Mozilla Project Officially Releases Firefox 0.9

_xeno_ writes "The last release candidate was apparently good enough, because Mozilla Firefox 0.9 has now been officially released. New features since 0.8 are, of course, basically the same as in the Release Candidate, including the new Pinstripe theme for Windows and the GTK+ installer for Linux users. The biggest change since the Release Candidate is that this release should ask you to migrate your profile instead of just trashing it. So head over to the Firefox homepage and get downloading, or check out the Release Notes to find out exactly what's new." mE123 adds "You can get it from plain old HTTP or from fancy new BitTorrent", and points out that (compared to 0.8), "this release includes tons of bug/stability fixes, a %3 speed up, a new theme and plugin management system, a new standard windows theme, and a smaller windows installer."

Moz Googlebar Pagerank

[iserlohn]

They really need a proper pagerank feature in the moz googlebar. There was a recent hack to googlebar that showed pagerank for a page by querying a central server which returned a gif image. That doesn't work so well and is really slow.

Sorry links to Bugzilla from Slashdot are disabled

[Anonymous Coward]

"Sorry, links to Bugzilla from Slashdot are disabled."

The smartest thing I have heard all day.

Firefox is the best imho for multi platform browsers. Very small-footprint, fast, versatile

I use Firefox exclusively here, and it's great. I use it on Solaris/U2, Slackware/P3, OpenBSD/P2, Slackware/K6. It seems to fly on X Terminals/Thin-clients. Multimedia is handle well too, imho.

I look forward to trying 0.9. I'd have to say that for an 0.X release of software, it works like a 2.X release =)

Stop the spread of IE.

Bookmarks (Mac OS X)

[agenaud]

I cleared all my bookmarks upgrading a previous version, after reading rave reviews about reimporting old bookmarks (appearently on Windows).

Before I update from 0.9RC to 0.9, is there a way to save bookmarks? Perhaps as an HTML file?

Re:Firefox is great

[hkfczrqj]

I was going to complain the same thing, until I saw the "also show potentially incompatible icons" link.

Try again :) [iconsurf.com]

Those damn tabs..

[Anonymous Coward]

You know, I could almost grow to like tabs if you didn't have to have such precision with the mouse to choose one (I know you can use the keyboard to flip between them). The huge thing I like about my taskbar is that I can throw the mouse to the bottom of the screen and it will be over a button. Has anyone, by any chance, made a firefox extension that "grabs" the mouse when it hits the tab bar to make it easier to target them?

I don't think I'll stop using Konqueror any time soon (I don't have any reason to), but I figure I may as well play around with new stuff.

I miss from Mozilla...

[RedVortex]

The thing I miss the most from the Mozilla is the ability to type something to search directly in the address bar press the down arrow (selecting: search google for...) then [enter]... No need to add another space wasting thingy just for searches.

Sorry but I really can't get over it, I loved that feature. I was using it all the time...

Also, I still have some rendering problems with slashdot, sometimes the page renders on two side-to-side pages, very weird, it's happening right now, when I click preview, I have to scroll right to see the preview and the post comment boxes, all the rest is at the left, very weird...

Well, we're still under 1.0 ... Then again, just check MSIE, they are at 6.x and they still can't get everything right, hehehe

RedVortex
-- Please direct all bugs reports to /dev/null...

A little disappointed

[89cents]

I have been using Pheonix -> Firebird -> Firefox for a while now which much adore, but I am skepitcal of this release. I do not like the new theme so much but changing to small icons is better.
I not so sure about this new "Software Update" section under Tools -> Options -> Advance.
"Periodically check for updates"? No thanks.

"Allow websites to install software"? Is this now another IE? No thanks. Well, maybe it's much more secure.

"Select new tabs opened from links" What does that mean? Oh, I think it was the old "Open new tabs in the background" option which was more intuitive.

Well that's just what I see on the front end so far. As long as they fixed some of the bugs, like "the page / can not be found" when hittting the back button. I also hope mouse over text for the tabs no longer gets in my way of pressing a tab. I have seen many websites freeze the browser which is very annoying, so hopefully those bugs are fixed to.

Re:Just emerged it!

[VertigoAce]

It has to do with maintainability. If you compile every program yourself, you have to be completely responsible for tracking the versions and dependencies of every application. Say you have 200 packages on your computer (fewer than a standard desktop system). Six months from now, do you really want to be tracking down where you got all those from, whether or not they've changed, and then install them all by hand?

Sure, you're free to do ./configure; make; make install if you want. Issuing those three commands is not why people like Gentoo. Some like building their system from the ground up (this teaches you a bit about the different layers of your system). Others like the package management system, for source or binary packages. Others like having programs optimized for their specific processor.

Anything's better than a turd

[EmbeddedJanitor]

IE is hardly a benchmark to compare anything to. How does FireFox compare with Opera?

Noia extreme

[GojiraDeMonstah]

I hate to sound, er, metrosexual, but that Noia theme is truly fabulous. The gestures extensions are pretty stellar too.

Clunky download manager?

[xDCDx]

Is it just me or the download manager feels clunky? On top of that it is a resource hog.

I wish there was an option for reverting to .7 type downloads (a separate window for each download) until the DM is less resource intensive and more visually appealing.

Maybe the problem is that I'm used to GetRight as a download manager (a comercial one, one of the best in my opinion) and I don't stand anything worse. Check it out here: www.getright.com [getright.com]

Re:Anything's better than a turd

[spectre_240sx]

Being that IE is the most commonly used browser, I have to disagree here. I think it's a fine baseline to compare to.

Too bad...

[Trillan]

I love Firefox on Windows, but it's just really too bad they can't match Mac OS X's look on Mac OS X. In particular, the boxy little Windows-like buttons and ugly popup menus have to go.

Re:Firefox

[Andrew_T366]

While the Firebird name did not last for many versions, the name was chosen in April 2003 and was first used on a formal release of the standalone browser with the release of Firebird 0.6 (NOT 0.7) in May 2003. The Firebird name, used for over 9 months, was actually the LONGEST lived name for, outliving both Phoenix (6 months; September 2002-April 2003) and Firefox (4 months and counting; February 2004-date). It also helps to remember that the earliest Phoenix-named versions were released in very close succession.

Screen Resolution and Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do they bother wasting screen real estate?

Because the developers have their computer screens set at high resolutions. This results in everything looking great at 1280x1024 or 1600x1200, but looking really bad and even being non-functional at 800x600 or 640x480. This shows up repeatedly in the sizing of controls and windows and in generally bad graphics. There is a problem of the "okay" button being invisible below the screen and the top bar to move the window being invisible above the screen in Thunderbird for the message rules screen, among other sizing issues. And Mozilla's screen eating toolbars. At least Firefox has adjustable toolbars. But the problem of developers being clueless as to how their product looks to the average home and business user because of the difference in screen resolution used is a constant problem with a lot of Linux based software that I have seen. And I think it has a detrimental effect on Linux's acceptance by the larger population of computer users.

Re:Too bad...

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe you should read before you hit Reply. Grandparent post says "Mac OS X's look on Mac OS X," not "Mac OS X's look on Windows." It looks good enough on Windows, but it looks like shit on the Mac.

hear hear

[Suchetha]

i agree with you on that one. i REALLY loved that feature. it was SO damn simple open browser/tab type search term press the "down" key until you get "search on $search_engine" and hit enter.

i REALLY hope someone decides to bring it back. it made life so much easier for me, and along with tabbed browsing and popup blocking was one of the things that made the switch away from IE SO much easier

Suchetha

Re:Good so far, but...

[Skynyrd]

The one flaw I've noticed so far, though, is that the extensions options frame is a little buggy.

Yes, i's "a little buggy". Most of my extensions no longer work. At all.
The upgrade moved my bookmarks, cookies, etc, but failed to deal with my extensions. So I went and reinstalled all of them.

Googlebar, bugmenot & mousegestures don't work. This seems not quite ready for primetime.

I'm on Win2k

They changed the d/l mgr kbd shortcut

[Jacked]

I know, bitch bitch bitch. But, I've had it for all of four minutes and I discovered something I don't like: they changed the keyboard shortcut for the download manager to Ctrl-Y. It use to be Ctrl-E which was easily done one-handed.

Now I have to stretch or use two hands. Time to start looking for the change I need to make...

Re:Opera

[zsau]

But a closed source one...

Re:Opera

[smallstepforman]

I still prefer Opera 7.x to Firebird. Opera seems faster, has more keyboard shortcuts which I use, seems to be more compliant (with the pages I visit), has better Java integration (for coorporate Intranet sites), seems to remember customized layouts better, looks better, etc. In my book, Opera 7.x is still #1 browser.

But for BeOS/Zeta (my #2 platform), I dont get Opera, so Firebird is my only option there. I can live with it, but I miss Opera.

best. plugin. ever.

[glwtta]

I just came across the Web Developer [chrispederick.com] plugin - I think this just may be the happiest day of my life. From little things like resizing the window quickly to popular resolutions, to the live CSS editing, it's hard to overstate how useful this plugin is for web development.

The new theme is ASS ...

[ZeekWatson]

Man does it ever look fugly!!!

I'm not advocating the death penalty for the people who both worked on the theme and those in charge of Firefox who decided to switch to it, but obviously they have no artistic ability or taste.

If anything, it is uglier than the default theme that comes with Windows XP. The triangular buttons for Back and Forward remind me of the old Motif widgets. It looks like they were drawn using MS Paint. Heheh can anything good be said about it?

I installed the old Qute theme but now all the icons on the toolbar are corrupted. :( Gah I take it back -- Firefox heathens, burn in hell for your sins!! I want the old default theme back!

Re:I miss from Mozilla...

[mcn]

Agree. Also, when I right-click on a tab, the "Close Tab" in Mozilla is right on top and I am so used to this, while "Close Tab" in Firefox (.8, I havent tried .9) is somewhere down in the middle. Why can't Firefox right-click menu options be the same as Mozilla in this aspect?

Also, firefox preferences menu is too simplistic (ok, granted, it's meant to be simpler and smaller than Mozilla).

I have on many occasions tried to surf the Net with Firefox, but still eventually, I come back to Mozilla.

Re:IMPORTANT ! Save your bookmarks. IT DELETES!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

You know what would be really good? Every web browser using the same bookmark directory. Then you could switch from one to the other and they would all stay in sync. Phwoar. :-)"

Easy to do if you know how [texturizer.net]. I use this.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Anything's better than a turd

[4of12]

The point is we know IE is crap,

Sure, now IE looks like crap.

But several years ago when MS was actually in competition with Netscape the improvements in IE were a lot more evident at the time and were a lot faster in being delivered to the customers.

Of course, that was then.

The competitive landscape has changed and with it has vanished the necessity for MS to produce a browser to compete with anything other than old versions of its own products.

Users looking for major improvements in Internet Explorer will find them if and only if they upgrade to Longhorn, when IE 7 will be released (2006?)

Basically, Internet Explorer has reached that same point in a typical Microsoft product development cycle that Word reached long ago. There's no valid business case for putting resources into improving this product that already dominates over 90% of the browser market. Simply, at this point, the only valid business strategy for the next version of Internet Explorer is to leverage its dominant position to gain more business in different markets.