Mozilla 0.9.7 Released!

Chezypewf writes: "The newest release from the Mozilla Dev team is out. This milestone features basic S/MIME support, favicon support and the Document Inspector, a tool to inspect and edit the live DOM of any web document or XUL application. You can grab it here: http://www.mozilla.org/releases "

from the release notes "What's New"

[asa]

What's New In This Release

• The Labels feature in Mail&News is now fully implemented. Organize your mail messages with the following new features:
  • Add labels to messages via context menus or the Message menu.
  • Clear labels from messages.
  • Change description and color of the labels via preferences (Edit | Preferences | Mail & Newsgroups | Labels). Five different labels are supported.
  • Add filter rules to set labels to spec.
• Mozilla Mail&News now supports basic S/MIME functionality although the UI is still incomplete.
• The Document Inspector [mozilla.org] is now enabled in complete installations. The DOM Inspector is a tool that can be used to inspect and edit the live DOM of any web document or XUL application. The DOM hierarchy can be navigated using a two-paned window that allows for a variety of different views on the document and all nodes within. If you're using the Mozilla installer, be sure to switch from typical, to complete or custom install to install the DOM inspector and JS Debugger.
• The Mac OSX toolbar collapse button is now implemented. Press this button in the title bar to toggle display of toolbars.
• The latest and greatest ChatZilla 0.8.5 is now shipping in Mozilla.
• Springloaded folders -- Dragging and hovering over a bookmark or message folder will expand the folder.
• Mozilla works again on Mac OS 8.5.
• Mozilla now supports shortcut icons [microsoft.com] (a.k.a favicons) and custom page icons in bookmarks and in the personal toolbar.
• If you type into the URL bar while a page is loading, your text is no longer overwritten when the page load completes.
• The sidebar now has a Close button.
• Print preview is now available on Macintosh.
• Mozilla now has support for digest access authentication.
• The Save Page operation now also saves images, stylesheets, objects and applets included in the page.
• Mozilla now supports the longdesc [bath.ac.uk] attribute of the img tag. The longdesc attribute contains a link to a file describing the image in detail, for those times where the image cannot be downloaded. To view the longdesc, right click on an image, click 'properties' in the context menu, then click on the description url in the properties dialog.
• Mozilla has a new advanced preference panel for fine-grained JavaScript control. For instance, you can disallow pop up and pop-under windows without turning off JavaScript altogether.
• When a page using a strict document type declaration (e.g. HTML 4.01 Strict) links to an external style sheet (using <link>, @import, etc) Mozilla will only load the style sheet if it is served with a MIME type of "text/css". Style sheets served with other MIME types, like text/plain, application/x-pointplus, etc. will not be loaded. To add the proper css mime type to an Apache web servers, add "text/css css" to the system mime.types file. Or if you can't do that, add "AddType text/css .css" to your .htaccess file.
• 
  
  --Asa

Re:what, no freebsd ?

[asa]

Give it time, friend.

mozilla.org provies binaries for linux, mac (9 and X) and windows. Other builds (the dozen or so other platforms you're used to seeing at ftp.mozilla.org) are contributed by "platform champions" who take the time to make binaries so that you don't have to.

It's late in the week, christmas and the new year right around the corner. Give folks a little time (usually only a matter of days) to make those builds and send them in to mozilla.org.

Or you could do one better and make a build and contribute it to mozilla.org sooner. See Building a Mozilla distro [mozilla.org] for tips.

--Asa

*drooling over this feature*

[Misch]

I know, it's beena round, but I'm happy to have this feature:

http://www.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla0.9.7/#new [mozilla.org]

Mozilla has a new advanced preference panel for fine-grained JavaScript control. For instance, you can disallow pop up and pop-under windows without turning off JavaScript altogether.

I'd still like to have site-by-site preferences wihtout having to edit the prefs.js file, but, what can you do? (i know... i know... write the damn code yourself...)

Mozilla runs Netscape plugins

[kimihia]

Copy the files from your "plugins" subdirectory for Netscape to the "plugins" subdirectory for Mozilla. They will work. I've been running Quicktime (under Windows) and Flash with no problems.

Well, I did have one problem ... where I forgot to copy the Quicktime 5 plugin over the Quicktime 4 plugin, and it would crash when the page was unloaded. That was fixed by getting the plugin version to match the DLLs it was linked against. Doh!

Re:Dammit! I *just* downloaded 0.9.6

[asa]

I bet they're releasing the software during the Pacific Ocean timezone to avoid the slashdot effect, cowards).

I'm sure you said that with a wink, but in case not I'll tell you why we release software late in the evening on Fridays. It's because we bust our butts all week trying to get it wrapped up before the weekend. If we work hard and luck is with us we get it out late in the day Friday. If we run into unexpected problems then it's sometime the following week. Fortune smiled on us this milestone cycle and I think we've got something really good to offer (and on time too ;-)

--Asa

Re:Mozilla

[netdemonboberb]

I am a mozilla developer, and I use both Netscape 6 and Mozilla. Most of the time, though, I use Netscape for browsing because there is a stability factor in the fact that I am not constantly changing it, editing the source, downloading new nightlies, etc. I have 4 versions of Mozilla on my disk usually at once, along with Netscape 6:
1) Source tree for hacking
2) Binary tree for hacking the chrome
3) Binary tree of a recent nightly to keep track of feature progress
4) Latest milestone release

I use Netscape 6 for browsing because I am not constantly editing, hacking, crashing, replacing, or deleting it. I started doing this last year when downloading a new version of Mozilla might mean that your profile doesn't work anymore.

I imagine for people who don't work on the Mozilla project and don't do what I do, it might be better just to get Mozilla and forget Netscape altogether.

There are some advantages to getting Netscape 6 instead though. It has better plugin support from companies such as Macromedia, integrated AIM, has been more thoroughly tested (as it comes from a milestone branch), has spell-checker, is made to be easier to use than Mozilla, has a better help system, is more polished and attractive, and should generally be more stable and functional - although this is not always the case.

Some disadvantages of Netscape 6 are that it is a much larger download, more bloated, always a couple months behind Mozilla in terms of features, doesn't have IRC Chat (though this may change in the future), has a somewhat quirky installation server (though this should change too), has a private bug database, and comes with a lot of bundled programs which people might not want.

Therefore, it all depends on your preferences which program you use. If you are an advanced user, then Mozilla might be all you need. For the average user, though, Netscape 6 would be what I would recommend. I might also recommend always having up-to-date copies of both programs, and using the one you like the best. Remember, as Mozilla has few users compared to Netscape, the web might not be always written with Mozilla in mind. Therefore, there might be sites that - for instance - sniff for Netscape 6 but not for Mozilla, or plugins that only work on Netscape 6.

What do you want to see for 1.0? We need input

[netdemonboberb]

Roadmap information:
http://www.mozilla.org/roadmap/mozilla-1.0.html
http://www.mozilla.org/roadmap.html

On the Mozilla roadmap, it shows Mozilla 1.0 following the same start, freeze, release timeline as the rest of the builds. I personally feel it should be started, frozen for twice as long as usual with [e-mail] being the only ones who can approve changes, then submitted to longer-than-normal testing period.

I would also like to see better documentation, and improved features. I think this release stands for Mozilla, and it should be something Mozilla.org should be proud of. We shouldn't rush into it. I would be perfectly happy if it wasn't released until the end of summer, 2002.

What do you want to see in Mozilla 1.0? Do you agree it should follow an extended schedule compared to most milestones? What features would you like to see improved or added?

You can also talk on newsgroups like netscape.public.mozilla.general

Let's make Mozilla 1.0 fantastic!

Re:Goody Goody

[hodeleri]

Um, since when did IE beat Mozilla here [bath.ac.uk]? IE doesn't even support <link>!

New Mozilla just dropped my bookmarks!

[Jorrit]

I'm on linux and I had Mozilla 0.94 installed. I at least expected the Mozilla installer to keep my bookmarks but this was unfortunatelly not true :-(

This sounds to me like a serious bug. When upgrading I don't want my bookmarks to be removed. All other settings (like subscribed newsgroups, proxy settings, mail folders, and even the history) are preserved. But not the bookmarks!

Greetings,

Re:Mozilla is great and all, BUT...

[asa]

[e-mail] said:
See the first line on the release page? It says: "We make binary versions of Mozilla available for testing purposes only!"

netdemonz AT yahoo DOT com said:
That article is old and out of date. Mozilla milestones are meant to be stable releases that can be used as a personal browser.

It is not old and out of date. Mozilla binaries are provided for testing purposes.

--Asa

Re:Mozilla is faster than IE6 now

[theMAGE]

You can't use online banking because your bank is boneheaded.

Of the banks I am working with, Wells Fargo doesn't work (not even with Netscape 6) while American Express, Discover and AT&T work just fine.

Re:getting involved

[cobar]

Reopen the bug. Include a nice little note: "This bug is still present in current builds" and don't let them close it till it's fixed.

You failed to include why the bug was closed, which makes me suspect they had a valid reason for closing it. And not verifying it with a build from the exact day you filed the bug is an acceptable reason.

Last I heard, 300+ bugs were getting fixed a week. That's a lot of changes - some of which fix other bugs, so it's only reasonable for you to go d/l the latest build (making sure to note it in your bug report, so they KNOW that it's a valid bug) when you comment on a bug.

Well go ahead, got any better ideas?

[mpt]

Hi there. I designed the interface [mozilla.org] for Mozillas Javascript prefs back in September, and Doron Rosenberg has spent the past couple of months implementing it [mozilla.org].

the wording [mozilla.org] needs a little work

Well, if you have any suggestions, do share them.

Can you guess which one stops pop-ups?

None of them do. Thats why there isnt a checkbox labelled do pop-ups. Blocking pop-ups in toto would be pretty useless, because it would stop a large chunk of the Web from working properly.

Think about it. <a href="http://foo.bar/" target="_new">foo</a> is a pop-up, and none of these prefs prevent that from working, because then the link would break completely nothing at all would happen when you clicked on it. <a onclick="javascript:window.open(whatever)">foo& lt;/a> is a pop-up, and none of these checkboxes prevent that from working either, for the same reason. (In both cases it would be nice if you could get the link to open in the same window rather than opening in a new window, but we dont have the back end to allow that yet.)

What one of these checkboxes does let you do is stop windows from opening by themselves based on a timer, or when you navigate to or from a page. Thats the behavior that annoys people the most, since the new window is usually of no interest to them whatsoever. And whats the label for this checkbox? (Drum roll please ) Open windows by themselves.

If you have a better idea of what to label that checkbox, Id be glad to read it theres been a lot of suggestions so far, but theyve all been either too wordy, too obscure, or (as in your case) just plain wrong.

Good job on the prefs, Moz-team, but please, hire Jakob Nielsen before 1.0 ships.

Hah. I wrote to Jakob Nielsen a year or so ago, asking if he was interested, and he didnt bother replying. I guess whining about sucky Web sites (or sucky mobile phones) is like shooting fish in a barrel, compared to coming up with Javascript prefs your mother would understand.

-- mpt

Re:Mozilla obsolete

[weave]

and hotmail.com works just fine for me on mac, windows and linux mozilla 0.9.7 builds.

Except for downloading attachments. This is a big one IMO since it appears to be a genuine cookie handling bug and not some quirk of hotmail.

Bug 105917 [mozilla.org]. Target fix release, 0.9.9

Re:mod this the fuck down

[Anonymous Coward]

Go check www.mozilla.com.
Asa is one of the main developers, you dipshit.

Re:small bug

[Rysc]

Scrollbars in Mozilla (apart from the Big One in browser windows) have a habit of dissapearing at random times. Try resizing the window/dragging a sidebar/in some other way convincing it that it needs to rerender that section, and poof! the scrollbar is back. Twil be a miricle when this bug finally gets fixed.

Re:Mozilla

[Anonymous Coward]

I am a mozilla developer

Yeah you are but I checked out your bugs and noticed you on IRC and it seems that you are too cocky and annoy the shit out of everyone there. Not trying to start a flame post here, but stop trying to give a feeling of authority. Just because you are a Mozilla developer doesn't mean you're a good one.

Hell, I can fix a spell error too and say I'm a Mozilla developer....

Re:Mozilla is faster than IE6 now

[hwaara]

Wells Fargo does work, but not completely. Currently there are three open bugs in our database having to do with this site.

Two of them are Evangelism bugs, which means that Wells Fargo are using non-standard (or even invalid) standards that Mozilla does not support (such as ).

See the bugs here:
* http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=65110
* http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=87351

And finally, there is one Mozilla bug that is triggered with this site, although quite minor; you are not able to tab through all the widgets on the site:
* http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=114119

Hope this helps.

Re:favicon

[netdemonboberb]

Create the favicon, but please also put the in your pages so that eventually browsers will stop searching for favicon.ico. Microsoft created this mess and hopefully it can be fixed. Also, by using the method, you can have different icons on different parts of your site. Unfortunately, "shortcut icon" (also started by Microsoft as a response to complaints about logs) is not proper use of the link tag. It is saying that this is both a shortcut and an icon.

Evangalism bug for the method:
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=110296 [mozilla.org]

Re:WARNING: Imposter

[Anonymous Coward]

See: http://www.mozilla.org/about.html [mozilla.org]

Asa is one of the Top Men behind mozilla.org

Mozilla Release vs. Mozilla Nightly

[Zach`]

Oddly enough, Mozilla crashed and burned after I installed the 0.9.7 release (win32). It gave me an error when I first tried to launch it that "a device attached to the system is not functioning" and that there was a file missing "linked to export XPCOM.DLL."

So I installed Linux. Haha, no. I first searched the bug database and didn't find anything on either of the error messages. Uninstalled via Control Panel, which gave me another error, something about an uninstall log and the Registry. I said, screw it, and just deleted the c:\program files\mozilla.org folder. Wasn't ready to give up yet, so I went to mozilla.org and downloaded the latest nightly build.

Installed that and Mozilla has been working perfectly. It's fantastic, and my father-in-law, who was very fond of Netscape and has suffered the past year and a half with IE, absolutely loves it.

I'm not sure what the differences between the 0.9.7 release and the nightly build I downloaded are; I'm just happy I got the browser to work -- it's fantastic. If it's of any interest, when I was first downloading Mozilla, I used the 209kb net installer. It said it found CRC errors when it was verifying the files, but redownloaded them. Perhaps my problems stemmed from that... but the nightly is holding its own with IE right now (IMHO).

Back button behavior?

[siglercm]

For me, the behavoir of the back button (or pop-up) has changed from 0.9.6 to 0.9.7. Previously, Back would take you back one frame in a website using (yuck) frames. Now it takes you back to the previous web site, totally off the one you're on. And I prefer the "back one frame" behavior.

Please tell me if I'm a doofus and there's a setting that controls this. I can't find any such thing. Or is this the "correct" behavior of the Back button? TIA.

Re:back button

[ewan9]

Yes, it's very annoying.

Fortunately, I think they're finally fixing it.

See these:
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1053 95
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1125 64

Re:Well go ahead, got any better ideas?

[jeffehobbs]

Well, for example, In MacOS X OmniWeb 4.1, the pop-up stopper preference text reads:

"Scripts are allowed to open windows:"

(and there are three choices)

* always
* only in response to a link being clicked
* never

and this seems pretty clear and straightforward to me. The word "scripts" could probably be changed to "web pages" or even "web sites" for better comprehesion by beginning users.

~jeff

Re:Well go ahead, got any better ideas?

[Replicant7]

It's there actually. Just check Preferences -> Advanced -> Scripts & Windows -> Open windows by themselves and you will be rid of most annoying popups.

Re:*drooling over this feature*

[archen]

being able to disable "change status bar text" is worth this update by itself if you ask me. It was cute when it first came out, but now days I really HATE sites with annoying moving status lines that don't let me see where in the hell a link goes.

Re:VIEW SOURCE still sucks

[bunratty]

See bug 55583 [mozilla.org] for details.

Re:Well go ahead, got any better ideas?

[skt]

It is not just on page load / unload.. some popups / popunders are timed. The user does nothing to cause the new window to be opened.. thus the pref says 'Open Windows by themselves'. I do agree though that popups / popunders should be included in parenthesis, but the original option is worded pretty well.

And actually, the existing interface in 0.9.7 is:

Scripts and Windows
===================
[x] Enable Javascript

allow scripts to do the following:
[x] Open Windows by themselves
.
.
.