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Mozilla 1.4 Released
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.
You make a fair comment, but this is Mozilla's new stable build, and the last one distributed as a monolithic application bundle. The stories about the RC's were mostly free advertising for last-minute stress testers, because this stable build has to last until they completely separate the innards into separate applications.
You tell me how "whilst" differs from "while," and I'll stop calling you a pretentious jackass.
Mozilla is one of the 'pillars' of OSS software, along with GCC, the Linux kernel, KDE, GNOME, and Apache (I'm probably forgetting some too). It's important to hype it up and keep us informed so we can test and push the technology. If we were all still using Mozilla 1.0 there wouldn't _BE_ a 1.4 release for a LONG time.
Slashdot is the appropriate place to make such release announcements. If you don't like them taking up space here, turn off mozilla stories in your prefs, if you want to track Mozilla closer turn on the Mozilla slashbox.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
You're mistaking a lack of guarantee with a lack of testing.
Mozilla isn't guaranteed to do ANYTHING. It's not guaranteed to be Y2k "compliant," it's not guaranteed to cause no damage to your hard drive, it's not guaranteed to cause SOME damage to your hard drive! Nor is it guaranteed to render web pages correctly, avoid sleeping with your spouse, or save the world.
The y2k non-guarantee was put up many years ago, because nearly every organisation on the planet was being hounded with the "are you y2k compliant?" question. Mozilla is just as non-compliant today as they were then, which is to say that nobody has found any issues.
Mozilla HAS been tested to work with four digit dates, and also been tested to render almost all web pages properly (certainly all proper web pages). It has NOT been guaranteed to do these things.
Seriously, download 1.4 and give it a go. I think you'll be very happy with its behaviour.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
1) I still find an occasional page that renders incorrectly. Or maybe what its actually doing is rendering correctly due to spec compliance. But I don't really care what the problem is, I just want them to always render like other browsers.
2) There are weird problems with keyboard keys not working right sometimes. For example, occasionally if I click in the document that has been displayed, the arrow keys will not move the page. Or in forms the home/end keys, etc. dont work. It seems like these events aren't being captured, although I can't find any consistent way to cause it.
3) When I view my rental queue in Netflix, Mozilla crashes completely. This is the biggest problem...other things are just irritating, but I can't get rid of IE while this still happens. Again, maybe Netflix is using improper javascript or something. But, my perspective as a user is only "does it work." In any case, the browser should be able to handle nasty code in a way that doesn't cause a complete crash even if it infinite loops or something.
Despite these kinds of annoyances, I am going to stick with Mozilla. I love tabbed browsing, and I really like being able to bookmark a set of tabs that I may want open for reference while working on a project. 1.3 was the first version I started using regularly because my form filler/password manager finally supported Mozilla, and with googlebar all my needs are met.
I guess I'll go see now if 1.4 has addressed any of these issues...
Is anyone at Mozilla working on a quirks mode for Word- or Excel-generated HTML? Don't even think about Powerpoint!
Breaking up Mozilla isn't primarily about making it smaller, it's about making it more maintainable. The way it is, bugs in the mail component may hold up release of the browser component. Separating them into separate programs means they can be released independently. Besides, many people don't want to use one or the other Mozilla component.
Functionally, Firebird is as full-featured as the Mozilla browser, and there are more extensions and skins available for it (most of the Mozilla extensions just work).