Slashdot Mirror
Firefox 26 Arrives With Click-To-Play For Java Plugins
An anonymous reader writes "Mozilla today officially launched Firefox 26 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. Additions include Click-to-Play turned on by default for all Java plugins, more seamless updates on Windows, and a new Home design for Android. Firefox 26 has been released over on Firefox.com and all existing users should be able to upgrade to it automatically. As always, the Android version is trickling out slowly on Google Play. Release notes are here: desktop and mobile."
The only problem i've seen with Firefox today is the updates are way too fast. The plug-ins and extentions aren't fast enough to follow becomes obsolete and break. It's not all the updates but I've seen some of it not compatible anymore
PC Gaming enthousiast that gives comments, opinions and reviews on Games. I'm just having fun with games while doing let
...was the first thing I saw. Talk about a panic attack!
Why can't all fpga/microcontroller manufacturers just release free optimizing compilers???
In the mean time they have made it substantially more difficult to configure the rejection of cookies.
Jesus... I'm actually thinking IE is better at this point.
Either give it away or get top dollar, but never sell yourself cheap.
This is 2013 and I'm really tired of having my browser freeze for 2 seconds with a grey box every time a Java app has to load. With the latest JavaScript features there's no reason to be using Java in web pages anymore.
My dream browser would:
- render text
- render static images
- block ads
My dream browser would NOT:
- play sounds
- play movies
- animate anything
- open up additional windows
- support java/javascript/whatever code
- support cookies
- store any information
Oh well, I guess it will never happen.
NOW... Make flash click to play as well!
Flashblock extension does this to Flash. You can also white list sites you want to automatically run Flash (Youtube for example).
C'mon, realistically, there is a rate of releases that's too slow, (critical bugs and security holes never get fixed) and a rate of releases that's too fast (add-ons can't keep up). I don't have an opinion on where the sweet spot might be, but I think it's a valid discussion.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Or one could fix bugs and security issues whilst not introducing/removing/changing major features and breaking compatibility. You know, like what we had before with fractional version numbers.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
In the time that you posted that comment, Firefox versions 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, and 44 were released.
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
TLS 1.1 was supposed to be released with this version by it had to backed out because there were some compatibility issues with a small number of sites:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=733647
The code is still in there, you just have to enable it manually via about:prefs: security.tls.version.max=2
TLS 1.2 is also present:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=861266
Just set security.tls.version.max=3.
Not sure if they're shooting for release 27 or 28. By default only TLS 1.0 is negotiated.
Starting somewhere around version 21 of Firefox, they turned off the "downloads" window and took the ability to turn it on/off out of the options. In order to turn something on that had been in Firefox since it was called Phoenix, you had to go into about:config and change "browser.download.useToolkitUI" to true. Now for some reason, it appears to me that Firefox v26 has completely removed the download window altogether. I cannot for the life of me get the old downloads window back. Maybe I'm just blind/dumb, but I can't imagine why Mozilla continues to make changes like this.
You can have critical bug and security fixes done without creating a new major release number, and those critical bug fixes can be introduced without requiring the user to receive irrelevant UI or usage changes at the same time. Firefox managed this for a very long time just fine up through version 4.
The support for the new stuff is being demanded by web site builders but not by the actual end users. The web site makers want to promote their world view of browser-as-app-framework and if that means dragging the customers dragging and screaming so be it. Ie, Mozilla wants HTML5 to be adopted as fast as possible, thus it cares more about advertisers than users.
We studied doing this for Flash as well. Check out the user research study. We determined that the vast majority of users would merely be annoyed by making Flash click-to-play, and we wouldn't actually be improving security or performance for most users.
As noted in other comments here, you can mark Flash as click-to-activate yourself in the Firefox addons manager, or get more fine-grained control over which Flash actually runs by installing an addon like Adblock.
Our long-term strategy is to make it so that nobody needs to use plugins by adding new web APIs; to reimplement content like PDF and Flash in JS so that we can have control over the performance; and to use the mobile web as leverage to get new sites to use native HTML APIs like <video> to wean the world off of plugins.
Google it!
I am at version 17 with the latest security fixes and it will updated to 24 next week:)
Next version is a year away with continual security. Addon work now and what Mozilla should have done back in 2011
http://saveie6.com/
But whose fault is that? Put the blame where it lies, Steve jobs trying to push his appstore crapstore lock in. I have flash on my fricking THREE YEAR OLD single core cellphone and ya know what? plays great. try HTML V5 with H.264 on anything less than a dual core and see what you get,even with hardware acceleration its a fricking pig.
So call a spade a spade, the killing of flash on mobile didn't have a damned thing to do with compatibility, or battery life, it had to do with Steve jobs making damned sure you weren't getting shit on that iPad without giving him 30%.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Did you do the same kind of user research study for java ? It seems the same conclusions would be applicable...
WTF is it with the Gecko engine and "senior moments"?
That's caused by the lack of a multi-process model in Firefox. Mozilla is working on it under the codename Electrolysis (e10s). It's still incomplete, but you can try it out by opening about:config, turning on browser.tabs.remote, and restarting Firefox. One drawback is that click-to-play is broken, as are "many plugins".