Mozilla to release Firefox 1.5 Tuesday

Macworld ^ | 11/29/2005 | Elizabeth Montalbano

[Panerai]

After a host of test releases and one false start, a new version of the Firefox browser will be ready on Tuesday, according to a media alert issued by the Mozilla Foundation on Monday.

Firefox 1.5 will be available for free on Tuesday afternoon, U.S. Pacific Standard Time, at www.getfirefox.com and www.mozilla.com, according to the open-source group. A complete press release outlining the new features in Firefox 1.5, as well as some additional Mozilla news, will be issued at the time the new version is available.

New features in Firefox 1.5 include a better system for updating software, faster navigation using the “Back” and “Forward” tabs, and a redesigned Options/Preferences window that increases the number of category icons and moves them from the left side of the window to the top.

Firefox 1.5 also includes new support for Web standards, adding support for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), JavaScript 1.6 and new versions of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). SVG is a language based on XML (Extensible Markup Language) for writing sophisticated two-dimensional graphics, and JavaScript 1.6 is the latest version of the scripting language. CSS is a W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) standard for adding style elements, such as fonts, colors and spacing, to Web documents

In addition, the Firefox update adds better pop-up blocking and a host of security enhancements, according to Mozilla. Other new features include the addition of Answers.com to Firefox’s list of search engines and a Clear Private Data function that allows users to quickly remove personal data through a menu item or keyboard shortcut.

Firefox, which celebrated its one-year anniversary Nov. 9, has become a popular alternative to Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer browser. Last month, downloads of Firefox topped 100 million.

[Eagle9]

Thanks for the Mozilla FTP Mirror links.

Mozilla now has Firefox 1.5 final available at http://www.mozilla.com/

[Senator Bedfellow]

Sweet :)

[DJ MacWoW]

ping

[Dog Gone]

I downloaded it, and my scroll bar no longer exists. That is a MAJOR negative, especially at this site.

[Senator Bedfellow]

Scroll bar.

[Senator Bedfellow]

That should have a question mark on it - "Scroll bar?" As in, can you elaborate a bit? :)

[Xenophobic Alien]

I have a scroll bar but now some of my pictures don't show up. Instead I have an empty box with something that looks like a red diamond on it. None of the pictues on FR's homepage are showing up

[Dog Gone]

Sure. Firefox, like Internet Explorer, had a scrollbar on the side of a webpage where you can grab and quickly get to the bottom of a website page.

It's gone in the new Firefox. To get to the bottom of this thread, I have to use my mousewheel repeatedly or hope that someone has recently posted to me where I can get to it by a link.

I assume it's also gone for applications like word processing as well, which pretty much makes is useless to me.

I'm either going to have to uninstall this version, if I can, or use System Restore to get rid of it.

[Dog Gone]

And that's weird. I get the pictures at the homepage, but no scrollbar.

Obviously, there are still some bugs.

[Senator Bedfellow]

Chrome problem. Before you wipe it out, go to the theme manager and have it check for updates to your themes. If it finds any for your current theme, restart the browser after it downloads the updates. If there are no updates to your current theme, try switching back to the default theme and restarting the browser.

[TomGuy]

Similar here. The scroll bar seems to disappear if the window is not maximized.

The mouse wheel scrolls. But the missing scroll bar is not good design.

[Dog Gone]

Well, that worked. It didn't find any updates, or so it said, but then restarting the browser gave me the scrollbar.

Thank you!

[Senator Bedfellow]

Glad I could help, although honestly I'm not sure I provided much help :)

[TomGuy]

If you reduce the FF window size, does your scroll bar disappear? Mine does. It only shows in maximized window.

I posted a message in the FF forum about that. Will see if I get any response.

[Dog Gone]

Oh, take the credit. It wasn't working before and now it is. ;-)

I don't see any difference in this version from the previous one, though. Perhaps I should look for the release notes...

[Dog Gone]

Mine didn't show in either window. Try what was suggested in Post 70. Even though it seemed a futile gesture at the time, it worked for me.

[Senator Bedfellow]

I think most of the substantial changes are under the hood, so to speak. You can drag and drop tabs to re-order them now, but other than that, I haven't noticed much in the way of new bells and whistles...

[TomGuy]

#70 doesn't work for me, because I don't use 'themes'.

I use the FF basic design. Tried to update it, thought. No update available.

FF forum has several posts complaining about the disappearing scroll bars.

The only 'solution' offered is: It is a themes problem.

Ok, but I don't do themes. So---it is an FF design problem.

[Dog Gone]

I don't use themes, either, but telling it I wanted to switch back to the default theme, and then closing and restarting the browser made the scrollbar magically reappear.

I didn't have any complaint with the previous version, so I'm not sure it's worth the time to download the newer beta version.

[Senator Bedfellow]

Ok, but I don't do themes

Now you have a perfect excuse to start - might fix the disappearing scrollbar problem :)

I like the Noia Extreme theme myself - give it a whirl and see if you find one you like:

Firefox themes