Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 Released

[engine]

The Mozilla community is proud to release Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 for download. This beta version of the next version of Firefox is built on the Gecko 1.9.2 web rendering engine, containing many improvements for web developers, Add-on developers, and users.This first revision of the Beta of Firefox 3.6 / Gecko 1.9.2 introduces several new features:

Users can now change their browser's appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas.

Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.

Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.

Support for the WOFF font format.

Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.

Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.

[developer.mozilla.org...]

[edited by: encyclo at 1:37 am (utc) on Nov. 3, 2009]
[edit reason] fixed link [/edit]

[johnnie]

HTML5! HTML5! *jumps up and down*

[J_RaD]

the video tag is going to make it much easier for people to put video on their website without having to go to these 3rd party servers.

[Gomvents]

looks good so far, hopefully the final release will be as responsive as the BETA and also hope the browser doesn't keep slowing down with time.

[aminjohar]

Waww! I'm new here. Lucky be here. Got new info about latest Mozilla Firefox.

Must download NOW!

[koan]

They're removing the properties menus for images and links when you right click on them however, which I used very often to get image sizes, alt text, check if a link is nofollowed. That's too bad :(

[jdMorgan]

> Removing image properties menus...

Is that the official word, or are you inferring that from what you see in this *Beta* release?

Just asking....

Jim

[koan]

Is that the official word, or are you inferring that from what you see in this *Beta* release?

It's official:

[developer.mozilla.org...]

Right-clicking on elements (including links and images) no longer offers a "Properties" menu item. The properties dialog box was not useful for most users and has been removed.

It was useful to me! Oh well.

[jdMorgan]

Thanks for the citation.

I guess we'll have to use Tools->Page Info->Media or yet another add-on from now on... :(

Jim

[koan]

I tried the Beta and it's really gone.

You don't see software removing features often nowadays. I guess they want to stay true to Firefox's original philosophy of staying slim, but I just don't see how it took essential space on the contextual menu, I figure it's a basic function, especially for web developers.

But like you said, and knowing Firefox, there's going to be an add-on that will remediate the situation and offer a lot more.

Anyone up for the challenge? ;)

[D_Blackwell]

Must download NOW!

The posts following this illustrate why to let others identify the potential problems. Very possible that some 'must have' extensions get busted as well - at least until the developer catches up. Always happens. If the developer of your favorite extension has 'moved on', you may have to find something similar, or even lose it altogether. Some really nifty extensions are no more. I loved the Vertigo extension, but is now obsolete and being left to rot. Wound up replacing with another extension that I am quite happy with. Was very unhappy in-between when stuck with the FF default.

[jdMorgan]

Yes, Beta means "It's almost ready but we're not absolutely sure, and we need a lot more people to test this."

Anyone who doesn't have a "play" machine apart from their "work" computer would be wise to hold off on upgrading to Firefox/3.6 until the official release -- or even to wait for the first patch *after* the official Firefox/3.6 release.

Some folks have to have the newest of everything. Others are happy to wait for Service Pack 1... :)

Jim
(Currently awaiting SeaMonkey/2.0.1 and Win7 SP1)

[koan]

Anyone who doesn't have a "play" machine apart from their "work" computer would be wise to hold off on upgrading to Firefox/3.6

It's pretty easy to simply install it in a new folder with a different name and try it while keeping the old version intact.

[bwakkie]

D_Blackwell and jdMorgan:
This is easily solvable to use different profiles:

This is what I always do to keep previous versions available to me:

get the file and unzip in ~/dev/brouwsers/ff36
[download.mozilla.org...]

then start the profile manager
firefox -ProfileManager
create a ff36 user and folder (.mozilla/ff36)

I always create a new icon with 3.6 written on it
firefox-3.6.png and place it in ~/dev/brouwsers/ff36

create a new panel launcher with the following link:
~/dev/brouwsers/ff36/firefox -no-remote -P "ff36" %u
choose the correct icon.

And finally start the new brouwser by clicking the new icon with 3.6 on it. I still have ff2, ff3 and ff3.5 too.

I share bookmarks via the SyncPlaces add-on

Cheers

[bwakkie]

euhm ... and yes the prophecy has been for-filled; the SyncPlaced add-on is not yet upgraded

;-)

[Fotiman]

Wow, that's really disappointing news about the properties menu item going away. Where's the complaint department? :(

[bwakkie]

After a restart of FF I noticed the tabs are filled much quicker now. Good job as I normally have like 15 tabs open

[coopster]

Yes, the properties context menu for images was a tool I used as well. I guess if you are not contributing on the Mozilla IRC development channel you won't be heard and what's done gets done.

Firebug reports quite a bit of image information. It's under the "HTML" tab and the "Net" tab has info too.

[clashing17]

This look so nice.