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Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 Adds Private Browsing
CWmike was one of several readers to point out the release of Firefox 3.1 Beta 2, the first version of its flagship browser to switch on the much faster TraceMonkey JavaScript engine and sport a working privacy mode dubbed "Private Browsing." An ancillary addition to Private Browsing is a new addition to the "Clear Recent History" dialog box allowing users selectively to erase the last hour, the last two hours, the last four hours, today's, or all browsing history — previously, the wipe was all or nothing. This beta includes support for "web worker threads," a developing specification that will let Web-based application developers run background processes to speed up their apps. One feature present in Beta 1 is gone in the new beta: Ctrl-Tab switching. According to the developer, the UI needs more work; the feature probably won't be in the final 3.1.
Come on... no Ctrl+Tab switching?
How could anyone possibly use it without that feature?
Seems like a deal-breaker for me...
It's taken over four years to copy Private Browsing from Safari, yet they didn't even bother coming up with a new name!
No more suspicious empty history porn fans.
In the future they are going to invent the browser without bloat stealing it from Chrome and Firefox 1.0.
It is no longer uncommon to be uncommon.
are already available in Chrome/Chromium, and I find them very useful. Good thing they found their way to Firefox. I always found it very annoying to have to delete the whole cache in Firefox, especially since you have to do so rather often when you are working on html/css.
Finally I don't have to worry about clearing the history... wait, did I remember to enable the add-on...? Lol, good for the hardrive memory impaired, doesn't write all the useless crap to the disk!
"Bellum est Pacis. Licentia est Servitus. Ignarus est Vires."
Stealther did the same thing, but started a heck of a lot faster and could even delete downloads. It doesn't work completely with 3.1 though. Clearing the history for periods of time is a nice touch for those who forget to engage the private mode.
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
Wipe private data doesn't always work, see bug:- https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=462831
So how about fixing it before adding to it?
Red to red, black to black. Switch it on, but stand well back.
If the new Javascript engine is turned on, does this mean that the new Firefox beta gives a larger e-penis than Chrome or the latest Safari?
Seriously, I am thinking it might be time to start learning Javascript (to a higher level than just being able to copy and paste snippets to autoscroll the page and other simple effects). It's not perfect but it has wide support and mindshare, which is more important than any technical criterion. What I want to do is display simple graphs in the browser of things like stock prices, based on information fetched over SOAP (yeah I know SOAP is a bit clunky, but it's the interface I have). Can more experienced programmers recommend Javascript tutorial sites (at a higher level than 'copy and paste this snippet of code to get cool smilies!') or a good set of libraries?
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
It then deletes everything that happened between 1. and 3., but keeps what happened before you activated it.
allowing users selectively to erase the last hour, the last two hours, the last four hours, today's, or all browsing history
I think I speak for every male here when I say, halleluja to private porn browsing without having to whipe out all your login cookies afterwards!
with IE7 via group policy you can stop the user from clearing history etc, can Firefox do the same ?
or is Firefox going to be deemed a security threat by Administrators ? which is not good for corporate usage and compliance
ROFL (Regrettable Old Feature Loss)
If your workplace has you going through a proxy, no amount of stealth in the browser is going to help.
I have had a ton of people requesting I install Chrome for them ( which violates policy anyway ) because they mistakenly think that the privacy feature will hide their browsing habits from the logs.
Oh, they try to be sneaky about it, sure. But that's what their after. I have half a mind to install it for them, then watch the logs to see what they don't want me to know about.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
to whitelist/blacklist storing items in your history/cache by URL? They have it for just about everything else!
Right-click, go to "View Page Info", and click "Permissions". It should be right there. Any takers on writing an extension for this?
There is a good article at Mozilla Links, about 3.1 beta 2.
Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think. --Niels Bohr
Again, did you even use the beta? CTRL-TAB is still there and works as it did in 3.0. They just removed the fancy tab previews they had been experimenting with.
It's interesting that IE actually had the private browsing feature with IE 8 Beta first. While I have no interest in going back to IE whatsoever, it's a very good thing that they're finally building innovative features, and it's also a good thing that Firefox is having to play catch-up feature-wise for the first time. Wow - real competition in the browser space - what is this, 1998???
I really do hope that the submitter is confused and that Firefox will not be spawning background processes, or else that would be the end of Firefox.
As the island of our knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.
Relax. CTRL+TAB is still there, only without the cute screen preview menu from the previous beta.
I've got this setting disabled, not quite sure if there are any other relevant settings (you could try filtering with ctrlTab or Tab):
about:config
browser.ctrlTab.mostRecentlyUsed --> false
It is what it is.
Andy
My solution is that each time I start a web browser, it first runs through a script that creates a replica of the .mozilla directory in a unique place. The HOME environment variable is set to the unique directory. When it's done, I exit and just wipe out that directory.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Oh great! They've removed the new tab button from the button bar (i.e. where the back, forward, and reload buttons are) and moved it to the other side of the screen! And the Go button is completely gone too (although its usability dropped after it was moved to the wrong side of the screen too).
By the way, anyone know if the private browsing mode disables the disk cache completely? Snoopy people could dig out deleted cache items afterwards if disk cache is used.
Since Safari has had the privacy mode feature for years.
-- Boycott Shell
"An ancillary addition to Private Browsing is a new addition to the "Clear Recent History" dialog box allowing users selectively to erase the last hour, the last two hours, the last four hours, today's, or all browsing history"
Oh please, as if you need to erase any more the last 3 minutes when you're done with "Private Browsing"? Any longer than that and you're just wasting time.
I hope this won't make /. eat even more cpu...
Btw, Ctrl-Tab is app switching in BeOS anyway :p
When will they implement http://www.squarefree.com/pornzilla/
I've been using a simpler solution for a few years
I love Slashdot.
Only on Slashdot would it be "simpler" to code a custom script that automatically runs when starting a particular application, generates a new temporary profile, sets an environment variable to use that profile, and deletes the profile on exit; rather than sometimes click a menu item marked "private".
I'm not disagreeing that your solution is simpler, by the way. It is actually a great way to force a particular behavior in a robust way, and is simple to use once implemented. But it's only "simpler" for Slashdotters!
However, your 'solution' still writes it to disk. Forensics could still retrieve it.
If you are really paranoid the Firefox option is more secure as it doesn't even write to the disk in the first place.
I find it hilarious that the (perceived) loss of a feature has caused you to take a principled stand against improvements in general.
Only on Slashdot!
The Ctrl+Tab functionality is still there
Phew. It would be such a shame for them to finally add the feature that prevents Firefox from suggesting your favorite porn site on the top every time you type a URL and simultaneously take away the option that allows you to switch tabs with only your left hand.
Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
left hand on the mouse, right hand on the mouse
Does Firefox add threading for tabs yet?
I still use SRWare Iron (the phone-home-free version of Chrome) because it runs each tab/window in a separate process, so I can load many tabs in the background while the foreground tab is unaffected and I'm able to use it.
The fact that Firefox still lacks this usability feature (the ability to do things in one window while another is busy) blows my mind. Even IE does it.
I mean, it's nice to see them steal - and expound on! - a feature from Chrome, but they're still missing one of the best ones: process isolation.
Question everything
You can plug in two mice, but they'll just fight over which one gets to control the cursor.
Still a problem, since memory can swap to disk, unless disabled.
Ramdisk + wipe swap or encrypted swap would be a better solution.
OTOH, you can also recover from RAM, so I guess the only solution is to thermite your computer after use.
Bwahahah.
Populus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur...
"Force shits upon Reason's back." - Poor Richard's Almanac
Post it.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
and certainly libraries are overused...but sometimes they save time. ...and as everyone knows, Time=more time on /.
Populus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur...
"Force shits upon Reason's back." - Poor Richard's Almanac
While it seems do be doing quite well in their tests javascript seems to be slower for a bunch of tests.
Its times in the jsBalls fight timedemo are a second or so slower than Firefox 3. And sites with a lot of animation done in javascript like http://www.dhteumeuleu.com seem to run slower.
Now i can watch tons of porn without anything be saved in my pc. Oh Giggity giggity goo!
Mouse gestures really make life easier.
I couldn't go back to a firefox without them.
Mouse Gestures Redox for Firefox.
My tip: install it, remove all gestures except:
close tab, previous tab, next tab, reload.
If you've only got a 3 button mouse set yourself some 'rocker' gestures (hold down right mouse button, then press left to go back a page).
Gestures make life so much easier.
For Windows there is also StrokeIt, which adds mouse gestures to anything.
An ancillary addition to Private Browsing is a new addition to the "Clear Recent History" dialog box allowing users selectively to erase the last hour, the last two hours, the last four hours, today's, or all browsing history -- previously, the wipe was all or nothing.
No matter how much or how little of the history you delete, there's always going to be that little "gaping hole." Clever parents know that when someone goes online, there's going to be a history trail. But when a parent checks the history and finds nothing there for that day, red flags will go off.
Hopefully, in the next version, they include a "Generate Random History" option in the browser...and make sure it's intelligent enough to determine which sites you would regularly visit (sans porn, of course).
Yea, this is great and all, but how about investing some time in adding decent printing support. FF is the only major browser these days that screws up when printing divs with absolute positioning.
I got 93 when running 3.1b2, an improvement over the 89 for 3.1b1.
I occasionally help out a buddy who works at a private school as Network Administrator--one of the things strictly enforced is their network policies, and if this is not something he can disable I already know he's going to be removing Firefox and switching back to IE. He may dislike IE (as most admins who recognize its effect on system security) but he has to have it available any way for one of their mandatory programs, it'll be easier for him to simply go back to IE than fiddle with profiles and work arounds to disable the thing...
The Firefox and Mozilla people need to really start thinking about security and administrative policies if they want to see Firefox continue to have the take up its had in the last few years!
--bornagainpenguin
Have a Virgin Mobile USA smartphone? Give VMRoms.com a try!
Does this version resolve the privacy flaw in 3.0? Namely, the fact that the autocomplete history for the URL bar is not erased, even when the user manually clears all available privacy options?
But, for windows users, when sysadmins can use "$" related prompts to back up files, they can conceivably access your FF & Opera cache/history and other files. I wish those were encrypted based on an initial password & passphrase so that ONLY the user (unless an in-line keystroke logger is surreptitiously employed) can open the browser locally. It would be nice if Opera or Mozilla or Google built an end-to-end service using a hash tool like banks and "trusted sites" do. This way, you could set up a rotating password, force it to randomly or by schedule expire, and deprive some nosey admins or others from seeing EVERY site you go to via copying browser history and cache files.
But, somehow, i feel i have fatal logic in this idea.
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
You'll still need to manually delete any Flash cookies that sites may use.
How many tabs do you need to have open before you forget what they contain?
I would be pretty pissed if a "preview" feature caused a "responsiveness" hit, even if I disabled it.
Ctrl-TAB "result" can lag behind what my fingers have done cos Firefox tries to briefly render intermediate pages: I already find this annoying (hadn't really thought about it, though).
Flash cookies aren't deleted
I'm glad they're taking out the Ctrl-Tab switching. I use a logitech mouse with a tilting scroll wheel, which adds two extra buttons. I currently have one direction of the tilt mapped to CTRL+Tab and the other direction to Ctrl+Shift+tab, so that I can browse through my tabs just by flicking the side of my scroll wheel. The tab switching feature screwed this up because Ctrl-Tab would have swapped back and forth instead of always moving over to the tab to the right.
Chrome has a nice dark blue titlebar to indicate private browsing. With Firefox 3.1b2, it's difficult to tell which mode I'm in without opening a menu or reading the window bar. Also, it doesn't save state well. I was typing this reply, activated private mode, then de-activated it. It dumped me back to the right page, but all my form data was missing. Needs work.
-- http://ninthagenda.com/
What? Won't be in the final? Come on now... that's way too basic to making excuses for.
... I was doing some private browsing.
Creating a "Private Mode" guest account with $HOME in /tmpfs is the only possibly safe way. A few scripts can even make it icon-clickable for regular users (ssh -X, etc. ).
But that won't prevent your ISP/Corporate admin to see traffic. Unless you use a Tor plugin - and even then you need to trust Tor exit node.
Point being: it's easier to just not need a "Private Mode" to begin with. Sex is better in real life, anyway.
http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/mpx/ Multi-pointer X server. Next question!
Does it run in Windows?
you use mouse gestures
Have you tried using mouse gestures on a notebook computer's trackpad? If so, how well do they work for you?
Will websites be able to take advantage of these parallel Javascript threads while remaining cross-browser-compatible, is what I'd like to know...
When will people finally upgrade their Windows 98 machines?
These recent privacy modes (Chrome's Incognito, FF Private Browsing) seem to miss the point. What's the great importance of keeping my browsing history off my local disk (I already know I surfed porn), when the evilclick.net advert in Window #2 can still read a cookie set by the evilclick.net advert in Window #1?
There is a more detailed description elsewhere, but here is a brief description of the feature I really want to see in a good browser stealth mode: Each clickstream is its own session. For example, I create a new window/tab from scratch - it may as well be a brand new universe. In a proper 'privacy mode', it should not have access to data generated by any previous or subsequent surfing in other tabs (e.g. cookies, authenticated sessions). Same goes for clicking a link to a different domain, or being redirected by non-click means (meta-refresh, etc.).
Quick example: In a moment of weakness sometime ago you signed up for a Gmail account. Today you open up your browser in privacy mode (fresh start; per-session cookies, whee!), and go surf some raunchy porn sites (ads served by AdSense; stores a session ID cookie pointing to the adserver's record of URL each ad appeared on). Later in the day (forgetting about the porn), you log in to Gmail. Whoops! Adserver's randomly-assigned SID (originator: google.com) is now readable by scripts in the Gmail window (originator: google.com), a strongly authenticated session - your midget horse porn addiction can now be linked to your email address. (But no deep-introspection ad relevance hivemind would actually store that data, right?)
Caveat Emptor is not a business model.
Selective history deletion and privacy mode probably does not cover the data saved by plugins and addons.
Especially Flash cookies.
But no amount of local data deletion will cover everything, as any intermediate or destination can log all they want (such as your own router, your isp, or the destination).