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Firebird 0.8 -> FireFox 0.8
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
* Windows Installer
Firefox now comes with an installer for Windows. Aside from making the installation process smoother, the installer also solves some common plug-in problems.
* Download Manager
The new streamlined download manager keeps your downloads organized without getting in your way. Select Tools > Downloads or press Ctrl+E to see it or change its behavior.
* New Add Bookmark Dialog
The Add Bookmark dialog has been enhanced and now allows the creation of new bookmark folders.
* Work Offline
It's now possible to view Web pages you've previously visited without being connected to the Internet.
* Better Handling of File Types
Binary files (e.g. .wma and .rar files) served by servers incorrectly sending text/plain should no longer be displayed as garbage in the browser, rather they should be appropriately handled.
* New XPInstall Frontend
The dialog that appears when installing themes and extensions has been redesigned and is easier to use.
* New default theme for MacOS X
The Pinstripe theme integrates better on MacOS X than the Qute theme, used on Windows and Linux.
* Lots of bug fixes and improvements
Disabling of form auto-completion is now working, the address bar now remembers the edited text across tab switching, among many other bug fixes.
Oh, and Joel's blurb is gone from the homepage.
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
www.MarkTAW.com
Monday, February 9, 2004
Should I mention Thunderbird 0.5 too?
http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/
www.MarkTAW.com
Monday, February 9, 2004
Firebird is an open-source database based on Borland Interbase.
The Mozilla people had no right to steal the name!
b
Monday, February 9, 2004
“To avoid overlap with another open source project, we have also decided to changed the name of this product from Mozilla Firebird to Mozilla Firefox.”
www.MarkTAW.com
Monday, February 9, 2004
I have tried this. I still prefer MyIE 2 which is a free multi-tab browser based on IE.
James
Monday, February 9, 2004
Seems like they need some download mirrors. The ftp server is slashdotted before even being posted on slashdot.
Jan Derk
Monday, February 9, 2004
It has a really bad problem:
In IE and all tabbed IE-based browsers (NetCaptor, MyIE2, AvantBrowser, SlimBrowser, etc) the links toolbar shows the folders first.
FireFox doesn't do this - it shows everything sorted, without putting folders first.. so, instead of seeing my nicely cathegorised folders, I just see the links I thrown into the toolbar in a hurry.
James
Monday, February 9, 2004
I've tried it and it does seem to render faster than Firebird 0.7.
I do have 2 concerns - the installer bug which a recent thread highlighted (below) and a problem with the tabbrowser extensions which seems to break installation. Other than that fine so far.
( http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=228672 )
a cynic writes...
Monday, February 9, 2004
And to answer my own question. The mirrors are here:
http://www.mozilla.org/mirrors.html
Jan Derk
Monday, February 9, 2004
Cynic, the installation bug has been fixed.
Jan Derk
Monday, February 9, 2004
James, you can drag and drop the links on the Personal Links toolbar in any order you want them. You can even drag a bookmarks folder on it and the toolbar link item will turn into a drop down menu.
Jan Derk
Monday, February 9, 2004
I don't think it has. It specifically states on the installation page that if you use the custom installation options it can wipe the folder and strongly recommends you use the defaults. I'm sure that was the "work around" that was chosen.
Unfortunately I can't check the exact wording cos I can't get back on mozilla.org - the site seems to have a LOT of traffic today :-)
SteveMallam
Monday, February 9, 2004
Thanks Jan - very relieved to hear it :-)
Any word on the various extentions? I know about the tab browser extentions as I was bitten by that myself but reports I've seen state most work fine.
a cynic writes...
Monday, February 9, 2004
The Clean or Safe install feature causing the problem has been totally removed from the installer. Ben Goodger mentioned this on his blog and I just double checked to be sure.
Jan Derk
Monday, February 9, 2004
You can even give text labels to your seperators, thus identifying sections of links, unfortunately it doesn't show up in the drop down, but they do show up when you hit CTRL + B for the bookmarks sidebar.
www.MarkTAW.com
Monday, February 9, 2004
I am running it now.. and using it to post.
I was disappointed with it, unfortunately.. Not that it will stop me running it, but I had no means of migrating form history, automatic sign-ons or bookmarks without manually fiddling in the profile directory.
There was no option to unzip the binary for Win32, you had to run their installer.. I would expect that someone who opted for an installer would at least get their history and configuration settings migrated, but that wasn't to be..
and lastly, as may have been pointed out, if you run TabBrowser Extensions, do NOT install it (or stay with 0.7) because they cause a browser crash (not exactly Fire{fox|bird}'s fault, but it was a touch inconvenient.
Radial context menus, the other extension I use, still works fine.
Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't go back to IE (Netcaptor, actually).. but I can see how any person who expects things to just work would have a problem installing and running this version.. (and for the love of $DEITY, get over with the name changes already ?)
deja vu
Monday, February 9, 2004
"(and for the love of $DEITY, get over with the name changes already ?)"
-----
They've stated that Firefox should be the final name- they ran into legal naming disputes with "Phoenix" and "Firebird", but they've stated that "Firefox" is the result of lengthy trademark searching and legal consultation. :P
John Rose
Monday, February 9, 2004
because the name "Firefox" has absolutely NO possibility of trademark or copyright infringement! ;-)
runtime
Monday, February 9, 2004
As long as they don't use a picture of Clint Eastwood in their icon, they should be okay. :P
John Rose
Monday, February 9, 2004
Interesting how much the little things matter. I loved Firebird's non-install, in the spirit of MacOS X's executable folders. Plugin issues were irrelevant in the face of this. Now I just hope they regain a little sanity and allow non-install again.
Tayssir John Gabbour
Monday, February 9, 2004
"They've stated that Firefox should be the final name- they ran into legal naming disputes with "Phoenix" and "Firebird", but they've stated that "Firefox" is the result of lengthy trademark searching and legal consultation. :P "
They had trademark problems with Phoenix so they did lengthy trademark searching and legal consultation to come up with Firebird (and Thunderbird). The Firebird database people don't have any legal claim to the name -- except that they came first.
Almost Anonymous
Monday, February 9, 2004
I've been using Firebird and it was ok. I just installed Firefox and it is surprisingly FAST!! I still don't understand why they did not increase the version number from 0.8.
runtime
Monday, February 9, 2004
"Not that it will stop me running it, but I had no means of migrating form history, automatic sign-ons or bookmarks without manually fiddling in the profile directory."
----------------
I had the exact opposite experience- everything was saved. All my bookmarks, prefs, etc were still there. The only thing I had to do when moving from 0.7-->0.8 was re-install the mouse gestures extension. And, once it was reinstalled, all my old mouse gesture settings were there as well! :-)
John Rose
Monday, February 9, 2004
Just to echo the last poster, I just upgraded from 0.7 to 0.8 and it retained my history, my cookies, and my bookmarks.
Brad Wilson (dotnetguy.techieswithcats.com)
Monday, February 9, 2004
"Now I just hope they regain a little sanity and allow non-install again."
You could always just pull the source and build it yourself. :-D
The inclusion of an installer is an absolute pre-requisite before anybody except a geek would use it. I never dreamed that the non-installed nature (on Windows, anyway) would ever continue into 1.0, unless they actually didn't want anybody to use the product! So, you better get used to having an installer... or you could move to Linux... ;)
Brad Wilson (dotnetguy.techieswithcats.com)
Monday, February 9, 2004
I realize the installer's important. I just wished they added a separate download, sitting off somewhere so most users wouldn't be confronted with the choice.
A second deliverable does add another testing scenario, and I suppose for that I should be prepared to pay. Or not upgrade. I'm just voicing the wish that they stayed true to something I thought they understood.
Especially since installers/uninstallers are very often the buggiest part of an app. Building free software projects from source also often fails for mystical reasons.
But there's always lynx. ;)
Tayssir John Gabbour
Monday, February 9, 2004
"I realize the installer's important. I just wished they added a separate download, sitting off somewhere so most users wouldn't be confronted with the choice."
--------------------------------------------
From the talk on the Mozillazine.org forums, I think that's pretty likely in the future, especially if enough people ask for it.
For the nightly releases leading up to 0.8, they chose to offer installers only, because the installer needed testing. They (wisely) knew that if they offered a choice, most existing users would go on using the zips.
Once everybody's sure the installer's fine and dandy, I suspect we'll see a return of the zipped-up builds, since they're less work (I assume?) for the maintainers to produce and the critical need to test the installer will have passed.
I can't speak for certain: that's just the feeling I get from reading the forums, which are frequented by the Firebird developers from time to time. I don't think there's an official word yet.
John Rose
Monday, February 9, 2004
So, I wish the Extensions sites weren't all horked up with the release. I miss my mouse gestures! :-p
Brad Wilson (dotnetguy.techieswithcats.com)
Monday, February 9, 2004
How about the cutesy new logo?
Looks kind of like a gaming console mascot...I dig it.
Tim Lara
Monday, February 9, 2004
After the problems they've had picking a name perhaps they should just call it "fsckit 0.8" People would understand.
Mike
Monday, February 9, 2004
Check out the Mozillazine forums. I've been spending most of the morning (fortunately, I am on my own time here) trying to find out why certain features don't work
For Brad Wilson and everyone else who got their old stuff, you've installed to your old profile directory (tsk tsk) and you don't run many extensions
For everyone who had that weird "XBL binding not found" error, it's all to do with Tab Browser Extensions.. and I've seen forum posts say that TBE will not continue to be supported in the future (because it's apparently a badly behaved application extension and overwrites core browser files)
I am really wishing I could stay with 0.8, but it's getting to the point where I am thinking "fsckit 0.8" is a good name... because I just want to say "fsck it" and go back to 0.7
deja vu
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
"For Brad Wilson and everyone else who got their old stuff, you've installed to your old profile directory (tsk tsk) and you don't run many extensions"
Not tsk tsk. I deleted all the extensions (and checked it worked) before I installed 0.8. I read the instructions, and opted for a different path. ;)
Brad Wilson (dotnetguy.techieswithcats.com)
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
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