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Mozilla 1.4 Released

Posted by simoniker on from the moz-strutting-like-suedehead dept.

Phil writes "MozillaZine is reporting that Mozilla 1.4 has been released for Windows, Mac OS and Linux. The new version is pretty similar to today's Netscape 7.1, which is based on the same code, but lacks Netscape's proprietary features. More information can be found in the release notes. The release can be downloaded from mozilla.org's releases page or via FTP. From here on, mozilla.org's focus shifts to Mozilla Firebird and Mozilla Thunderbird." The official release news is now up on Mozilla's main page, so let the downloading begin.

13 of 421 comments (clear)

  1. Install caveat by John+Zebedee · · Score: 5, Informative

    Just installed the windows version: release notes don't require an uninstall of previous versions (in my case 1.3.1) but V1.4 barfed every time it started until I had rebooted and uninstalled 1.3.1. Seems fine since though

    --
    The future is here. It's just not evenly distributed yet. -- William Gibson
    1. Re:Install caveat by mu_wtfo · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yes, new versions of Mozilla should always be installed into a clean directory. Installing over top of previous versions is known to cause problems.

      From the relnotes: Note: It is recommended that you uninstall previous versions of Mozilla before installing Mozilla 1.4. This will not delete your bookmarks, history, cookies and other information which is stored in your profile directory.

      --
      If all the world's a stage, anyone who says they want better lighting spends far too much time in a dark theatre.
    2. Re:Install caveat by missing000 · · Score: 5, Informative

      I just did an install over 1.3 on w2k and everything went very smoothly.

      The installation is aware of mozilla.exe running, and prompts that it is shutting it down.

      I didn't even have to restart.

      I'll see how well the update goes on a redhat box when I get home from work :)

  2. NTLM Security! by kawika · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is a very big addition. Some of the intranet sites I use require NTLM to access and I was never able to use Mozilla.

  3. Same as RC3 by mblase · · Score: 5, Informative

    As was pointed out to me in the recent Netscape 7.1 story, Mozilla 1.4 final is the same code as Mozilla RC3. (Check the "about:" page to see the idential release date.) So if you have RC3 installed, you can safely leave it there without worrying about major changes.

  4. Got it, love it by MrZeebo · · Score: 5, Informative
    I used to be a Mozilla-only user. However, over time, it seemed that the speed of Mozilla started getting worse and worse, especially under Windows. On my dual-boot machine, I kept with Moz under Linux, but switched to Opera 7 under Windows. For the time, Opera was much quicker, not just at starting up, but seemingly at rendering web pages as well.

    When I noticed that 1.4 had been released (in the comments for the Netscape 7.1 story) I figured I'd give Mozilla another try under Windows.

    I was amazed.

    Mozilla 1.4 is noticeably faster than previous versions under Windows, and seems on-par with Opera 7. For a while, I was running Opera 7 for browsing and Thunderbird for mail... I think now I'm going back to Mozilla for both.

    Once the xft-enabled RPMs are up for Red Hat 9, I'll give it a try on that OS as well, but, as I said, speed didn't seem to be an issue there to begin with.

    Bravo, Mozilla. Firebird is certainly fast, but some people like the integration of the web/e-mail programs, and it's nice to see a speed boost for us as well.

  5. BitTorrent by cos(0) · · Score: 5, Informative

    Get a BitTorrent download here!

  6. wow, bug-city! by Tumbleweed · · Score: 4, Informative

    Too bad, so sad. Moz 1.4 is fulla da bugs.

    Within 1 minute, I found that it's listing sans-serif fonts as serif, and serif fonts as sans-serif. Yikes.

    Also some weirdness in the toolbar buttons with vertical alignment. (Back & Forward buttons 'valigned' to the top, whilst Reload & Stop buttons are on the bottom). Bizarro.

    At least this is the FIRST time a Mozilla release has actually NOT decided to make itself the default browser in spite of my always telling it not to. One bug fixed, yay! :)

    1. Re:wow, bug-city! by nathana · · Score: 5, Informative

      Also some weirdness in the toolbar buttons with vertical alignment. (Back & Forward buttons 'valigned' to the top, whilst Reload & Stop buttons are on the bottom). Bizarro.

      I've seen stuff like this happen when you install a new version of Mozilla on top of an old version, or you install a new version and still continue to use your old profile.

      Try wiping out your old profile after backing up your bookmarks and mail (rm -r ~/.mozilla/ or delete Mozilla under Application Data in Windows), and let Mozilla 1.4 generate a new one for you. After that, you may find that all your problems have disappeared!

      -- Nathan

    2. Re:wow, bug-city! by otherwhere · · Score: 4, Informative
      Within 1 minute, I found that it's listing sans-serif fonts as serif, and serif fonts as sans-serif. Yikes.

      Actually, it's allowing you to select _any_ font you want to be displayed when the page author has suggested serif, it's not saying "these are serif fonts, pick one". Therefore, both dropdowns contain all installed fonts. It's a feature, not a bug.

      I will admit, however, that toolbar weirdness is probably not a feature.

  7. Re:hmmmm by swordgeek · · Score: 5, Informative

    "is it really news worthy every time Moz makes a release?"

    No. The announcements for RC1, RC2, and RC3 were really unnecessary.

    However, this release--1.4 final--is definitely worthy of a post. This is the official 'stable production' release (the first since 1.0, I think), and is also the final relase in the old development path. If there were only three Mozilla announcements on /. in its entire history, they would be for (1)the initial creation of the project, (2)the 1.0 milestone, and (3)the 1.4 release.

    --

    "People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
  8. Re:Problems I have with Mozilla 1.3 by hawkbug · · Score: 4, Informative

    As far as pages not loading correctly as your gripe #1 - this is not Mozilla's fault in my cases. It's IE's. How? Well, lets look at this page for a moment:

    http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/clubhouse?team=col

    It looks like total ass in Mozilla, and basically any browser I've tried besides IE. It used to look just fine BEFORE that damned MSN ad bar that takes up most of the screen now. You can write terrible code, and have it look fine in IE because IE just ignores a lot of mistakes. I see this as a bad thing, because when browsers try to correctly render a page according to standards, it makes you think the browser is broken and not the page.

    BTW, I have tried repeatedly to notify the ESPN guys about all their messed up pages, but obviously nobody cares as long as they get their MSN money.

  9. Old easter egg by mnemonic_ · · Score: 4, Informative

    This easter egg has existed since the Netscape/Mozilla 0.9.x days, but it's still neat. Type "about:mozilla" in the address box and see what comes up...

    Try it in IE too. You get something rather cryptic, to say the least... No, I don't know what it means either.