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A Look at the Newly Released Mozilla Firefox 0.9
SilentBob4 writes "Mad Penguin is one of the first to review the latest Mozilla Firefox release, numbered 0.9. According to the reviewer, there's a lot to be thankful for, as this release is far more stable than its earlier versions and sports some new features along with a new interface. My new all-time-favorite line: 'Look out Internet Explorer... your days have been numbered for some time now, but Firefox 1.0 will surely leave you shaking on your already shaky foundations and standing in a small warm puddle'. Nicely put."
First Look at Mozilla Firefox 0.9
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Last update: 06-14-2004
Submitted by Adam Doxtater
The last time we looked at Mozilla Firefox , it was still called Mozilla Firebird and then only in version 0.6. Times have changed. Oh how they've changed. Today, The browser with the identity crisis has a sleek new interface, modern features, and is blowing the doors off its competition... and this is putting it mildly.
Mozilla Firefox ( release notes | roadmap ) is a completely modular browser consisting of a basic, streamlined framework upon which users can add ' extensions ', which (just as the name implies) are essentially plugins for the browser. The idea of less is more has been taken to the next level with this browser. With the default browser, you have just enough browser to do pretty much anything you can on the Internet, while more advanced, custom functionality is reserved to the extensions. For instance, you can load extra functionality such as more precise ad blocking, mouse gestures, website registration bypassing, dictionary, user agent switching, complete page and listbox/textbox searching, text zooming, UI tweaks, and the list goes on. There are so many possibilities I can't go into them all here.
When compared to browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox is light years ahead. Microsoft will need to do some serious footwork to catch up to the usability and functionality of this browser. Seriously. The only browsers that come close are Mozilla (of course), Opera , and Konqueror . Safari is also coming along nicely on OS X . The beauty of this browser is not only its functionality... it also lies in its portability. Firefox is currently supported under Linux (GTK+-Xft), Mac OSX, Sun Solaris SPARC/x86, Sun JDS 2003, Microsoft Windows (all versions), and IBM OS/2 , so you can drop it onto almost anything with a modern CPU ( system requirements )
The Mozilla Firefox 0.9 browser
What's new in version 0.9?
This is the last preview release before Firefox comes of age at milestone version 1.0, so what new features have been implemented? Well, at first glance all you will notice is the interface has been redesigned with an updated theme. At first I didn't quite know how to take it, but now that I've used it for a while it's grown on me. The new look is very minimalistic, clinging tightly to the focus of the browser itself. Anyway, here's a more complete listing for those of you who are skimming:
* New default theme - Like I said, it sports a new sleek skin (seen in the screenshots of this review).
* Redesigned theme/extension managers & SmartUpdate - Newly redesigned interfaces make it even easier to manage your browser, as well as keeping it up to date with smart notifications
* Installer updates - Linux now has an installer for GTK2, and the Windows package has gotten smaller - to the tune of 4.6MB.
* Easier migration - Migrating your important information and settings from other browsers has never been easier. Firefox can now import settings from previous versions, Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla, and Opera. This includes favorites, settings, cookies, history and saved passwords.
* Help - An updated online help system is now available. This is in addition to the wonderful Firefox Forums and existing help material
* Linux look and feel - Much work has gone into the UI, making it adhere better to GTK2 themes. Menus now look like they belong in the desktop scheme like they were meant to be.
Not only were new features added to this release, work continues to keep bugs squashed, past and present, so the browser feels far more stable than it has in the past. Don't get me wrong, this browser has always been ahead of its time in terms of vision and scope, but it has had its fair share of bugs, but so far as I can tell by running this release constantly for the past week or so it looks pretty solid. It hasn't crashed once, and let me tell you this is a definite improveme
John Kerry is a Joke!
If you go to the main page, you can see that 0.9 RC has been released. Mozilla has a habit of updating their main page when a new firefox is out, but not updating their firefox page.
On the Mozilla main page, there are links to download Firefox 0.9 RC.
uh huh.
e rs.gif
check out this: http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html
and more specifically this: http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist/may04_brows
I love it to death, even have my family converted (unknowingly... changed the big blue E to point at firefox instead) but that graph doesn't paint a nice picture.
...take a look at Jesse's more detailed and informative list
Firefox is Mozilla without the email client, right? It can accept the same modules/plugins and everything, right? Or am I way off?
Firefox is based on mozilla code. They created a stand alone browser that was better, smaller, faster than the mozilla one. They also want to redo the concept of mozilla proper where all the components can either be stand alone application or extensions to FireFox. Chec out the roadmap for a better explanation.
--- Justin Dearing http://www.justaprogrammer.net/ We're just programmers.
From the release notes:
7. Is Firefox just Mozilla with a couple UI tweaks?
Firefox is substantially different, featuring a number of exclusive features and countless refinements. Well over 120,000 lines of code have been added or changed in the browser and toolkit CVS directories since the project began.
Firefox is a web browser and does not do email. For email, use Thunderbird. Plugins for Mozilla generally work with Firefox but the extensions are usually not compatible with each other.
I have been using the 0.9rc since the day it came out. It's ok, maybe a bit better than 0.8, but hardly this amazing new day for Internet browsing. They squashed some bugs, but some long term bugs and annoyances still remain, and unfortunately it appears they have added one or two. Pesonally, it does not seem any more or less stable, but about the same. Regardless of all that, like 0.8 before it, it is still a hell of a lot better than IE.
NTLM auth is supported by mozilla as well (source)
I tried these changes, and Firefox is noticeably faster:
1 73568&highlight=pipelining
There is an interesting post on WebMasterWorld, on how to decrease the loading/rendering time of Firefox. I have tried the settings, and have noticed a mild improvement. Just wanted to share the information.
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum21/8007.htm
Edit: Updated Instructions:
open about_:config (without the underscore).
1.) network.http.pipelining = true
2.) network.http.pipelining.firstrequest = true
3.) network.http.pipelining.maxrequests = (the poster says 32, but suggest 8 is the limit)
4.) network.http.proxy.pipelining = true
Don't do number #5.
http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=
John Kerry is a Joke!
I've actually very recently switched from Safari to Firefox as my Mac default. Every so often I miss SnapBack -- but all the major features are very comparable, the rendering engines seem equivalent in speed, and Firefox's typeahead link selection can really be a great thing. The bookmark importer that I found even set up the toolbar bookmarks about the same way mine were set up in Safari, so I don't notice the UI change as a dramatic difference. Once Firefox is set up as the browser default it's just as "integrated" with the OS as Safari is. And, Firefox's current iterations are quite pretty.
Firefox and mozilla support NTLM authentication on all platforms, and have done so for the past couple of releases. They don't however pick up credentials from the OS, so you have to log in seperately with firefox. This is a feature, as a browser that sends credentials before being asked to do so is a security risk.
The RC *is* major feature complete, but (as evident with the new theme and extension work) is still needing a fair bit of work before release. 0.9 final is expected in July, 1.0 final is expected in September (at which point I'm more than happy to shove it on everybody and anybody :) ) See the Roadmap for details.
In a build I downloaded today, I even noticed that the profile importer now finally gives you the option of which profile to import from (eg IE, Netscape 4, Mozilla 1.x, etc) before actually doing the dirty work. That wasn't present in 0.9rc IIRC.
In other words, I'd wait a little bit longer before pushing 0.9RC on your friends and family. This one's for the testing folks. Of course, anything pre-1.0 is really meant for testing, but this one more so :)
I also switched from Safari to Firefox about a week ago. I am in shock with how easy it was for me to switch over and not look back. My favorite features so far are the custom search engines I can add and also the ability to hide images by host.
I also like how if you open a bunch of tabs it reports all the dead tabs one after the other instead of having to go to each dead tab to OK the error message. And it is very nice to have the "Open in Tabs" in each bookmark folder instead of as a toggle in the bookmarks manager.
Pedro
----
The Insomniac Coder