Firefox 3.0.5 released

Security and bug fixes

[jdMorgan]

Mozilla rolled out this update yesterday. Other than the fixes listed in the release notes, there's nothing particularly notable at the technical level, but my impression is that 3.0.5 is quite a bit faster than 3.0.4... anybody else have the same impression?

Thanks,
Jim

[coopster]

Faster in which way? Startup, page rendering, ... ?
Java is at 6.11 now too, did you update that as well?

The one thing I did notice is that a JQSNOTIFY.EXE dialog pops as a security alert in my Firewall when I start up Firefox. That's new. It is the Java(TM) Quick Starter binary trying to obtain access on a local port. This may be the reason for the improvement you notice.

[jdMorgan]

No, I disabled both the service and the plug-in after the recent JRE U11 update. I end up running a Java app about once a week, and don't need that thing plugging up my machine's memory and swapfile with cached Java stuff. I nuked it just like I nuked Adobe reader's Quickstart.

<rant> These quick starters are insidious and presumptuous. You want a quick start? -- Then optimize your code! It seems that over the years, applications expand to fill all available memory (plus swap space) on a 'typical' machine, and no-one pays any attention to efficiency any more. </rant>

By faster, I mean page loading and rendering -- Firefox 3.0.5 just seems 'snappier.'

Jim

[coopster]

LOL re: quick starters rant

I disabled both the service and the plug-in after the recent JRE U11 update

I follow you on the plug-in ...
Control Panel > Java > Advanced Tab > Miscellaneous > Java Quick Starter

Or did you mean the ...
Control Panel > Java > Advanced Tab > Java Plug-in > Enable the next generation Java Plug-in (requires browser restart)

?

But I'm not following you on the service? I don't see a service running on my machine.

[jdMorgan]

Administrative Tools->Services->Java Quick Starter->Disable

It looks like you found a better way, though, using the Control Panel. I didn't find that option, and so I did it manually by disabling the Firefox plug-in and disabling the Windows service. That would be the case if you cannot find the service running.

I turned it off after seeing reports of excessive disk activity when the service was running. Since I use Java so rarely, this is just a waste of energy, disk, and CPU resources for me.

Jim

[coopster]

That would be the case if you cannot find the service running.

If it was not running, true. And what I truly meant was "I don't see a service listed" for Java. I looked for the active service using the same method you described, Administrative Tools->Services, and did not even see "Java Quick Starter" listed. I was expecting to see it show up as a disabled service in the list.

I decided to play around a bit. It seems they don't just leave the service out there, it gets added and removed as a Windows service each time you change that checkbox option.

[jdMorgan]

And what I truly meant to say was, "It seems they don't just leave the Quick Starter stuff out there; The Windows service and the browser add-on get added and removed each time you change that checkbox option," which is why I like your method better -- it's much easier and faster. :)

Jim

[jimbeetle]

Wow! FF just downloaded the update without asking me if I wanted to or not. Maybe I'm dumb, but I was quite happy with whatever version I was using. Must be an auto setting I missed somewhere along the line, but I never expected anybody to invade my machine this way.

[coopster]

Tools > Options > Advanced > Update tab

You can set preferences as you desire.

[jimbeetle]

Thanks, though wish auto wasn't the default.

[coopster]

You're welcome. First thing I do upon installing any new software is disable the phone home feature. Well, let me rephrase. I'll let the notification come in, but it has to let me choose when to perform the install.

[jimbeetle]

Arrgh! The folks at Mozilla have completely ruined my daily surfing experience.

Smart Location Bar? Bah, humbug! Why when I type and 'n' does the dang thing show URLs that just happen to have an 'n' in them, such as 'hl=n'? Dumb, dumb, dumb. I want my NY Daily News, NY Post and NY Times sports index pages back at the top of the list. And I don't want to see my bookmarks. I use those for later reading, not navigation.

I'm sick and tired of apps telling me what I want to do. Firefox doesn't have to "try to guess" where I want to go. It just has to get out of my damned way and let me get there.

And it appears that the only way to change anything is to completely clear the browser history or to individually delete entries from the autocomplete list. Doesn't seem to be anyway to turn it off.

Okay, rant over, off to find that Opera icon.

[RedRat Chris]

Hmmmmmmmmm. I'm running 3.05 as my default browser and wonder whether it might have had anything to do with another very odd issue I've just had to deal with. Not to go off topic, hopefully, but please see here: [webmasterworld.com...]

On copying over my java apps repository to \Xampp\htdocs\test all the java was stripped out and I was using FF to view my local server output. It is more likely to have been Defender that caused it but I'm just thinking aloud.

[edited by: RedRat_Chris at 6:18 pm (utc) on Jan. 10, 2009]

[jdMorgan]

jimbeetle,

I think you'll find that you can configure the urlbar behaviour any way you like it. See settings at about:config browser.urlbar

Details about possible values: [kb.mozillazine.org...]

See also about:config browser.search.suggest.enabled

Jim