Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 Adds Private Browsing 216
CWmike was one of several readers to point out the release of Firefox 3.1 Beta 2, the first version of its flagship browser to switch on the much faster TraceMonkey JavaScript engine and sport a working privacy mode dubbed "Private Browsing." An ancillary addition to Private Browsing is a new addition to the "Clear Recent History" dialog box allowing users selectively to erase the last hour, the last two hours, the last four hours, today's, or all browsing history — previously, the wipe was all or nothing. This beta includes support for "web worker threads," a developing specification that will let Web-based application developers run background processes to speed up their apps. One feature present in Beta 1 is gone in the new beta: Ctrl-Tab switching. According to the developer, the UI needs more work; the feature probably won't be in the final 3.1.
Seems top-heavy compared to Stealther (Score:3, Informative)
Stealther did the same thing, but started a heck of a lot faster and could even delete downloads. It doesn't work completely with 3.1 though. Clearing the history for periods of time is a nice touch for those who forget to engage the private mode.
Re:Kudos for the improvements, but... (Score:2, Informative)
Nothing new (Score:4, Informative)
It then deletes everything that happened between 1. and 3., but keeps what happened before you activated it.
Re:Javascript speed (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Kudos for the improvements, but... (Score:5, Informative)
The Ctrl+Tab functionality is still there, they just removed the new interface that they had added in beta 1..
Re:Kudos for the improvements, but... (Score:5, Informative)
You can still switch tabs with Ctrl+Tab, it's just the fancy effects [mozillalinks.org] to go along with it are gone, as well as it switching based on recency instead of order. It'll work the same way it does in Firefox 3. You can also switch between tabs with Ctrl+PageUp and Ctrl+PageDown.
Re:Kudos for the improvements, but... (Score:5, Informative)
Ctrl + Page Up/Page Down navigates through tabs.
Mozilla Links (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Kudos for the improvements, but... (Score:5, Informative)
The Ctrl+Tab functionality is still there, they just removed the new interface that they had added in beta 1..
Mod parent up. I'm using the latest nightly, and you can still CTRL+TAB. It just removes the screen previews from the previous beta, which IMO were slow and annoying.
I wish the summary were more clear.
Re:Kudos for the improvements, but... (Score:3, Informative)
I keep a "close" button on my mouse. This is really just Alt+F4 but in Firefox to close a tab it's CTRL+W. (I can address this in program-specific options though)
I keep a "toss window" button on my mouse to "toss" a window from one screen to the other, but I can't use it on a tab.
I've got a button to tile all the windows via Switchr (kinda like what they've got on a mac), but it doesn't help with tabs.
In firefox I don't have a forward or back button. I use a Shift button and a Minimize button instead. Shift+Mousewheel up is Forward, and Shift+Mousewheeldown is Back, and Shift+Leftclick is Open new window. I could also work around this by finding a way to change Shift+Leftclick to opening a new tab instead.
I can find a way to compromise my usage in order to use tabs, but windows already fill the role better. So it is possible to use firefox without using tabs.
(However, at work, I do use tabs because I have far less screen real estate and just a basic mouse. )
Re:Kudos for the improvements, but... (Score:4, Informative)
I suspect this is the reason: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox3.1/control_tab [mozilla.org]
A few bug reports I found:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=459303 [mozilla.org]
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=463723 [mozilla.org]
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=445476 [mozilla.org] (This seems to suggest it can be disabled, but I haven't tried Fx3.1 yet)
Private browsing, great! (Score:1, Informative)
When will they implement http://www.squarefree.com/pornzilla/ [squarefree.com]
Re:Why don't they add an option... (Score:1, Informative)
I already wrote an extension to do that.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8622 :)
Re:Kudos for the improvements, but... (Score:4, Informative)
Firefox 3.1 beta ADDED NEW FEATURES to Ctrl+Tab. Those NEW FEATURES are buggy, and likely won't make it into the 3.1 final.
They didn't BREAK anything ... just the opposite. Ctrl+Tab will behave in 3.1 just as it does in 3.0.
Re:But there's always a little problem.... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:2hands1mouse (Score:3, Informative)
http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/mpx/ [unisa.edu.au] Multi-pointer X server. Next question!
Re:Because some people don't quite get it (Score:3, Informative)
No [kartbuilding.net] problem [wieers.com].
Not that I advocate violating company policy. Just pointing out that it can be done. After all, a false sense of security can be worse than no security at all.