firefox

Here's what's new in Firefox 1.5 Beta 1:

* Automated update to streamline product upgrades. Notification of an update is more prominent, and updates to Firefox may now be half a megabyte or smaller. Updating extensions has also improved.

* Faster browser navigation with improvements to back and forward button performance.

* Drag and drop reordering for browser tabs.

* Improvements to popup blocking.

* Clear Private Data feature provides an easy way to quickly remove personal data through a menu item or keyboard shortcut.

* Answers.com is added to the search engine list.

* Improvements to product usability including descriptive error pages, redesigned options menu, RSS discovery, and "Safe Mode" experience.

* Better accessibility including support for DHTML accessibility and assistive technologies such as the Window-Eyes 5.5 beta screen reader for Microsoft Windows. Screen readers read aloud all available information in applications and documents or show the information on a Braille display, enabling blind and visually impaired users to use equivalent software functionality as their sighted peers.

* Report a broken Web site wizard to report Web sites that are not working in Firefox.

* Better support for Mac OS X (10.2 and greater) including profile migration from Safari and Mac Internet Explorer.

* New support for Web Standards including SVG, CSS 2 and CSS 3, and JavaScript 1.6.

* Many security enhancements.

* List of notable bug fixes since Deer Park Alpha 2

According to the report, 25 vendor-confirmed vulnerabilities were disclosed for the Mozilla browsers during the first half of 2005, "the most of any browser studied," the report's authors stated. Eighteen of these flaws were classified as high severity.

"During the same period, 13 vendor-confirmed vulnerabilities were disclosed for IE, eight of which were high severity," the report noted.

Here is a break down of recent vulnerabilities:

Month Firefox 1.x Vulnerabilities IE 6.x Vulnerabilities
Sept 2005 - 1 - 0
Aug 2005 - 0 - 4
July 2005 - 10 - 1
June 2005 - 2 - 1
May 2005 - 3 - 1
Apr 2005 - 9 - 3
Mar 2005 - 15 - 0
Total - 40 - 10

Originally Posted by Renato

But Avant Browser gives me three columns of Favourites, so that I can locate them instantaneoulsy.

Can Firefox be configured to do the same?

Also, I've been puzzled with numerous reviewers raving about Tabbed Browsing in the last few years. In Internet Explorer, and hence in Avant, I right click on a link and click on Open in New Window. I can't see what's so different between this mode of operation and Tabbed Browsing.

Originally Posted by narcus

Have you used it ? My recent updates 1.07 caused me difficulties. Would love to rip the whole thing out and start anew with either 1.07 or 1.5 - any advice? Also I must not loose my passwords and messy favorites collection in the process. Is there an easy way to secure those?

Firefox 1.5 Release Candidate 3 is now available for download. This is the third release candidate of our next generation Firefox browser, to be released later this year, and it is being made available to our developer and testing community for compatibility testing and to solicit feedback.

A Better Web Experience
Firefox 1.5 has an intuitive interface and blocks viruses, spyware, and popup ads. It delivers web pages faster than ever. And its easy to install and import your favorites. Packed with useful features like tabbed browsing, Live Bookmarks, and an integrated Search bar, Firefox will change the way you experience the Web, for the better.

Faster Browsing
Enjoy quick page loading as you navigate back and forward in a browsing session. Improvements to the engine that powers Firefox deliver more accurate display of complex web sites, support for new Web standards, and better overall performance.

Automatic Updates
The new Software Update feature makes it easy to get the latest security and feature updates to Firefox. Firefox automatically downloads these small updates in the background and prompts you when they are ready to be installed.

Tabbed Browsing
Use tabbed browsing to open multiple web pages in a single browser window, and quickly flip back and forth. Drag and drop open tabs to keep related pages together.

Improved Pop-up Blocking
Firefoxs built-in pop-up blocker has been enhanced to block more unwanted pop-up and pop-under ads.

Integrated Search
Tap into the power of the Webs most popular search engines with the built-in Search bar, and easily add new engines.

Stronger Security
Firefox keeps you secure when youre browsing the Web, closing the door on spyware, worms, and viruses. The Firefox community of developers and security experts works around the clock to monitor security issues and release updates to better protect you.

Clear Private Data
Protect your privacy with the new Clear Private Data tool. With a single click, you can delete all personal data, including browsing history, cookies, web form entries and passwords.

[...]

Whether you're a first-time user or a veteran, this Firefox Tweak Guide brings together all the major tips, tricks and tweaks for Firefox. From the basic to the advanced, the following 11 pages of information are sure to enhance your Firefox experience. Most of all you can rest assured that the guide is not written by a raving Firefox fanboy - it's a true objective TweakGuides tweak guide, and not a gushing ad for a free web browser.

Fighting For Change

Engineers in the Browser and Toolkit groups were not happy with the way things were going. For my part, I began working on what would become known as the Classic theme a visual appearance that respected the system configuration and would later form the foundation of what would be Firefox's theme. Since I had little graphic design talent I used icons from Netscape 4. This became the default theme for Mozilla distributed releases, Netscape ultimately choosing to use its New Modern theme for Netscape 6. Several of us argued strenuously against this decision but were unsuccessful. In the eyes of reviewers, the alien appearance of Netscape 6 would be the straw that broke the camel's back. Suck.com, an early pop-culture review, wrote an article decrying the themed interface, using Netscape 6 as its prime example of the failure of theming.

While browsing the Tinderbox Builds on the Mozilla FTP server I found that they placed Firefox 2 Alpha 1 on there. A Tinderbox Build means that it may not be what gets released, but often it is. This was just placed on there today which makes sense because the code lockdown was last night.

If you decide that you dont want to try this Tinderbox Build then you can wait until Tuesday when the official Firefox 2 Alpha 1 will get released. There may or may not be some slight changes from the version that was released today and the version that will be released on Tuesday.

For those that are going to give this a whirl there is one thing that you definitely need to keep in mind and that is most of your extensions will not be compatible with this release!

I havent had much time to play around with it yet because I wanted to make sure I got these links posted so that other people can start to use it.

Firefox 1.5.0.2 provides native support for Macintosh with Intel Core processors, and stability and security enhancements that are part of our ongoing program to provide a safer Internet experience for our users. We recommend that all Firefox users upgrade to this latest version.

Here's what's new in Firefox 1.5.0.2:

* Universal Binary support for Mac OS X which provides native support for Macintosh with Intel Core processors. Firefox supports the enhancements to performance introduced by the new MacIntel chipsets.
* Improvements to product stability.
* Several security fixes.

Session restore. When you start Bon Echo after an unexpected closing such as killing it after a hang up (and it took quite a while considering it is just an alpha release) it will ask if you would like to restore your previous session. Accept and all the tabs you may have had opened will be restored.

Firefox 1.5.0.5 is a security update that is part of our ongoing program to provide a safe Internet experience for our customers. We recommend that all users upgrade to this latest version.

Whether you're a first-time user or a veteran, this Firefox Tweak Guide brings together all the major tips, tricks and tweaks for Firefox. From the basic to the advanced, the following 11 pages of information are sure to enhance your Firefox experience. Most of all you can rest assured that the guide is not written by a raving Firefox fanboy - it's a true objective TweakGuides tweak guide, and not a gushing ad for a free web browser. Go ahead and try it for yourself.