Slashdot Mirror
Firefox 21 Arrives
An anonymous reader writes "Mozilla on Tuesday officially launched Firefox 21 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. Improvements include the addition of multiple social providers on the desktop as well as open source fonts on Android. In the changelog, the company included an interesting point that's worth elaborating on: 'Preliminary implementation of Firefox Health Report.' Mozilla has revealed that FHR so far logs 'basic health information' about Firefox: time to start up, total running time, and number of crashes. Mozilla says the initial report is pretty simple but will grow 'in the coming months.' You can get it now from Mozilla."
Mine went painlessly quick.
Remember when Mozilla Seamonkey, a full kitchen sink web suite, was faster and more efficient with memory than the "lean web browser" Mozilla Firefox?
Firebug is a good reason to use it. I don't really understand your justification for not testing web design in Firefox, considering it has a decent following.
Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. -Benjamin Franklin
And yet you felt the need to comment on it. It would appear you care about Firefox more than you let on.
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
You guys have fun with that. Firefox 17 is still kickin along just fine here.
Ubuntu: If at first you don't succeed, blindly slap a sudo in front of it
I liked it when it was pheonix, and the other choices were mozilla or IE.
I updated after reading this, and I have no idea what a "social provider on the desktop" means. I see no change in Firefox.
I don't have any social features in my firefox. What? Do you just install every plugin every website you visit suggests to you?
You know, I feel like I only just upgraded to Firefox 20. In fact, there hasn't even been a 20.1 yet. I really like Firefox, I do. Some of the new web development tools (which I've only just discovered) are really nice. But, to be frank, apart from those, I can't tell the difference between 18, and 20. And looking at the changelog, I can't see anything that says, "I'm a major new version that breaks compatibility with previous versions".
So, I want to ask again (and I'm beating a horse that is not only dead, but buried, and decomposed, with only a few bones and other hard items left), what's the point of these fast track updates?
Many of the new features (e.g. the web developer tools and the Social API (only useful for people who actually use "social websites", i.e. not me)) would be better off as plugins. Instead, Mozilla should be focusing on things that actually improve both the user experience and the safety of browsing the web. So, perhaps blocking third party cookies by default, building in a simplified RequestPolicy-like tool (with a blacklist of ad networks and trackers), and maybe even improve the shitty bookmark system. But no, they want to improve the Social API.
I'll continue to use Firefox, it's better than the alternatives. But it's the plugins that really make it better, not the superfast increase the numbers (and hide useful UI - luckily that can be fixed with plugins).
HELP MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED BY AN ILLIBERAL ART STUDENT SET TO DESTROY THE INTERWEBZ!
I don't even test new web designs in Firefox; only IE, Safari and Chrome.
Funnily enough, I don't use any of those three browsers when I'm on Windows (maybe 1/3 of the time); I use Opera and Firefox.
Remember when firefox wasn't trying to complete in some stupid version race, and just tried to be the best browser it could possibly be?
I miss that too.
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
I am seriously tired of all the new crap that they keep adding to FF. On new installations I must spend a good amount of time turning stuff off. Most of the features I turn off would be better in an extension or at leasr off by default.
We badly need a need a new Firefox. It's still the best of all the browsers because you can actually tweak it but the defaults are getting out of hands.
Almost everything that the foundation added since version 4 was not wanted.
I remember the huge fanfare when Firefox 4 came out, we were on 3.x.x for ages. /., we don't need an article every time a new version is released. You don't do this with chrome either, and for good reason.
That was what, 2 years ago now I think? And so now we've since had 17 new "versions", it maybe deserves to be 3, at best. My point here?
They come out too frequently, with too few changes, and frankly very few people honestly care at this point.
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
You know what idiotic thing they did? They combined Download and Web History. So since FF20, when you clear one, they both go. The reason they give is because Options such as that are hard to maintain. BS. Not to mention that silly, huge, Download dialog. Are they trying to scare people away or what?.
He's passionately apathetic.
and how much does generating these reports affect the performance of firefox.
> They combined Download and Web History. So since FF20, when you clear one, they both go.
Really? Mine doesn't do that. I've cleared my download history many times and still have >6 months of web history.
blarg
I just cleared my download history from Firefox 21. My browser history is still there.
All I want to know is, does it now support asm.js?
I wait firefox v269. .. version.
I mean, what's not to like ? 269.. and in 20 years, my child is gonna speak about firefox 18057. Google will be at 20-30 k
What a bloody joke.
You do realize that you've just wasted a perfectly good opportunity to write "Twenty-first post!"?
Ezekiel 23:20
You might consider starting, since FF's 20% market share is approximately equal to the combined share of Safari and Chrome.
Improvements include the addition of multiple social providers on the desktop
On the desktop? Don't you mean "on the side of the Firefox window"?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
I hope they fixed the bug on 15" retina MBP where you can select items from some menus only by pushing enter.
And the only thing I really want in Firefox is *still* not there. But instead, more crap features.
It doesn't have to be like this. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking.
With each new version since FF17 you need to disable all the social crap, sync-shit, animations, tab-behaviour, phoneHome-telemetries and pdf-viewer using "about:config".
Finally allowed to get drunk.
You might consider starting, since FF's 20% market share is approximately equal to the combined share of Safari and Chrome.
What website is this with these numbers??
Remember when Firefox used to be a web browser? I liked it when it was a web browser.
Isn't that kind of bloat what happened to Netscape?
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
I don't have any social features in my firefox. What?
The Firefox release notes say you're wrong.
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
You should consider installing the ESR version if you don't want to deal with the rapid upgrades. It is currently version 17.0.6. The "ESR channel" gets only security patches, no new features, until it reaches end of life after about a year, at which point you upgrade to the next ESR (Extended Support Release). Firefox version 3, 10, 17 (and future 24) are ESRs.
See http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/faq
Nobody realizes anything.
That is why everybody does everything!
Sort of? It looks like it's automatically supported plug-ins you have to activate from the relevant web-page. You wouldn't see them unless you said "activate it" or whatever dumb link exists on the page.
... legally that is.
BTW the related news: "obviously" as a tit-for-tat move against Russians for expelling a US diplomat in Moscow earlier today, in DC NTSB proposed lowering drivers' legal blood alcohol content http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/14/us/ntsb-blood-alcohol/.
FYI, you can revert to the old download window by setting the browser.download.useToolkitUI option to true in about:config. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/955204
So. There's no option to clear browsing history or data in the menus anymore under OS X? Where I can do that now?!
One world is to implement Chrome like versioning.
The other world is to implement a Microsoft like need for making a grand entrance.
It's just a web browser, nobody gives a rat's ass what it does, that is why Google updates silently in the background without fuss.
It's the 21st century, web browsers do not need press releases anymore just like you don't need someone on the street corner announcing every hour of the day.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
I liked it when it was pheonix, and the other choices were mozilla or IE.
You just hurt the feelings of my copy of Lynx. Well, it's still waiting for 'feelings' to be added in an update, but I'm sure it will be right after image support.
So it is going to be Firefox 100 by next year then?
Not according to my website stats, which is all I really care about.
1. Internet Explorer 9.0 18.40%
2. Chrome 26.0.1410.64 13.07%
3. Internet Explorer 8.0 10.79%
4. Safari 6.0 10.13%
5. Internet Explorer 10.0 9.79%
6. Firefox 20.0 7.53%
7. Android Browser 4.0 3.58%
8. Safari (in-app) (not set) 1.51%
9. Firefox 16.0.1 1.50%
10. Internet Explorer 7.0 1.46%
Is it too late to propose the 21st toast?
It seems like it was only yesterday that Firefox 3 was released to great fanfare after years and years of refinement.
To think, Firefox has come seven times farther now! Amazing!
On a more serious note, what the fuck is a "social provider on the desktop"? A philanthropist that runs in the root window?
Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
As usual, most of the important changes are only listed in the Developer changelog: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox/Releases/21
Highlights include:
element support
scoped attribute support for (allows a stylesheet to only apply to a particular element and it's children)
No more E4X
improvements
Recently I needed to find a plugin for a certain feature and remembered one for FF4 I used a while back. When to down load it on this new computer to find out the developer had stopped updating the plugin. The reason: these frequent updates didn't leave him enough time to continuously test and make sure it still worked with each version every few weeks. I searched for similar plugins and everyone I saw the author pretty much said the same thing. They had all discontinued development for FireFox because the release cycle was too quick.
Instead I ended up finding a plugin for Chrome and went with it. Frankly other than to test against FF and certain debugging. I don't use it that much anymore.
"The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
There are things like this that Mozilla browsers can do since version 6.0 that other browsers have yet implement
New major version, no real worthwhile features worth mentioning. Say, hasn't that mostly been the case for the last 15 or so versions now?
Firefox just comes with the Social API, as with addon APIs, you have to install something, otherwise it's just potential.
I had to quit using firefox for the first time in years because it kept locking up in a very ugly way in 20.4
I have been waiting for the upgrade so I can browse without locking every 6 seconds.
Safari isn't as intuitive for me since I am used to how firefox was and I don't have a chromium based browser on my system anymore.
Opera is a nice browser, but it really does have to do with how used to something one is.
Have they fixed flash video playback under OS X yet? The one they've screwed up under FF19
What auto-update? it only updates when I type apt-get upgrade, and it does so silently.
It seems like only yesterday they updated to 10.
That's fine, since Firefox users won't care about your site if you don't even test it on their browser. No need to support the users that don't care about your site because you don't care about them.
Hate to break it to you but you're wrong.
March 2013 figures:
StatCounter: Chrome: 38%. Firefox: 20.9%. Safari: 8.5%.
Wikimedia: Chrome: 44.0%. Firefox: 18.2%. Safari: 3.2%.
W3Counter: Chrome: 30.3%. Firefox 19.3%. Safari: 16.3%.
NetApplications: Chrome: 16.5%. Firefox: 20.2%. Safari: 5.3%.
Clicky: Chrome: 35.8%. Firefox: 21.3%. Safari: 9.5%
From the Wikipedia page on browser usage share. April stats doesn't have Wikimedia or NetApplcations but the figures still don't back you up for what is there.
Not sure why, but every single time Firefox updates, they break my favorite theme: Springshine. It's incredibly annoying. I suspect it's because they change the first number, instead of the second number, like a sane programmer would do (we should be on 4.18 or so now, not 21!).
Wake me up when there's a 64 bit build for Windows
I Can't Wait For 22! How long before version 22 comes out? Are we there yet?
If you click the download arrow, then click "Show All Downloads," it'll bring the Downloads History window up. You can then just right-click and click "Clear Downloads." It'll keep your web history. The only difference is it's now many more clicks than in the olden days. Kind of annoying, really.
Exactly, Firefox was much better before the dumb asses running the team decided to copy chrome on pretty much everything. If I wanted to use Chrome, I would just use Chrome, I don't need them to have version a million and I don't need them to copy features from other browsers unless they're actually good features.
That stupid ribbon inspired UI was never a good idea. For a desktop application.
Sort of, but Firefox isn't bloated, it has lower memory utilization than any of the other major browsers. Where it tends to fail is that it is more susceptible to scripts causing lag and freezes than other browsers, because they aren't using individual processes per tab.
Opera.
I liked it better when it was Mosaic and the other choices were ... nothing.
They can take my LifeAlert pendant when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
And when the trees move back and forth, that's what causes the wind.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
And here I thought it was caused by clueless people spouting hot air.
Firefox just comes with the Social API, as with addon APIs, you have to install something, otherwise it's just potential.
There you go again, bringing logic and reason to an emotional argument. Won't somebody think of the delusional paranoids!
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
I really liked it as a simple, straightforward browser I could customize. But Firefox keeps putting more and more effort into trying to Chrome, and adding bells and whistles and tweaking the interface. I got tired of needing to put things back the way I liked them everytime an update took them away or broke them. If I wanted to use Chrome, I'd use Chrome. Maybe if the next version is Firefox 122, that will make me like it again.
... forcing people to create extensions to get the feature back
And then proceed to break extensions with every single release. I haven't gotten some extensions to work for several updates ... fire gestures and/or all-in-one, printedit, download helper. I know they don't purposely break them, but I don't understand why they just stop working and never work again. Is it because I'm on Linux? Not to mention that it has become quite a memory hog and seems to have issues releasing memory and shutting down gracefully. I don't really like any of the alternatives as much, but have really considered dropping FF.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
So, instead of getting one change at a time, they can get them all at once. Yeah, that is a brilliant idea for someone complaining about feature creep! What I would have done is change all the APIs and other interfaces and then added all their features as plugins and addons. When I mention that, the usual reply is "feature X can't be done like that because that interface doesn't exist." My response is "then add it!" If there really is enough interest in adding that, then other people would want to too. And it is a heck of a lot easier to modify an extension that all FF users can use than to change the firefox source and get all FF users to download your version.
Since Firefox has started their crazy version numbering, I've given up on upgrading. I use 27 different addons and perfectly configured to make my web browser do what I want. It is near impossible to do an upgrade without spending hours reconfiguring the addons, some of which need to be manually downloaded and have their "MaxVersion" incremented so they will install. Maybe in 6 more months when we reach Firefox 50 I'll give it a try, but until then. Firefox 8 all the way!
Application: Firefox 8.0 (20111104165243)
Total number of items: 27
- Active Stop Button 1.4.10
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/active-stop-button/
- Adblock Plus 1.3.10
http://adblockplus.org/en/
- BetterPrivacy 1.68
http://nc.ddns.us/extensions.html
- ColorfulTabs 7.1
http://www.binaryturf.com/free-software/colorfultabs-for-firefox/
- Cookie Monster 1.1.0
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cookie-monster/?src=api
- Copy Link Name 1.3.2
http://www.captaincaveman.nl/
- Download Statusbar 0.9.10
http://downloadstatusbarapp.com/
- DownloadHelper 4.9.14
http://www.downloadhelper.net/
- DownThemAll! 2.0.8
http://downthemall.net/
- Export Cookies 1.2
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/export-cookies/?src=api
- Find Toolbar Tweaks 3.0.0
http://homepage3.nifty.com/georgei/extension/ftt_en.html
- Firebug 1.8.4
http://www.getfirebug.com/
- Greasemonkey 0.9.13
http://www.greasespot.net/
- HeaderControlRevived 1.1
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/headercontrolrevived/?src=api
- Hide Caption Titlebar Plus 2.4.1
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/13505/
- Menu Editor 1.2.7
http://menueditor.mozdev.org/
- Movable Firefox Button 1.4
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/movable-firefox-button/
- NoScript 2.1.7
http://noscript.net/
- OptimizeGoogle 0.78.2
http://www.optimizegoogle.com/
- RequestPolicy 0.5.27
http://www.requestpolicy.com/
- Screen Capture Elite 2.0.0.23
http://www.grizzlyape.com/
- Searchbastard 1.5.5
http://searchbastard.rosell.dk/
- SkipScreen 0.6.1.2
You're confusing marketing, i.e. the fact that Firefox bumps up the major version number (to compete with Google bumping the major revision number with incremental additions which caters to the unenlightened, uninitiated, lay people, the misinformed, etc., etc.) with what's essentially a *minor* feature.
Firefox just comes with the Social API, as with addon APIs, you have to install something, otherwise it's just potential.
There you go again, bringing logic and reason to an emotional argument. Won't somebody think of the delusional paranoids!
Too funny, and real true too! Please mod up!
Immediately after updating to 21 I noticed the browser seemed awfully sluggish. They re-enabled smooth scrolling... Turning it [back] off fixed the problem, but why couldn't it keep my previous setting?
They haven't implemented this until now? Seriously? Good gawd wake me up when Firecrotch grows up and matches WebKit's HTML 5 support.
I for one just changed my default browser from Chrome back to FF. Much more beautiful rendering and scrolling, and no noticeable speed difference.
why the hell are downloads in the library, why the hell when I bookmark (my bad dumb fuck star) a page its in a separate windows not the stupid bookmarks menu, why the fuck do you asshats keep making this thing more like chrome, if I wanted chrome I would god damn use chrome.
See, this isn't a response...and it sure as siht isn't a 'zinger' or a 'witty retort'
so the hell what, Cromium exists? That does not answer parent's point at all...
in fact, it actually proves you wrong and him right, if anything, b/c the link was to a Google product's homepage. exactly the kind of useless information the parent was bemoaning...
jeez way to prove his point for him
Thank you Dave Raggett
Thank you.
I do enjoy the warm breeze, but didn't realise you had the franchise.
carry on!
No, they say you're a tool.
They are providing new *APIs* for social feature plugins to use *if you decide to install them*
Unless you have to stream to users who don't have the H.264 codecs installed. This includes users of Windows XP, users of Windows Vista Home Basic, and users of GNU/Linux distributions that haven't licensed the H.264 patents.
I suggest you go back to IE6. It's more the type of browser your kind like.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
This Wikipedia article states that as of April 2013, Net Applications reported that over three out of every eight desktop users are still on Windows XP alone, not even counting Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Business, and GNU/Linux. If you target only those desktop operating systems guaranteed to include an AVC decoder, namely Mac OS X, Windows 7, and Windows 8, you're limiting your user base by nearly half.
I just googled "browser market share" and took the first link, which happened to be this one. It lists FF at 20.3%, Chrome at 16.35% and Safari at 5.38%. That seems to correspond to the "NetApplications" row on the wiki page, which, admittedly, has the least favorable estimate for Chrome.
Remember when firefox wasn't trying to complete in some stupid version race, and just tried to be the best browser it could possibly be?
I miss that too.
Remember how impatient people were about Firefox 4 being delayed again and again, asking why they wouldn't just release it. Remember the complaints that the new versions changed too many things at once?
I don't miss that either.
You might consider how many of your Internet Explorer visitors are using something else and spoofing the user agent... Although I do think this is getting less common.
I miss having cut/paste work. I really don't know WTF they were thinking when they broke that.
Lynx is a stripped-down browser, without enough artificial intelligence capability to have "feelings". EMACS, on the other hand? Sure, it's just meta-x-cokebottle and RMS's your uncle.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
At $DAYJOB, the IT department supports the long-term-support versions, currently at 17.0.5. It crashes a lot, and often gets into a runaway burn-the-whole-CPU trap (I've got an 8-CPU-core PC, so it shows up as 12-13% CPU utilization, so the rest of my machine's ok even though the browser stalls.)
The main add-ons I'm running are NoScript, Ad-Block-Plus, and Ghostery.
It does seem to recover much better from crashes than 10.x long-term-support did, but it's still annoying.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
That's the problem with apathy. Nobody cares.
It autoupdates about a week or two after the release date. It doesn't autoupdate initially so that any bugs still lying around can be solved before the majority of the populace gets the new version.
Yup, exactly. {grumble, grumble} so why does yours get +4 insightful and mine was modded down as a troll? Oh, you fickle moderators... I wan't trolling; I was seriously expressing concerns that Firefox is no longer just trying to be the best browser but has become encumbered with a ton of cruft like "social provider" nonsense.
So as I understand it, you are against the implementation of any feature that could be described as "Search all tabs in all open browser windows", claiming that anyone whose "IQ is greater than 50" should never need it even as people open upwards of two dozen tabs. What if anything do I misunderstand?