FireFox 4 Released

[FanIn80]

mv_sq5zpN0M


What’s New in Firefox 4

Fastest Firefox Ever
- Performance: Firefox is up to six times faster than the previous release. With improved start-up and page load times, speedy Web app performance and hardware accelerated graphics, Firefox is optimized for rich, interactive websites.

Streamlined Interface
- App Tabs: give a permanent home to frequently visited sites like Web mail, Twitter, Pandora, Flickr.
- Switch to Tab: easily find and switch to any open tab from your Awesome Bar without opening duplicate tabs.
- Panorama: drag and drop tabs into manageable groups to save time while navigating many open tabs.

Private and Secure Synchronization
- Firefox Sync: access your Awesome Bar history, bookmarks, open tabs, passwords and form data across multiple computers and mobile devices.

Most Customizable
- New Add-ons Manager: easily discover and install more than 200,000 add-ons to customize the features, functionality and look of Firefox.

Private and Secure
- Do Not Track: Firefox is leading the Web towards a universal standard Do Not Track feature that allows users to opt-out of tracking used for behavioral advertising.
- Firefox puts privacy first, fixing flaws in some Web standards to prevent others from accessing your browser history.
- HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS): automatically establishes secure connections to stop “man in the middle” attacks and keep sensitive data safe from interception during the log-in process.
- Content Security Policy (CSP): prevent cross-scripting attacks by allowing sites to explicitly tell the browser which content is legitimate.

Cutting Edge Tools for Web Developers
- The JavaScript engine incorporates the new JägerMonkey JIT compiler, along with enhancements to the existing TraceMonkey JIT and SpiderMonkey’s interpreter for faster page-load speed and better performance of Web apps and games.
- HTML5 support in Firefox includes hardware accelerated, high-definition video (WebM), 3D graphics, offline data storage, professional typography, touchscreen interfaces and the Mozilla Audio API to help create visual experiences for sound and more.
- Firefox 4 also improves existing tools like CSS, Canvas and SVG to enable developers to make exciting Web pages.
- Firefox provides uninterrupted browsing when there is a crash in the Adobe Flash, Apple QuickTime or Microsoft Silverlight plugins. If one of these plugins crashes or freezes, it won’t affect the rest of Firefox. Simply reload the page to restart the plugin.

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new

[photon]

Been playing with the betas and stuff, it's pretty good but I keep going back to Chrome.. at some point they fixed the 2.5GB memory usage problem I seemed to have so there's nothing against Chrome for me now.

EDIT: Except printing, I still use FireFox to print images from web pages for my kid because it has a print-preview and lets me scale it.

[FanIn80]

Yeah, I know what you mean.

I just installed it to see what it was like, but I doubt I'll be switching back from Chrome. I fought like hell against switching to Chrome in the first place, too.

[photon]

Lol me too, I only switched because of a serious problem I was having with Firefox.

[calculoso]

I hate downloading through Chrome. Not sure if there are settings I haven't played with, but I like using Firefox for downloads more than seeing the colored bar at the bottom of the screen and the rest of the Chrome download experience.

[Hanni]

I have a problem. Got a new work PC and downloaded FireFox 4. The at symbol comes up as ", number symbol is /, and the up arrow is ?. I also just noticed that most of the punctuation is all messed up. This isn`t a windows issue and everything is fine in office. I have tried playing with the character encoding options but nothing seems to make a difference.

Any ideasÉ ... wtf, that`s supposed to be a question mark.

Might have to uninstall and go back a version.

[Hanni]

Well I changed the default to Arial and everything seems fine now. Times works in word but not in FireFox. Oh well, I can live with Arial.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

I don't hate it but I don't love it. I prefer the layout of FF3.

Also, the bulleting management add-on isn't compatible with FF4.

[SebC]

I have a problem. Got a new work PC and downloaded FireFox 4. The at symbol comes up as ", number symbol is /, and the up arrow is ?. I also just noticed that most of the punctuation is all messed up. This isn`t a windows issue and everything is fine in office. I have tried playing with the character encoding options but nothing seems to make a difference.

Any ideasÉ ... wtf, that`s supposed to be a question mark.

Might have to uninstall and go back a version.You sure your keyboard isn't set to French?

[yads]

Well I changed the default to Arial and everything seems fine now. Times works in word but not in FireFox. Oh well, I can live with Arial.
Why would you use Times in a web browser?

[Hanni]

Keyboard is not in french, everything else worked fine except for FF.

Times was the default font in FF.

[J Diddy]

I find FF4 to be screaming fast. As fast as Chrome is now and as fast as Chrome was a year ago or more.

First thing I did was switch my tabs back to the old spot. Not sure I could get use to them being at the very top.

I can surf CP and porn so it seems like a good browser to me.

[SeoulFire]

I am going to give this a try due to a pretty much constant flash crash with Chrome. I don't particularly want to go back but this issue is freaking annoying.

[SebC]

I am going to give this a try due to a pretty much constant flash crash with Chrome. I don't particularly want to go back but this issue is freaking annoying.I'm having constant Flash crashes in FF3. Stupid Flash.

[Vulcan]

Well firefox 4 isn't for me. It reset all my settings and when I tried to change them back, it makes me look up every password and moniker I need to sign in on every site every time. I'm back to 3.6 but now I have to reset that too.

[calumniate]

I was liking firefox beta 4 until youtube / video streams became terrible and unwatchable. Not sure if this would be fixed in the real Firefox 4. I've since added google chrome and opera to my repertoire of browsers.

[kirant]

As soon as I fixed all the visual changes...I decided I love FF4. A huge upgrade on speed for me (I wonder if it'll have problems with my 6 year old laptop though...)

[Hemi-Cuda]

As soon as I fixed all the visual changes...I decided I love FF4. A huge upgrade on speed for me (I wonder if it'll have problems with my 6 year old laptop though...)

how does one go about reversing the visual changes? i hate the new theme

[MacGruber]

big thumbs up so far for ff4

[totti_07]

I have a problem. Got a new work PC and downloaded FireFox 4. The at symbol comes up as ", number symbol is /, and the up arrow is ?. I also just noticed that most of the punctuation is all messed up. This isn`t a windows issue and everything is fine in office. I have tried playing with the character encoding options but nothing seems to make a difference.

Any ideasÉ ... wtf, that`s supposed to be a question mark.

Might have to uninstall and go back a version.


press ctrl+shift. that should fix your problem

[kirant]

how does one go about reversing the visual changes? i hate the new theme
Right click anywhere where you can pick your options and select Menu Bar and de-select Tabs on Top. Looks like FF3 after that.

[kdogg]

The bookmarks button doesn't appear for me. Anyone else have this problem?

[Leon]

The bookmarks button doesn't appear for me. Anyone else have this problem?

No, but you can also access the regular toolbar by pressing alt and you'll definitely find your bookmarks there.

Might want to reinstall if the firefox button isn't showing your bookmarks. Odd.

[kirant]

The bookmarks button doesn't appear for me. Anyone else have this problem?
Change your settings to the menu bar instead of the default and see if it works.

[Russic]

I like it. Probably the first time I've seen a noticeable bump in speed form a browser.

[Cheese]

Is there any issues with FF4 importing Bookmarks etc from FF3? Id hate to lose everything I have.

[Ashartus]

Is there any issues with FF4 importing Bookmarks etc from FF3? Id hate to lose everything I have.

When I installed it my bookmarks stayed the same as before. The bookmarks button is way on the right side of the window though, which I haven't got used to yet.

[kdogg]

When I restore defaults, it appears, but when I select OK to close the customize window, it disappears again. Weird.

Not a huge issue.

[yads]

How to fix some annoyances with FF4 (http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/MATHKseArN4/how-to-fix-annoyances-with-firefox-4s-new-look)

[Hemi-Cuda]

uninstalled and went back to 3.6. hated the new visual theme, hated how it screwed up my fonts, and i didn't notice any speed improvements. i hope they fix it up a bit more in future versions

[kirant]

Is there any issues with FF4 importing Bookmarks etc from FF3? Id hate to lose everything I have.
Not that I've seen.

[Cheese]

d/l onto my backup computer and love it....super fast.

[maidestone]

Is there any issues with FF4 importing Bookmarks etc from FF3? Id hate to lose everything I have.

Not only is there no problem with the import, FF4 can now sync bookmarks, etc, among your different computers - much like Chrome can.

[wooohooo]

I have a few issues with FF. I switched to Opera and life is good, but there are somethings not compatible with Opera that I need to use FF with.

What Opera has that FF doesn't (unless there's a fix that I don't know) - Opera will fill in websites for you. Say I type Cal - It will make it Calgarypuck.com/forum and then I just need to press enter. No arrow then enter. Seemingly nothing, but makes a huge (probably biggest difference). That's about my major gripe haha

[wooohooo]

Also have a problem with vshare. Uninstalled it, but yet it still keeps coming.

Another issue... if I press google and enter, it redirects to vshares thing then I got to click google.com. Anyways to have it where i type google or any website and it'll redirect to google.com?

[zamler]

uninstalled and went back to 3.6. hated the new visual theme, hated how it screwed up my fonts, and i didn't notice any speed improvements. i hope they fix it up a bit more in future versions
http://ffaddons.game-point.net/ff3ff4/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/status-4-evar/?src=api
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/anti-aliasing-tuner/?src=api

[OilKiller]

http://ffaddons.game-point.net/ff3ff4/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/status-4-evar/?src=api
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/anti-aliasing-tuner/?src=api

Or you could just run 3.6 and not worry about making v4 look like v3?

[zamler]

You could do that, and miss out on all the improvements. But that's what makes Firefox so great, choice. If you don't like the look and feel, change it.

[OilKiller]

You could do that, and miss out on all the improvements. But that's what makes Firefox so great, choice. If you don't like the look and feel, change it.

Meh...3.6 is blazing fast for me. My Fast Dial plugin works great. Everything is working as it should. Why fix it, if it isn't broken?

[Bill Bumface]

I LOVE the apps tab. So handy for my gmail and igoogle and other sites that are open all day so they don't rob space on the tabs bar.

[DownhillGoat]

much happier now that I've found the stop and refresh buttons.

[llama64]

gMail seems about as fast as it ever was (people actually notice speeds in browsers? - excluding IE of course...). Honestly, the only time I've noticed speed differences in javascript was when the site was AJAX heavy and the server was being a turd. Actual in-browser execution speed is plenty fast a generation ago. Unless you want to play an entirely Javascript/CSS based version of Mario or something bizarre like that.

They moved the refresh button to a new location - kinda bugs me but not enough to do anything about it. Fonts are smaller in the new theme, minor irritant.

Firebug still works - all I need from the browser anyways.

I'm sure there are loads of improvements, but honestly, I use 4 browsers on a daily basis so I doubt I'll even notice. As long as it renders proper HTML without any issues, I'm happy. To be honest, the simpler a browser is, the better it works for me.

Upgrade went smoothly, didn't lose anything, hasn't crashed yet and isn't hogging cpu or memory - I'd give it an A based entirely on that.

[Tinordi]

Killer feature is the android browser sync. Even chrome doesn't have that yet. Android ftw.

[OilKiller]

Killer feature is the android browser sync. Even chrome doesn't have that yet. Android ftw.

Ha ha...I know. That is why I am so on the fence about upgrading my 3.6. This version works great on my system and I love the Fast Dial plugin that I have all setup. I'm afraid to upgrade and not like it though and not be able to get it all back.

Really would be nice to sync everything with my Captivate though.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Ha ha...I know. That is why I am so on the fence about upgrading my 3.6. This version works great on my system and I love the Fast Dial plugin that I have all setup. I'm afraid to upgrade and not like it though and not be able to get it all back.

Really would be nice to sync everything with my Captivate though.

you can give Firefox 4 a shot and if you don't like it just install 3.6 over top of it again to revert. that's what i did

http://www.oldapps.com/firefox.php

[Russic]

Does anybody have a pdf viewer that works? Mine has been broken by 4.0 so all pdf's open as files instead of in a browser.

[keratosis]

Does anybody have a pdf viewer that works? Mine has been broken by 4.0 so all pdf's open as files instead of in a browser.
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/
http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/free-pdf-reader.html

[OilKiller]

OK...well, I'm sold. Tried version 4 and it's pretty sweet.

Only one of my add-ons would not work...other than that, I don't have many complaints. Perhaps the reload/refresh button could be a little bigger and in a better place, but other than that, I'm liking this new version.

Seems pretty damn fast...was able to keep my Fast Dial and it seems strange having all this space on the page now. Feels weird actually...like I just got a bigger monitor or something...LOL.

Overall, a nice upgrade for sure.

Edit: And I just figured out how to move the reload button, so never mind...ha.

[Russic]

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/
http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/free-pdf-reader.html

Sorry, I mean an in-browser reader so I can just view it in a new tab.

[Hanni]

Did they flip the Open In new window/tab? I find myself accidentally clicking the new window option like it's habit that the new tab button used to be there.

[Chump]

Did they flip the Open In new window/tab? I find myself accidentally clicking the new window option like it's habit that the new tab button used to be there.

Yeah, they did. I found myself doing the same thing so much so that I started to use ctrl + click to open new tabs instead.

[OilKiller]

Did they flip the Open In new window/tab? I find myself accidentally clicking the new window option like it's habit that the new tab button used to be there.

Yeah, I actually found a hack quite some time ago (don't remember actually what is was now) that allowed you to remove the open in new window option entirely so it wouldn't even come up on the context menu any longer...that's how much it bugged me.

http://i51.tinypic.com/pm2s9.png

[Hemi-Cuda]

Yeah, I actually found a hack quite some time ago (don't remember actually what is was now) that allowed you to remove the open in new window option entirely so it wouldn't even come up on the context menu any longer...that's how much it bugged me.

http://i51.tinypic.com/pm2s9.png

i've always used the middle mouse button to open links in new tabs. never bothered with the right click menu

[Maritime Q-Scout]

to open a new tab I also use the scroll wheel, however that seems to be noisy, so during class I don't do that. What I'll do is right click (which on my mouse creates no noise, compared to the loudish click of the scroll wheel) and then just press "T" and keep on my surfing ways . . . I mean I don't fart around on the internet during class . . . I'm not in class now . . . hey look a distraction!

[Jimmy Stang]

I finally made the jump - I was a way for a bit and I didn't want to have to deal with any issues if something went wrong, particularly with incompatible extensions. The upgrade process was a cakewalk, everything synced up like it was supposed to, and the browser is noticeably faster.

As other have done, I immediately switched my tabs back to where they used to be. Another annoyance is that I was in the habit of double-clicking on an empty place on the tab bar to open a new tab, and in FF4 that actually maximizes the browser. I'll see if I can break the habit. ;)

For those of you who are on the fence because you're not sure if all of your extensions will work, I have found a handy little add-on that tells you whether or not your current extensions will be compatible with a future version of Firefox:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/is-it-compatible/

[keratosis]

Sorry, I mean an in-browser reader so I can just view it in a new tab.
Must be something in your settings then. Foxit Reader opens PDFs in
the browser for me.http://i55.tinypic.com/35i22x2.jpg

[Old Yeller]

Anybody having java issues in Firefox4? I can't get the MLS site to work (the map portion doesn't display) and I'm assuming that has something to do with java.

[Jimmy Stang]

Anybody having java issues in Firefox4? I can't get the MLS site to work (the map portion doesn't display) and I'm assuming that has something to do with java.

The realty site? I just checked and it seems to be OK for me with the map. Do you have a direct URL that I can try?

[Old Yeller]

Yeah the initial splash page loads fine, but as soon as I click search the site shows up without the map.

This is just a DL to right after I hit search on Calgary, Alberta:

http://www.realtor.ca/map.aspx?&vs=VEResidential&beds=0-0&baths=0-0&minp=0&maxp=0&area=Calgary%2balberta&trt=2


Edit: and now I click that link and it works.... ignore me. :bag:

[PIMking]

FF4 is taking up 192,556k worth of memory for me.

[FanIn80]

I thought MLS was hard-coded to only load in IE?

[Cecil Terwilliger]

How do I turn off the url preview thing in the bottom left corner?

[zamler]

How do I turn off the url preview thing in the bottom left corner?
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/status-4-evar/

[J Diddy]

Yikes...I might be switching back to Chrome. FF4 is hanging on me a lot. Instead of an hour glass I get a cute swirly blue arrow, while firefox greys itself out. Then I just sit and wait until it decides to respond...usually after 2 or 3 minutes. It is happening at work and on the home laptop too. Work PC is 64bit Windows 7 and home laptop is 32bit Win 7. Reinstall did nothing. This is too bad because I found FF4 really fast at first.

Anyone else experiencing this?

[dissentowner]

Ayone else find FF4 crashes quite a bit?

[zamler]

Ayone else find FF4 crashes quite a bit?
Flawless so far for me. I did not update from version 3 however.

[Jimmy Stang]

Flawless so far for me. I did not update from version 3 however.

I didn't do a fresh install and just upgraded, and so far everything is OK for me. I find it to be a little quicker, but other than that, nothing too crazy either way.

[Jimmy Stang]

Yikes...I might be switching back to Chrome. FF4 is hanging on me a lot. Instead of an hour glass I get a cute swirly blue arrow, while firefox greys itself out. Then I just sit and wait until it decides to respond...usually after 2 or 3 minutes. It is happening at work and on the home laptop too. Work PC is 64bit Windows 7 and home laptop is 32bit Win 7. Reinstall did nothing. This is too bad because I found FF4 really fast at first.

Anyone else experiencing this?

I have installed it on about 3 machines now, and each is working fine (1 XP and 2 Vistas). I only have Windows 7 on one of my computers at home, however, and that one hasn't been upgraded yet. I'll post on here when I get around to upgrading it and let you know if it might be a Win7 thing.

Edit: One thing that you may want to try (if you haven't already) is deleting your profile as well as doing a clean install. There might be something in there that is causing trouble and you're bringing it with you to the new install. Just remmeber to backup your bookmarks and anything else that you want to keep beforehand.

[dissentowner]

Ok, I am done with FF4 for Mac. Crashes way too much.

[J Diddy]

I have installed it on about 3 machines now, and each is working fine (1 XP and 2 Vistas). I only have Windows 7 on one of my computers at home, however, and that one hasn't been upgraded yet. I'll post on here when I get around to upgrading it and let you know if it might be a Win7 thing.

Edit: One thing that you may want to try (if you haven't already) is deleting your profile as well as doing a clean install. There might be something in there that is causing trouble and you're bringing it with you to the new install. Just remmeber to backup your bookmarks and anything else that you want to keep beforehand.

Fresh fresh fresh install on a Windows 7 32bit machine and having the same issues as before. It seems to hang when loading ads. Even the ads on this site. Very frustrating. And seeing how almost every site has ads these days this is happening a lot.

[MickMcGeough]

Ok, I am done with FF4 for Mac. Crashes way too much.
Me too. I believe Firebug is the culprit, though I can't be sure. It would crash every 5 minutes or so.

Weirdly enough this is new behaviour - I swear it didn't do this when I first installed.

[photon]

Could be a plugin, I've never had it crash on OS X ever, I only have AdBlock Plus installed for plugins I think.

[MickMcGeough]

Could be a plugin, I've never had it crash on OS X ever, I only have AdBlock Plus installed for plugins I think.
All I've got are Firebug & Xmarks.

I'm fairly sure it's Firebug. But firebug's absolutely essential for my work so that means I'm using 3.6 until Firebug gets their #### together.