Firefox 2.0 RC3 Released

midkay writes "Firefox 2.0 RC3 has just been released. The release notes cover all the changes since the first release candidate, but RC3 appears to have a new Windows installer and more security in the extensions aspect, among a few other things."

Comments

Ungrateful Bitching

[eldavojohn]

After reading this list, I must say that there are more than a few features I don't care about. That's not to say other people don't need them, it's just that I'm not going to benefit from any of these yet. In fact, the only reason I'll upgrade is because it's so easy.

That said, I wish they would take care of these problems at some point. I know on the current Firefox, you can take measures to restrict its size but I think it starts to thrash when I go to a largely intensive Flash site. I would rather it not steadily accrue memory as I use it through the day and visit sites that use Flash extensively. I know that Flash is a plug-in and this is one of the leading causes of memory problems in Firefox. But it's the only extension/plug-in I use and it's so I can see average websites, I don't do anything special or extraordinary with it. You'll probably be able to convince me that this is Flash's fault yet I don't quite see the same effects in IE. Conspiracy? Well, I'm all ears and happy if it is.

Maybe it's the fact that I have between 5 and 10 tabs open at a time. Although I'm good at closing them, sometimes the memory doesn't seem to be freed up. Maybe that's not Firefox's fault and it's these shady sites (like Slashdot) that allocate resources that can't be freed? Maybe this is an unavoidable problem and IE 7 will experience the same problems--I'm not sure but we'll see I guess. What should worry Firefox proliferation advocates is that I'm willing to try out IE 7 when Windows forces it on my machine just to see if I can use it all day without having it blow up a couple times due to memory leaks.

So this features list has some intriguing points but the one that would make me squeal like a giddy school girl would be:

• Large Amount of Memory Issues Fixed.

It's not a feature but it means the world to me.

So, in the end, I hope that the development efforts of Firefox 2 are spent implementing better memory management and control instead of introducing more features. More features are probably a lot more fun to develop and I know I get this for free so I'm not in any position to bitch. But if you want to make me an I'm-going-marry-Firefox fanboy, fix the memory leaks that plague the occasional user--I'm not saying all of them, just the ones that large percentages of your users probably experience.

Does anyone else experience memory issues with Firefox? Does anybody know if development efforts for Firefox 2 have included memory management? I can't seem to find any record of that online.

Re:Ungrateful Bitching

[eldavojohn]

I'm just waiting for drag-and-drop tabs so I can reorder my tab order.

I'm not sure what you're talking about, but if there's a red circle with an arrow in the upper right of your Firefox window, click it and update. My Firefox allows me to drag and drop tabs to reorder them. I think I've been able to do that since version 1.5. What I'm using:

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.7) Gecko/20060909 Firefox/1.5.0.7

Unless you're joking, I think this feature has already been implemented.

Re:Ungrateful Bitching

[bunratty]

Dozens of memory leaks have been fixed in Firefox 2. A memory benchmark shows Firefox 2 consumes less memory than IE 7 or Opera 9.

If you're still seeing a memory problem in Firefox 2, what you should do is describe steps to reproduce the problem so the bug can be reported and fixed.

Re:Ungrateful Bitching

[hunterkll]

you're 0.0.0.2 behind. Update. =]

Re:Ungrateful Bitching

[bunratty]

I can't help but take this information with a grain of salt considering the website that this forum thread originates from.

Better yet, run the benchmark yourself and see what numbers you get. There's no reason to take anyone's word that Firefox uses so little memory. See for yourself.

Re:Ungrateful Bitching

[roger6106]

If you hold shift you can drag folders. I don't know why they decided on that idea.

Re:Ungrateful Bitching

[lbrandy]

After reading this list, I must say that there are more than a few features I don't care about.

I jsut upgarded adn for smoe resaon firrefox uednerlines everyhting in red! WROST FAETURE EVAR!

Re:Ungrateful Bitching

[Lagged2Death]

How are people gauging Windows memory consumption for these different applications? I don't think Task Manager is really telling the whole story.

If you want to see a neat memory trick with Opera 9, try browsing for a while, opening a bunch of tabs, etc. Open up Task Manager and note what it reports Opera is using, probably in the 30 to 70 MB range. Leaving all the Opera tabs open, click on Opera's "minimize window" button. Watch as Task Manager decides Opera's memory consumption has fallen into the single-digit MB range. Open Opera's window up from the taskbar again, and note that its memory consumption rises, but only to a fraction of its previous high.

I have no idea what this means. The most important thing I know about Windows' memory management is that it's so crazy-complicated that it's beyond my understanding.

Re:Ungrateful Bitching

[bunratty]

What's happening is that Opera 9 is swapping out memory from RAM to disk when you minimize the Opera window. To see the total memory usage (both in RAM and on disk) look at the VM Size column in the Windows Task Manager.

Why...

[sH4RD]

...is this on Slashdot? This is almost like reporting on a nightly build. Remind me when it actually goes final.

Not "new" in RC3

[Arancaytar]

It's a bit obvious from the number of major additions described, but the "phishing protection" and "new Windows Installer" are just new features of 2.0, which were already in earlier release candidates. Compare the announcements of RC3 and RC2 on the developer blog.

The release notes page itself seems a bit misleading, since they specifically talk about "Firefox 2 RC3" even in places where they mean Firefox 2 - perhaps someone saved time with a search & replace.

--

So while this announcement probably means they fixed bugs and are another step closer to the final release, the major features aren't news.

Biggest problem with firefox...

[slib]

Memory consumption, for one. I've had situations where, upon running the app FRESH, it's shit all over 70 megs of my memory - on RC3. And on /. alone. Opera in the same environment only uses ~30, and even IE, heaven forbid, uses less. Although RC3 does look mighty swanky, I'll take Opera's modular approach to aesthetics any day - let's just hope the gents from Norway get those compatibility problems taken care of (infinitely expanding pages, anyone?).

Some nice new features (no, I didn't RTFA):

-auto spellcheck (GREAT idea, especially for your typical slashdotter)

-session saving (although Opera beat it to the punch like, well, everything else(aww snap -1 troll))

-security updates... ?

Finding the 2.0 Compatible Extensions

[coldcanofbeer]

A guy has created a handy searchable list of the extensions / Add-ons that are compatible with Firefox 2.0:

Here is the link: Bill's Big List of Firefox 2.0 Compatible Extensions

Re:WHy a new installer for Windows?

[Compholio]

Why they went to the trouble of a new installer and don't create a msi installer for Windows I don't know.

Making proper MSI packages, at least with Microsoft's Orca tool, is a pain in the butt. Nullsoft installers are much easier to create and much easier to deploy as silent installations on large networks, unless of course the tool you're using doesn't support executables and only supports MSI packages.

Re:"un-fix" tabbed browsing?

[code65536]

Yes!

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_:_FAQs_:_About:c onfig_Entries

Specifically, look at:
browser.tabs.closeButtons
browser.tabs.tabMinWidth