Easy Firefox

The Mozilla community is proud to announce that Firefox 4 Beta 1 is now available for download on Mac, Windows or Linux.

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As part of Mozilla’s ongoing stability and security update process, Firefox 3.6.6 is now available as a free download for Windows, Mac, and Linux from http://www.firefox.com. This release makes a small change to the crash protection feature introduced in Firefox 3.6.4, increasing the amount of time that Firefox will allow a plugin to remain frozen before terminating it. For more information, see the Mozilla Blog announcement about the release.

We recommend that all Firefox users upgrade to this latest release. If you already have Firefox 3.6 you will receive an automated update notification within 24 to 48 hours. This update can also be applied manually by selecting “Check for Updates…” from the Help menu.

For a list of changes and more information, please review the Firefox 3.6.6 Release Notes.

All Firefox 3 and 3.5 users are strongly encouraged to upgrade to Firefox 3.6 by downloading it from http://firefox.com/ or by selecting “Check for Updates…” from the Help menu and clicking on “Get the New Version”, then checking for updates again once Firefox 3.6 is installed.

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Mozilla Messaging is proud to announce that Thunderbird 3.1 is now available for download. Thunderbird 3.1, based on the Gecko 1.9.2 platform, was built by a community of passionate contributors, experienced developers, security experts, localization and support communities, and thousands of active testers.

Some of the new features:

• New Quick Filter toolbar
• New Migration Assistant
• Saved Files Manager
• Several fixes to improve upgrading from Thunderbird 2
• Several design improvements and corrections to the interface
• Stability, memory, and password handling improvements

As always Thunderbird 3.1 is available as a free download. Thunderbird 3.1 is also available in 46 languages – get your local version.

We encourage developers to read the Thunderbird 3.1 for Developers article on the Mozilla Developer Center.

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Today, Mozilla is happy to release Firefox 3.6.4, the latest security and stability release for Firefox, used by nearly 400 million people around the world to browse the Web. This release provides crash protection for Windows and Linux users by isolating third-party plugins when they crash.

Results from our beta testing show Firefox 3.6.4 will significantly reduce the number of Firefox crashes experienced by users who are watching online videos or playing games. When a plugin crashes or freezes while using Firefox, users can enjoy uninterrupted browsing by simply refreshing the page.

Mozilla recognizes that third-party plugins provide important functionality in many of today’s websites. At the same time, plugins can lead to problems for users as they browse. With the ability to automatically alert users when they have out of date plugins, and now crash protection, Firefox 3.6.4 allows users to experience all the content they love without any of the hassles. (If you’re not running Firefox, Mozilla recommends that you make a habit of visiting the Plugin Check page to keep your plugins up to date.)

At this time Firefox offers crash protection for Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime and Microsoft Silverlight on Windows and Linux computers. Support for other plugins and operating systems will become available in a future Firefox release.

All Firefox users are encouraged to upgrade for free by using the “Check for Updates” function in the Help menu, or by visiting www.firefox.com. For more information, please visit:

• Crash Protection FAQ
• Firefox 3.6.4 Release Notes
• Plugin Check

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Thunderbird 3.0.5 is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux for free download.  We recommend that users keep up to date with the latest stability and security updates of Thunderbird, and encourage all our users to upgrade to the very latest version, Thunderbird 3.0.5.

Thunderbird 3.0.5: http://www.GetThunderbird.com

If you already have Thunderbird, you will receive an automated update notification within 24 to 48 hours.

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We’re happy to announce the release of the fifth developer preview of the Mozilla 1.9.3 platform:

You can download it for Mac, Windows and Linux. Also, for the first time, we have 64 bit builds available for Mac and Linux, however these builds do not have support for 32 bit plugins and are considered highly experimental.

This build contains a number of changes since the previous Mozilla Developer Preview release. Here’s the list of changes available in this release, also available in the release notes:

User-facing changes

• Aero Glass is now enabled for Windows Vista and Windows 7.
• More parts of the new Windows theme have landed including new main button icons. Many more changes are coming in later releases.
• The new Add-ons manager has landed. The UI for the new Add-ons manager is not yet complete.
• You can now put tabs on top (View -> Toolbars -> Tabs on Top) although without most of the final UI this isn’t as useful as it could be.

Web-facing changes

• Support for WebM is included with this build. (Try an example video on Youtube.)
• When viewing HTML5 videos in full screen, we now use hardware acceleration for Windows (DX9) and Macs (OpenGL).
• This is the first release of any browser that has proper support for parsing HTML5 according to the specification.
• This build has early support for some HTML5 forms.
• We now support the FormData interface, part of XHR level 2 spec.
• We now support a Mozilla-specific CSS selector: -moz-any. Please see the post for examples, but this will be very useful in HTML5 contexts.
• We now do Lazy Frame Construction which can vastly improve the performance of complex pages that add large numbers of elements to a page.
• Lots of new JavaScript performance improvements have been made.

Platform Changes

• An updated about:memory page shows you how memory is being consumed in the browser. This will improve with later updates to give even more useful data and cover more internal memory pools.
• On the Mac we now support the Cocoa event model for NPAPI plugins. This is used by Flash 10.1 and the new Java plugin from Apple.
• ChromeWorkers with jscytpes is now supported.

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Please note: the Thunderbird 3.1 Release Candidate 2 is a public preview release intended for developer testing and community feedback. It includes several new features as well as improvements to performance, memory, password handling, and the upgrade process. We recommend that you read the release notes and known issues before installing this release candidate.

The Thunderbird 3.1 Release Candidate 2 is now available for download. This milestone is focused on providing a preview of the functionality provided by the new features and changes that will be included in Thunderbird 3.1.

New features in Thunderbird 3.1 that require feedback include:

• New Quick Filter toolbar
• New Migration Assistant
• Saved Files Manager
• Several fixes to improve upgrading from Thunderbird 2
• Several design improvements and corrections to the interface
• Stability, memory, and password handling improvements

Testers can download Thunderbird 3.1 Release Candidate 2 builds for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux in 46 different languages. Developers should also read the Thunderbird 3.1 for Developers article on the Mozilla Developer Center.

Note: Please do not link directly to the download site. Instead we strongly encourage you to link to this Thunderbird 3.1 Release Candidate 2 milestone announcement so that everyone will know what this milestone is, what they should expect, and who should be downloading to participate in testing at this stage of development.

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The release candidate build of Firefox 3.6.4 is now available for download and public testing. This version fixes issues found in the previous beta of Firefox 3.6.4. If no issues are found during testing this build will be officially released as Firefox 3.6.4 final in the coming weeks.

Users who have already downloaded or opted in to previous betas should receive the latest beta as an automatic update. If you did not download the previous beta and would like to help us test this release, please download the latest Firefox 3.6.4 beta from mozilla.com.

For general information about Firefox 3.6.4 and the uninterrupted browsing feature, please see the previous beta announcement.

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With Firefox 4 coming soon, we will be finding a lot of new hacks, interface customizations and more we can do to make Firefox more personalized to our own needs.  So, with that said, I thought it might be fun to look back at some of the most popular hacks for Firefox 3.5 and up to give you all one last chance to try them out before Firefox 4 changes the game again.

How to Disable the New Tab Button

For some people out there, the new tab button on the tab toolbar was a waste of space.  By editing your userChrome.css file, you can easily remove it.

Speed Up Flash Videos (like YouTube)

Want to speed up your flash video watching?  By default, Firefox takes a sort of “snapshot” of whatever you are doing every ten seconds.  Why?  It is so that the browser can restore itself, just in case of a crash. With a little about:config tweak you can speed up the videos you are watching on YouTube and other video sharing websites.

Quicker Route to Private Browsing

Yes, we did finally get a way to enable private browsing in Firefox.  The problem is, it is a pain to enable!  Well, to save you a few clicks, I figured out a way you can start private browsing mode in Firefox from within the awesome address bar.

Move the Close Tab Button

In an effort to simplify the Firefox interface, did you know you can make a few changes in the about:config page to move the close tab buttons around?  I’ll show you how to move it to the far right of the browser, in just six easy steps.

Enable the Visual Tab Switcher

With Firefox 3.6’s release, we can all do a quick about:config tweak that will enable the prettier tab switching.  By default, when you hit the keyboard keys Ctrl + Tab you just rotate through your tabs.  By making some quick adjustments though, you can pull up the new tab switcher that you see in the picture above.

Make New Tab Pages Open in the Far Right of the Tab Bar

New to Firefox 3.6, when you are on a page, and you want to open a link in a new tab – rather than opening the link in the far right of the tab bar, Firefox will now open the link right next to the tab you are in.  Now, while this might be convenient for some, it is a feature I don’t really need.  Now, let us put things back the way they were.

Change the Firefox Spell Check Font Format

Want to make your misspelled words stand out a ‘bit more when composing a message in Firefox?  It is easy to do with this quick about:config tweak.  You can select no highlighting, a dotted line, long dots, a single straight line, a double underline or the default squiggly line.

I hope you enjoyed this collection of classic Firefox 3.5+ interface hacks and tweaks you can do to make the browser a little more customized to your own browsing needs.  Have another favorite customization tip I might have missed?  Leave it in the comments!

Add me on Twitter! Come follow my daily antics, links, tips and more @mitchkeeler on Twitter!

© Mitch Keeler 2010 | Check out my personal blog and my hosting podcast too!

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The Latest Study

Today, we are excited to announce our next Test Pilot study, the first as part of the larger Feedback initiative of the Firefox 4 Beta program. Look out for the Firefox 4 Beta Interface Study in the next few days and see below for more information, including ways you can get involved!

This study will explore the ways users interact with the Firefox menu bar, Firefox button (on Windows Vista and 7), and toolbar controls in the main window. By understanding how users commonly interact with these controls, we will be able to streamline and simplify the user interface in Firefox 4 Beta. The aggregated, anonymous data you provide by participating in this study will directly help improve our next version of Firefox.

Test Champions:

• Alex Faaborg, Principal Designer, Firefox UX.
• Cheng Wang, Firefox Beta Support Lead.

Test Duration: 7 days

Get Involved!

• If you are running Firefox 4 Beta, you are already part of the Feedback initiative and the Test Pilot program. You don’t need to do anything else to participate in the study. The Feedback Add-On will notify you before the study starts, at which point you can view a detailed study description and choose to opt-out of the study if you wish. For more information on how Test Pilot in Firefox 4 beta works, please see the “How it Will Work” section here.
• If you are not running Firefox 4 Beta, what are you waiting for? Help test the future of Firefox by downloading the latest Firefox 4 Beta!
• This study is designed to capture usage of the Firefox 4 interface, so if you are a Test Pilot Add-On user not running Firefox 4 Beta, we invite you to get on the latest beta to participate in this study. As a Test-Pilot user, you’ll still have the ability to run the study, but some items may not record correctly. If do choose to join the study and submit your data, we’ll simply separate your data into a different bucket.
• And of course, please share your questions and suggestions in the Test Pilot discussion group or on Twitter .

Privacy

As always, security and privacy are priorities when Mozilla is dealing with user data. All privacy settings that the Test Pilot program has developed to give users control over their data will remain the same for the Feedback Add-On in Firefox 4 Beta. These include:

• Participants’ data will be transmitted to Mozilla only when they take all of the following actions:
  * Join the Firefox 4 Beta program by downloading the beta with the Feedback Add-On.
  * Submit data when the test is finished. Participants will be able to review all data before choosing whether or not to submit it.
• Test data will be stored anonymously and in aggregate. None of it will be publicly associated with any personally identifiable information.
• Participants can quit a Test Pilot study before they submit any test data.
• Participants can opt-out from all user studies or disable the Feedback Add-On itself at any time. Learn more.

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