Firefox 4 Release Candidate 1 Now Available!

Yup, they are finally out of beta and generating the Release Candidate builds!

Wiki - https://wiki.mozilla.org/Releases/Firefox_4.0rc1
Product page - Firefox 4 RC
Release notes - Mozilla Firefox 4 RC Release Notes

English US Download - http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-4.0rc1&os=win&lang=en-US

Other languages are also available to download as well.

 

Its still buggy as hell though. It crashes on the gmail login page and a bunch of other random crashes for me.

 

I haven't tried the RC yet but I have never had any stability issues in the beta version.

 

Thanks! Looking forward to trying it out.

 

Downloading now. I'll end up uninstalling in an hour, but it's always good to check it out.

 

Excellent!! I wanna finally try it, I was waiting for an RC, does anyone knows when the official version will be release?

 

In case anyone was wondering about benchmarks, see the attached png.

That's Chrome beta + extensions. A fresh install of FF4 (I opened it twice before running it) and IE9 64bit.

FF4 has actually improved a lot. The actual opening time of the program is much faster than it was even in the beta.

And here is a side by side benchmark of Firefox and Chrome.
http://dromaeo.com/?id=132589,132580

 

Since you already testing can you do opera and chromium too there ?
Thanks

 

Right now its the 32 Bit browser, no 64 bit browser.

Mozilla Firefox 4 System Requirements

Cheers

3Fees

 

Thanks I'm downloading right now for my windows 7.

 

Unfortunately each test takes 30 minutes, so I'm reluctant. Chrome and Opera are virtually tied in the DOM-only tests, I've never run afull test but I know that pure javascript is dominated by Chrome, with Opera slightly trailing.. I havent ever benchmarked Chromium, though I do enjoy using it occasionally.


And no, there won't be 64bit browsers until there's 64bit flash.

 

IE9 64bit and flash player square
Adobe Flash Player "Square" | 64-bit support - Adobe Labs

 

@yukinok25

beltzner (the lead FF manager) is saying that barring any major bug discoveries, the official release is about 2-3 weeks away, so end of march-ish. Don't expect a lot to change from rc1 to final.

 

I only have the on-board graphics on my i3 and switching to rc1 from 3.6.15 I noticed the rendering of the fonts on websites have changed.... I think they became sharper and less crisp.... uuurgh! Is this likely due to HW acceleration and that my graphics chip is not supported?

But the good stuff:
1. more webpage real estate since the menu bar is no longer needed.
2. no need for status bars anymore since they have copied chrome when hovering your mouse on top of links.
3. seems and feels faster in page rendering...

 

I'm aware of Square and I'm aware of 64bit IE. I'm talking about standards.

 

There is a 64-bit version, if you're running Linux. As for Windows 64-bit, well, there's always the nightly builds (chuckle). Just out of curiosity, is anyone here trying the Windows 64-bit nightly builds?

 

Is anyone having issues with the pdf plugin? I could not get it to run (told me plug in not loaded) and reopening the browser didn't solve the issue either. I know I have adobe plugin that works because i was able to open the same file in IE 9.

 

Took me a while to get everything perfect...but I'm loving it. They took all the best features of chrome like the status bar and the "paste and go" and put it into this. I'm getting used to using the bookmark dropdown menu instead of the bookmark toolbar because the blue background of it doesn't jive with the clear/frosty of the rest of it. Besides, I get more space so it's cool.

Just hope Free Download Manager will end up being compatible with FF4.

Oh, and this coming from a guy who hated the previous FF4 builds...

 

after using RC1 for a little while here are my thoughts. the reload function needs work. there are no obvious signs of loading. it is a little slow but bearable.

 

What you guys thoughts compared to ie9? Looking at a new browser. Been using firefox for a long time, now i think its time to change.

 

FF4.0 is definitely superior to IE9 beta in a lot of ways.

 

they definitely improved firefox, i notice little improvements everywhere, and performance is noticeably better

i only notice 1 tiny problem, and theres a few things that i believe that they could improve on, but this is a great release, definitely better than any of the competition right now

firefox's new UI is definitely better than ie9, and firefox's features, such as add-ons... session manager... ad blocker.. 'pin apps', etc. just flat out destroy chrome

ie9 may be more compatible with pages, and chrome may be faster and more stable, but these things just arent worth the tradeoff of features that firefox offers

so all in all.. firefox is the frontrunner by quite a bit.. at least for now, i'm very happy with it

 

Does the status bar switch to the right for you guys? Like normally it's on the left...but sometimes I find it on the right side. I think if your mouse cursor goes over it then it switches sides. Is there any way to disable this?

I'm downloading IE9 now and I have the latest Chrome. But with all the new features in FF4 they took from Chrome such as the paste and go, the status bar, the built-in search in the address bar and what not... I love it. I can't believe the jump from Beta 10 to this.

IE9 is really nice actually. I may even like it more than Chrome. But... I like FF more.

 

double post.

 

so... has anyone found out why firefox still doesn't have a keyboard shortcut to close the "find toolbar" once it's opened and without having to have it selected? it baffles me

 

Firefox 4 Final next Tuesday!

 

RC2 Released

 

So does that mean the final FF4 isn't going to be released on March 22?

 

I suppose they must have found something wrong with RC1 if there's another RC. Hopefully it's fixed up and they can release it Tuesday.

 

It has been released and I didn't even know, as I don't remember my browser "upgrading" to the new stable release. I don't think a lot has changed from 4.0 RC2 to the 4.0 release.