Firefox 4 Beta 1 is Here

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Cool ...

 

Cool, thanks for the link. I switched over to Chrome for the last couple of weeks, but I'm going to make my switch back to good 'ole Firefox again. Just can't get used to Chrome's interface.

Edit: oh man, it looks just like Chrome.

 

Beta2 is out too in x86 and x64 (firefox-4.0b2pre.en-US.win64-x86_64.installer.exe) versions too..
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-mozilla-central/
Install under different dir then older version .. create a second profile .. use -no-remote -p "profile" to run 2 different version firefox same time

 

Those are Minefield nighty's, which have the potential to be less stable and add on compatibility can break with each update.

 

Since we talk about beta releases .. I don't think it matters

In x86 I tested whatever they put on .. they alway manage fix 1 and brake 2 at updates .. reason for long test versions, so for every day use just staying at the stable final releases.

So now for testing, going the x64 route even if there is no x64 flash/...

 

It certainly does. There is a massive quality difference between alphas and betas.

 

I just installed Opera 10.6 yesterday.. Would Firefox be better?

 

Just got FF4b2 this morning before work. Wow! Might just be trickery, but it seems to load more quickly when I run it lol. Love the new UI also, much cleaner and Chrome-ish, and liking the extra Aero glass. Wish the entire part around the actual page was Aero though, that would look splendid. Too bad none of my add-ons work lol.

What's a nightly?

 

Is this like Chrome where the tabs are all the way up there at the title bar? If so, that's soooo stupid. What other Windows programs uses that convention?

Stop trying to copy Chrome! It's like acknowledging that something else is better. FF 3.6.6 is still the best browser out there. Clean interface that follows Windows conventions, and full featured. Chrome is way too bare bones and I dislike the spartan interface.

 

Microsoft Office.

(Oh snap.)

 

I personally feel that Chrom has the best interface of all current browsers, with IE8 being second.

Firefox 4 is looking great and sounds promising. I'll be installing it as it gets more mature.

 

just wondering, when will (or has it already) firefox implement "each tab = separate process" or at least something so that one tab crashing doesnt crash the entire browser?

 

Maybe i'm in the minority but I don't like Chrome overall. I don't like the interface etc. The only thing I like about Chrome is being able to search from the address bar.

My favorite UI is Opera. I think it has the best looking browser. My next favorite is IE8 followed by FF3.

 

personally, i dont like searching from the address bar because i think it takes chrome a while to notice that it's a search term and not an address

and i also don't like the "most visited pages" opening every time, i don't want my most visited pages always on display for all to see

and last but not least, i feel like it's not as customizable as ff, and i say this without including extensions

 

I have to agree with you. Not a fan of tabs at the top, but I like that firefox is giving people a choice and not just stuffing it down our throats like Chrome/Opera. Plus the add-ons I use in firefox still aren't in available/work in Chrome.

 

the only reason i dont like tabs at the top is because i have to move the mouse farther to get at them, but from an objective point of view, this really is the most "ergonomic" user interface, providing websites with maximum viewing estate

i think it's something you have to get used to, at first i didnt like the positioning of firefox's tabs, but now i like it

 

Looking forward to trying it. Latest fix did away with major stability problems for me. I am using ie8, FF, and Chrome. Dropped latest Opera, just too unstable on my unit.

 

Maybe mozilla will be nice and provide a under or over choice for tabs when 4 final is released

 

You can choose whether you want the tabs on top or on the bottom. Just right click on the navigation bar and uncheck "tabs on top".

 

I've never seen the utility of tabs. I find they just waste valuable window
area. One thing I do do is to always open links in a new window so that I
just have to close it to get back to where I was on the previous page. I would
hate to have tabs become permanent.

 

Perhaps you should give tabs a try when opening multiple links... it's really not uncommon for people to have 20-30 tabs open at once Sacrificing 20 pixels or so to have up to 50 scrollable tabs sure beats having windows freak out with both taskbar spam and instability.

Expecting good things from ff4, going to guess they are shooting for a back-to-school release date?

 

It looks a lot like Chrome, which can either be a good or bad thing.

I used to use Chrome when it first came out, and I loved how it looked. I even had Firefox look like Chrome for a short while.

But now I'm back using Firefox and I can't figure out why I liked the way Chrome looked.

If this is going to be the new Firefox, I hope there is an option to have it look like the old Firefox.

 

I have no problems using Chromium.
The only reason I hesitated of switching to Chrome because of google's sniffing and lack of actual Adblock support.
Now with Chromium, it's a different story because it's an open source program on which Chrome is based on and not owned by google (although they did supposedly stop with the sniffing) and recently it got the ability to actually block ads instead of hiding them (a few elements get through, but it's not a major issue).

FF created problems on my Win 7 Ultimate x64 because every 30 seconds or so it would freeze for about 2 seconds before resuming.
It was becoming annoying along with it's memory leaks and slowdowns.

I haven't tried it's latest versions, but I'm fine with using Chromium (and updating it once per month despite the fact there are nightly builds) for now and will try Firefox again at a later time.

I probably grew accustomed to Chromiums interface and I find it nice.
Simple, yet effective, and now with actual adblocking.

 

Anyone got a printscreen of what it looks like?

 

It is indeed faster than the official version and scrolling on NBR has greatly improved. Moreover, I like the interface and it looks so chromeish with the AdBlock and NoScript and other addons.

Winner.

 

Im having issues with it. It may be more of the windows theme im using tho. None of the min/max/exit buttons on the window are clickable. And it just goes to the next thing below the window.

 

Is it still slow as hell? Probably...

 

mmmm for some reason it will not launch on my notebook (wins 7) I see the process in taskmgr but it will not launch. Works fine on my destkop running xp

 

Beta 2 is due next week.

 

Runs fine on mine, and quite fast. Mind you, I'm coming from IE.

Chrome seems a tad faster, but I like the Firefox UI a tad better. Though i think IE has by far the best.

 

BTW, when I do a google search in Firefox and the search page shows images, all I'm getting are white boxes where the images would be. Is this a setting issue somewhere? I.e., doesn't show the images found unless you unclick some box?

 

This is random crash galore for me so far. Literally, I'm browsing randomly and get hit by crashes left and right.

 

I haven't had a crash, but glitches galore with the new UI. Eagerly anticipating Beta 2.

 

Beta 2 Next Week

 

I'm absolutely like the new Firefox
Only my favorite add-on NoSquint https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2592/ (handy on those full HD screens) doesn't work with it.
I emailed the author, but got no reply and his homepage is down.

Anybody knows how to set the default zoomlevel of Firefox to 125 and keep it that way?

 

FF4 looks good, or at least attractive. Hopefully, it won't be attempting to eat up system resources. May give it a shot with minimal (but essential) add-ons when the final version arrives. But as PBC said above, I still think IE8 probably has one of the most efficient UIs.

 

It looks like a mix between Opera 10.6 and Chrome...just my 2 cents...but it has worked just fine 4 me...

 

i dont mean to sound like a idiot but i just opened opera and the whole menu list to menu bar is a direct copy from opera 10.6. it looks like they are taking the best looking things from other browsers and putting them in firefox. just my two cents.

 

Guess so! But that's hopefully a good thing. Just that I hope it is not bloated or gets bloated as has been my experience with using FF in the past.

 

It is a blend...but hey, its a mix of the best to try to get the best...I dont mind the looks, as far as it is clean and works, its good for me then!

 

haha, yes, thats progress for you
the lack of password manager made chrome a non starter for me as i use firefox portable at the office, at home and on the mac so nice to have all the same familiar look.
sometimes its nice to not change...
ps. did someone say there is a 64 bit version? i only see 1 windows download. is it in the same package?

 

There is hope!
The hompage is up again: https://urandom.ca/nosquint/
And I got a reply from the author:

The add-on is updated for Firefox 4:

 

After playing around with Firefox 4.0 beta 1, I really like it. However, I still want to primarily use 3.6.X while testing the 4.0 betas. Is there a way to have both at the same time? I heard of some sort of "portable" installation, but can't find any info on it.

 

You can instal them side by side - no need to have a portable installation.

 

Ended up going back to 3.6x due to the crashfest i had. Probably due to incompatible add-ons, but i like my add-ons.

4.0 literally crashed on me every 3 minutes just randomly browsing.

 

That's what Betas are for!

I think Mozilla has created special pages for add-on developers because I think ALL add-ons will be broken if they're not updated for 4.0, I guess there are some significant revisions.

 

Must have been an add-on - as its stable for me - but I don't have many add-ons.
Sorry to hear it

(Because its much faster than 3.6.x even though the interface is ugly)

 

Beta 2 Delayed

 

I thought Chrome has a password manager. It's embedded in the Options menu after clicking through the "wrench". So, Wrench>Options>Personal Stuff>Passwords...

Or, maybe I am misunderstanding you. If yes, apologies.