Mozilla 1.7, Firefox 0.9 Release Candidates Out

An anonymous reader writes "mozilla.org have released what are expected to be the final release candidates for their next versions: Mozilla 1.7RC3 (MozillaZine article; download) should iron out any final bugs in what will replace 1.4 as the new stable branch and Firefox 0.9RC (MozillaZine article; download) features the new default theme ported from Mac OS on Windows (though please bear in mind that the theme is nowhere near finished yet). The final releases of these versions are due very soon."

Comments

A Firefox mirror...

[tcopeland]

...is here.

FWIW, CVS 1.11.17 - the security release that happened this morning - is up there too.

Very clean!

[erick99]

I downloaded and installed Firefox .9 and I am quite impressed. All of my settings, bookmarks, popup exceptions, etc. ported over perfectly and automatically. The "look and feel" of .9 is very clean. I don't know how these folks manage to make each iteration better than the previous but they sure do. It loads fast as did .8 and it loads web pages quite fast. All-in-all, this is well worth the download. And, as always, Firefox is, for me, far superior to Internet Explorer or any other browser on the market.

Happy Trails!

Erick

Re:Very clean!

[chromaphobic]

Yeah, Firefox did a great job of importing my bookmarks, from frickin' Internet Explorer, which I don't even use, but not the bookmarks from the previous Firefox (0.8) install. Real helpful.

Ah well, at least it's not IE.

Re:Very clean!

[Teach]

Can Firefox disable animated images now? Or stop them when you hit the ESC key?

Yes, but like many things there's still no way to modify the preference from the menu. You'll have to type about:config in the URL bar, and then change the value of image.animation_mode. I've got mine set to once, which plays each animation once and then stops, but I think you can also set it to none.

Re:Very clean!

[funklord9]

This could provide a refreshing break from your porn links as you peruse his.

exit all WIndows programs?

[Anonymous Coward]

THe linux gtk installer version of this RC tells me to exit all Windows programs before running Setup.

DONE!

Re:exit all WIndows programs?

[Plutor]

That's bug 240527, filed 14 April 2004. It's marked as "blocking 1.0", but not "blocking 0.9".

I hope they fix the slow loading issue !

[Zanek]

My main gripe with Mozilla is that when you leave it alone for about 30 minutes or so and come back, it takes like 15-50 seconds to be active again, which is extremely annoying (loading it from virtual mem ?). They really need to fix that
Also, some pages like WashingtonPost.com have a problem where it is constantly reloading itself (perhaps a JS error).

Re:I hope they fix the slow loading issue !

[IvyMike]

My main gripe with Mozilla is that when you leave it alone for about 30 minutes or so and come back, it takes like 15-50 seconds to be active again, which is extremely annoying (loading it from virtual mem ?)

Saw this on mozillazine a few weeks ago:

Users experiencing bug 76831, a very long delay restoring Mozilla after it has been minimized for several hours (Windows machines only), may find relief by setting the config.trim_on_minimize preference to false. See comment 0 and comment 303 in the bug for details.

(Back to Mike: I think you need to go to about:config and create a new boolean pref for this; I have not tried it myself.)

You're welcome

[b00m3rang]

Had I known that installing both these packages would cause a new version release the next day, I would have done it much sooner.

Time to go wash my car.

No Name Change?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm very disappointed. I was under the impression that open source and the ingenuity of a team of dedicated, enthusiastic developers could finally push Rapid NameChange(TM) technology into the mainstream.

Mozilla/Firefox Whitelist

[ChowyChow]

Since spyware has gone cross-platform thanks to the XPI extensions, they've now implemented a whitelist (see What's New) in retaliation.

This really is open source at its best. Microsoft has not responded to the same problems involving ActiveX.

Nowhere near finished, but due out soon?

[OblongPlatypus]

Why do they put a default theme that is "nowhere near finished" in a product that's "due very soon"?

Yes, I know Firefox is "for those on the cutting edge", and I guess we shouldn't expect cutting-edge products to be completely finished in every respect, but Firefox is the only open source product most of my Windows-using friends are willing to even try. It would be a shame to hamper its continued spread by making the default theme an unfinished one.

Re:Nowhere near finished, but due out soon?

[gunfinger]

Yes, he may eventually be "vindicated", but what I see here is a worrisome attitude towards the user and developer communities. "We (I) know what's best, no matter how many people in the community present reasoned arguments to the contrary. If you complain about our decisions you're just a whiner, and we're going to censor you to the extent we can. Oh, and we have hidden secret information we're not telling you, so you can't possibly know what we're talking about." It's walking on thin ice at best, juvenile and egotistical at worst.

this strikes me as an inexperienced attitude. have you never run a large website before? can you imagine trying to poll the community on every decision? or ANY decision, for that matter, it doesn't work. people's opinions change with the breeze and rarely have anything to do with logic nor necessarily infer that they'll be best for the project.

i've donated a chunk of change to mozilla for their great browser long ago and i trust that they have our best interests at mind then and now, and thus am looking forward to seeing 0.9.

i've always found the qute theme to be ugly from the get go and have been using this theme for many months, it's easy on the eyes and functions well.

Konqueror

[amightywind]

What about Konqueror, you jackass.

Re:mozilla vs. firefox/thunderbird?

[FlashBac]

Mozilla is more than just a Web browser. It has a mailer, chatzilla, some class of editor and a browser... firefox is essentially nothing more than the browser refactored and cleaned up. If you only use Mozilla as a browser, you would be as well moving to Firefox. If you want all the stuff that comes bundled with Mozilla, go about your business same as ever :)
Hope that's useful.

Re:Anybody got a screen shot?

[TheSurfer]

Screenie of the new "Winstripe" theme

Re:Windows 95

[Andrew_T366]

Mozilla 1.4 and later require version 2.30.4265 or later of the system file oleaut32.dll to run properly beyond the splash screen. If you have problems running this software under Windows 95, it is probably due to this or another missing or obsolete system file. I have flawlessly run Mozilla 1.6, 1.7 RC3, and Firefox 0.8 myself under Windows 95C (although I'll still need to check to see if Mozilla Firefox 0.9 RC works under this OS).

err...

[RAMMS EIN]

Man, I don't want to know how many people think that Debian _reall_ still ships Netscape 4.7... Here's the truth:

1. Debian has never, nor ever will include Netscape 4.7 in the default branch, because it doesn't meet the Debian Free Software Guidelines.

2. Debian is actually one of the more up to date distros I've used. Just run unstable and you get almost everything just a few days after release, virtually always working.

I am sick of tired about people bashing Debian because they make every conceivable effort to guarantee that their stable distribution Just Works, even avoiding incompatibilities between versions of the same package.

At the same time, their unstable distribution gives you the latest software as soon as is feasible while still maintaining unmatched quality, and has (to my knowledge) the largest collection of packages of any distro, compiled for several architectures.

Combine all that with package management that is so good that other distros have eventually given up trying to match it and are now adopting apt one by one, and you have a distro that can turn intelligent people into zealots like me. Get on your knees and apologize! ;-)

Portable Firefox (Run from a USB key)

[CritterNYC]

For anyone who's interested, Firefox 0.9 now supports the ability to run from a USB key without any major changes AND be able to take your entire profile with you. I've repackaged the Firefox 0.9 Release Candidate as a ZIP that will create an 8.1Mb install of Firefox on your USB key, complete with a built-in profile. Full details of the changes (if you're curious, or so you can try it yourself) as well as a ZIP are available here:

http://johnhaller.com/jh/mozilla/portable_firefox/

Any commentary or questions on this new feature can be addresses in this thread on mozillaZine.