back to article Firefox 4 gets yet another final test build release

Mozilla squeezed out a second Release Candidate version of Firefox 4 over the weekend, just days before the open source outfit's planned final browser code splurge on 22 March. Originally, Mozilla expected to go directly from just one Release Candidate version of Firefox 4 before finalising the build for everyone to download …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Elmer Phud

    Second go

    The first one greeted me with the 'sorry we couldn't re-conect your session' (or whatever it says) each time I fired it up.

    Second one has cleared it up.

    So far -- seems O.K. and I've put the tabs back underneath the address bar.

  2. Ted Treen
    Pint

    Kelly,

    Why can't I call you "Shirley"

  3. Reg Sim

    I do hope this firefox rox

    I am looking forward to getting my hands on the final version.

    1. Ammaross Danan
      FAIL

      Yes....

      ...because it will be revolutionarily different from RC2 released the day before go-live....

  4. Ebaneezer Wanktrollop
    FAIL

    Bookmarks Icon MIA

    Has all but vanished - tried adding it - shows it's there on the toolbar but as soon as you close the customise toolbar window - off it vanishes again - anyone else?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      Bookmarks Icon

      Seems fine here.

      All I did was to drag and drop it from the Customise window to anywhere on the toolbar and there it is...

    2. MaxRock

      Bookmarks icon

      I think it only shows if the bookmarks toolbar is off

    3. Jordan Davenport

      Two Bookmarks Icons

      One Bookmarks icon is a dropdown list just like in the menu bar with a little arrow to the right of it showing that it's a dropdown list. That's the default icon that's on the toolbar. The other is a button that toggles the Bookmarks sidebar, the same as it's always been. The behavior of the former depends on what toolbars you have visible. Bookmarks toolbar? It's now on it instead. Menu bar? It's now only visible on it from the Bookmarks option. It's a dynamic interface that changes based on what is visible to the user. The other one shows regardless.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      Bookmarks

      Can't remember the last time I used the bookmarks icon.

      A couple of letters in the Navigation Bar usually brings up exactly what I'm after within fractions of a second...

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Link

    This works: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/products/download.html?product=firefox-4.0&os=win&lang=en-US

    1. Fuh Quit
      Thumb Up

      Gee Bee!

      http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/products/download.html?product=firefox-4.0&os=win&lang=en-GB

  6. DrXym

    Looking good

    Been using FF4.0 since beta 8 and it's addressed all the shortcomings that appeared during development.

    Biggest gripe is that beta really should mean feature complete, not some extended period of unabated development as was the case.

    Topics for 4.1 should be fixing the largely useless app tabs & tab grouping and really going to town fixing the HTML5 performance. It's not bad already but it wouldn't hurt to take demos put out by Google & Microsoft and systematically set about trying to beat their own browsers running those same demos.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      (untitled)

      Yes, not sure about Panorama either.

      But what about the annoying change to not ask by default to save tabs on exit?

  7. Defiant
    Grenade

    LMAO

    "yet another final test"

    It's getting really funny now. The people who stay with Firefox must be the real hardcore sheep

    1. Ebaneezer Wanktrollop
      Thumb Down

      Re: LMAO

      So they should have just gone ahead and released the final version then call any later identified bugs a 'feature'?

    2. BenDwire Silver badge
      Pint

      Or maybe ...

      ...they have no option, as Microsoft won't let them have IE9 unless they buy a new PC.

      Yes, yes there's Chrome and Opera etc - choice is a *good thing* - but each to their own. Not grazing, choosing.

      I choose Beer. Free, or otherwise.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Sheep

      Said the EDL supporter.

  8. Doug Glass
    Go

    No Surprise

    It's just not ready for prime time. The first to RCs were a frakkin' PITA and the third is not worth my time. I've given them a chance and this old fart is staying with 3.6.15 until good comments about FF4 far outweigh the bad. No brand loyalty here, just want the best for my situation and FF 4 is simply not it. Big frakkin' deal.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      RCs vs Betas

      You mentioned two RCs followed by a third one in your post.

      As there have only been two RCs (RC2 only released 48hrs ago), are you perhaps referring to the initial Betas?

      If that's the case, then you're right, the first three Betas were pretty ropey but the latest RC is pretty stable and fast.

    2. DrXym

      @Doug

      Firefox 4.0 is better than 3.6. It's faster in operation, more standards compliant, supports HTML5, and is still Firefox. It works great. Of course if you are conservative or risk averse you might wish to wait for a few updates to appear, but there should be no worry about switching. It's a good browser.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    FF4 RC.. thoughts since my download this weekend

    So far, it's fairly decent...

    Tabs on top took some getting used to, but not too bad. The 'pop-up' method on URL previews and loading is better than putting them in the address bar, and since mine are popping on the right rather than the left, it's a little easier to eye-catch than if they were on the left.

    App tabs... Well, I still have utility for the Bookmark Toolbar, for sites that are 'too active', but given that Panorama displays your active tab group as if it were the only window, it's nice to have those tabs be common across groups while only having one tab open.

    On Panorama itself - I like the tab group previews, I like the ability to search tab groups with active search term matching highlighting the remaining matches. I like the ability to 'send to tab group' when I open a tab to a new site, but I could wish for the ability to 'auto-filter' certain content based on title or domain. I would, in some cases, like an ability to 'group the groups', tree-like, but that might be a bridge too far.

    Overall, not a bad browser, and I look forward to the 64-bit version.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      64bit version

      If you're feeling adventurous you can try the nightlies for the 64bit versions (http://nightly.mozilla.org/) though you may need to install Adobe's 64bit Flash to get full use

    2. Burch
      Happy

      Tabs on top

      Right-click the toolbar, uncheck tabs on top. It's all pretty customisable.

  10. Relgoshan
    WTF?

    Dammit

    Couldn't decide whether to post STOP or GO....apparently they didn't know either. Monkeys are still hoping to push 5.0 merely 3 months from now. Er, good luck? I don't really feel like complaining about feature changes in the beta; Opera has to do it since the nightlies aren't very public.

    Dev channel was bitching about useragent, apparently some sites were sniffing for beta and are broken with RC.

    1. Gary Turner

      Sniffing? How last centery is that?

      "Dev channel was bitching about useragent, apparently some sites were sniffing for beta and are broken with RC."

      That there was UA sniffing indicates the site developers were other than the best and brightest of breed. That users blamed the UA indicates they are no brighter than the site developers.

      cheers,

      gary

  11. Burch

    yet another final test build release

    That'll be a second one then.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Adblock Plus? Noscript? FlashBlock?

    Are the Holy Trinity of plug-ins ready to go?

    Because until they are, I'm not moving.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Go

      Title

      All three working fine!

      In fact, the developers have been excellent with constant support throughout betas 1-12.

    2. Piro Silver badge
      Pint

      What you need is...

      The addon "Is It Compatible?". Shows you whether your existing addons are compatible.

    3. DrXym

      Well ABP is

      It's supported FF4.0 for most of the beta cycle. I imagine the other prominent extensions will be there too shortly.

    4. Andrew Baines Silver badge
      Heart

      Yep

      Tried IE9, loved it, but without Adblock Plus, just no go. Tried other blockers, but just don't work the same.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      re: Adblock Plus? Noscript? FlashBlock?

      Well, I use Noscript to block flash, so can't comment there, but I have been using Adblock Plus, Noscript and Better Privacy with no problems on beta versions of four. Although I still have the current release FF installed, the four pre-release is now my main browser on my machine at home, and doesn't seem to be causing me problems.

      It seems quicker, tidier, and has some nice features. I was pleasantly surprised.

  13. Burch
    Thumb Up

    Re:Adblock Plus? Noscript? FlashBlock?

    All working fine. Only a few add=ons I use aren't yet updated, and nothing essential.

  14. HMB

    Firefox 7

    Since they're releasing 4 versions this year, I'm waiting for Firefox 7.

    I'm hoping that by FF7 they will have at least (don't forget web workers) one process per tab for stability and non interference (especially pages slowing the interface), sandboxing for security and other features that IE and Chrome have now already.

    I'm sure there's another browser that omits these features too, but I can't think what it's name is, something beginning with... O? No, I honestly can't remember :P

  15. Paul Harrap
    Thumb Down

    Open in New Tab

    I'm still thoroughly annoyed that they've arbitrarily flipped the positions of "Open Link in New Window" and "Open Link in New Tab" on the right-click context menu.

  16. Dick Emery
    Unhappy

    Not compatible

    Automatic Save folder - no

    AVG - Sorta for b6

    Blocksite - no

    CAG Toolbar - no

    dragdropupload - no

    FireFTP - no

    HeaderControl - no

    Linkification - no

    Logmein - no but should get updated

    QuickJava - no

    Save Image in Folder - no

    Screengrab - no

    Shorten URL - no

    Unless I can force those to work somehow then it looks like I may be wating a while. My main faves are Save Image in Folder and dragdropupload. I can wait for the rest.

  17. Matt K

    Final version is out now

    ...and I don't even remember downloading it. My Firefox install seems to have switched from RC2 to 4.0 at some point today.

    The only thing that doesn't work for me, frustratingly, is embedded PDF viewing. A known bug using FF4 on 64-bit OSX machines, apparently.

  18. Neil Stansbury

    The most important thing to speed FF up...

    Is quite simply go to "Tools > Addons > Plugins" and select each Plugin that starts with "Windows" or "Google" or "Microsoft" and click disable next to each one.

    Most people will find they just have VLC (et al) and Flash left.

    Restart and watch the speed increase

    The automatic plugin-scanning was one of the core bugs that Mozilla 2 didn't address ;-)

    about:plugins might just scare you.....

  19. HMB

    Re: Firefox 7

    I know I gave Firefox a hard time! I don't retract what I said, it's simply true, but I do have some love for the new browser. The hardware acceleration is particularly good.

    Also as a web developer FF4 puts a smile on my face. I'm hoping the stats for migration will look as good as they have done in the past for previous version upgrades.

This topic is closed for new posts.