Firefox 2.0 To Set Browser Battles Alight

Firefox 2.0 Released

[encyclo]

[business.timesonline.co.uk...]

Mozilla, the non-profit group that has become one of the biggest thorns in Microsoft’s side, will ramp up its assault on the world's largest software developer tomorrow when it releases a new version of its popular Firefox internet browser. (...) The launch of Firefox 2.0, which Mozilla expects to accelerate the product's uptake, come just days after Microsoft released Internet Explorer 7, an updated version of its own browser, to mixed reviews.

[jdMorgan]

To set the tab close button behaviour back to Firefox 1.x mode, type "about:config" in the address bar, scroll down (or use the filter) to find the browser.tabs.closeButtons setting, and set the value to 3.

From a short test session:

0=close button on last-opened tab only
1=use per-tab close buttons (FireFox 2 default))
2=disable all tab close buttons
3=one close tab button at right margin of tab bar (FireFox 1.x default)

Jim

[Philosopher]

jdMorgan is correct. The only time the URLs of the pages you are visiting is sent to Google is is the user specifically goes into "Tools/Options/Security" and enables the "check every time I visit by asking Google" option (or something to that affect).

This is NOT the default for FF 2. It has to be specifically setup by the user. The default uses the local db that is periodically updated.

[herb]

To paraphrase the warning message when this feature is enabled in FF 2

"If you choose to check with Google about each site you visit, Google will receive the URLs of pages you visit for evaluation.... Google will log your action and the URL of the page. Google will receive standard log information, including a cookie, as part of this process.... it is possible that a URL sent to Google may itself contain personal information. Please see the Google Privacy Policy for more information...."

Once enabled the data is stored forever some place.

Sounds like the fiasco at AOL that got so much attention when specific users were tracked with the same stored information. _OOOPS

[webmasterworld.com...]

[Frank_Rizzo]

re: problem with popups not regaining focus.

You need to allow javascript to raise or lower windows

Tools->Options->Content->(Advanced next to Javascript)->Raise or lower windows

[bumpaw]

I installed 2.0 over Firefox 1.5 today and it works fine. It may need a dictionary download since all the words typed here so far are underlined red.

I had 30 Extensions and only 13 were not working after updating them. The I used the Nightly Tester Tools 1.2 and it allowed the rest of my Add-ons to work.

Edit: Grabbed an English(US) dictionary and works great now.

[incrediBILL]

I upgraded over 1.5 with no problems except some extensions weren't upgraded and I realized I really didn't need them and tossed them, too much junk anyway.

I still see their default memory footprint is enormous and their memory management leaves a lot to be desired, but that's coming from an old-school high performance windows programmer mentality as I despise needless application bloat and sloppy memory management. Makes me think they had MAC programmers writing this stuff but I digress...

The good part is the page rendering engine seems MUCH faster on some large pages I regularly use, a good improvement in efficiency there.

The spell checker is a very nice upgrade, that rocks.

I can't believe that they got rid of the fixed close-tab button.

Yeah, that kinda sucks but I'm getting used to it.

Both ways have their advantages and an option to use the single button vs. button per tab would be nice as I open a boatload of tabs and I don't need it hogging the precious tab real-estate.

As a matter of fact, this stupid close box in the tab has lead to more accidental closed tabs than ever before but the UNDO CLOSED TAB makes up for that problem.

Sadly, UNDO CLOSED TAB doesn't remember what you had been typing in a form before you accidentally closed the tab with those stupid checkboxes.

[jdMorgan]

I can't believe that they got rid of the fixed close-tab button.

The procedure to tweak the Close Tab button(s) behaviour has already been documented in post 3135065 above.

You might also want to check to see if the "save data entered in forms" option will help with recovering form data from accidentally-closed tabs.

Jim

[incrediBILL]

jd, I saw the workaround, but sending someone to an interface about as intuitive as REDEDIT isn't exactly up in the top 10 of what I would call user friendly for the average joe but I can hack it ;)

No, save data in forms wouldn't help as I already have that enabled, it was just done.

It undid the close tab, put me on the same page, but I was starting over from scratch probably because I hadn't moved out of that edit control (textarea) so it was still a work in progress, nothing that ever was saved.

[StupidScript]

IncrediBill:

their default memory footprint is enormous and their memory management leaves a lot to be desired

I thought that was the case, as well, until I tried some good old fashioned troubleshooting, after getting flamed in the FF forums ... yeesh ... touchy folks, over there.

Test this for yourself:
1) Go into your Tools->AddOns... section
2) Disable ALL of your Extensions and restart FF (just the extensions will prove this point)

Betcha notice a big improvement in your available RAM, and you should notice that it doesn't get steadily eaten away as long as FF is running, too.

If you can guess which extensions needed to be written in C++, you're on your way to finding the memory-hogging culprit(s). The extensions that use the FF core without needing hooks into more complex processes outside of that program are pretty much the only ones NOT at risk of bleeding memory.

What I did was to enable each extension, one at a time followed by a restart, until I saw the dreaded memory-sucking going on. A couple of my extensions were the real culprits, not the core FF installation.

Irritatingly, AdBlock was the biggest sucker.

[edited by: StupidScript at 10:00 pm (utc) on Oct. 30, 2006]