Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Firefox 19 Launches With Built-In PDF Viewer

Posted by Soulskill on from the they-should-use-roman-numerals-for-launch-numbers dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Mozilla on Tuesday officially launched Firefox 19 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. The improvements include a built-in PDF viewer on the desktop and theme support as well as lower CPU requirements on Google's mobile platform. You can see the official changelogs here: desktop and Android."

6 of 288 comments (clear)

  1. In version 20 Firefox will have built-in Emacs! by RocketRabbit · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Are they serious? A built in PDF reader, and this is only the start of things. Meanwhile there are Mozilla bugs that are over half a decade old.

    This constant bloat of software, where a program eventually gets filled with so many features that it might as well be Ann entire OS, is one of the most dangerous diseases in the tech world. The irony is that Firefox was originally a lightweight answer to the entire Mozilla suite, because it had grown too bloated.

    Every platform out there already has a PDF reader. My operating system has a PDF renderer built in. It works great. Why jam another one in the browser? They're just increasing the attack surface, and if a vulnerability in the PDF format were to crop up now I have to worry about getting patches for yet another thing here.

    1. Re:In version 20 Firefox will have built-in Emacs! by ZorinLynx · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The PDF reader in Firefox is actually implemented in JavaScript. It's quite an achievement!

      It doesn't bloat the software much; it's just a .js file that gets loaded when needed. I personally think this is the RIGHT way to do it; external binary plugins are much more susceptible to security problems than simply using the already existing JavaScript engine, which has been time tested to be secure.

      Worry not, Firefox is in good hands.

    2. Re:In version 20 Firefox will have built-in Emacs! by TeknoHog · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They should really make a small, light version of Firefox that only does web browsing, and does it well. They could call it "Phoenix", for example.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    3. Re:In version 20 Firefox will have built-in Emacs! by tlhIngan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      How many of you stupid fucks still do not realize that Firefox's release cycle is the same as Chrome's? And that they have an enterprise version with slightly longer time between updates so that if you don't want the new features, you can have the security fixes?

      The problem with Firefox's releases is they keep screwing with the UI. Little things here and there - like day I suddenly found muscle memory broken because the awesomebar stopped autocompleting full URLs and only did domains? (It's fine for the most part, but if you have URLs that are fairly deep... or say to get directly to a forum...).

      If Mozilla updated firefox like chrome - where they don't mess with UI things at all (or default them to "off" for upgrade installs so it behaves exactly the same as it did pre-update) then a lot less people would care. But they don't. I don't care what version Chrome is at because it works the same today as it did yesterday. But every new update to Firefox brings trepidatoin in the form "what did they screw with now? And can I disable it?"

      Ars Technica periodically runs browser wars charts that show how each version of a browser is adopted. Consistently while a large number of people update, a significant number of people don't, much more than Chrome.

  2. Re:Still exists? by epyT-R · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1. it's got adblockplus
    2. it's the only browser left that isn't directly targeted at marketing interests over my privacy (you worry about holes, but then trust google??)
    3. a useful library of plugins. sure other browsers have this now, but not like firefox.

    does that excuse the performance issues? hell no.

  3. I hate PDF readers, embedding suckssssss by AbRASiON · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Just let me damn well download the files, never open in a tab and render it.
    Yes I know you can set this option but I use 3 damned PC's - and FF updates regularly (or dies and I need to do a clean profile) I'm sick of adjusting things to make things work properly.

    Like the ridiculous copy and paste http:/// bug - they strip it from the URL (breaking bloody standards) and I copy and paste it elsewhere. 95% of the time it auto-adds the http:/// as it should, however 5% of the time it doesn't and it's frustrating (because it should never be removed in the damned first place!)