8 ms·

Firefox 5 Beta is available for download

78 points by Garbage 15y ago

ujjvala 15y ago
Use it if you want break all the working addons for nothing.
- freakwit 15y ago
  The list of bugfixes is hardly nothing: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/5.0beta/releasenotes/buglist.html http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/5.0beta/releasenotes/bu...
  - wisty 15y ago
    Still, there's no reason to break bugfixes. Heck, a lot of them still work, if you flag some "developer mode", but you don't need to do that in Chrome. Who care's if Mozilla has more extensions? They cause too much trouble when you upgrade.
    - ZoFreX 15y ago
      I don't think it really counts as an "upgrade" if you opt-in to a beta.
      - lurker19 15y ago
        True, but unless FF adds a "re-version-tag my addons based on feedback from testers" feature, we will get bitten when FF5 final comes out and disables all existing deployed extensions.
        gmac 15y ago
        In actual fact, they've changed the process so this generally won't happen: http://blog.mozilla.com/addons/2011/04/19/add-on-compatibility-rapid-releases/ http://blog.mozilla.com/addons/2011/04/19/add-on-compatibili...
    - colincsl 15y ago
      "Who care's if Mozilla has more extensions? They cause too much trouble when you upgrade." Exactly. I switched to Chrome because of this and Chrome's better (less buggy!) Sync features.
    - jokermatt999 15y ago
      Who care's if Mozilla has more extensions? They cause too much trouble when you upgrade. I do. TreeStyleTab and Pentadactyl essentially change Firefox into a different browser that I much prefer. There's nothing like that on Chrome, and until they get better capabilities for extension writing, there won't be. The day when they have working full replacements (not Vimium and the mediocre sidetabs option), I'll happily switch to Chrome, but until then I'll take having my nice customized browser.
- nothis 15y ago
  This was with FF3, I think, but I once managed to over-write all my bookmarks with the temp ones from doing a separate install for a beta. Probably "my fault" on some level, but it still sucked. I have an aversion to trying out betas since then.
  - lurker19 15y ago
    Not your fault, but that is a risk of using a Beta (before Google hijacked the term to mean "Upgrades are Planned"). Bugs like what you saw are flagged as high-importance "data loss" bugs, and FF has gotten better about avoiding those, even in pre-release builds, since the bad old days of accidentally deleting non-FF data from your home folder.
    - lukeschlather 15y ago
      I've used the same profile on my primary computer for something like 5 years, across a migration from Windows to Ubuntu, and a few times when I've had too much time on my hands and ran minefield/betas for a month now and again. They were unstable, but I never corrupted my profile.
- trezor 15y ago
  None of my extensions are broken or disabled so far. I can totally see your scepticism and where you are coming from though. With the update from FF3.x to FF4 it was all hell with extensions and it has been like that between previous major versions as well. Just thought I'd report that for my (somewhat meager) selection of addons, I haven't found anything auto-disabled or crashing yet.
nodata 15y ago
Why do we have version 5 already?
- robin_reala 15y ago
  Firefox is moving to a more Chrome-style of version numbering, to try and get enhancements out to the web quicker.
  - wisty 15y ago
    Or to try and get more free cake from the IE team ;)
  - afhof 15y ago
    If I wanted Chrome features, I'd download Chrome. The reason I use FF is /because/ I don't want to use Chrome. If FF just copies from other browsers, why have FF at all?
    - robryan 15y ago
      You could also turn that around and say why have chrome at all. Chrome may be implementing some things first now but for most of the time it has been the other way around.
    - joshz 15y ago
      It's about faster release cycles not copying features.
      - jonathansizz 15y ago
        That doesn't explain why we have Firefox 5 rather than 4.1. It must be that the Mozilla marketers were worried that the major version numbers were too low compared to Chrome and IE, so by bumping them up every few months they can catch up! I'm so impressed!
        lurker19 15y ago
joubert 15y ago
IndexedDB?
kia 15y ago
Actually the first beta of FF5 is available for almost a month on their ftp here ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/5.0b1/
- asadotzler 15y ago
  That wasn't really a real beta. that was simply a copy of then Aurora to the beta channel to test the process and the channel switching utility in Firefox.
eiji 15y ago
Hm, still no win64 build available. I mean they don't have to promote it through their website, just put it on the ftp. Take advantage of the dev-channel for some testing. Yeah, I know, I don't need Flash ...
cemerick 15y ago
The state of PDF support in Firefox on OS X has me stuck at FF 3.6, and it doesn't look like that'll be changing for a while (unless I want to experiment with random xpi's and running FF 4+ in 32-bit mode, etc). Until that's resolved, all the fancy CSS tweaks in the world won't mean a hoot.
- randallsquared 15y ago
  On OS X, there's possibly the best PDF viewer ever, in Preview. I'm curious why you'd want so strongly to avoid using it?
  - m_eiman 15y ago
    I prefer opening a PDF in a tab until I've had a chance to see if it's something I want to keep. With download-and-open-in-Preview I'm filling up my Downloaded Files folder with a lot of PDFs that I don't want to keep, and I'll have to delete them manually.
    - cemerick 15y ago
      Indeed, I'm surprised this had to be said.
      - timtadh 15y ago
        As a linux user I am surprised. When I download to open in my reader the pdfs go into /tmp. This is fine, because since /tmp is a ramfs it just goes away when I turn off my computer. If I want it I just save it to a permanent location.
        randallsquared 15y ago
        Unlike m_eiman and cemerick, I regard dumping debris into my Downloads folder as a feature. I basically never clean it out; it's just a convenience place to keep stuff that I have a low probability of ever wanting again, auto-sorted by how likely I am to want it (most recent first, in other words). Since I almost never bother with more than the first few items in the stack display of Downloads, it didn't occur to me that cleaning it out might be a chore, or even desirable.
sapper2 15y ago
Unless they have the quick, silent updates of Chrome AND the (so far) perfect quality control of Chrome, these quick releases do more harm then good.
- dpcan 15y ago
  I JUST downloaded FF4 and now I see 5 is coming out. Version-less updates of browsers makes sense, and they should be seamlessly, silently, updated in the back-ground. This is getting crazy. I install Firefox for friends and family who I want off IE, and this actually embarrasses me a little. If I have to keep telling them to update, they will quit - or end up using REALLY OLD versions of Firefox and we'll have an IE6 situation all over again soon but with Firefox. I'm starting to install Chrome now. At least I can say that their browser will always update, and they have nothing to worry about.
  - jcitme 15y ago
    if Firefox 17 came out 3 months ago and we are currently on Firefox 20, I don't think that's any less secure than running 3.6.5 when 3.6.7 came out...
  - code_duck 15y ago
    Firefox has always done a good job of handling updates. It is not in the background, but it is painless and automatic once you agree to upgrade. It will never be anything like IE6 - how many people do you see using Firefox 2? or even 3.0? The upgrade to 5 isn't much different than going from 3.8 to 3.16. Mainly, they've changed their numbering scheme, so there's no reason to make a big deal about it.
  - thomas11 15y ago
    Firefox 5 is not coming out. It's a beta. You shouldn't bother friends and family with it.
    - rsoto 15y ago
      Actually, my Firefox it's advicing me to update. And I'm not on the nightly, developer or beta channel.
cfinke 15y ago
When a new version of Firefox comes out, I always like to find the oldest bug that it fixes. It looks like the winner this time is a 12-year-old bug affecting MathML: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=21479 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=21479 Also fixed is this 7-year-old bug that has annoyed me for years: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=254714 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=254714 (When you open a link in a new tab, the new page's URL doesn't appear in the Location Bar until the page loads.)
- nickknw 15y ago
  Wow, thanks for pointing out that second one. That's bugged me for some time too!

78 points by Garbage 15y ago

ujjvala 15y ago

Use it if you want break all the working addons for nothing.

freakwit 15y ago
The list of bugfixes is hardly nothing: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/5.0beta/releasenotes/buglist.html http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/5.0beta/releasenotes/bu...
- wisty 15y ago
  Still, there's no reason to break bugfixes. Heck, a lot of them still work, if you flag some "developer mode", but you don't need to do that in Chrome. Who care's if Mozilla has more extensions? They cause too much trouble when you upgrade.
  - ZoFreX 15y ago
    I don't think it really counts as an "upgrade" if you opt-in to a beta.
    - lurker19 15y ago
      True, but unless FF adds a "re-version-tag my addons based on feedback from testers" feature, we will get bitten when FF5 final comes out and disables all existing deployed extensions.
      - gmac 15y ago
        In actual fact, they've changed the process so this generally won't happen: http://blog.mozilla.com/addons/2011/04/19/add-on-compatibility-rapid-releases/ http://blog.mozilla.com/addons/2011/04/19/add-on-compatibili...
  - colincsl 15y ago
    "Who care's if Mozilla has more extensions? They cause too much trouble when you upgrade." Exactly. I switched to Chrome because of this and Chrome's better (less buggy!) Sync features.
  - jokermatt999 15y ago
    Who care's if Mozilla has more extensions? They cause too much trouble when you upgrade. I do. TreeStyleTab and Pentadactyl essentially change Firefox into a different browser that I much prefer. There's nothing like that on Chrome, and until they get better capabilities for extension writing, there won't be. The day when they have working full replacements (not Vimium and the mediocre sidetabs option), I'll happily switch to Chrome, but until then I'll take having my nice customized browser.
nothis 15y ago
This was with FF3, I think, but I once managed to over-write all my bookmarks with the temp ones from doing a separate install for a beta. Probably "my fault" on some level, but it still sucked. I have an aversion to trying out betas since then.
- lurker19 15y ago
  Not your fault, but that is a risk of using a Beta (before Google hijacked the term to mean "Upgrades are Planned"). Bugs like what you saw are flagged as high-importance "data loss" bugs, and FF has gotten better about avoiding those, even in pre-release builds, since the bad old days of accidentally deleting non-FF data from your home folder.
  - lukeschlather 15y ago
    I've used the same profile on my primary computer for something like 5 years, across a migration from Windows to Ubuntu, and a few times when I've had too much time on my hands and ran minefield/betas for a month now and again. They were unstable, but I never corrupted my profile.
trezor 15y ago
None of my extensions are broken or disabled so far. I can totally see your scepticism and where you are coming from though. With the update from FF3.x to FF4 it was all hell with extensions and it has been like that between previous major versions as well. Just thought I'd report that for my (somewhat meager) selection of addons, I haven't found anything auto-disabled or crashing yet.

nodata 15y ago

Why do we have version 5 already?

robin_reala 15y ago
Firefox is moving to a more Chrome-style of version numbering, to try and get enhancements out to the web quicker.
- wisty 15y ago
  Or to try and get more free cake from the IE team ;)
- afhof 15y ago
  If I wanted Chrome features, I'd download Chrome. The reason I use FF is /because/ I don't want to use Chrome. If FF just copies from other browsers, why have FF at all?
  - robryan 15y ago
    You could also turn that around and say why have chrome at all. Chrome may be implementing some things first now but for most of the time it has been the other way around.
  - joshz 15y ago
    It's about faster release cycles not copying features.
    - jonathansizz 15y ago
      That doesn't explain why we have Firefox 5 rather than 4.1. It must be that the Mozilla marketers were worried that the major version numbers were too low compared to Chrome and IE, so by bumping them up every few months they can catch up! I'm so impressed!
      - lurker19 15y ago

joubert 15y ago

IndexedDB?

kia 15y ago

Actually the first beta of FF5 is available for almost a month on their ftp here ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/5.0b1/

asadotzler 15y ago
That wasn't really a real beta. that was simply a copy of then Aurora to the beta channel to test the process and the channel switching utility in Firefox.

eiji 15y ago

Hm, still no win64 build available. I mean they don't have to promote it through their website, just put it on the ftp. Take advantage of the dev-channel for some testing. Yeah, I know, I don't need Flash ...

cemerick 15y ago

The state of PDF support in Firefox on OS X has me stuck at FF 3.6, and it doesn't look like that'll be changing for a while (unless I want to experiment with random xpi's and running FF 4+ in 32-bit mode, etc). Until that's resolved, all the fancy CSS tweaks in the world won't mean a hoot.

randallsquared 15y ago
On OS X, there's possibly the best PDF viewer ever, in Preview. I'm curious why you'd want so strongly to avoid using it?
- m_eiman 15y ago
  I prefer opening a PDF in a tab until I've had a chance to see if it's something I want to keep. With download-and-open-in-Preview I'm filling up my Downloaded Files folder with a lot of PDFs that I don't want to keep, and I'll have to delete them manually.
  - cemerick 15y ago
    Indeed, I'm surprised this had to be said.
    - timtadh 15y ago
      As a linux user I am surprised. When I download to open in my reader the pdfs go into /tmp. This is fine, because since /tmp is a ramfs it just goes away when I turn off my computer. If I want it I just save it to a permanent location.
      - randallsquared 15y ago
        Unlike m_eiman and cemerick, I regard dumping debris into my Downloads folder as a feature. I basically never clean it out; it's just a convenience place to keep stuff that I have a low probability of ever wanting again, auto-sorted by how likely I am to want it (most recent first, in other words). Since I almost never bother with more than the first few items in the stack display of Downloads, it didn't occur to me that cleaning it out might be a chore, or even desirable.

sapper2 15y ago

Unless they have the quick, silent updates of Chrome AND the (so far) perfect quality control of Chrome, these quick releases do more harm then good.

dpcan 15y ago
I JUST downloaded FF4 and now I see 5 is coming out. Version-less updates of browsers makes sense, and they should be seamlessly, silently, updated in the back-ground. This is getting crazy. I install Firefox for friends and family who I want off IE, and this actually embarrasses me a little. If I have to keep telling them to update, they will quit - or end up using REALLY OLD versions of Firefox and we'll have an IE6 situation all over again soon but with Firefox. I'm starting to install Chrome now. At least I can say that their browser will always update, and they have nothing to worry about.
- jcitme 15y ago
  if Firefox 17 came out 3 months ago and we are currently on Firefox 20, I don't think that's any less secure than running 3.6.5 when 3.6.7 came out...
- code_duck 15y ago
  Firefox has always done a good job of handling updates. It is not in the background, but it is painless and automatic once you agree to upgrade. It will never be anything like IE6 - how many people do you see using Firefox 2? or even 3.0? The upgrade to 5 isn't much different than going from 3.8 to 3.16. Mainly, they've changed their numbering scheme, so there's no reason to make a big deal about it.
- thomas11 15y ago
  Firefox 5 is not coming out. It's a beta. You shouldn't bother friends and family with it.
  - rsoto 15y ago
    Actually, my Firefox it's advicing me to update. And I'm not on the nightly, developer or beta channel.

cfinke 15y ago

When a new version of Firefox comes out, I always like to find the oldest bug that it fixes. It looks like the winner this time is a 12-year-old bug affecting MathML: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=21479 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=21479 Also fixed is this 7-year-old bug that has annoyed me for years: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=254714 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=254714 (When you open a link in a new tab, the new page's URL doesn't appear in the Location Bar until the page loads.)

nickknw 15y ago
Wow, thanks for pointing out that second one. That's bugged me for some time too!