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Mozilla 1.7 Released

kashif-khan writes "Right at the verge of Firefox 0.9 and Thunderbird 0.7 being released comes the official release of Mozilla 1.7. Updates include smaller size, increased speed and faster start up times. Be sure to read the release notes for the complete list of features and download it from mozilla.org."

59 of 448 comments (clear)

  1. How YOU can help Open Source! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Simple, fire anyone in your organization that develops open source software as a hobby.

    This is quite logical.

    They prefer working on their projects instead of the work you give them, and quite often will work on their projects on work time even though they are not meant to. By firing them, you give them more time to work on their open source project which produces a better product. You then use their open source project for free. As it has improved, you do not need to buy commercial software and can save money.

    So you have saved in two ways. You fire someone who is not working hard enough and replace them with someone more productive. And if enough people fire their open source developers you can ditch your commercial software and get their products for free!

    Oh how I love this free software business model!

    1. Re:How YOU can help Open Source! by mjh · · Score: 3, Insightful

      By your own logic you should ask your boss to be fired. If people just can't control themselves, can we conclude that you post inflamatory comments to discussion sites during work hours?

      --
      Key to financial independence: Spend less than you earn. Save and invest the difference. Do it for a long time.
    2. Re:How YOU can help Open Source! by Deusy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I know the OP was trying to be funny about the momentum Mozilla has built up since Netscape fired everybody, but he's really far from the truth.

      When out of work, I was massively unproductive. Between looking for a job, being depressed, and day-time TV (which is hypnotically bad), it's difficult to get things going with your open source work.

      It wasn't until I was contracted to work on my preferred open source project that we made tangible progress.

      If you want to help Free Software (which is different open source) then hire the developers to work on Free Software projects. Then they'll be doubly productive motivated by both the project and the fact they can survive in todays dog-eat-dog money-makes-the-world-go-around pay-the-mortgage-or-live-on-the-street civilization of ours.

      I do believe some ex-Netscape guys are paid to work on Mozilla by the Mozilla Foundation, and various others are paid to work on Mozilla by the various Free Software oriented companies. I think it was more Mozilla being unshackled from Netscape than the Netscape employees being unshackled from Netscape that has unleashed the recent wave of Mozilla improvements.

      --

      Free Gamer - Free games list and commentary

  2. Re:Someone please explain this to me. by Hi_2k · · Score: 3, Informative

    Thunderbird isn't a browser, it's an email client. And a danm good one at that. I regularly switch l users to Thunderbird from Outlook, and they never want to go back.

    --
    When life gives you crap, Make Crapade.
    Sluggy Freelance.
  3. Re:Someone please explain this to me. by Steveftoth · · Score: 5, Informative

    The biggest reason to switch for me is that the web development tools for IE suck compared to mozilla/firefox. DOM inspector, JS debugger, etc. all are awesome tools compared to IE.

    The fact that IE lets websites install software on your computer doesn't exactly make my day either. I really hate that.

  4. Re:Someone please explain this to me. by slasher999 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Firefox is a browser, Thunderbird is an email client. The suite is still good if you need a web page editor or if you like everything in one package. Personally, I use IE only when I have to. I use Firefox the rest of the time, I occasionally startup the suite for page editing (usually I just use vim), and I always use Thunderbird for mail.

  5. Right at the verge? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    Right at the verge of Firefox 0.9 and Thunderbird 0.7 being released comes the official release of Mozilla 1.7.
    That should be this:
    Right on the heels of Firefox 0.9's and Thunderbird 0.7's releases comes the official release of Mozilla 1.7.
    1. Re:Right at the verge? by PitaBred · · Score: 5, Informative

      I thought that too, but I went to Merriam Webster's online dictionary and apparently verge is just the edge of something, doesn't matter whether it's fore or aft. It does sound funny using it like that in the article though.

  6. Re:Someone please explain this to me. by qvek · · Score: 3, Informative

    Firefox is the browser. Thunderbird is the e-mail client. Mozilla is the suite containing these two products, a new version of which has been released because the two components above have been updated. Hope this helps!

  7. Awesome! by 222 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Does this release actually render slashdot correctly?
    Not a troll, but theres nothing more sad than to read about people forced into using IE because of banking sites, yet i have to refresh 5 times just to keep the article text from bleeding into the left column. :(

    1. Re:Awesome! by hattig · · Score: 4, Informative

      When Slashdot fucks up:

      1) Click Back Button
      2) Click Forward Button

      Always renders correctly after clicking the forward button.

    2. Re:Awesome! by obotics · · Score: 4, Informative

      For those interested in tracking this bug, it is Bug 217527 in Bugzilla (copy link and paste into another window ^_^). I have seen this problem many times; usually one or two refreshes will fix the problem. Note that the status on the bug says "Fixed." However the fix was pulled back out due to a problem with the patch.

    3. Re:Awesome! by wowbagger · · Score: 4, Informative

      Just do a CTRL-mousewheel (or whatever you have your font size change bound to).

      That will force a re-render and clean things up.

      The bugzilla number is 217527 (the Mozilla team do not want direct links from Slashdot to Bugzilla - if you cannot figure out how to get from here to there without a link you probably shouldn't be going there anyway.)

  8. Is the Copy/Paste bug fixed? by JasonUCF · · Score: 4, Informative

    I see no updates on Bugzilla for any of the trees -- for the life of pete, that "intermittent" copy paste bug is awful. Every now and then copy/paste funtionality will just disappear. You can't copy anything.

    I can stand misrendered pages, I can stand missing URL's, I can stand a memory leak that might force me to restart the system every now and then -- but yee gods, if you mysteriously take my copy/paste away from me at inopportune moments.. madness! URL's hand typed! Monkeys flying out you know what comes next!

    I love the 'zillas to death and I am typing this on Firefox now. I'm not saying the bug forces me to abandon it.. it's just.. so... painful! Help me obi-developers, you're my only hope!

    (can I get a witness? holla!)

    1. Re:Is the Copy/Paste bug fixed? by PitaBred · · Score: 3, Informative

      I've noticed it in some older releases, too. Normally switching to another window and doing some typing or something would clear it up for me, IIRC. It hasn't happened for a while. It actually seemed to just lose focusing abilities, not just copy and paste.

  9. Why is it still in development? by Space_Soldier · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why are they still developing Mozilla instead of just developing Firefox, Thunderbird, and the core? Firefox, Thunderbird are still pet projects. That is why their development is so slow. Firefox has been in development for a lot of time.

    1. Re:Why is it still in development? by taped2thedesk · · Score: 4, Informative
      From a 1.6 release announcement:
      We're moving forward and shifting our development attention to Firebird and Thunderbird, (but) we're not going to abandon the suite," Decrem said.

      In fact, Mozilla has found that many enterprises and larger organizations considering Mozilla want a full application suite, Decrem said.

    2. Re:Why is it still in development? by puck01 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Perhaps because there is still interest in Mozilla? I continue to use it on my home computer because I personally like the integration. Everywhere else I use Firefox.

      I just upgrade to 1.7 from 1.5 and I have to say I'm very impressed with the difference. This version is much more responsive and very quick in comparsion to 1.5. I'm not sure I could tell the difference between Mozilla 1.7 and firefox 1.9 on this computer if I was blinded, and I never thought I'd be saying that

      puck

  10. Re:Someone please explain this to me. by Slack3r78 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    For starters, you seem to be confused about which project is which, that's understandable. Let's break it down.

    Mozilla - The big, all encompassing suite, including a browser, e-mail client, chat, web editor, etc.
    Firebird - Standalone browser based on the same code as Mozilla's browswer, but with speed and small memory footprint in mind.
    Thunderbird - Standalone e-mail client based on Mozilla code.

    As for why - any number of reasons. Tabbed browsing and pop up blocking are commonly cited. It's almost as quick as IE to start and often loads actual pages faster. It also isn't the huge vector for viruses and spyware that IE tends to be thanks to ActiveX. To me, that alone is worth it.

    So there really isn't any one big single feature that makes it better, but there are lots of smaller ones that I feel make it a much better browser overall.

  11. Re:Someone please explain this to me. by domodude · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Look at the advanced option of Firefox (.9). There is an option (selected on by default) that allows things to be installed from your browser. .xpi files used for the Firefox extensions can also be used to install other less desired software.

  12. MODERATOR ABUSE-NOT A TROLL by setzman · · Score: 3, Informative
    Does this release actually render slashdot correctly? Not a troll, but theres nothing more sad than to read about people forced into using IE because of banking sites, yet i have to refresh 5 times just to keep the article text from bleeding into the left column. :(

    This is a real issue with Mozilla and FireFox (based on Mozilla obviously), thus the parent has a legitimate concern as opposed to being a troll.

    --
    C:\>
  13. Why use Mozilla anyway? by Rogue+Leader · · Score: 5, Funny

    Firefox is prettier by default. Now pardon me, I have to grab my Hello Kitty lunchbox and skip out the door. Weeeeh!

    --

    worst sig ever. . .

  14. Fedora Core 2 by hypermike · · Score: 5, Informative
    From the Article:

    Users of Fedora Core 2 may experience unusually long delays in resolving hostnames. This results from the fact that IPv6 is enabled by default in Fedora Core 2. If you do not need IPv6 support (which is most likely the case), then it is advised that you disable it in the kernel. To do this run the following command as root: echo "alias net-pf-10 off" >> /etc/modprobe.conf You will need to reboot to have this take effect (or simply unload the ipv6 kernel module).

    An FYI if anyone is having trouble on Fedora.

    --
    1. Re:Fedora Core 2 by revmoo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I actually had this problem in Windows, I had turned on ipv6 a long time ago and forgotten about it. I couldn't figure out why some sites would take AGES to load, but then I realized it was only sites with AAAA records causing the delay.

      --
      I would expect such blatant racism on Fark, but on Slashdot? Mods please ban this asshole.
  15. Re:Someone please explain this to me. by __Maad__ · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The interesting thing is that DOM inspector and Venkman (the JS debugger in Moz) are not only excellent tools for web development *in Mozilla* but also for developing for IE, Opera, Safari and so-forth. Many common CSS mixups and accidents can easily be found by simply using the DOM inspector to check what the calculated CSS is for any given element in a rendered document -- setting aside browser quirks this is a useful to have as a web designer period, even if you are a diehard IE holdout. The same goes for the JS debugger and even Mozilla's Javascript Console -- no vague-looking error windows stealing focus away from your main browser window or any of that nonsense, either. IE simply cannot compare, and these tools only get better and better.

    --
    -- Maciek
  16. Will there be an official build of GTK2+XFT? by bconway · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm currently stuck in that I'm still finding FireFox too buggy for everday use (broken -remote, crashing with some plugins, etc.), however I often find myself using it because GTK2 and XFT in the default Linux build is outweighing the ugliness of GTK1 and the non-XFT fonts in the latest Mozilla build. Will there ever be an official build of Mozilla 1.7+ with GTK2 and XFT? I've searched Google, and there were a few people building it regularly, but they seem to have discontinued doing so.

    --
    Interested in open source engine management for your Subaru?
  17. IE is a strong alternative by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny
    Internet Explorer is a project currently under development by Microsoft. Its features include:
    • Cookie Management
    • Customizable Layout
    • Auto-Image-Resize

    I strongly reccomend it to all as an alternative to GNU/Open Source.
  18. BitTorrent by typhoonius · · Score: 5, Informative

    Fairly neat: it seems that Mozilla has setup an official torrent tracker for this release.

  19. Agreed... by interactive_civilian · · Score: 4, Interesting
    In fact this bug is happening to me right now with Firefox 0.9. I have often wondered if it is a bug with Slashdot's code or if the bug is in Gecko...

    Speaking of Slashdot/gecko bugs, any of you Macintosh users users have to turn off "willing to moderate" because it locks up whenever you have mod-points?

    --
    "Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
    1. Re:Agreed... by Kelerain · · Score: 4, Informative

      I have had this problem as well. It seems to be a bug in the engine, because increasing and then decreasing the text size fixes the problem. Its a pretty simple work around, but I hope they fix the bug for 1.0

    2. Re:Agreed... by zvar · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually, I "think" I have it narrowed now to at least why it is happening.

      I have Firefox on three computers, two with adblock blocking http://ads.osdn.com/* and it happens all the time on those two. On the one computer I don't block the ads on I have never had the issue.

      Just my two cents on a possible cause.

  20. Firefox + Thunderbird = Mozilla? by MagicM · · Score: 3

    Can someone please explain to me the direct relationship between Firefox, Thunderbird and Mozilla? Does Mozilla have anything that the stand-alone apps don't have? Vice versa?

    (I know I'm losing "Slashdot cool points" by asking this, but damn it all, I want to know.)

    1. Re:Firefox + Thunderbird = Mozilla? by Pedersen · · Score: 5, Informative
      • Firefox = Browser
      • Thunderbird = E-Mail & News
      • Mozilla = Browser, Email, News, Calendar, Composer, Palm Sync, Address Book, and even the kitchen sink

      Personally, I go with Mozilla, but then again, I like having all that extra functionality in one place.

      --

      GPL made simple: What was my stuff is now our stuff. If you improve our stuff, please keep it our stuff.
    2. Re:Firefox + Thunderbird = Mozilla? by trisweb · · Score: 5, Informative

      I don't have any Slashdot Cool Points, so I'll take some of yours and try to help you out. ;-)

      In a nutshell, Mozilla started off as the open-sourced version of Netscape 6, which turned into the Mozilla suite, and included the browser, and an e-mail client and some other things and even more things. Mozilla was big, slow, and clunky by many people's views, but it had a great rendering engine called "Gecko," and some other cool stuff. So some people decided to take the rendering engine and other cool stuff, and make a browser that was smaller, lighter, faster, and was really good at one task -- web browsing. They called it Pheonix, then Firebird, then Firefox (legal issues...). At the same time (well, a little later, after people saw how cool it was) some people decided to make an e-mail client on the same idea -- they called it Thunderbird (No legal issues).

      So, Firefox and Thunderbird are very similar on the inside, but with obvious differences. Mozilla is pretty different, as it's a direct derivative (albeit with a full rewrite) of the Netscape application. The Mozilla suite is also significantly slower (but hopefully better with this release) than Firefox and Thunderbird, and has a bigger memory footprint.

      Read this for a more thourough explanation of Firefox's goals, and also check out the Wikipedia article.

      --
      "!"
    3. Re:Firefox + Thunderbird = Mozilla? by Nugget · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's not as pretty, but it's ten times more functional. Just load up "about:config" from the Location bar in Firefox. This will give you access to every tunable feature that exists in the program, including and far exceeding those which are exposed in Mozilla's preferences.

    4. Re:Firefox + Thunderbird = Mozilla? by Lshmael · · Score: 3, Informative
      from http://texturizer.net/firefox/faq.html#q1.3:
      What's the difference between Firefox and Mozilla?

      Mozilla (Application Suite, also known as SeaMonkey) is a complete suite of web related applications, such as a browser, a mail/news client, a chat client and much more. Firefox is just a browser, which makes it a better choice if you already have a mail client for example. Also, since Firefox is smaller than the whole Mozilla suite, it's faster and easier to use. Note, though, that Firefox is not just the standalone Mozilla browser. The user interface in Firefox differs from Mozilla in many ways. For example, Firefox has customizable toolbars.
      Similarly, Thunderbird is a standalone mail client. For most people, Firefox and Thunderbird will fit just as well as (if not better than!) Mozilla; if you want a IRC client and a HTML editor, then I would suggest you use Mozilla.
    5. Re:Firefox + Thunderbird = Mozilla? by rendler · · Score: 3, Informative

      Check this extension for Firefox out. It gives the tabs in Firefox more options and features that you could poke a stick at. And also has just very recently been updated to work with 0.9 properly.

      --

      *shrug*
    6. Re:Firefox + Thunderbird = Mozilla? by KarmaMB84 · · Score: 4, Informative

      The current Mozilla suite probably contains little to none of the original Netscape Communicator 5.0 source code which Netscape released. The original Mozilla (Netscape 5.0) was trashbinned and they started over (after wasting quite a bit of time on 5.0).

      Netscape 6 (horrible) was based off a *near* 1.0 Mozilla codebase IIRC. Netscape 6+ are derivatives of Mozilla not the other way around.

  21. Re:acroread bug? by miknight · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yeah I use Gentoo with Moz 1.7 and the acroread plugin now works well.

  22. Re:Someone please explain this to me. by trisweb · · Score: 5, Informative

    Woah woah woah...

    You're right about the first part, but on the second part-- Mozilla is a separate application suite that contains both a Browser and a Mail Client, but they are not Firefox/Thunderbird, they are completely different (mostly). So the updates to Firefox/Thunderbird have little to do with this.

    Details, details...

    --
    "!"
  23. Mozilla 1.7 RC-3 by miknight · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Does anyone know if there was any change from RC-3 to the final version?

    1. Re:Mozilla 1.7 RC-3 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
  24. Re:Someone please explain this to me. by Solosoft · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What's ironic is my mom doesn't like IE nither now. She was looking for a crack for one of her games she plays (Just her little flash/java games). She comes upto me and goes "Why does IE keep downloading all this spyware".

    Im like here ... use this browser
    I installed Mozilla Firefox with a nice pretty theme and now she won't go back. She likes tabbed browsing and the point it just works.

    Kinda nifty how OSS software is getting into the hands of "average joe".

    :)

  25. Only 1.7? by Reorax · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why should I use this? Internet Explorer is already at version 6. I've used both, but I must say that IE is really 4.3 better.

    --
    This sig is only here so people stop skipping the last lines of my posts.
    1. Re:Only 1.7? by daeley · · Score: 4, Funny

      A common mistake. Mozilla is actually using metric version numbers, while IE is still using (appropriately enough) Imperial units. So while it may seem that IE is 4.3 better, it is in fact much, much worse. Like, a bunch worse.

      --
      I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
  26. Obviously they don't need a CALENDAR by EvilStein · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "Sunbird" just doesn't cut it.

    See my other comments expressing my frustration at the lack of a decent calendar solution from the Mozilla group.

    People don't understand how seriously upper management types take their calendar apps and how much the Outlook calendar holds them to Outlook, even without Exchange!

    1. Re:Obviously they don't need a CALENDAR by generic-man · · Score: 5, Informative

      Evolution is the only open-source e-mail client I've seen that can open and respond to Outlook invitations perfectly. It's been like that since version 1.0, which was bundled with Red Hat 7.3.

      Mozilla plans to add Outlook invitation support as part of the integration step. I don't know if any of the Evolution invitation-accepting code can be converted over, or whether that constitutes a violation of all 48 licenses that Open Source considers valid, but it is possible to accept Outlook invites using open-source software.

      --
      For more information, click here.
  27. IE is a strong alternative-Wack a feature. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Also comes with a built in game called wack-a-window, and a neat "private information at a distance" capability.

  28. Netscape IS mozilla by AnEmbodiedMind · · Score: 4, Interesting

    As far as I know, they don't add that much more to it to make it crash more or be a hell of a lot slower. Mainly just some advertising and branding.

  29. popup blocking problem by shao · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I have the last two more problems with mozilla/firefox before I can call it a perfect browser.

    1. when click a link that opens a new window on a slow site that takes forever to load, mozilla thinks it is a popup becoz it is still loading, and it blocks the new window!!!

    2. when I enter a banking SSL site that pops up a window for login, the security icon overwrites the popup blocking icon, there is no way for me to unblock the site unless I do it manually.

    Any known solutions to fix these?

  30. MODERATOR ABUSE: parent is not "off topic" by ky11x · · Score: 5, Informative

    Good lord. Mods, have you missed his joke or forgotten history?

    The parent post is making a reference to the history of Mozilla and Netscape. Netscape got bought by AOL, who fired a bunch of Netscape developers, and then the Moz got an injection of development effort as former Netscape developers helped out on Moz.

    It's not such a bad joke. I think it's funny and insightful -- he's pointing out the irony of what AOL did and is doing (now that AOL is using Moz code to help with Netscape).

    If you don't know the history and thus didn't get the joke, please don't assume that someone is "off topic" or "inflammatory." He may just be too subtle for you and you could learn something from him.

  31. Re:Awesome! - Slashdot's bad HTML by Synistar · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is the combination of a bug in Gecko and Slashdot's horrible, invalid HTML output.

    To quote a previous post of mine:

    Fixing Slashcode's HTML has been discussed to death before but the Slashcode devels have not put any effort into fixing it yet.

    Take a look at these articles for more info on how this can be fixed.

    Note: That last link is about a Slashcode user who has already tackled some of the major issues with fixing Slash to output valid XHTML and CSS

  32. Editing at its finest by Jon+Abbott · · Score: 4, Funny
    Article subtitle: from the bigger-badder-lizards dept.

    Article text: Updates include smaller size...

    OK. Is it bigger or smaller? Inquiring minds need to know! :^)
  33. Re:NOT A TROLL!!! by FuzzyBad-Mofo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Most web designers design their web pages with IE in mind.

    Most web designers couldn't write standards-compliant HTML if their life depended on it, and rely on WYSIWYG editors like Dreamweaver & Frontpage. That's why web designers should stick to design, and leave implementation up to web developers.

  34. The new Mozilla is released at a fortuitous moment by slashdot_commentator · · Score: 4, Funny

    Perhaps it'll distract enough people so I can finish rsyncing to the slackware server...

    (So far, no such luck... *sigh*)

    What is it with Slashdot? They can' stop dupe stories, they can't spell in the age of spell checkers, why did they suddenly decide to start reporting software releases in a (way too) timely manner?

    --
    There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
  35. Simple fix: by King_of_Prussia · · Score: 5, Informative
    put the following code in a bookmarklet on your bookmarks toolbar, when it messes up just click and it'll fix it right up. It also works on other sites where tables/columns don't render properly.

    "javascript:document.getElementsByTagName(%22body% 22)[0].style.display='none';document.getElementsBy TagName(%22body%22)[0].style.display='block';void( 0);"

    You'll also have to remove the spaces slashcode puts in there.

    --

    Making the moon less necessary since 1998.

  36. Wow by coyote4til7 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    A lot of people on bit torrent. It took maybe 8 seconds to download.

    Under 1.7, for the first time ever slashdot.org _just appeared_. No waiting for everything to decide how big it is and where it wants to be. Nothing. Site just appeared. I tried a batch of them and almost everything rendered instantly with a second or two from return to in my face. Very cool. Since this is the OS X build, I'm dieing to see how fast the linux build is.

    Muhahaha! Take that creaky IE!

    --

    the clock on the wall says 4 til 7
  37. Re:Someone please explain this to me. by moondo · · Score: 3, Informative
    The simple enough reason for a normal person to switch to firefox from IE... is because (a) firefox allows much faster and efficient browsing with the tabs (just have to middle click any link), (b) will stop popups w/o making you have to install some weird "tool bar", (c) will avoid spyware and other suspicious things from mysteriously getting into the unaware user's computer, (d) seems to be faster than IE, and (e) will get a kind and nice explanation of how to use the browser's features by someone (I'd never teach them how to use IE).

    I made 2 girls change to firefox just by showing them the tabbed browsing and by telling them "... it's much better, yo!". Checked on them a few weeks later and they were still using it. That's all they wanted... a hassle-free, simple to use, understandable, non-deceiving internet program.

    Just my humble opinion.

  38. Re:URL autocomplete feature in Firefox by chuonthis · · Score: 3, Informative

    Type about:config in the address bar. Search for the pref browser.urlbar.autoFill and set it to true. If it doesn't exist, right click > New > Boolean and enter browser.urlbar.autoFill and true.