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Firefox 2.0 Officially Released
Many readers wrote in to make sure we all knew that Firefox 2.0 has officially been released on Mozilla.com, unlike yesterday's early preview. Here are builds for all languages and Win/Linux/Mac, and the release notes.
Once again...
If you find the Firefox 2 theme too bleak, I've got your fix right here.
Wow! The third firefox 2.0 article in 24 hours. Boy, I can't wait to read all the insightful comments people will leave. Again.
-Grey
Silver Clipboard: Time Management Tips
I have been using Firefox 2.0 for a day now. I can't really see how this warrants a 2.0 release. It seems like there should be more added features and innovation that we have come to expect from the Mozilla team to jump to 2.0. Don't get me wrong, I love the software and I have converted just about everyone I know to Firefox. This is a Solid release, but maybe a 1.6 or something.
Firefox 1.x made a reasonable attempt at mimicking the interface of OS X using XUL. Sure, its contextual menus weren't slightly transucent and some of its metrics were slightly off, but it didn't look completely out of place on the system. Firefox 2.0 has thrown away the Aqua interface and replaced it with some generic chrome which looks rather poor per se, but is especially jarring on Mac OS X.
I hope someone comes up with a decent Aqua skin, but it still doesn't make any sense to force users to resort to skinning just to make a program fit with the default system interface. The Mac build of Firefox should look like a Mac program by default; skinning should be for those people who want to make it look like a pink christmas tree or whatever.
Please do not bother mentioning Camino: it lacks support for Firefox extensions, which are the only reason I have for using Firefox.
Sadly, my favorite extension, Fasterfox, currently has no support in Firefox 2. That was pretty much my favorite thing about Firefox, too, so I really hope they continue to update it to support new versions of the browser.
Yesterday's "pre-release" (CRC32): 4F3CF1D7
Today's "official" release (CRC32): 4F3CF1D7
I guess not much has changed since RC3...
The auto-update system will automatically apply security and stability updates. We're planning on providing an "optional" update to Firefox 2 through this system, and that will likely happen in a few weeks. In the meantime, please do download through getfirefox.com. As long as you do not use a direct ftp.mozilla.org or releases.mozilla.org, we're pretty confident in our ability to handle demand, thanks to our volunteer mirror network.
Am I the only one getting all kinds of bugs in the new release?
The search engine box starts blank, and the 'get more search engines' link does nothing.
Right clicking and selecting 'new tab' opens a blank tag that doesn't react to the location bar at all, and refuses to close by clicking on its button, right click + close, or hitting 'close all other tabs'
It lost every single one of my bookmarks, even though it kept most extensions intact.
I don't want to sound like a troll, but is this really the quality we want in a new release?
On the topic of functioning extensions, I use a few, and they've all updated themselves and are functioning perfectly.
For those intereseted (I'm guessing none of you), they are: Ablock, Adblock Filterset.G Updater, All-in-One-Gestures, DownloadThemAll!,ForecastFox,IE Tab, and Web Developer (toolbar).
Also, since the http://www.mozilla.com/ is linking to the 2.0 downloads it seems safe to assume this is the official release.
I just installed 2.0 on XP and it seems to be working quite well. Most of my extensions work, and I'm happy.
Then I discovered The Feature(tm). A website popped up a window, rather than a new tab, with no ability to control the size and whatnot. I discovered a button in the upper right corner that says "open this window in default browser". Clicking it opens that window in a new tab in my open browser.
Thanks to whoever added that feature. Brilliant idea.
Will mozilla ever release an official 64 bit version of firefox? Not that I really care that much since I am usually running the 64 bit trunk build that I compile weekly anyways. But supposedly one of the reasons that Sun won't release a 64 bit java plugin for firefox is because there is no official 64 bit firefox. I am hoping that by Mozilla releasing an official 64-bit firefox Sun will finally get a 64-bit java plugin out.
Godsdamnit, why must it be so hard to get proper 64-bit OS support? Yes, I know I can get an alpha-build of Minefield/FFx3 in 64-bit, but that's just not cutting it on a work computer. Might be fun in a VM, though (which is where I always use unfinished and dangerous softwares, e.g. IE7)
Okay, so I had a problem where when I hovered over a tab's close button, it would disappear (though it would still when clicked). Also, when I installed the beta of the upcoming Tab Mix Plus, the main tab close button would flicker when hovered over it, and I'd have to click several times very quickly to make it work.
The problem: a theme I had installed (which has since been updated today).
So, if you experience any UI weirdness, you may want to switch over to the default theme and restart to see if that makes a difference.
Now that I have my Tabs Mix Plus, I'm doin' okay with FF2.
Shame about the non-multi-threaded UI, though. Maybe someday.
I have been using RC3, which I believe is the same codebase as the actual release. For several months I have found that the Firefox 2.0 branch froze up on my Mac (10.4 MacBook Pro) several times a day. Every time a new release would come out I would try it for a day or two, then it would freeze up, and I would switch back to the stable release. I'm sorry to say that RC3 has been freezing up on me in much the same way, meaning that even with the official 2.0 release, its not stable enough for me to use it as my primary browser (and yes, I do submit bugs when the occur if I can, I have been submitting bugs to Mozilla since the project was first open sourced).
How hard can it be? Is the development team so ossified and chauvinistic that they want to force a particular navigation scheme on all users? Let folks who want to use tabs use them, but don't make the rest of us drink from a separate drinking fountain around the back!
You can no longer block 3rd-party cookies.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
Ack, that horrible thing seems to sometimes cause weird problems with some websites that don't like all the simultaneous connections, and it can also cause memory leaks. Just be hardcore and modify your about:config yourself.
I've had v2.0 for all of 3 minutes and already have a gripe. The X tabs icon has been moved from the far right to the right of each individual tab. I rather liked the old version as I could quickly X all my tabs down to the original window that I had open. Now I must mouse around to click all tabs.
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." - Shepard Book Quoting Malcolm Reynolds
Because .exe is for windows.
ENDUT! HOCH HECH!
A new version of TabMixPlus that works with FF2 will be released within the week according to the author's note here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1122/
In the meantime, you can install a pre-release version of the extension here:
http://tmp.garyr.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3515
To get rid of the close buttons on all tabs, go to about:config and set
browser.tabs.closeButtons
to 0 if you only want the close button on the active tab
or to 0 if you want the close button only at the right hand side of the tab bar.
a world in progress...
OK it's one thing to call yesterday's release "2.0" -- after all it was a big improvement from 1.5.
But this today is really just an incremental release from yeseterday's. Calling it "2.0" again is a slap in the face to all of us loyal users who downloaded it yesterday and felt like we were getting something special.
I think that today's release should be called "2.1" or maybe "2.5" (or even "3.0"). What's the point of even having a version number if they make two releases with the same version? Come on guys, this is why open source can't compete in a real marketplace.
And more importantly, with that much accessible memory, this will allow us to use Firefox for four continuous hours instead of three before we need to restart it because of a leaking add-on!
Don't hit me, I'm just kidding, I never had any memory issue with FF, I swear!
The download page picks a random mirror. Linking directly to the file would put all of the load on a single mirror.
(Notice: Lower-case 'w' in subject.)
Enter "about:config" in to the Address bar.
Filter on "dom.disable_window".
Make sure every resulting knob is set to "True".
This prevents JavaScript-spawned windows from having their title bar, address bar, tool bar, menu bar, status bar, scroll bars, or other decorations removed/disabled. Now I can move, resize, or otherwise twiddle with all the windows in my browser, the way I should be able to.
Me to web developers: They're my windows; get your grubby JavaScript off them!
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
"Just for the record, which open source graphics program is better than the standard closed source options for pro grade work?" Aritist are always a special breed that don't like it when thier tools change to much, I would say the gimp, and xara http://www.xaraxtreme.org/ Give em a try you might like it. As for an OSS zealot, I beg to differ, i use proprietary software on a daily basis, because sometimes thats is all there is... When a great project comes along that can replace it... I look and listen.. Instead of pulling a gun out because it's free, or argue that since there is no support it's bad(using opensource software is a double edged sword you get it for free but when there is an issue you have to actually educate you self, instead of havign you hand held). I always said using OSS makes smarter people, there is less hand holding, and you ahve to actually read documentation WOW!!!!. No I have never paid Adobe for photoshop, never needed it, every apllication i need for work is free and oh OSS. You should try to get a weeks worth of work done on opened souce software, it might change your perspective on things a bit. Eventhought running proprietary software is a matter if choice, for you it's ok, but not for me. Im glad that all the combined hardware and software on your machine might cost you about $8,000 to run(enjoy):) Further more, a lot of proprietary software has benifited from OSS, take a look at the recent IE7, kinda looks and feels like firefox; but not on par yet. Don't think so? Download it give it a whirl, the fireup firefox.... After wards tell me what you think. Kudos to you my buddy on the other side of the fence; it's always better to keep an open mind.
"Too bad that bureaucrats' hunger for power is never matched by greater quantities of wisdom or intelligence!!--Could it
Yeah, I was disappointed to see this gone from the UI, but it is still available via about:config . The key is network.cookie.cookieBehavior, default value is 0 (all cookies allowed). Change this to 1 (no 3rd party cookies). More info from the MozillaZine knowledgebase.
When I went into make this change, it was set to 1, so if you've upgraded to 2.0 from a previous Firefox install and you'd already selected the no 3rd party cookies option, this setting is carried over. (I've checked this with a clean install and it is indeed '0' by default). I wonder why they made that choice (removing the UI option to block the 3rd party cookies).
no, lock refers to LOCKING THE BOLT CLOSED after loading a round in the internal mag or breach.
Pick up a bolt-action rifle [circa when "lock and load" came about]. It's a hollywoodism, see this page about half way down.
You "switch" fire modes, you don't lock them. And frankly I always hear it as "turn the safety on" or off, etc... not "lock the safety" because that doesn't make any sense.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
http://www.wordorigins.org/Words/LetterL/lockandlo ad.html
:)
Lock and Load
This imperative phrase originally referred to the operation of the M1 Garand Rifle, the standard U.S. Army rifle of WWII. Its meaning is more general now, referring to preparation for any imminent event.
To load a Garand, the bolt would be locked to the rear and a clip of ammunition loaded into the receiver. The command lock and load was immortalized by John Wayne in the 1949 movie The Sands of Iwo Jima: "Lock and load, boy, lock and load."
There are earlier uses of the command reversed, load and lock. This command, primarily used on firing ranges, referred to the loading of a single round into the Garand (or into another weapon). In this case, the lock referred to striking the bolt handle with the heel of the hand to ensure it was fully closed and locked into place.
And you want to mess with something the Duke said? Shame on you.
"Using Bittorrent is a little redundant."
Congrats on your double pun!
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Firefox 2.0 won't come through Software Update for a few weeks, and even then, it will be optional. Software Update was made mainly for stability and security updates, not major feature additions.
So if you want Firefox 2.0 anytime soon, I suggest that you head on over to www.getfirefox.com and grab it for yourself.
I know, it is kinda disappointing for me too. I just loved the automation of it all.
...the British dictionary doesn't know about the word 'Firefox'...!
:)
All this two.oh talk is bunk. This is clearly more than a point level release though, so I suggest a new naming convention. We should lobby to have it named after a defunct car. This release is called Yugo. Next up is Chevette followed by the Pinto, the Nino and the Santo Maria. Oops, got off track.
:)
Let's just take the current system and make it fractional. This release should now be known as 1 and 5/8. No decimal notation anymore. I can't wait for 33 and 1/3!
OK, name it whatever you want, just don't call it vista
Lets give Mr Propaganda13 the benefit of the doubt for now. I am a beginning high power rifle shooter. AR15 and Garand M1. I can see where this got started with Garands because its really important to get that particular gun going well.
Garands have this really nasty bolt you have to lock back. A common problem is 'Garand thumb' from trying to load when its not locked back and the bolt slams shut on your innocent thumb. Also once a clip is loaded into a Garand (from the top) its hot and ready to fire so the safety that is part of the trigger guard had better be on.
AR15/M16's have a reverse process generally first pull the bolt back, insert the magazine then press the bolt catch button on the left side to release the bolt and allow it to slam forward. Also folks, the bullet does not seat all the way in on these gas guns, it sticks out about 3/16 of an inch.
This is a nice thing for geeks. If you might be interested in Service Rifle go to www.odcmp.org and search for a club in your area. Newcomers are always welcome and you can borrow all the equipment to get you going.
Thanks,
Jim Burke
My deer rifle is a 30-06 Remmington slide action. I'm a southpaw and a lefthanded bolt was more than I could afford when I got the gun (used): the slide action is ambidextrous. It has a 4 round clip. I've owned it for 31 years now. I don't use it much any more, but at one time it helped stretch the grocery budget.
I learned to shoot from a couple guys who had grown up hunting in the 1930s and who learned to shoot all over again when in the service in World War II. Both saw more action on the Pacific islands than they would ever talk about.
The litany they taught included these steps (done just before the first steps of the hunt)
I doubt that either of those guys saw any of the John Wayne war movies (they liked his westerns though). But I'm pretty sure neither one would have thought "Lock and load, son" was wrong or laughable. It is the way it was done.
Sorry about the rant. But this argument among people who have never had to worry about extracting a jammed live round from a rifle because the shooter hadn't locked the clip into place before trying to load the chamber has grown tiresome.
The download page picks a random mirror. Linking directly to the file would put all of the load on a single mirror.
no, it would not:
Stop Computers/Cars Analogies on S
"I went to the park" would imply that "john and me went to the park" is incorrect. It seems that people ALWAYS use "me" in this context regardless of how it sounds.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.