Convivea
Forums => Computers - Technology => Browsers => Topic started by: Quantum on October 14, 2008, 12:13:16 pm
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Beta 3 has finally been released. Slowed down by the huge effort gone in to it's new JavaScript Engine called Tracemonkey making sure it works well, reduced crashes and no performance regressions. There shall be at least a beta 4 before final release and it will be called Firefox 3.5 Beta 4, the version bump is to represent how much has gone in to this release.
You can download here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html)
New features include:
- A much improved faster Javascript engine
- Improved tear away tabs (drag a tab off the window or in to the content and it'll make a new window)
- Improved the new Private Browsing Mode.
- Granular options for history clearing, choose last 1 hour, last day etc..
- Improvements to web worker thread support.
- Improvements to the Gecko layout engine, including speculative parsing for faster content rendering.
- Many standards improvement support from CSS2, CSS3, <video> and <audio> elements from HTML5 and the drag and drop API
- Downloadable font support from @font-face in CSS3
- SVG transformations, even on standard HTML elements
Beta 2 continues from beta 1 and we now expect a beta 3.
New features include:
- A new Private Browsing Mode that allows you to browse without Firefox storing any traces of where you’ve been - perfect for online holiday shopping!
- New functions that make it easy to remove the history of your past few hours of browsing, or remove all traces of a website.
- New support for web worker threads. (faster processing of multiple files at once)
- The new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine is now on by default for web content. (much faster javascript!)
- Improvements to the Gecko layout engine, including speculative parsing for faster content rendering.
- Removed the new tab-switching & preview behavior based on feedback from Beta 1 users
- Support for new web technologies such as the <video> and <audio> elements, the W3C Geolocation API, JavaScript query selectors, CSS 2.1 and 3 properties, SVG transforms and offline applications.
- Tear away tabs (drag tabs and they turn in to a new window)
Firefox seems to have settled to 93/100 on the Acid 3 test and it looks like it's going to stay there till Firefox 3.2. Tear away tabs at the moment are too sensitive and some old tab dragging behavior is lost, this is expected to be fixed for beta 3.
You can download here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html)
Mozilla has decided to make an interim step before Firefox 4 (which is going to have some massive code changes), so has created a fast paced development cycle for a Firefox 3.1. There's going to be at least 2 betas, maybe 3, but looking at a much shorter testing time than Firefox 3 as projects have been smaller and more pragmatical to get a final version out hopefully for before Christmas.
New features include:
- A new tab-switching shortcut that shows previews of the tab you’re switching to (ctrl + Tab is the short cut)
- Tab bar on by default to allow more obvious tabbing features like being able to drag a tab from 1 window to another (expect to be able to tear away a tab to it's own window in beta 2)
- Added support for CSS 2.1 and CSS 3 properties
- Improved control over the Smart Location Bar using special characters to restrict your search (for example if you use * before searching you just search bookmarks)
- Support for HTML5 <audio> and <video> tag, with native OGG/Theora support an open source codec with the major example of wikimedia using it
- Support for the geolocation specification, expect more on this in beta 2 which will be able to calculate your position through local wi-fi spots
- Allowing multiple bookmarks to be tagged at the same time
You can dowload here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html)
Things to expect in beta 2:
Much faster JavaScript engine when JIT is enabled
about:sessionrestore to allow much finer control over session restore
Yet further improvement in the Acid 3 score (currently 89/100 in beta 1 with no visual errors, score 90/100 on the trunk, this could rise to 97/100 for Firefox 3.1).
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awesome.. thanks for the heads up.
ps, do you know if they are doing portable versions for these intern versions?
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awesome.. thanks for the heads up.
ps, do you know if they are doing portable versions for these intern versions?
The portable version isn't created by Mozilla it's just done by that portable website. I imagine they'll re-do it given all you essentially have to do is add a 3 line JavaScript file in to the Firefox directory to make it portable (I used to do that before I heard someone made it portable), I don't remember what to write off the top of my head so I'll have a look around and see if I can make a guide, but I imagine the website will have it out soon.
P.S made an error above the shortcut to preview tabs is ctrl + tab not ctrl + t, updated it now
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Updated for beta 2.
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Updated to Beta 3.
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Yea, I acquired the Beta version post haste (that's today). Version 3.0.7 was a bit choppy and I was having difficulties with web pages heavy in Flash to load properly and quickly; that's why I installed Fasterfox on that previous version.
Also I'd like to point out that 3D websites were major choppy with the other version of Firefox, so anyone in here with this version of Firefox 3.1b3 to go over to here---->http://convivea.com/forums/index.php?topic=32.msg227#msg227 (http://convivea.com/forums/index.php?topic=32.msg227#msg227) and give it a try. As always good looking Quantum.
TheHalf™
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Opps here is my first problem, as I was exiting Convivea a drop down window from the tab bar informed me that this page was prevented from reloading (an image is posted below) and as I remember all my personal options in the browser settings hasn't changed. take a look and give me some feedback.
TheHalf™
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Odd, I've never seen that before. Is it a problem?
Your "3D Websites" seems to be a plug-in, so I guess it's just how well the Firefox part of the plug-in is written and not really Firefox that determines if it'll be choppy or not.
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Odd, I've never seen that before. Is it a problem?
Your "3D Websites" seems to be a plug-in, so I guess it's just how well the Firefox part of the plug-in is written and not really Firefox that determines if it'll be choppy or not.
Well it can be most annoying but after some research I did noticed that the browser settings had changed after installing this beta version. Take a look at the image below and where the orange square is unchecked is where I negated the problem.
TheHalf™
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Mozilla patches a dozen Firefox vulnerabilities.
Mozilla has shipped a refresh of its flagship Firefox browser to fix a dozen documented vulnerabilities that expose users to URL spoofing, cross-site scripting, code injection and code execution attacks.
Complete story: http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=3193&tag=nl.e550 (http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=3193&tag=nl.e550)
Now if you click on the 'check for updates' in Firefox you will see the image below.
TheHalf™
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TheHalf, you seem to be getting the 3.0.10 update and the 3.5 beta 4 updates mixed up. I'll make a post about the 3.5 beta 4 updates shortly.
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TheHalf, you seem to be getting the 3.0.10 update and the 3.5 beta 4 updates mixed up. I'll make a post about the 3.5 beta 4 updates shortly.
I prefer Firefox 3.0.10 because it's working smoothly. I don't like beta because it mostly contains many errors & bugs!
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Didn't have much luck with 3.0.x or 3.5.x Both been crashing all the time.
Been using Minefield 3.6a1Pre with out any problems.
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Didn't have much luck with 3.0.x or 3.5.x Both been crashing all the time.
Been using Minefield 3.6a1Pre with out any problems.
Odd, you tried clean profile / safe mode / disabling all your add-ons?
Sorry, I've not done a bit update, but 3.5 beta 4 wasn't a big feature release I struggled compiling an "interesting" list, there's just a lot of polish and stability fixes. I'll try and get something done before RC1 comes out.
Also, if anyone's interested, they're looking at updating the Firefox icon slightly for this version: http://blog.mozilla.com/faaborg/ (http://blog.mozilla.com/faaborg/)
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Firefox Beta 4 is now available for download but as of right now I'll pass it by.
Firefox Beta 4---> http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/beta/ (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/beta/)
Anyone here use Google with Firefox or Google alone? I get agitated when I type in a letter and my whole page begins to show possible suggestions.
Google/Firefox---> http://www.google.com/firefox (http://www.google.com/firefox)
TheHalf™
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i'm using Google Chrome these days. its the fastest, and until IE9 and FF4 are ready, its the most secure.
although, I am very interested in seeing both IE9 and FF4 in their final form. great competition for sure!
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I'm getting use to Opera, I know this veers off the topic so don't shoot me Syn. The browsers I use are more inline with the internet package I have with Roadrunner.
TheHalf™
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I'm running opera 11 as well.
chip, if you're looking for a secure browser there are some based off chrome that implement more security such as comodo's browser. http://www.comodo.com/home/browsers-toolbars/browser.php (http://www.comodo.com/home/browsers-toolbars/browser.php)
There's another one too but the name of it is escaping me right now. If you like and use chrome, you might like them.
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to be honest, the only security I really care about is preventing my browser from getting hi-jacked/exploited.. and thus infecting my pc.
i took a quick look at the comodo dragon internet and here's the run-down on features:
Comodo Dragon Security:
-Has privacy enhancements that surpass those in Chromium's technology
-Has Domain Validation technology that identifies and segregates superior SSL certificates from inferior ones
-Stops cookies and other Web spies
-Prevents all Browser download tracking to ensure your privacy
so basically, all it's enhancing is 'privacy'.. (i really dont care about cookies, etc). but I can understand people that do..
BUT, in terms of security, what I love about Google Chrome is the advanced sandbox. and I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure Google Chrome is the only browser to do a secure sandbox on WinXP (and its even better on Win7).
IE 8 sorta does a sandbox on Win7, but its was exploited at a hackcon. I'm not sure where FireFox is with their sandbox, but last time I checked (a year ago?), it was not fully sandboxed on Win7.
to my knowledge, FF4 and IE9 promised much better sandbox security. I have no idea about Opera, but something tells me Opera is just as good as Chrome, being that its always the underdog that seems to outperform.
I would love to be updated and/or corrected on where the major browsers are on security.
ps, another nice feature of Google Chrome is that they embed adobe flash and auto-update it. so, I know if I set a friend up with Google Chrome, they are not going to be getting exploited by a 1 year old Adobe Flash vulnerability.
and.. in case any reads this wondering what a sandbox is... basically, the browser runs and locks the webpages in a separate memory space, in a vault. nothing can come out of the vault and on to the computer without your permission, so even if the website does some exploit to hijack a plugin, its still locked inside the memory space vault/sandbox and can not reach your computer. (really lame description)
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Firefox has now released 4, after beta and rc releases they still haven't found fixes for many add-ons. I like Firefox and the fact that I can adjust my own browser security settings not just within the browser but within Windows. Anyhoo I will not upgrade yet!
If anybody uses WindowWasher have you noticed how the settings in WW are altered after upgrading to Firefox 4? The scan will skip all Mozilla settings and all Window settings. I uninstalled FF4 and and reinstalled WW, now no problems.
TheHalf™
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I would love to be updated and/or corrected on where the major browsers are on security.
ps, another nice feature of Google Chrome is that they embed adobe flash and auto-update it. so, I know if I set a friend up with Google Chrome, they are not going to be getting exploited by a 1 year old Adobe Flash vulnerability.
and.. in case any reads this wondering what a sandbox is... basically, the browser runs and locks the webpages in a separate memory space, in a vault. nothing can come out of the vault and on to the computer without your permission, so even if the website does some exploit to hijack a plugin, its still locked inside the memory space vault/sandbox and can not reach your computer. (really lame description)
I have researched this and there is a method to PREvent memory coding within IE8 (not9), Firefox(all v) and Chrome. All you need to do is type in (said) code to browser URL and click enter.
TheHalf™