PC Tips Box » Firefox

Firefox 3.6 Beta 3 Is Cooking

Jason — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:07:27 +0000

Mozilla is cooking a new Beta Build of the next iteration of its open source browser. Early adopters will have a fresh revision, the third one since Firefox 3.6 debuted into Beta stage, available for download soon. Whether referred to as Firefox 3.6 Beta 3 or Firefox 3.6 Beta revision 3, the new release is just around the corner. In fact, Mozilla plans to release it either later today or tomorrow morning. At the start of this week, the company building the Firefox open source browser was undecided as to the specific deadline for the availability of Firefox 3.6 Beta 3/Revision 3.

Firefox 3.6 codenamed Namoroka “Beta 3 refresh should be coming Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning. Beta 3 includes a components directory lockdown feature,” Mozilla revealed. In this regard, Beta 3/revision 3 will be offered to Firefox 3.6 users at just a week after the introduction of Beta 2/revision 2.

With the introduction of the components directory lockdown feature, Mozilla is essentially closing the door to the browser’s “components” directory for third-party extension developers. Essentially, devs that work to extend Firefox 3.6 will no longer be able to have their code added to the “components” directory in Firefox 3.6, as they are able to do in version 3.5 and earlier. Instead, mobbing forward, the “components” are will be reserved exclusively for Firefox 3.6, and nothing more.

“If you’re a Firefox user, this should be 100% positive. You don’t have to change anything, your regular add-ons should continue to work properly – you just might notice fewer crashes or odd bugs. If you do notice that something has stopped working, particularly a third party addition to Firefox, you might want to contact the producer of that addition to ensure they know about the change,” revealed Mozilla’s Johnathan Nightingale. “If you’re a Firefox component developer, this shouldn’t be a big change, either. If you’re already packaging your additions as an XPI, installed as an add-on it’s business as usual. If you have been dropping components directly, though, you’ll need to change to an XPI-based approach.”

Early adopters and developers that want to have a look at Firefox 3.6 Beta 3/Revision 3, before it is released, should know that Mozilla has made a preview of the release, available for download via its FTP servers. Still, the fully-fledged Firefox 3.6 Beta 3/Revision 3 is not that far away, for those who want to avoid a nightly release.

The latest releases of Firefox, including Firefox 3.6 Beta 2/Revision 2, are available for download here.

Tags: add-ons, Beta 2, Browser, download, Firefox, firefox 3, Firefox 3.6, Mozilla, Namoroka, open source browser

Firefox 3.6 Beta for Windows 7

Jason — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:34:13 +0000

The first fully-fledged Beta development milestone of the next generation of Mozilla’s open source browser is currently available for download. Testers and early adopters that have been waiting for Firefox 3.6, codenamed Namoroka, to evolve from Alpha stage are now free to access, download, install and start test driving the Beta 1 build. In addition to being the first Beta for Firefox 3.6, the development milestone offered by Mozilla is also the first example of a third-party browser to embrace Microsoft’s latest iteration of the Windows client. Just like the native Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 is designed to play nice with Aero Peek and Thumbnail Previews via the new Windows Aero Taskbar (Superbar) in Windows 7.

As you can see from the screenshot included below, Firefox 3.6 Beta users can now take advantage of the some of the same graphical user interface enhancements in Windows 7 as those running IE8. While Google and Opera are lagging behind when it comes down to tailoring their browsers to Windows 7, the same is not valid for Mozilla. And as Windows 7 became available for purchase on October 22, 2009, customers running the OS in combination with Firefox 3.6 will certainly enjoy the bells and whistles of the new Windows Aero GUI.

“The Mozilla community is proud to release Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 for download. This beta version of the next version of Firefox is built on the Gecko 1.9.2 web rendering engine, containing many improvements for web developers, Add-on developers, and users. The Mozilla community appreciates your feedback and assistance in testing this preview of the next version of Firefox. Your beta software will update itself periodically, and eventually will be updated to the final release itself,” revealed Mike Beltzner, Mozilla’s director of Firefox.

Mozilla was initially planning to release Firefox 3.6 Beta ahead of October 22, but the amount of blockers pushed back the release. Beta 1 of Firefox 3.6 was also delayed this week by the necessity to respin after a last minute issue was discovered. Mozilla is looking to offer Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate (RC) in November and to release the final version of the browser also by the end of the next month, although all pointers indicate that the complete Firefox 3.6 could slip in December.

Mozilla enumerated some of the changes in Firefox 3.6 Beta:

* This beta is available in more than 50 languages – get your local version.

* Users can now change their browser’s appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas.

* Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.

* Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.

* Support for the WOFF font format.

* Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.

* Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.

Firefox 3.6 Beta (revision 1) for Windows is available for download here.
Firefox 3.6 Beta (revision 1) for Mac OS X is available for download here.

Tags: Add-on, appearance, Firefox, firefox 3, Firefox 3.6, google, IE8, Internet, internet explorer, internet explorer 8, Mac, Mac OS X, Microsoft, Mozilla, mozilla community, OS X, Performance, Windows, Windows 7

UI Changes to Expect in Firefox 4.0

Jason — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 05:02:31 +0000

Firefox 4.0 is the flavor of Mozilla’s web browser that is expected to come to the market sometimes in the second half of next year, while delivering to users a series of visual changes that will start to appear as soon as Firefox 3.7 is pushed out. We already had a glimpse at how the 3.7 version of Firefox might look like, and at the visual improvements it might bring to Windows-based computers, and we should also have a look at how 4.0 should continue the improvements.

According to Mozilla Wiki, the UI of Firefox 4.0 is mainly expected to deliver refinements to the changes that are to come with 3.7, and should include some major additions and changes. Among them, we can count the possibility that the LocationBar and SearchBar are to be merged, the Stop/Refresh/Go are to become One Button, a Tab-on-Top Option could appear, as well as App Tabs, the Home Tab functionality is to be enhanced, the Bookmarks Bar hidden and the Status Bar removed.

Here’s what Mozilla says when it comes to the merging of the LocationBar and SearchBar: “The AwesomeBar already has a lot of search functionality, even though it is currently only local. These fields have a convergent function: finding things. Merging these and including something like Taskfox will put search in a unified location with added utility. It will also reduce toolbar complexity/clutter by merging functionality.”

The merging of Stop/Refresh/Go into a single button is something that should kick off in Firefox 3.7. While this move would result in the disappearance of a toolbar button, it might be inconvenient as it would be moved away from the back/forward buttons. However, it seems that users will find in the Customize page the option to add Stop, Reload and Go buttons.

The Tab-on-Top option would eliminate the presence of having the page title both in the title bar and in a tab. At the same time, it would also offer more space for the content to be displayed (something that those familiar with Google’s Chrome should already know). The presence of App Tabs would allow users to pin web apps to the left side of the tabbar for easy access (just as apps can be pinned to Windows 7’s task bar).

Firefox 3.7 is said to come with a Home Tab that should see its functionality expanded in 4.0. “It turns into a dashboard like page. It could potentially have your top bookmarks, about:me stats, history timeline, recently closed tabs, change styling on major local holidays, or more,” Mozilla says, adding that it should become something more than just a link to the browser’s homepage.

Other visual changes that Firefox 4.0 should come around with include a hidden Bookmarks Bar, with the bookmarks widget placed on the navigation bar; a new notification system that should remove notification bars, with notification panels, persistent notifications integrated into the Page and Tools button; User Profiles; and the disappearance of the Status Bar, which is said to take a lot of space at the moment. All of these changes are seen only as proposed directions for now, yet one should agree that Firefox’s face will become quite attractive if they are put in place.

Tags: apps, Browser, disappearance, Firefox, firefox 3, Firefox 3.7, Firefox 4.0, functionality, google, Mozilla, system, Tab-on, Tab-on-Top, taskfox, Windows, Windows 7, Windows-based

Firefox 3.7 Changes Looks for Windows 7

Jason — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 09:27:38 +0000

Firefox 3.5 has been here for a while now, and Firefox 3.6 awaits just around the corner to make an appearance, yet the guys over at Mozilla are already working on the development of Firefox 3.7. Considered only a minor upgrade for the browser, the 3.7 version is expected to land in March next year and bring around a series of visual changes to the Firefox that we know at the moment.

For the time being, however, it should be noted that these directions are only proposals, and that they need to be approved before being put into place. The changes in theme, states the Mozilla Wiki page describing what Firefox 3.7 might include, are not aimed only at the visual style, but will also affect UI placement and arrangement, as well as the evolution new features of the browser will register.

“As noted on the 3.0 Windows Default Theme Issues Wikipage, Firefox feels dated and behind on Windows. Especially Vista and Windows 7. These issues include absence of Glass, anemic purple toolbar color on Vista, tall and bulky UI footprint, element overload, inconsistent toolbar icon usage/style, lack of a tactile look & feel and perhaps too great of a divergence between the look on XP and Vista/7,” is what Mozilla Wiki states.

Considering these shortcomings, the developing team has come up with a series of directions to follow so as to change the looks of Firefox with the launch of 3.7. Toolbar and Tabs that are using Glass are among the changes that might surface, along with an overall neutral color scheme, the hiding of the menubar by default, existing menu structure condensed into only two buttons, Stop and Reload on the same button, or the presence of a “Home Tab,” corroborated with the removal of the “Home” Button.

Basically, the changes should follow the visual modifications that Microsoft’s client has seen over the years, it seems. “Starting with Vista, and continuing with Windows 7, the menubar has been systematically removed from Windows applications built by Microsoft and other vendors. It has been replaced with alternatives like the Windows Explorer contextual strip or the Ribbon found in Office 2007. The Ribbon UI is now also used in Paint and Wordpad for Windows 7. Many apps still retain the menubar as an option to be pinned or to be shown briefly by holding the Alt key,” Mozilla continues.

Firefox 3.6 Alpha 1 and the stable versions of Firefox 3.5.3 and Firefox 3.0.14 can be downloaded from here.

Tags: appearance, application, Browser, Firefox, firefox 3, firefox 3.0, firefox 3.0.1, Firefox 3.6, Firefox 3.7, modification, Mozilla, Windows, Windows 7, windows application, windows applications, windows explore, windows explorer

Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 Up Next

Jason — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 13:45:49 +0000

Mozilla is working its way to deliver the first beta development milestone of Firefox 3.6., codename Namoroka. The next iteration of the open-source browser won’t have any additional Alpha releases and will advance straight to Beta, with the final release planned for just two months away. At the start of this week, Mozilla noted that the Beta 1 Build for Firefox 3.6 is the next development milestone of Namoroka, indicating that the v3.6 minor update for Firefox is evolving fast toward general availability.

String freeze in common code and browser only took place on September 15th, just to be extended to all aspects of Firefox 3.6 the subsequent day. As far as Mozilla is concerned, the upcoming deadline in the development process of Firefox 3.6 is Beta code freeze. “Right now we’re potentially drifting into November for a final release due to [a] number of outstanding blockers,” Mozilla noted on September 16th.

The Beta 1 for Firefox 3.6 was initially planned for availability by the end of September 2009, and with the progress made by Mozilla so far it looks like, by the end of this month, users will be able to test drive the first post-Alpha release of v3.6. Firefox 3.6 Alpha 1 was offered to testers in the first half of August 2009, more than a month ago.

On its FTP servers, Mozilla has updated Firefox 3.6 and is currently offering for download 3.6a2-candidates as of September 16th. Earlier this week, Mozilla CEO John Lilly confirmed that Mozilla was pushing for a November release of Firefox 3.6, adding that Firefox 3.7 would follow in the spring of 2010, with Firefox 4.0 planned for the fall of next year.

And as Mozilla is approaching Firefox 3.6 Beta 1, the exo.performance.network managed to provide some good news. According to statistics from approximately 20,000 registered users, Firefox is installed on over 50% of computers in enterprise environments. “That’s a pretty amazing measure. I’m skeptical but with 1 billion downloads it’s not out of the question that Firefox gets at least occasional use on half of the PCs out there,” commented Asa Dotzler, director of community development, Mozilla.

The latest releases of Firefox are available for download here.

Tags: Browser, Codename Namoroka, download, Firefox, firefox 3, Firefox 3.6, Milestone, Mozilla, Performance

Make FireFox 3 Times Fast

Jason — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:52:01 +0000

SpeedyFox is a free to use tool which lets you speed up firefox startup speed, faster navigation when browsing history, browse cookies more faster and in all the overall firefox interface much faster after running the tool.

We had written some other ways to speed up firefox before

- How to Double Firefox Speed,

- About:Config Tweaks For Firefox 3,

- New Tweaks for Firefox 3,

- Speed up your Firefox 3.0.1 – Part1,

- Speed up your Firefox 3.0.1 – Part2,

- Firefox Speed Tweaks,

- How to make Firefox load pages faster,

- Speed Up Your Internet With FireFox,

- Make Firefox Faster With Your Old Firefox Profile

This small application actually compacts the size of the SQLITE databases which store a lot of setting related to your firefox profile, there by customise the databases light to load and ensure faster speed of operations in firefox.

It has a very basic interface, you just need to select the firefox profile you are using [ normally that is the default profile for many people ] after selecting the profile click Speed Up My Firefox button

Download SpeedyFox

Tags: Browse, config, download, download speed, Fast, faster, Firefox, firefox 3, firefox 3.0, firefox 3.0.1, Internet, pctipsbox, speed, speed tweaks, SpeedyFox, tweak, tweaks

Make Firefox Faster With Your Old Firefox Profile

Jason — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 23:04:45 +0000

This tips is dedicated to all the firefox lovers out there who are struggling with slow speed firefox and crashing issues. Firefox is one such browser who has been my favourite since the time I first tried to use Firefox 1.5 from that I have moved to firefox and it is the primary browser for me till this date, there are several improvements that have been done now the latest version of firefox is Firefox 3.5 which I using right now.

With time there are lot more things that have been changed in firefox which has made it a better and secure browser than before to use, but with new cool browser from google called google chrome which is far more faster than firefox in operation people has started moving towards google chrome because it is faster and easier to understand and use.

But as we all know google chrome is in development stage so it cannot provide some good features which are there in firefox like and it does not support much more extensions which provide great functions in firefox.

But new version of firefox 3.5.x crashes so often and does not even closes when you shutdown the firefox window as reported by some users it keeps running in the background and does not allow you to launch new firefox session.

Here is the solution to the slow firefox issue which is actually slow because of heavy remembered history

Speed Up Firefox By Deleting All The History

You can simply speed up firefox just like firefox with a fresh new profile by deleting the entire history it has remembered till date for you and changing the history preferences further. Follow the procedure given below.

Before me telling you about the deleting history here is how you can backup you history with this free firefox history backup tool

Deleting All History and Other Details Remembered

1. Open Firefox

2. Press Ctrl+Shift+Del key to delete – make sure you select everything under the time range for the history.

Note: Don’t worry this will not delete your remembered username and password but make sure to uncheck the thing you want not to clean up as the action cannot be undone.

3. Click clear now and instantly you will feel the fast firefox speed after doing this.

Tags: Browse, Browser, faster, Firefox, firefox 3, google, password, shutdown, slow speed, speed, speed firefox, speed up firefox, Support, tips

Firefox databases for better performance

Jason — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:27:59 +0000

Since Firefox 3.0, bookmarks, history and most storage is kept in SQLite databases. Also, the default history time span was raised from 9 to 90 days as it became more discoverable and useful thanks to the awesome bar, so depending on your browsing habits it could represent some pretty large databases.

Aas any other database, SQLite databases become fragmented over time and empty spaces appear all around. But, since there are no managing processes checking and optimizing the database, these factors eventually result in a performance hit. So, a good way to improve startup and some other bookmarks and history related tasks is to defragment and trim unused space from these databases.

To do this:

Step 1: get sqlite3, a single file command line SQLite database manager, for your platform (available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X).

Step 2: Copy the downloaded binary to your profile folder where all your .sqlite files reside.

Step 3: Close Firefox.

Step 4: From a command line prompt in your profile folder, run:

sqlite3 [SQLite database] VACUUM

replacing [SQLite database with the name of a SQLite file, like places.sqlite.

On Windows, to defragment all SQLite databases in one command, run:

for %a in (*.sqlite) do (sqlite3 %a vacuum)

I ran the script in a couple of machines resulting in a noticeable reduction of start up times after databases defragmentation:

Machine 1: 1 window, 20 tabs
places.sqlite size before vacuum: 10 MB
places.sqlite size after vacuum: 9 MB
Cold startup Before: 11 s
Cold Startup After: 8 s

Machine 2: 3 windows, 25 tabs
places.sqlite size before vacuum: 40 MB
places.sqlite size after vacuum: 27 MB
Cold startup Before: 10 s
Cold Startup After: 7 s

So if this is all good, why hasn’t Mozilla included this defragmenting procedure? The thing is they want to but still haven’t found the best way to do so. One of the suggestions so far has been to do it during an update: it has the advantage of been semi regular (about every six weeks), and already interrupts the user workflow (and requires the database files been released, turning Firefox off).

A good option for Windows users is IniFox, by InfoSpyware which simply packs sqlite3 and an interactive batch file that defragments all databases in your profile as described above. You will still have to download and copy, but you will avoid opening a console and repeating the steps for all the databases.

If you try this mechanism, please take some time to get your before and after times and sizes and share your results in the comments. For cold startups, you will have to restart your system to get valid results.

Tags: database, database manager, defragment, defragmentation, defragmenting, Defragments, Firefox, firefox 3, firefox 3.0, Fragmentation, InfoSpyware, Linux, Mac OS, machine, Mozilla, Performance, Spyware, SQLite, startup, update, vacuum, Windows, windows user

Firefox 3.5 slow startups on Windows

Jason — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:30:39 +0000

If you find yourself with very long startup times after upgrading to Firefox 3.5 (from say 10 seconds to the order of minutes), you may be experimenting a bug due to a change in how Firefox 3.5 gets the randomness it needs for security purposes on Windows.

The procedure involves scanning some temporary folders looking for bits normally added by OS and other applications operations. Firefox 3.5 looks for more files and deeper (more subfolders) for increased randomness, but it has led to unexpected results for users with too many temporary folders or files resulting in slow startups.

Try builds are still being generated with fixes to this bug, but users report a noticeable improvement after deleting their temporary folders and Internet Temporary Files (generated by Internet Explorer).

To clean temporary folders, check and delete all files [you can, some may be in use] from these:

C:\Documents and Settings\*user*\Local Settings\History
C:\Documents and Settings\*user*\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
C:\Documents And Settings\*user*\Local Settings\Temp
C:\Documents And Settings\*user*\Recent

On Windows Vista /7:

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\History
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent
%TEMP%

To delete Internet Temporary Folders, in the Control Panel., open Internet Options. In the Browsing History section, press the Delete… button, check all the options and press Delete.

Users report a significant improvement after doing this, even those who use Internet Explorer once in a while.

A fix to this bug should become available with Firefox 3.5.1, expected in a few weeks.

Tags: Firefox, firefox 3, fix, history, Internet, internet explorer, Microsoft, Security, slow startups, startup, temporary files, temporary internet, temporary internet files, Windows, windows vista

Firefox Split into Multiple Processes

Jason — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:42:34 +0000

Firefox 3.5 was shipped to the general public on June 30th, 2009, and now Mozilla is turning its attention to the next iteration of the open-source browser. Upcoming versions of Firefox will share a feature with rivals Chrome and Internet Explorer 8. Essentially Mozilla is looking to implement an enhancement designed to effectively split the browser into multiple processes. In this regard, the Electrolysis project has already kicked off, as Mozilla’s Benjamin Smedberg revealed in mid-June, 2009. If all goes according to plan, displaying web pages will be a task split between multiple processes, in future versions of Firefox. At the same time it’s not just about the web content; the graphical user interface of the browser and the plugins that expand Firefox will also be getting their own separate processes.

“There are several possible benefits of using multiple processes: Increased stability: if a plugin or webpage tries to use all the processor, memory, or even crashes, a process can isolate that bad behavior from the rest of the browser. Performance: By splitting work up among multiple processes, the browser can make use of multiple processor cores available on modern desktop computers and the next generation of mobile processors. The user interface can also be more responsive because it doesn’t need to block on long-running web page activities. Security: If the operating system can run a process with lower privileges, the browser can isolate web pages from the rest of the computer, making it harder for attackers to infect a computer,” Smedberg explained.

Electrolysis is already up and running. In fact Mozilla’s Chris Jones revealed that the phase 1 browser was almost complete in June. Jones even posted a video showing just how a flavor of Firefox with multiple processes would function. The video in question is available for download and viewing. But users can already get a good idea as to what this feature does by running Google Chrome or Internet Explorer 8. Both browsers separate web content by processes. In this regard, each page opened in a browser tab runs in its own process, meaning that it can be controlled independently from the others and from the browser itself. In this regard, Mozilla is trailing behind rivals Google and Microsoft.

Still, while Chrome and IE8 might have a head start, fact is that Mozilla has a shortcut available to try and catch up. Mozilla developers “have borrowed the IPC message-passing and setup code from Chromium. We even have some very simple plugins loading across the process boundary. For the moment we’re focusing on Windows and Linux, because the team is most familiar and comfortable on these environments,” Smedberg added.

Mozilla is looking to wrap up phase 1 of Electrolysis by 15 July and phase 2 by November 2009. Phase 3 will be synonymous with shipping, but a deadline was not offered for it at this time.

Firefox 3.5 Final for Windows is available for download here.
Firefox 3.5 Final for Linux is available for download here.
Firefox 3.5 Final for Mac OS X is available for download here.

Tags: Browser, browser performance, Firefox, google, IE8, Internet, Performance, processes, source browser

PC Tips Box » Firefox

Firefox 3.6 Beta 3 Is Cooking

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