 unique bugs already (in composer), and they got implemented in 0.9.9! It was really cool to have helped made an improvement, without doing any programming.

      You can also vote on bugs. This is a great way to tell the developers which bugs you want to see fixed.

  3. Site is down, by let+the+storm · · Score: 2, Informative

    google cache:
    "
    Tree Closes for Mozilla 1.0
    The tree just closed in preparation for Mozilla 1.0, and so far, it's looking promising. What does the tree close mean? This time around, as drivers have been in control of the tree for the entire milestone, the actual process won't change, but drivers approval will begin to get harder and harder to get for a checkin. As we approach 1.0, we'll keep you up to date on current status and other interesting news.
    "
    Incidentally, at the time Google cached that, it had zero comments. That was fast.

    Anyway, I'm kind of disappointed. This is like the Year 2000. I always pictured some cool technological advance when we hit the y2k figure, but we didn't suddenly have anything special. In the same way, I always thought that when Mozilla finally hit 1.0, it would be this super-stable, killer ap with special competition-eradicating I-Need-Thats that make any other alternative simply laughable. Instead, 1.0 is just a glorified 0.9.9.998
    Oh well.

    (On a side note, when did we all stop saying Un*x for Unix. I think 'taco was one of the first people I heard saying this...)

    --
    m iso socially aware artistic geek pen-pal, m or f, in '1337 edu. jazz, poetry a must.
    email me (click my user info for addy) if you're interested.

  4. Re:Congratulations...BUT... by inquis · · Score: 5, Informative

    Learn to love tabbed browsing if you have complaints about startup time. Once it's running, hit CTRL+T under Windows to open a new tab; it's much faster than opening a new window because of the reduced window manager overhead. Hell, if you're ambitious you can configure Mozilla to open a new tab whenever you middle-click on a link; that's a KILLER feature.

    Add the Mozilla mouse gestures package and you will be setup to browse.

    -inq

  5. Re:Version 1.0? by cloudmaster · · Score: 2, Informative

    IE6 and Mozilla both support w3c standard CSS V2 in that respect. If you would just stop using "document.all" and similar to refer to elements, instead using the getElementById() to get a reference to the element and then using the element's "style.visibility" attribute, you'd have no problems with cross-browser visibility (in the 6.x browsers and IE5.x).

    At least, that's probably what the problem is, based on my own experience trying to do the same thing... :)

  6. Re:AOL Timewarner by zoward · · Score: 3, Informative

    It occurs to me that AOL and their ilk committed quite a bit of code to the Moz CVS tree over the years. If they choose to conspire to help provide a free-as-in-speech alternative to IE, they have my blessings...

    --
    "Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?"
  7. Moz based projects by InsaneCreator · · Score: 4, Informative

    What I find most interesting about Mozilla is in how may ways it can be used. Just look at all the different projects using Moz engine, like text/programming editors, irc clients, media players, and others. A really interesting piece of work. You can find a lot of Moz-based projects at Mozdev.org

  8. Link is slashdoted... by OneFix · · Score: 3, Informative

    While you're waiting, try the Tree Status and the Roadmap.

    From these links, you can tell that 1.0 is scheduled for release in about 2 weeks, but from the current Tree status it looks like that might not be a realistic time frame...more like 4 weeks...

    When MozillaZine is back up, make sure to check out the newest Build Comments...there's been alot of fixes recently...

  9. Re:finnally i can ditch explorer by shobadobs · · Score: 5, Informative

    Gee, did it ever occur to you that it is becuase that's not in the CSS Standard? Scrollbar colors are an IE "extension" to CSS, and web authors who use it are rather ignorant of their readers. Users have their scrollbar colors the way they want them; and there is no reason for authors to consider messing with their UI. It can only decrease the usability of a web site. For information about how to prevent web deezyners' screwing with your scrollbar's default settings, go to this page and scroll down a bit.

  10. Re:Congratulations...BUT... by inquis · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, Mozilla has a mouse gestures package, it's a toolbar you add and it drops a configure dialog in your Preferences dialog.

    /me whistles.

    http://optimoz.mozdev.org/gestures/

    -inq

  11. Mozilla has gestures by iamr00t · · Score: 2, Informative

    So that you know, mozilla is extremely extensible architecture, and you use javascript to write modules for it.
    That makes it quite easy to write addons.
    Like Optimoz.

    In general, www.mozdev.org has alot of good apps already.

  12. Hope for better plugin support by CanadaDave · · Score: 5, Informative
    One thing holding back Mozilla from widespread use by the average non-geek user, is that getting all plugins to work is not always easy in Windows at least. For example if you install RealPlayer 8, you won't get the plugin. You have to have Netscaple 4.x installed in Windows. RealPlayer will detec the Netscape 4.x directory and install the plugin. I have never tried creating these empty directories, because I assumed it actually relied on some registry entry for Netscape 4.x

    And the biggest plugin annoyance of all time....installing a JRE. For the non-geek user this is just a pain. They don't want to have to download and install this as well as the browser. It makes things too complicated. I wonder if an open source JRE like Blackdown.org's JRE with the Mozilla could be included with Mozilla.

    Also, Shockwave Flash has to be installed afterwards as well. IE on the other hand includes this in their browser. IE basically works out of the box, Mozilla doesn't. And the auto-plugin-installer crap doesn't work perfectly yet.

  13. Metabug... by OneFix · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you wanna track the progress, you can always go to the Make Mozilla 1.0 not suck metabug. This has been done for all releases since I can remember.

    Take for instance the same bug for Mozilla 0.9.9...all bugs are tracked in here up until the final release.

  14. Sad effect on Mozillazine... by Corvaith · · Score: 1, Informative

    Not all that long ago, MozillaZine went down because of bandwidth issues, had to get a new host, was soliciting for donations all over the place. Now, in gratitude, the site gets submitted to Slashdot. Yeah. Exactly *why* was it necessary to submit *MozillaZine* for this? Couldn't the main Mozilla website have served just as well? Presumably, it'd be better able to support the bandwidth usage. Not to mention that it's better to reference directly to the source--i.e., Mozilla--than another reference--i.e., MozillaZine, which just hosts a forum and some news and occasionally has reviews of nightly builds. It makes me feel guilty for even reading this site. Can't people post responsibly for once?

  15. Re:View Source by shaw7 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually, I believe a fix has been checked in and will be in 1.0. See: http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=40867 It's always good to check the latest status before passing judgement.

  16. Re:Go moz! by Geekboy(Wizard) · · Score: 2, Informative

    Mail support increased exponentially in .9.9. I noticed a LOT less crashes with it. I use POP3, which is working quite well for me. Address book now works without crashing everything. =)

  17. Re:Oh crud! not again by cjpez · · Score: 3, Informative

    No, the branch has just been closed; I'm guessing for new features of any sort. They're still going to be testing and doing bugfixes and stuff. Check out the roadmap for more info. It'll be a little while yet before 1.0 is actually out.

  18. Re:Diehard IE User by jesser · · Score: 2, Informative

    Sigh, too bad that JS still crashes it!

    Example? In writing bookmarklets that take advantage of DOM2 and CSS, I've found that I crash Opera 20% of the time, IE 10% of the time, and Mozilla 5% of the time. Netscape 4 doesn't crash because it doesn't even try to support the DOM2 functions I use.

    --
    The shareholder is always right.
  19. Re:newbie problems/questions regarding .99 on win by max+cohen · · Score: 3, Informative
    I'm not sure what you can do about (B), but (A) could be solved by adding this line (with the default font size & types you prefer) to your prefs.js file:


    user_pref("font.minimum-size.fixed", 14);
    user_pref("font.minimum-size.variable", 14);

  20. Re:AOL/TW testing Mozilla by MindStalker · · Score: 5, Informative

    That contact ended almsot 2 years ago I believe. The contract was basically that AOL got the AOL icons installed automatically with windows, and AOL agreed to use IE. With XP MS refused to resign the contact unless AOL agreed to not just use IE, but also WMP (instead of real), and many other microsoft technologies where AOL was using other products. AOL told MS to shove off, and thus the contact was not extended.

  21. Re:Congratulations...BUT... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    You can get quickstart on linux too.

    Make a script called linux-turbo that does this:

    mozilla -remote "openURL (slashdot.org, new-window)" || mozilla

    The first time you run it, it will start up a new process and take the usual amount of time to load. Subsequent times will be much faster. Its the same speed as going to File->New Navigator Window

  22. Re:newbie problems/questions regarding .99 on win by EllF · · Score: 3, Informative
    Mozilla forgets my text size (i prefer 120%) as soon as i close the program. Any way to make that 120% permanent ?

    Sure is. I do it myself, as I don't like to squint when browsing - I have a desktop resolution of 1600x1200. Add the following line to your prefs.js file - it's in ~/.mozilla/default/XXX.slt/, where XXX is something unique to the user:

    user_pref("font.minimum-size.x-western", 18);
    You can replace 18 with whatever you like, of course. Enjoy!
    --
    We who were living are now dying
    With a little patience
  23. Try the bookmark manager by Ami+Ganguli · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's very nice. I just found out about custom keywords today, and they rock.

    You can set up a book mark that takes a parameter and has a shortcut keyword. So now when I type "g keyword" into the urlbar it searches Google for my keyword. Browsing will never be the same :-).

    --
    It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. - Abraham Maslow
  24. It's not over yet by asa · · Score: 5, Informative

    We've still got a ways to go here. Check-ins to the tree are being tightly managed by the Mozilla "drivers" and we're working on getting it into shape for branching. When we get a handle on a few more bugs we'll create a Mozilla 1.0 branch and do a fairly quick Release Candidate 1. This will be a preview of what's to come with the final Mozilla 1.0 and an oportunity to gather feedback and TalkBack crash data that we will respond to over the following weeks as we approach the Mozilla 1.0 release.

    --Asa

  25. Opera faster at what? Loading up? by HanzoSan · · Score: 4, Informative

    Opera may load up faster but its slower at rendering pages.

    IE is faster than Mozilla but not faster at rendering pages.

    I dont really care how fast the browser loads, as long as it renders pages fast.

    Theres no way anyone can convince me IE or Opera can load pages faster than mOzilla, in my own tests Mozilla beat both browsers on every site I go to.

    Mozilla does have issues with javascript, thats one area IE and Opera win, but in all other Areas, Mozilla kicks ass.

    I compared IE 6(or whatever the newest one is), Mozilla nightly, Opera6.

    Mozilla is just fast as hell, pages render instantly no matter what page it is. Mozilla has never crashed, Konq has crashed, I admit Opera doesnt crash, but IE crashes more than Mozilla at this point.

    Have fun with slow rendering fast loading Opera.

    --
    If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
  26. Re:Don't forget Opera! by fire-eyes · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yeah, I'm a zealot. Its why i submitted the story after all.

    I could care less about Opera. Mozilla is special to me, being fully open source like this and its own rather large community backing it. Opera is closed source and.. and uh.. hrm. Not much else to say.

    --
    -- Note: If you don't agree with me, don't bother replying. I won't read it.
  27. Re:AOL's Pressure To Close by asa · · Score: 4, Informative

    It is both good and bad that AOL has decided to use Mozilla in the next AOL release. Unfortunately they are applying pressure to the Mozilla team to wrap it up and get the product out the door.

    This is a rediculous statement. AOL could care less about when 1.0 ships. Netscape 6.x and other AOL efforts haven't been delayed in their prior releases becuase Mozilla wasn't yet at 1.0.
    The pressure to make a 1.0 comes from within Mozilla, not from outside. We have a great set of technologies and it's time to let the world know. There are dozens of commercial projects (and even more non-commercial) using Mozilla technologies and we're working hard to give them a stable and long lived 1.0 branch on which to work. The 1.0 release is just the beginning for many consumers of Mozilla code and it will ba a fine place to start.

    --Asa

  28. Re:finnally i can ditch explorer by shobadobs · · Score: 2, Informative

    Um... no. Mozilla 0.9.9 has the best standards support of them all. That scrollbar-ism is _not_ CSS; it is an IE thing that has nothing to do with the standards.

    Mozilla's CSS support is simply superior to all other browsers', as shown in Ian Hickson's Evil Test Suite Results (there might be a space in the URL put in by Slashdot):

    http://www.bath.ac.uk/%7Epy8ieh/cgi/listresults. pl ?ID=ETS&mainMinTests=4

  29. Re:Recent speedups by BZ · · Score: 4, Informative

    > Why is Moz so much faster under Windows than
    > under Linux ?

    A few reasons:

    1) More Windows developers means more optimizations in platform-specific code on windows

    2) MSVC is a better C++ compiler than gcc and produces smaller and faster code

  30. Re:Recent speedups by crumley · · Score: 3, Informative
    Mozilla should run fine on an ulta 5. I usually run on an ultra 10, though sometimes I even run on a Sparc Station 20. Memory is a bigger bottleneck with mozilla than processor speed.

    As for compiling mozilla, don't bother compiling it unless you have a reason (I compile it myself because I'm following a few patches that aren't in the main tree yet). Just download the latest milestone or nightly (though the nightlies don't happen every night on Sparc Solaris right now).

    --
    Preventive War is like committing suicide for fear of death. - Otto Von Bismarck
  31. You should bee using Kmeleon or Galeon then by HanzoSan · · Score: 3, Informative

    Mozilla is not a light browser, its a powerful one. Theres the Gecko engine, and theres Mozilla. Mozilla is the XUL based browser which is designed to be compatible with all OS's.

    The Gecko engine however has been ported to NATIVE interfaces, and in these cases, it loads as fast as IE and Opera also coded for Native interfaces.

    Opera seems to have the fastest load time and most efficient code (meaning no memory leaks and optimized)

    Kmeleon is about as fast as IE and uses the same native interface as IE.

    Galeon for Linux is as fast as things get for Linux.

    --
    If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
  32. Re:Version 1.0? by BZ · · Score: 3, Informative

    Did you file a bug? Which version were you trying? Testcase? :)

    I can name at least 3 bugs that could have fixed your problem that got fixed in the last 2 months. If you actually gave a specific description of the problem (what's a "field" here?) I would likely be able to point you to the exact bug on it....

  33. Re:Diehard IE User by 9632 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Since the huntington (or hntington as one web page title says) changed there site the redirect to set your new password doesn't work in Mozilla. It does work in Opera. The site it self seems to work fine under Mozilla 0.9.9, but it looks like the web designers (as usual) only know about Netscape 4.x and IE.

    --
    I've decided to mispell one or more words in all my correspondence. If you don't like it then don't read it.
  34. Here's a simple fix, just bookmark it by iamr00t · · Score: 3, Informative

    Put this code in bookmark URL (one line):
    javascript:function htmlEscape(s){s=s.replace(/&/g,'&');s=s.replac e(/>/g,'>');s=s.replace(/' + htmlEscape('\n' +document.documentElement.innerHTML + '\n')); x.document.close();

  35. Mozilla Mail not ready for prime time by jgarzik · · Score: 4, Informative
    Mozilla browser is pretty decent, though it still has rendering problems I occasionally run into.

    Mozilla Mail is a different story. Functional, but very unpolished and not ready for heavy use. I should know, I've been using it heavily for the past two weeks as a trial run. Basically it needs a UI guy to go over it and flesh out the bugs.

    • Scrollbar insanity. If your message has attachments (this occur sometimes in other conditions, too) you have no scrollbars. Or to be more accurate, the scrollbars are present but completely obscured and inaccessible.
    • Blank messages. Crossing folders when going to the next unread message, the message text doesn't appear at all. One must highlight another message in the folder, then return to the chosen message.
    • Problems with large selections and large attachments. UI freezes for a looong time, and occasionally crashes.
    • Multi-folder navigation. "Next unread message" and similar commands take you to the next unread message... but still leave the folder highlighted. Read the message, hit delete, and you just deleted a folder.
    • Constant subwindow resizing. Going from a message with attachments to one without causes multiple redraws of the same window... at different window sizes.
    • Crashes once per day, typically.
    • ...and more. If you live and die by your email, as I do :) there are other buglets you run into as well.

    In short, works but definitely not ready for prime time.

    Jeff
  36. Re:What makes Mozilla different... by driehuis · · Score: 3, Informative

    Mozilla is a development framework.

    I'm actually amazed that the developers have gotten that development framework to the state it is in right now. When the switch from native Win32/Motif to XUL was made, I had sinking feelings over whether the whole thing wasn't going to collapse under it's own weight, and until 0.9.7, experience surely didn't contradict that gut feeling.

    As a browser user, I don't want a frigging development environment. I couldn't care less about skins and other window dressing. I want the pages I wish to view to render, that's about it.

    My acid test is my Win95 machine at work. It's a Pentium 75 with 64MB of RAM and a slow disk (and the only reason I still have it is that I want to be able to see how my own code behaves, if it works there it'll work anywhere). Starting with 0.9.7, it has become bearable. That's one heck of a job by the Mozilla team.

    The killer feature for me is the granularity with which you can set your preferences. "The site AdsTillYoureBlueInTheFace.com wants to load an image. Do you wish to allow this?" I've thought about hacking the thing up to even store JavaScript preferences per site. Push never came to shove though.

    --

    Bert Driehuis -- All I asked was a friggin' rotatin' chair. Throw me a bone here, people.