Firefox 4

[Refalm]

It's out now, what are you waiting for?



Or wait for the packages to be loaded in your distributions' repository.

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.

[Aloone_Jonez]

Where's the status bar gone?

The pagezoom extension I use no longer works. What's the point of having 100s of extensions when they only stop working every time a new version is released?

This is shit, I'm sticking with Opera for now.

[Lead Head]

They stop working because FireFox has compatibility checks. If the extension doesn't list compatibility with the newest version, FireFox disables it so it eliminates the possibility of it crashing FireFox. Blame the extension's developer. Not FireFox.

The status bar only pops up when you hover over a link or when the page is loading.

[Aloone_Jonez]

They stop working because FireFox has compatibility checks. If the extension doesn't list compatibility with the newest version, FireFox disables it so it eliminates the possibility of it crashing FireFox. Blame the extension's developer. Not FireFox.

Nonsense, that's like saying blame the don't blame Microsoft because Windows 7 won't run programs designed to run on XP. It should be easy to write extensions so they will work on future Firefox versions. Developers shouldn't have to release new extensions every time a new version of Firefox is released, which is something like every three months.

The status bar only pops up when you hover over a link or when the page is loading.

Then I know the extension won't work because the silly Firefox developers made it hide the stays bar which the said extension relies on to function and there's no way to disable such "functionality".

Fuck if they had put the zoom button on the status or toolbar in the first place like Opera and Internet Explorer I wouldn't need such a silly extension in the first place. and is one of the reasons I'm using Opera.

[Refalm]

Actually, they built a seperate "addon bar" for those things. My addon bar still has five addons on it.

Try Ctrl+/ to make it appear.

While we're on the subject, here a list of my addons installed:
Adblock Plus
BetterPrivacy
Download Statusbar
FireGestures
Ghostery
Google Redesigned
Omnibar
Quake Live
Resurrect Pages
Stylish
Tab Mix Plus
Web Developer
Xmarks

[Aloone_Jonez]

I used to use Adblock Plus, Clippings, pagezoom, useragent switcher and speeddial. Then I realised speedial slowed it down so I disabled it.

Maybe you're right, it will work with a few tweaks but I'm not bothered as I can just use Opera which gives me all the functionality I need without having to install extensions which might not work when the next version is releases. I've not seen any improvements in Firefox 4 which would make me really prefer it to 3.6 - it pretty much looks and behaves he same to me, except for the addon bar lack of a status bar.

[reactosguy]

Really exciting!

I'll download Firefox 4 ASAP. I hope it's a huge leap from v3.6!

[davidnix71]

I went ahead and got it for my Mac. It's definitely faster, but damn is it a resource hog. 25% of my Core2Duo cpu time, 300MB of memory and 25 threads. The kernel uses 61 threads.

You can get the AddOn Compatibility Reporter and force extensions if you want to. The extensions I really need have updated versions for FF4. NoScript, Better Privacy, Cookie Monster, Flasblock, GreaseMonkey, UserAgent Switch, DownloadHelper, ScreenGrab and Unplug.

I still use Remove It Permanently and even though it officially isn't compatible it still works just fine. Right-click RIP and it's gone.

[Aloone_Jonez]

I didn't notice much of a speed increase, there again I didn't give it much chance, I dropped t like a hot potato when I discovered it doesn't do what I want.  I've now noticed there is an option in FF 4 to add zoom buttons to the toll bar but it doesn't  quite offer the same functionality as said extension or Opera's built-in zoom so I won't go back.

Gone are the days when I used to get excited about the latest version of Firefox, Opera, etc. It seems like they mostly contain improvements which web developers will find handy but the end user doesn't notice or appreciate. I suppose you could argue that the user should notice the richer content websites can deliver as a result of the improvements to their browser but that won't happen until the lowest common denominator catches up.

[reactosguy]

Update:

Firefox 4 just works. Love the interface, like the design (which is all too important not) and it's faster than 3.6.

This is worth upgrading from v3.6.

[Lead Head]

If I leave FF4 open, it will slowly creep to 700+ MB of ram.

[Aloone_Jonez]

I've just upgraded to the latest version of Opera and I'm very impressed with the speed, it's like having a faster Internet connection.

[reactosguy]

FF4 is more like Chrome.

Also, I just designed a JavaScript file and apparently, in Chrome, popups never end, but FF4 treats the new JavaScript popups as if they were part of the page. You can leave the page when they are in effect!