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Mozilla 1.1 Beta Out And About

Posted by timothy on from the versus-mothra dept.

asa writes: "Today mozilla.org released Mozilla 1.1 Beta. New to this release are full-screen mode for Linux, BiDi Hebrew improvements, Arabic shaping improvements for Linux, and significant improvements to Venkman, the best cross-platform JavaScript debugger on the planet. Binaries and release notes available at http://www.mozilla.org/releases/. You can read more about this release at mozilla.org and mozillazine.org and if you want to see how this release fits into the overall 1.1 development cycle there's a pretty picture available at the Mozilla Development Roadmap."

22 of 402 comments (clear)

  1. So far, so good ... by deek · · Score: 2, Informative

    Saw the slashdot article and immediately downloaded the beta.

    So far it's working like a charm. They've fixed up the bugs from the alpha, like the one which caused word overlapping on some sentences.

    This browser just keeps on moving from strength to strength! Thanks, Mozilla team!

  2. mirrors by country... by neo8750 · · Score: 4, Informative
    lets be nice to the main site! .at .au .be .bg .ca .ch .com/.net/.org/.edu .cz .de .dk .ee .es .fi .fr .gr .hk .hu .ie .il .jp .kr .no .pl .pt .ru .se .sg .sk .tw .uk
  3. Re:Native SVG? by yasth · · Score: 2, Informative

    libart http://www.mozilla.org/projects/svg/

    --
    I'd do something interesting, but my server can't handle a slashdotting.
  4. Bug in favorite feature by palme999 · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Use of Mozilla's "quicklaunch" (AKA "turbo") mode may cause the deletion of user preferences. It is recommended that you do not run quicklaunch until this bug is fixed."

    Checking bugilla shows a patch in the queue, here's hoping it makes it to one of the nightly's.

  5. Great on OS X by d3xt3r · · Score: 5, Informative
    Posting now using Moz 1.1 Beta on OS X. There are significant speed improvements to the interface and the Aqua fonts look great.

    Mozilla has become so much better than IE lately that there is never a need to switch back and forth. Thanks Mozilla team, keep up the great work!

    1. Re:Great on OS X by captainktainer · · Score: 2, Informative

      I'm glad that it works great on OS X, but on Windows boxes it's still important to use Internet Explorer for a few things. Note: a few. A very few, but there's still a need, unfortunately. A few examples: 1) Banking/ultrasecure sites often make multiple browser checks that compatibility modes don't always overcome. Chase Online Banking, for one, croaks on Mozilla. I wouldn't patronize them, but a family member needs it so when he uses the computer IE goes up. Then IE goes down. Family member swears. I laugh. 2) Some flash sites croak. Newgrounds.com, for one, refuses to display some flash movies to me- despite their use of PHP, which seems to indicate open source-friendliness, the implimentation of Flash for Mozilla doesn't seem to agree with them. 3) Certain sites with embedded music don't like Mozilla- even though they're going beyond the standards and making the site less accessible, if one wants to fully experience the site IE is still necessary. 4) Certain programs will embed links into their programs in such a way that only IE comes up. The headaches are numerous, especially when several Mozilla windows are open. Memory usage doubles as the most inefficient browser in the world awakes and thrashes about. Poor Mozilla, so accomodating to other programs, can't take the strain. Mozilla and IE both go down. A good example is RuneScape, available from www.runescape.com. When their ads are clicked IE opens. I don't click ads. Sucks for them. Still, it would be great if Mozilla could emulate IE well enough to redirect requests and calls from this program away from IE. This is a small list, but in the interest of expanding Mozilla's usability for IE users interested in switching, I propose a Compatibility Module for Mozilla. When installed, it would provide support for some of the bad HTML IE loves so much, certain IE-only plugins, and hopefully would insert tags and emulate behavior that would allow Mozilla users to fully access IE-only sites. For all intents and purposes, Mozilla would become Internet Explorer 6.0 (or 5.5, or whatever) in the eyes of the web. Downsides? There are several. Patent issues, legal issues, more coding headaches, and important for the advocacy team, statistics issues. With these browsers identifying themselves as Internet Explorer, site owners would have little incentive to respect Web standards and code away from IE's idiosyncracies. This last issue is why I propose that there be a compatibility module, not patch. It needs to be loadable and unloadable as needed or wanted, preferably according to the needs of a particular site. Mozilla still has some hurdles it needs to overcome. To be honest, it's still somewhat slow and rather leaky, and the widely touted QuickLaunch has caused a rather serious bug that trashes preferences, at least in recent builds. It also gives up too much to other programs memory wise- many open windows can cause absolute disaster. It's coming along great, and I like it infinitely more than IE. It just needs a little more to push it over the edge and into exponential growth.

    2. Re:Great on OS X by sahala · · Score: 2, Informative
      When installed, it would provide support for some of the bad HTML IE loves so much.

      I understand that IE has a history of supporting shite HTML, but IE's support of W3C standards is rather good. Also keep in mind that Mozilla still supports some of Netscape's "bad" tags and has some pretty kludgy support of the current DOM recommendation.

      The nice thing about Mozilla, however, is how it handles this backwards compatibility by looking at the document type (html version, etc.). Old versions get rendered with "classic" (flawed) Netscape ways, and new versions get the latest and greatest rendering implementation.

      Despite quirks on either side of the fence, it's almost gotten to the point that web developers can now work toward the common DOM standard.

    3. Re:Great on OS X by umm+qasr · · Score: 3, Informative
      Why don't you just change this line
      pref("font.size.nav4rounding", true);
      to this:
      pref("font.size.nav4rounding", false);
      in your prefs.js file?

      Seems logical to me =)

    4. Re:Great on OS X by bhamm · · Score: 2, Informative

      Apple is listening regarding the antialiasing. The upcoming 10.2 has 4 levels of smoothing (at least it does in the build i have). Here's how they're listed in system prefs:

      Standard - best for CRT
      Light
      Medium - best for flat panel
      Strong

      Then, there's also 'turn off smoothing for sizes smaller than [popup]'

      I've got my Powerbook on 'light' and it looks great. 10.1 had too much in my opinion didn't look good on my LCD screen.

  6. Tips for searching Bugzilla by jesser · · Score: 5, Informative

    Mozilla.org gets a lot of duplicate bug reports: 40-50% of a sample of bugs from April 2002 are dups. If you know how to search Bugzilla, you can get that down to 15-20%. (Knowing some jargon helps too, of course.) Unfortunately, the most widely advertised Bugzilla search tool, the query builder, is so complicated that many testers give up before finding their bug and report a duplicate.

    There's a well-hidden search box on the Bugzilla front page that works a lot like Google. You can almost use it like Google, but there are several differences you should be aware of:

    • Each word is matched as a substring of the summary (and several other fields). A search for 'auto compl' will match "auto-complete", "auto complete", and "autocompletion".
    • Like in Google, you can use | to create disjunctions. For example, a search for 'address|location|url bar|field focus' will match "focus does not move when clicking outside of location bar". While "or" is usually unnecessary for general web searches, it is indispensible when searching for a specific bug report.
    • By default, Bugzilla only searches for open bugs. If you're looking for a bug that has been reported several times, it may help to include duplicates in the search. One way to do this is to prefix the search with 'ALL ' in all caps. For example, 'ALL rename exe' will lead you to an often-reported bug (120327) that I should be helping bz to fix instead of posting this comment, while 'rename exe' will not find anything.
    • If you know that the bug you're searching for is visible and popular, try adding 'votes:2' to your search. For example, 'ALL votes:2 context menu back' will find the newest flamewar-bug about the back command in the context menu among the 42 bugs that match 'ALL context menu back'. Searches that use votes:2 are several times faster than searches that include all bugs because bugzilla can start the search with an integer comparison.
    • The search includes several fields, not just the bug summary (title). For example, in a search for 'mail compos focus', the word "mail" can appear in either the product name (MailNews) or the bug summary, and "compos" can appear either in a component name (Composition) or in the summary (compose, composing, etc). To restrict a search term to the summary, use '+term'.

    Other useful tools for avoiding reporting duplicates include the frequently reported bugs list and #mozillazine on irc.mozilla.org. If you find yourself working in Bugzilla a lot, you can use the collect buglinks bookmarklet to get a list of bugs mentioned in a given bug report, which is useful because many bug reports include links to related bugs.

    --
    The shareholder is always right.
  7. Re:yipee...but by asa · · Score: 4, Informative

    Mozilla flash support comes from Macromedia's Flash plugin. The latest Flash plugin just released in recent days supports scripting in Mozilla so the support is coming along well (real is also now scriptable in Mozilla).

    --Asa

  8. MOD PARENT DOWN by RedSynapse · · Score: 5, Informative
    The parent comment is *NOT* the release notes from 1.1Beta which this story is about. This is the release notes for 1.1ALPHA which was released over a month ago. The release notes for 1.1BETA are as follows.
    • Improvements to Arabic shaping which result in better layout of Arabic pages on Linux and other platforms without their own Arabic support.
    • A bug was fixed which caused English text in text boxes to be displayed in the wrong direction on Hebrew pages.
    • The JavaScript Debugger has gone through a major development cycle. It now sports a palette of nine views which can be rearranged within the main window, or docked in separate floating windows. It is also possible to create user defined views and commands directly with JavaScript. More details are available in the FAQ, newsgroup, or IRC channel.
    • Distinct window icons on MS Windows for the different Mozilla applications
    • Mozilla on Linux now has Fullscreen mode. (press F11)
    • All Search entry points now your default search engine.
    • Improved site compatability and rendering.
    • The tab bar now has a button for creating new tabs.
    1. Re:MOD PARENT DOWN by asa · · Score: 4, Informative

      Wheres the spell checker? They said it was going to be out with 1.0

      Who said it was going to be out with 1.0? Certainly not me. You can get an open-source spellchecker at mozdev.org that works with some Mozilla releases but I'm not sure if they've updated it to work with 1.1beta.

      --Asa

  9. Re:Aighty then... by NeMon'ess · · Score: 1, Informative

    Your user number is lower than mine, yet you've never realized or heard as I have about going to Preferences, Exclude Stories From the Homepage, Topics, then checking the MOZILLA BOX. BOOM! Mozilla stories will forever disappear from /. for you. What's that? You want to hear about Mozilla 1.1 but not the alpha and beta? Try that freshmeat site you mention but I've never checked out. Or follow the Mozilla timetable and use ICQs reminder feature or whatever. You're wasting your breath when a very significant group of /. readers want to hear about Mozilla alpha and betas.

  10. Re:xul/xpi stuff? (OT) by asa · · Score: 4, Informative

    mozdev.org is the premier destination for those seeking Mozilla plug-ins, add-ons and enhancements. You can find all kinds of XUL projects, some made to work with Mozilla, some completely unrelated to Mozilla. Have a look, maybe a touch.

    --Asa

  11. Re:The best debugger until you have to use it by asa · · Score: 4, Informative

    Point me to a cross-platform JavaScript debugger that beats Venkman from 1.1alpha (crossing at least Mac, Windows and Linux would be a good start, throwing in a dozen additional platforms would be impressive).

    If you're talking about the venkman that shipped with 1.0 then you're talking about a completely different beast. Seems kind of odd that you'd post about Venkman getting better one day than mozilla1.0 and we're telling you about one day having arrived with 1.1alpha.

    Get current, (this venkman is many months worth of development improved from the one that shipped with 1.0) read the how-to/FAQ at http://www.hacksrus.com/~ginda/venkman/faq/venkman -faq.html and then follow-up to this post pointing me to a better cross-platform JavaScript debugger and don't point me to one that doesn't do JS performance profiling because I require that.

    --Asa

  12. Antialiased Fonts for X by krmt · · Score: 5, Informative

    I don't know what you're going on about. I run Mozilla in KDE, and I've had antialiasing for months now, well before 1.0 hit. Debian includes it as a standard install option, and it can easily be turned on and off, and it will run with any X environment, including Gnome and Windowmaker.

    Basically, if you don't have antialiasing, it's either your own fault or that of your distro.

    --

    "I may not have morals, but I have standards."

  13. Gestures by Bert+Peers · · Score: 3, Informative
    Indeed, indeed.

    I want to take this opportunity to pimp the imho hottest invention since sliced bread : gesture based browsing. Ok, maybe not the hottest, but certainly the most surprising; when I first heard of this, it sounded like one of those typical academic nutty ideas that all look great on a whiteboard, but are just a pain IRL (Black and White, anyone ?). But after trying it out for a month, I can say it just seriously, totally, completely, ROCKS. In fact, it is so good that I find myself trying to use gestures for regular windows stuff. Especially stuff like Minimize and Back would be really good to have systemwide, so you can just sweep a file explorer away rather than go aiming for that little '_' button..

    The gestures are also a big convenience when you extensively use tabbed browsing.

    In short.. if, like me, you thought this was a totally useless pet project of some academic... you're wrong. Get it now.

  14. why i CANNOT USE MOZILLA!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    URLs using telnet:// do not work in Linux (and possibly other UNIX systems). telnet:// URLs work for Win32 and MacOS. Workaround: Install protozilla
    from http://protozilla.mozdev.org/. (Bug 33282)

    please fix this damned bug!

  15. Re:You have to be kidding. by Vulture_ · · Score: 2, Informative
    First things first: if I had mod points right now, I'd have modded you down as Troll. Twice.

    Since I don't have mod points, I'll just give you some counter-arguments.

    I'd say about one out of seven pages loads improperly, not because the site isn't standards-compliant, but because Mozilla's rendering engine doesn't play nice. I'm talking about the white spaces that appear after you resize a window, only to be filled in with content when you scoll the window. Stupid, retarded crap like that.
    Which version are you using? M1?
    Also, everyone raves about the ability to kill popups. But they don't rave about all the links that just do nothing when you click on them because Mozilla isn't smart enough to follow popup links in the same window.
    If you open popups in new windows the right way (that is, target="_blank"), the links work perfectly. If you use JavaScript, Mozilla really has no way of knowing what the hell to do with the links (since you could pop up a window and then run some other code, which assumes that the old page is still open, which it wouldn't be if it's been replaced!).
    Or what about all the links that open new windows, but then just hang indefinitely?
    More JavaScript trickery that doesn't work in Mozilla. If you use sites like that, you frankly deserve them not to work.
    What is with that clumsy profile manager? It still runs like a goddamn add-on that isn't properly integrated.
    Define "properly integrated".
    And don't even get me started on the *IDIOTIC* layout of the preference panels in Mozilla, which are another unwelcome hold over from Netscape.
    What exactly is wrong with them?
    You only think it's good because it's not made by Microsoft.
    No, I "only" think it's good because it works, and does so very well. There are many Free browsers available; if Mozilla were nearly as poor as you seem to think it is, I would use something else.
    And what is with that childish splash screen? I can almost see where the geek used photoshop's finger tool to make the dragon's firebreath effect. Grow up.
    How superficial. Grow up.
    And what about the agonizingly long time Mozilla takes to start up?
    I'm having a hard time believing its load time is even close to "agonizingly long" on a dual G4 machine. Perhaps something is amiss with your operating system? (Hint: OS X sucks. Use Linux. Everything works much better that way. I know, I've used both on the same machine.)
    --

    The only way the typical /.er can pick up a chick is with a forklift. -- AC

  16. Re:Fix the damn memory leak already! by bunratty · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you tell me the bug number, I'll vote for it and consider nominating it to be fixed for Mozilla 1.2.

    --
    What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
  17. Mail and News issues by ShadowDrgn · · Score: 3, Informative

    I have some various problems with Mozilla, but for the most part I like it a lot better than IE. Unfortunately, the Mail and News part is either lacking basic functionality or is just plain buggy. Maybe these issues are already in bugzilla, or I'm just too stupid to figure out a simple feature.

    Mail and News passwords:
    I've never been able to log onto a news server with Mozilla. Supposedly it's supposed to ask you for a username/password when you create the news account, but what if it doesn't? There's no place in the account options to set one. With mail accounts, if you change the password on the account (by other means), Mozilla just chokes when you try and log on with the old one and gives you no option to provide the correct password. There's no "wrong password, please enter correct one" dialogue, it just doesn't do anything. The account options area has a spot for a username, but not one for a password. I guess I could delete the account from Mozilla and recreate it every time I change my password, but that's stupid. Outlook Express will prompt for the correct user/pass if you don't log on properly, is it too much to ask for Mozilla to do that?

    Am I missing something very simple to solve these issues? I'd really appreciate some help if so.