Posted on 08/17/2011 4:46:57 AM PDT by ShadowAce
At Mozilla the trains run on time. The open source group is out with its second rapid release browser today, providing users with improved functionality and performance.
Firefox 6, which is being officially released by Mozilla today, follows Firefox 5, which debuted in July. Both Firefox 5 and 6 are part of Mozilla's new rapid release cycle, which aims to deliver more browser updates with incremental features. Previously Mozilla had released major browser update on a less predictable cycle with long with development cycles of a year or longer in between releases.
While the new rapid release cycle does not present the same volume of new features as the longer release cycles, Mozilla is confident that the process is working.
"We’re refining our own process constantly and are seeing dividends with smooth transitions as a release moves from Aurora to Beta to release," a Mozilla spokesperson told InternetNews.com
The Aurora channel is Mozilla's development release for Mozilla and is followed by the beta and then finally the release. Work is often done in parallel on Aurora and Beta channels as part of the rapid release cycle methodology.
One of the key improvements in Firefox 6, which will further be expanded upon in Firefox 7 and 8, is performance improvements.
"With Firefox for Windows, Mac and Linux, Panorama users will enjoy faster start-up times because tab groups are only loaded when selected," Mozilla's spokesperson said.
Panorama is a feature that debuted in Firefox 4, enabling users to group tabs. The Panorama feature began its life as a Mozilla Labs project known as Tab Candy.
Firefox 6 is also being released for Android users. The new Android release offers faster zooming, crisp text and reduced pixelation due to enhanced image rendering.
"There are even more improvements coming in Firefox Beta and Firefox Aurora," Mozilla's spokesperson said.
For developers, Mozilla is including a new tool called Scratchpad that is intended to make it simple to quickly enter, execute, test and refine JavaScript snippets in Firefox without needing to work in a one-line console.
"Scratchpad is a simple tool, and we want it to stay that way," Mozilla's spokesperson said. "We’re planning a handful of improvements to Scratchpad that will show up in Firefox over the coming months, but the simple text editor that runs JavaScript core will remain."
Firefox 6 will also support the Event/Source specification that is an emerging standard at the W3C.
"This specification defines an API for opening an HTTP connection for receiving push notifications from a server in the form of DOM events," the W3C specification draft states. "The API is designed such that it can be extended to work with other push notification schemes such as Push SMS."
Mozilla isn't the first browser to implement Event/Source. Both Chrome and Opera already support the draft specification.
Groovy...
“It gets better” is an ad campaign by Hollywood stars (including Woody from Toy Story) for gays teen agers with low self esteem or who are thinking about killing themselves.
It’s really gay.
Each time I upgrade with Firefox, I lose extensions, some of which I use daily here on FR and other BB's (Word count plus, Tab X, BBCode and BBCodextra are just a few). However, there are two extensions you can use to test compatibility and one also forces use if they still work:
Mozilla add-on compatibility reporter
Of course, the purpose of add-ons is to make your browsing easier. When new versions of the browser seemingly come with the speed of light leaving functioning add-ons behind, then users are going to search for another browser to use which mitigates the whole purpose of add-ons in the first place!
Thanks for the tip. I am now running Winpatrol.
I’m a long time firefox user. I believe it was called Phoenix back then at version.2. If they were using the same numbering convention then as they are now, we’d be at version 452 now. This is redicuous. These are point releases not major versions. Major versions should only happen with significant API changes.
Many years ago they used to make bullet proof keyboards for IBM. You could drop them off a building, snap the keys back on, then use it. Loved the feel of those keyboards.
Yeah, sounds like a lot of crap, but the benefit is, that if you've been running with this setup for a while and a new version comes out, say Firefox 7. All you'd do is extract the package to /usr/local/firefox-7, delete the symlink to /usr/local/firefox, create a new one pointing to the new directory and you're ready to go. If you find it is not to your liking, to revert back to previous version, just remove your symlink, and create new one pointing to the directory version you want. I normally keep 3 versions on my box. Disk space is cheap, and newer versions aren't necessarily better.
Also, with the backup of your .mozilla directory, if the new version borks your profile (this has happened in the past), you can just wipe out your existing .mozilla directory and extract your saved version. I recommend you back this up at least once a week. I have a cron job that does this for me.
ridiculous. I really can spell after my coffee kicks in.
You’re welcome. It is very comforting to know you will be notified before any program makes registry changes!
Does Firefox's own Bookmark Sync work better?
I recently started using the FF Sync. It does an excellent job of keeping my FF bookmarks synchronized over 3 computers.
I just wish it would also sync the add-ons.
LOL Yes, we all had to take that first step...
I’m still on Firefox 3.6.3 as one of the 4.0 version kept crashing. With this rapid release cycle, I never upgraded to 5. I’ll try 6 after I read more reviews.
Mozilla is really starting to annoy me with these rapid releases. About half my browser add-ons are non-functional, again. Thankfully the privacy add-ons still work, but now one of my security tabs is out of commission.
Downloaded Chrome a couple weeks ago and liked it quite a bit.
So, has any of the releases of FF stopped the memory leaks that bloat FF to a gig of RAM after a few clicks along with periodic 100% CPU grabs?
Oh, silly me. That’s right. It’s Flash that does that or Addons. Or something. Anything that’s not FF’s fault. The Mozilla project is starting to become the Obama of software development.
BTW, I love FF for what it should do, but hate if for what it actually does do.
The difference between 3 and 4 is huge, and so is the difference between 4 and 5. I’d suggest upgrading.
But from 5 on, what would have been a dot release gets a whole number version change. You’re not likely to see any serious differences for a few versions now.
Weird, we’ve got 3 machines that are kept meticulously up to date and they’ve all been stable with FF for ages. I think *once* I had an issue restoring my full session after a power outage, and even then merely had to click through the error dialog to make it try again.
I’ll say that on OLDER gear it’s really noticeably faster loading.
Check your addons, be sure they’re all up to date and see if any are widely reported to have issues or conflicts. Also, check for malware...the last truly unstable FF (not one offs on a particular version that were ok with the next update) I saw was due to a malware issue.
no more lexmark;same here,they seem to work ok if you use them constantly,but do not let them sit idle for a week to a month,as they will clog up.my canon mp530 outlived 2 lexmark all in one’s and still going.
plmk
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