firefox 29 " release candidate build 1 " final released

[hclarkjr]

ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/29.0-candidates/build1/win32/en-US/Firefox Setup 29.0.exe


New Features

• New Malay [ma] locale added
• New Gamepad API finalized and enabled (learn more)
• New The ability to set up Firefox Sync by creating a Firefox account (learn more)
• New A redesigned and improved customization mode
• New An interactive onboarding tour to guide users through new interface changes
• New A set of new improvements to the Firefox user interface (learn more)
• Changed navigator.plugins is no longer enumerable, for user privacy
• Changed Clicking on a W3C Web Notification will switch to the originating tab
• Developer Enabled ECMAScript Internationalization API
• Developer 'box-sizing' (dropping the -moz- prefix) implemented
• Developer SharedWorker enabled by default
• Developer Console object available in Web Workers
• Developer Promises enabled by default
• Developer Add-on bar has been removed, content moved to navigation bar
• Developer <input type="number"> implemented and enabled
• Developer <input type="color"> implemented and enabled

 

[hclarkjr]

so far no big deal for me with the new look. installed fine and all my extensions works fine. and before somebody asks this is not the final. that is due out the 27th of this month.

 

[Morbus]

Removed the ability to customize the toolbar...
Removed all additional toolbars...
Decreased the room for tabs by rounding their borders...

Think I'll be staying back...

 

[lxskllr]

Removed the ability to customize the toolbar...
Removed all additional toolbars...
Decreased the room for tabs by rounding their borders...

Think I'll be staying back...

ClassicThemeRestorer goes a long way towards righting the wrongs. I'm irritated that it now takes an addon to replace what was formerly builtin, but I have it setup acceptably well for my preferences.

 

[PliotronX]

Classic Shell goes a long way towards righting the wrongs. I'm irritated that it now takes an addon to replace what was formerly builtin, but I have it setup acceptably well for my preferences.

Amazing how this parallels the direction a certain OS went...

 

[heymrdj]

Is firefox just going to a monthly new version now? I feel like the whole version number thing is out there to make some programmers feel really good about themselves. I mean seriously at this rate we will be at Firefox 100 before 2020.

Either way upgraded.

 

[lxskllr]

Amazing how this parallels the direction a certain OS went...

How soon they forget...

I was just reading a history of guis in computing. Looks relevant...

These were the critical years in which Microsoft cemented its desktop dominance and relegated Apple to niche markets. At least one lesson for today's GUI designers should be clear: never neglect the Rule of Reality! Apple's artistic vision of a clean, consistent, almost flawlessly integrated GUI lost over 90% market share to a design that was far messier and more contingent, but ruthlessly customer-focused.

http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taouu/html/ch02s08.html

 

[C1]

Yup, the difference between "Total Quality" and "Strategic Quality"

Not ALL facets of a product are important to a customer/buyer.

Ever heard of throw away paint brushes or throw away rubber gloves ?

 

[code65536]

One way to avoid the new UI is to switch to Firefox ESR, which is still v24, and will remain supported until after v32. Hopefully, that's enough time for Mozilla to cave into the backlash.

(I'm actually more annoyed that newer post-24 versions of Firefox broke extensions to preserve the last-modified times of downloaded files, which is an issue that Pale Moon does not address.)


(When you download a file, the server usually sends along the file's last-modified timestamp. Most browsers choose to ignore this, and thus the file you downloaded has a last-modified time of whenever the download completed. This really, really annoys me. The file's creation timestamp (and you can turn on the display and sorting of creation times in Explorer) already reflects the file's download time, so why not make the last modified time something useful instead of having it be yet another indicator of download time? Well, a feature was requested to preserve the file modification time, and it actually made it into Firefox briefly, but a few very vocal users complained because they were used to finding recent downloads by a file's last-modified and protested at having to use a file's creation time instead. So that feature was backed out and put into an extension. Which broke some time after Firefox 24 because of changes to the download API that made this sort of thing impossible to do with an extension.)

 

[VirtualLarry]

(When you download a file, the server usually sends along the file's last-modified timestamp. Most browsers choose to ignore this, and thus the file you downloaded has a last-modified time of whenever the download completed. This really, really annoys me. The file's creation timestamp (and you can turn on the display and sorting of creation times in Explorer) already reflects the file's download time, so why not make the last modified time something useful instead of having it be yet another indicator of download time? Well, a feature was requested to preserve the file modification time, and it actually made it into Firefox briefly, but a few very vocal users complained because they were used to finding recent downloads by a file's last-modified and protested at having to use a file's creation time instead. So that feature was backed out and put into an extension. Which broke some time after Firefox 24 because of changes to the download API that made this sort of thing impossible to do with an extension.)

LAME!!!

 

[GrumpyMan]

Did Ballmer get hired on at Mozilla or something?

 

[code65536]

LAME!!!

To be fair, I should've said "all browsers" instead of "most browsers". At least Firefox had (until recently) the ability to behave "correctly" via an extension. If using any other browser, the last modified timestamp will always be lost no matter what.

 

[bruceb]

I think I will stay with the nice UI of FF28 with the Firefox 3 Theme installed .. Is there a simple way to test the new Firefox without destroying the old one ? If I install it to a thumb drive, does it behave the same way as a standard installation ? Never tried to install two versions at the same time with Firefox.

 

[Morbus]

To be fair, I should've said "all browsers" instead of "most browsers". At least Firefox had (until recently) the ability to behave "correctly" via an extension. If using any other browser, the last modified timestamp will always be lost no matter what.

I use DownThemAll! And it preserves the last modified timestamp.

It's not something that I mind at all, but if you're not using DownThemAll!, you're doing it wrong, however you look at it.

 

[rpjkw11]

I'm running Win 7 with Firefox 27 (I think). Anyway, when I would download something a popup window will ask if I want to save the file. I USED to get a green arrow on the left side of the toolbar indicating the D/L status, files downloaded, and allowing installation. Now the arrow does not appear so I can't simply click and install. Now I have to search to find and activate. Right now there is NO indication a file is even downloading! How do I restore the arrow for easy installation?????

Sorry if this is confusing, but I do thank ya'll for any help or advice.

Bob

 

[mikeymikec]

Out of curiosity, I downloaded it.

Hey, it's Google Chrome!

Adding the menu bar back looks even more butt-ugly than it did in previous versions. Why didn't they do a Firefox button style menu bar, it would have made a lot more sense if they're going to try and jam it right into the corner like that.

The replacement for the Firefox button, despite being in a non-intuitive position ("hey guys, where should we put a load of essential options?" "I know, let's put a completely non-descript button next to all the other buttons despite it being a 'one button to rule them all' button!"), actually presents its options nicely IMO. However, I don't really need a finger-paint interface to get around.

My decision to migrate to Pale Moon a few versions ago looks like a good one, IMO. I used to install add-ons for FF to work around the latest bone-headed UI decisions, but frankly I'm tired of their increasing desire to throw customisability to the winds, one of the reasons why I had used FF for so long (and one of the reasons why I changed from the Mozilla Suite to FF back in those days).

Who the hell is in charge of Firefox development these days? They've gone from a load of techies trying to build a decent and better alternative to IE while very much doing their own thing in terms of UI design to "it's got to look super sleek and friendly and copy the living daylights out of the competition". There was also a time when the Firefox installer was a quarter of the size of IE's!

I think I will stay with the nice UI of FF28 with the Firefox 3 Theme installed .. Is there a simple way to test the new Firefox without destroying the old one ?

Wait for it to arrive on portableapps.com?

 

[code65536]

Who the hell is in charge of Firefox development these days?

Starting around the time of Firefox 3, Mozilla had enough resources to start to hire UI designers. People whose education and specialization was in design and user experience. People who, for the most part, don't code. Before that, the UI was put together mostly by coders. As a coder with limited UI/UX design experience, I personally don't like the direction that it's taken since then. But I guess there are people who do.

That seems to be a general trend these days, perhaps in response to all the design kudos that Apple gets, for various tech concerns to hire design people to make their products look nicer. Maybe I'm just a crusty old curmudgeon, but I liked it back when engineers did the design, because, ultimately, I see beauty in utility.

 

[ninaholic37]

Who the hell is in charge of Firefox development these days?

Google, probably.

"Now that we're in charge of Firefox, let's change it to look just like Chrome, then we'll just drop Firefox support so they won't miss anything, and everyone will move to Chrome. And lets spam everywhere on the web and Flash and everything else to force everyone to download Chrome too. Brilliant!". :twisted:

 

[mikeymikec]

I think UI design (in the software world in general), was slowing down a bit (which, if it gets stuck in a rut, is a bad thing), and touch-screen interfaces caused designers to have a rethink (which is a good thing), but then a new rut formed in virtually no time at all.

 

[Morbus]

I don't think there's a design issue with Firefox Australis.

The issue is the direction it's going. The design itself is pretty solid, way more solid than I've ever seen Firefox be in that department. The problem is the direction, and that direction is called chromification and irrelevance.

I started using Firefox back in 1.0 because of the tabs and because of the extensions. And I kept using it because it was my browser, fine tuned to my specific needs and my specific practices. It still is. But Firefox isn't designed with that in mind anymore. Their motto went from the very appropriated "Take back the web" to the meaningless "Different by design". Seriously? The only thing different about Firefox is the search bar (thank GOD) and we all know, sooner or later, even that is gonna take the axe. I really don't see a bright future for Firefox. I'd be willing to be money that, in one way or another, in five years, Firefox is gonna be without real extensions, real themes, tab groups, search bar and all the good things it has at the moment. All the while it's being dumbed down and growing in size and footprint.

 

[Ranulf]

So this is Mozilla's take on Chrome and Safari? I guess I really will be switching to Pale Moon full time.

 

[smakme7757]

I installed it and it looks just like Chrome. I mean the menu button is more or less exactly the same. I'm disappointed. Why change the UI to look like the competitors?

Meh, maybe I'll just install Chrome if Firefox it just going to play copy cat. Might as well go to the source rather than a cheap knockoff.

 

[jobz]

I think I will stay with the nice UI of FF28 with the Firefox 3 Theme installed .. Is there a simple way to test the new Firefox without destroying the old one ? If I install it to a thumb drive, does it behave the same way as a standard installation ? Never tried to install two versions at the same time with Firefox.

Here you go, http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable/test

You may also want to install following addons to get back old UI before pointless redesign:

Classic Theme Restorer
Classic Toolbar Buttons
Classic Bookmarks Button

They're not perfect, though. Every time you notice a discrepancy, you become a little angrier, why the f*ck am I wasting time fixing something that don't need fixing.

 

[nemesismk2]

I installed it and it looks just like Chrome. I mean the menu button is more or less exactly the same. I'm disappointed. Why change the UI to look like the competitors?

Meh, maybe I'll just install Chrome if Firefox it just going to play copy cat. Might as well go to the source rather than a cheap knockoff.

I also think that firefox is now just copying google chrome but without gogle chrome speed. if i had wanted to use google chrome then i would be using google chrome instead of firefox lol

 

[bruceb]

Personally, I do not care what the software engineers do with Firefox "under the hood"
My gripe is about not letting users easily customize the look. Me personally, I like the Firefox 3 look and in FF28 use a theme called: Firefox 3 Theme For Firefox 4+ Reloaded! 3.0.4.1 .. Firefox says it doesn't work in FF28, but it does. Gives me a nice simple clean UI .. Firefox should put the old theme option back in for those of us that want a nice clean interface. And for those that want it to look like Chrome or Windows 8 (tablet look) give them that choice.