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Mozilla 1.4RC2 Released
levell writes "Mozilla 1.4RC2 has been released. It looks like the final version of 1.4 may be out soon. It looks good although there are some problems with java on old linux systems (discussed here). 1.4 will be a long lived branch that some distributors will base versions of their own software on (e.g. Netscape planned release, codenamed "buffy"). 1.4 will be the last version of Mozilla released as a suite, after that the switch to separate browser, e-mail etc. applications will take place."
"We do not guarantee that any source code or executable code available from the mozilla.org domain is Year 2000 compliant."
Good thing we're not in the year 2000 anymore. Lucky for those lazy developers...
-Adam
Hopefully the Camino developer(s) will now switch to this branch - from what I can see, the nightlies have been pretty variable quality ever since 0.7, which is when they switched to the trunk from a 1.0-ish branch.
..I just downloaded RC1 last night! Thank God for DSL...
It isn't just old Linux systems that have problems with Java - in fact, Java applets are one of two issues that cause Mozilla to crash. The other is viewing too many images in tabs - even if you close tabs after you've viewed the pics, and try not to keep more than a half-dozen open at once, eventually it will die, and the Netscape Quality Agent pops up...
Interesting that the last great, stable RH is considered too "old" for mozilla...
Or am I just overreacting? I like my 7.3 boxes, dammit.
Don't sweat the petty things. But do pet the sweaty things.
As open source projects, you'd think that Slashcode and Mozilla could meet halfway on this. But, as anyone who's tried to submit a patch to either project knows, they are open in name only. Development of both systems is really closed to outsiders and only insiders (the creators, their friends and people who think exactly the same way that they do) are allowed to submit patches. Witness the recent Taco IRC interview where his response to "when will Slashdot validate at the W3c" was "Whatever. Next."
Unfortunately, the auto makers have decided to sue the Mozilla team for using their trademarked names. The new names are now:
Buffy - Browser
Dawn - Mail Reader
Willow - HTML Editor
Xander - News Reader
Spike - Porn Search Plugin
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
I linked to it in the story but the summary of the java problems on linux is:
You need to use a version of the java plugin that has been compiled with the same version of gcc that mozilla has been, the 1.4 latest branch mozilla build has been compiled with gcc3.2 and therefore you need to use the gcc3.2 plugin that ships in the latest betas of Sun's JRE (and there is also a suitable Blackdown java).
The kicker comes if you run an old linux distribution (e.g. Redhat 7.x), - you don't have the dynamic link libraries required to run gcc 3.2 code as they weren't available when RH7.x was released. Mozilla still runs as it includes all the relevant libraries statically linked inside it - the java plugin doesn't. You therefore either need to recompile Mozilla with an old version of gcc or install the libraries for gcc 3.2.
The release notes could do with a little tidying in order to make what java works where clear to users
.If this isn't fixed in the release version it would hint that Mozilla plan to phase out support for old distributions which would open to the door to things such as nice font rendering (via XFT) in the default builds, or do some other current distributions not come with XFT?
Struggling to find a day everyone can make? WhenShallWe.com
This is probably the most important feature missing from Mozilla for YEARS.
NTLM Support.
From the Release Notes page:
Mozilla on Windows now has support for NTLM authentication. This enables Mozilla to talk to MS web and proxy servers that are configured to use "windows integrated security".
Dolemite
_______________________
Save the World! Use a Quote!
I think browser spoofing is a very bad thing. Yes it lets you load your page correctly, but it will never let the "powers that be" know that people use something other than IE.
I have stopped telling safari to use the IE "user agent" because of this. I want people to know that I use something that isn't Microsoft and sooner or later this is going to make a difference. Especially with the fact that M$ has officially dropped their IE for OS X.
So instead of monolithic systems that try to do everything, this sounds like a swing back in the direction of discrete programs that only do one thing. (And hopefully do it well.)
I very much like the idea of being able to install my web browser of choice without being forced to simultaneously fill my hard drive with "extras" that don't quite do what I want, but can't be removed either. And browsers and office suites are just two places I'd like to see a little less of the "Swiss army knife" approach. (Sure, it's cool, but do you really need a telephone that can take pictures, program your VCR and mow the grass?)
Don't get me wrong, I agree that interoperability is a Good Thing. I just don't want to be forced to take on the clutter of tools I won't use.
I think developpers have said numerous times on Bugzilla that they didn't want to implement an "user friendly" browser spoofing feature because they believe it would hurt Mozilla in the long run.
The problem is that, if many people were using Mozilla spoofing (let's say) IE6, Mozilla "market share" would appear even lower in statistics than it already is, thus making even harder for Mozilla evangelists to do their job.
Who would want to support a browser that would seem to be used by 0.003% of web surfers ?
It's not the size of your .sig that matters, it's how you use it.
From the release notes (emphasis mine):
Mozilla 1.4 requires Sun J2SE v 1.4.2 Beta to run Java applets
Why would they make a decision to make a browser dependent on an unreleased version of Java? 1.4.1_02 isn't good enough?
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
run firebird with -p, and it brings up the profile manager. If you're running windows, set up a shortcut to firebird.exe" -P Username and it should run automagically as that user.
Short answer: yes, it supports it.
I just love the FUD that flies around here...
Yes if you use a older distro you will have troubles, simply get the sources and compile it... Magically the problem goes away.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Any professional pornographer has a mouse with a middle button so he can middle-click the link to open it in a new tab. Do you realize Control-Click requires both hands?
Netscape planned release, codenamed "buffy"
Buffy the IE slayer...... Hummm doesn't quite work.
Although the 'destroying the undead whose goal it is to reign the earth and bring pain, misery and fear to all' analogy may have some distance to run
:-]
Jaj
(e.g. Netscape planned release, codenamed "buffy").
As in "Ready to be canceled"?
I'm sure this Mozilla doesn't have SVG support. However, I was wondering if anyone knew the status of the Adobe SVG Plugin's compatibility with the browser (whether Adobe is developing a new compatible plug-in or Mozilla compensating for Adobe's compatibility problems). My understanding is that Adobe developed the 3.0 plugin before the Mozilla API was frozen, and now it crashes the browser. This is common to Windows and Linux and for Mozilla derivatives as well (Netscape). Neither the Mozilla developers or Adobe seem to be budging. I just want to have some decent SVG support in Linux. Is SVG development something I should avoid?
This post was generated by a Cadre of Uber Monkeys for Monkey-Man2000 (603495).
The irony in that statement is that IE is still spoofing Mozilla:
"Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; MSN 2.5; Windows 98)"
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
Yes, that checkbox in the installer does indeed control whether you get the mailnews component. If you're using a
Threaded mail is a handy feature, especially when following multiple discussions on mailing lists. And, though Mozilla supports threading, it just doesn't remember the threaded expansion state.
So, you could turn on threading (View -> Sort By -> Threaded). Then, you'd probably expand the threads (View -> Threads -> Expand All Threads). So far, so good. But, if you switch to another folder and come back to the original one, the threads won't be expanded anymore.
This is bug 64426 and you can vote for it if you like (of course, you'll need a free Bugzilla account to vote). You may need to copy-n-paste the links into your URL bar, as Bugzilla doesn't accept referrerrs from Slashdot.
Alex Bischoff
HTML/CSS coder for hire
For email, try Pegasus Mail. You'll *never* go back to Messenger.
The one bad thing about Pegasus Mail is that it's tied to a
specific platform (Windows), so if you're on another platform
or anticipate moving to another platform you have to settle for
less in the mailreader department. Or you can use Gnus, but it
has a big learning curve.
Usenet is trickier. The only usenet client I've found so far that's
any good whatsoever is Gnus, and it's a long way from perfect. (It
has a huge learning curve, plus some substantial problems in the
offline-reading department, and it's not properly multithreaded.)
You could try Agent; it's arguably better than Messenger, but that's
not saying a great deal.
Regarding Mozilla, the Navigator component is without question
*way* better than the Messenger component. However, with the
split for 1.5, Navigator is being set aside in favour of the
Firebird browser (formerly Phoenix), which while not altogether
bad is not yet up to the level of Navigator, feature-wise. (It
is smaller, though, and so performs better on older systems.)
After 1.4, I don't expect another good solid release until at
least 1.6 for the browser, probably more like 1.7 -- and I don't
expect the Thunderbird project to produce anything that resembles
a usable mail/news reader 2-5 years. Note, however, that I am
using higher standards here than most people do; email is important
to me and I expect a great deal from my mailreader. If you consider
Eudora and Outlook and the current Messenger to all be perfectly
wonderful, then Thunderbird may reach that level a good deal sooner
than the timeframe I'm predicting (say, 1.7 maybe).
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
I think a better way to view like this would be using Tiled browsing. Have 4 pages simulatneously loaded, and scroll to the "relavant" information at each one, and blammo! "Raised productivity" from being able to view multiple "documents" at once so that you can "deliver your report" to the "executive office."
i use linux and windows oh god how can i have an opinion
There are computers in England?
:)
Seriously, though, to answer the original questions: Mozilla is nothing like Netscape 4.7. Early Netscape browsers were some of the biggest crimes against HTML ever seen. Mozilla, on the other hand, is considerably better-written and far more standards compliant. Sometimes too standards compliant for its own good, in fact, since some sites that rely on IE broken features or extensions to work won't give the same results under Mozilla. There are also an irritating few sites that will just refuse to serve pages to anyone not using IE. I figure if they can do without my custom, I can do without their services.
The overall browsing experience in Mozilla (particularly Mozilla Firebird, IMO) is considerably better than that in Internet Explorer in my experience. Plenty of extra (useful) features that IE shows no signs of including, such as tabbed browsing. And it's free - other than the hefty bandwidth charge to download it.
If you can get hold of a copy while you're in England, do so. Hopefully you'll be converted before you go home. Otherwise, put it at the top of your to-download list when you get back home.
++ Say to Elrond "Hello.".
Elrond says "No.". Elrond gives you some lunch.
Not to mention the major burst of insanity that surrounded the removal of MNG/JNG support, two perfectly useful new formats.
0
Mind-boggling Bugzilla discussion of this is here - http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=19528
--riney
I'm hoping there'll be an RPM of the official 1.4 release. But rpmfind.net lists of a few RawHide Mozilla-1.4 RPMs that work just fine on a RH 9 box. I haven't been able to determine just which "official" Mozilla build they are, but they have the nice antialiasing that I've come to enjoy from the GTK2-linked builds.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
Sometimes when I am fishing I wonder if fish sometimes bite knowing they are going to encounter a hook. Anyway, I get tired of the "give us news, stuff that matters" rants.
There is an awful lot of information out here on the net. It is your job to sift through it all, determine what is of interest to you, and IGNORE THE REST. Along the way, if you feel you have something to contribute, please share.
Really, if this story is of no interest to you, move on to the next one. I think, as I'm sure many other people think, that announcing releases on a site with a high geek population is a good way to recruit quality beta testers who will fill out useful bug reports and help to drive the software development process forward. This means you get your free software faster and with less bugs. It's fine if you don't feel like taking the time to help out yourself, but give us the few tenths of a second it should take you to read the headline and decide to skip the story. Think of it as your way of helping to keep free software moving forward.
If you take the time to click on the headline, scan down to the bottom of the comments, and compose a mini rant about how you didn't feel you needed to know the information the story provides, people might get the impression that you just felt like whining.
It seems a bit hypocritical to rant about wanting stuff that matters within a post that almost everyone will consider noise, not signal.
Have a nice day.
I have been trying to keep up with Mozilla developments, and have noticed here that there are still bugs to be resolved that are apparently blockers (or go straight to the bug list). The strange thing is, there was mentioned a possibility of rebranding RC2 as final, according to the recent staff meeting minutes (*1.4*, Point 3).
I find it strange that the Mozilla team is prepared to release 1.4 (which will replace the 1.0.x branch) with previously-declared blocker bugs still floating around.
Ask me about repetitive DNA
that's not the case for 1.4. MNG/JNG has been removed from the trunk (pre-1.5alpha builds), but it is still in 1.4RC2 and will appear in Mozilla 1.4.
I emailed tech support and their reply was, "we only support IE in Windows, get partition magic and install windows on your computer."
.haeger
Then do what I do. Refuse to use their service. My bank didn't allow me to use Mozilla on Linux, bye bye bank. I can find someone else to give my money to. My company recently installed a time-reportin tool that requires Windows and IE, I still send my report card to a secretary since I don't have a computer with IE on it, it's either that or they can PAY me to come in in the evening to fill out those damn web-reports in IE, and I guarantee You that I will do this on high pay time.
Don't cave in. All over the world there is one thing people understand. Money. If not supporting Mozilla starts costing them money then they'll have to rethink.
I'm sure I could install windows if they like, provided that they pay for the licese, the computer, my time to install and administer the box. If they want me to run it, they'd better pay me. I don't do boring stuff on my spare time.
You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. -- Harlan Ellison
You can download a spellchecker for Mozilla here;
:-).
http://spellchecker.mozdev.org/
It also includes links to non - american english dictionaries, I have been using the UK english one with some builds very happily.
The version for Mozilla 1.4 Beta is already there. I use Mozilla as my only mail client at work and have been using this for over a year without any major problems. If only it could test spelling in input boxes, I could even spell check my slashdot comments
Won't the users pay the price in the long run when corporations see that 99.9% of their website visitors are IE users, and implement future IE-specific features that Microsoft has made sure alternative browsers are unable to implement?
As I see it, this is similar to other forms of discrimination -- people are being forced to look like the majority (in this case, IE users) so that they don't get treated differently.
More of a case than you'd think. See if that page works in a screen reader or a braille converter. If it rejects non-IE user agents, odds are that it doesn't.
What? Thunderbird has everything that is currently in Mozilla Mail 1.4. The only difference is a better looking interface ( much like Mozilla Firebird ) and redesigned preferences screen ( also like Firebird ). Check out the roadmap for Thunderbird.
Mozilla isn't really intended to be an enduser product.. its primary purpose is for testing. However, because of its stability and major releases, it seems to be appealing to endusers.. but mostly tech-saavy power users IMHO. Netscape is the product for the masses, it will have a more polished interface than mozilla and it has name recognition. It will also undergo more testing (both bug and usability) than an average milestone of mozilla. Then there is the matter of application support, netscape7 will be supported more often than mozilla. Even though anything that works with NS7 should work in mozilla, name recognition and specific quirks with releases make this somewhat important.
Notice how NS7.02 is still based on a very early build of mozilla, the focus of Netscape 7 is on stability (in terms of the interface and functionality) and not on cutting edge features that are typically found in mozilla milestones. Most people do not need the features found in mozilla, which makes netscape 7 very appealing.