Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 Adds Private Browsing

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.

Re:Kudos for the improvements, but...

[auric_dude]

The acid test is will it now pass the http://acid3.acidtests.org/ [acidtests.org] ?

Re:Kudos for the improvements, but...

[jez9999]

Dunno why this was modded funny... have they seriously disabled that? If so, why???

Re:Kudos for the improvements, but...

[Jugalator]

No. Maybe Firefox 3.2. *shrug*

More interesting that talking about numbers in the Acid3 test is about the features lacking though. And a major part lacking here would be SVG fonts.

Re:Javascript speed

[JuanCarlosII]

jQuery is probably good starting point if you want to be able to do simple things very quickly and easily. If you are interested in actually learning the language itself as opposed to just how to do things in one particular library then I'd also recommend looking at Prototype [prototypejs.org]. Prototype reveals a little more of the native DOM than perhaps jQuery allows so IM(NS)HO is a better primer for someone looking to grasp the fundamentals of the language, whereas jQuery is probably the best for actually "getting stuff done". I also cant recommend John Resig's book Pro Javascript Techniques [jspro.org] enough, although it may be pitched slightly high for a beginner. Reading it seriously changed the way I thought about JS (and subsequently my entire career/life/destiny) so if you're an enthusiastic amateur looking to progress then I think it's perfect.

Because some people don't quite get it

[grasshoppa]

If your workplace has you going through a proxy, no amount of stealth in the browser is going to help.

I have had a ton of people requesting I install Chrome for them ( which violates policy anyway ) because they mistakenly think that the privacy feature will hide their browsing habits from the logs.

Oh, they try to be sneaky about it, sure. But that's what their after. I have half a mind to install it for them, then watch the logs to see what they don't want me to know about.

Re:selective history deletion

[Anonymous Coward]

Most distros, if you set up a user with a UID less than 1000, it doesn't show up anywhere on login screens, etc, but still functions normally. Name it something deceptive like httpdaemon and bury the home directory somewhere within /etc and tada, your own fully featured stealth pron user. No guarantees, but my SO hasn't found it after three years...

Poisted AC for obvious reasons (ie, she reads /.)

Use portable firefox then

[Fallen Andy]

on a memory stick. That way you can carry around your bookmarks etc. between machines. I'm doing that right now from a friend's internet cafe... See here [portableapps.com]

Andy

I've been using a simpler solution for a few years

[Skapare]

My solution is that each time I start a web browser, it first runs through a script that creates a replica of the .mozilla directory in a unique place. The HOME environment variable is set to the unique directory. When it's done, I exit and just wipe out that directory.

Re:selective history deletion

[ThePhilips]

To me, better feature would be to save history for only specified sites and/or to never save anything from specified sites.

There are some sites I visit only to check something periodically - and I do not want them to be in history. Or sites which force you for every little thing to go to new page. I simply do not need them to clog my history.

Privacy and URLs

[CopaceticOpus]

Does this version resolve the privacy flaw in 3.0? Namely, the fact that the autocomplete history for the URL bar is not erased, even when the user manually clears all available privacy options?

Re:Kudos for the improvements, but...

[buchner.johannes]

This [mozilla.org] is the explanation of what they want to do with Ctrl-Tab. It has nothing to do with the Control and Tab key sequence, it is a overview over all tabs.