firefox 4 beta 7 released

[hclarkjr]

http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/moz....0b7/win32/en-US/Firefox Setup 4.0 Beta 7.exe

What's new (from the release notes):

• Uses JägerMonkey, a new, faster JavaScript engine
• WebGL is enabled by default on Windows and Mac OS X. WebGL support requires an OpenGL-capable graphics
  card. Support for other graphics cards on Windows (specifically Intel GPUs) and Linux will be coming in a future beta
• Certain rendering operations are now hardware-accelerated using Direct3D 9 on Windows XP, Direct3D 10 on Windows Vista and 7, and OpenGL on Mac OS X
• Improved web typography using OpenType with support for ligatures, kerning and font variants
• HTML5 Forms API makes web based forms easier to implement and validate

Some other significant changes (taken from Burning edge)

• 61098 - Allow aborting modal alert() loops in javascript.
• 544816 - Attach combined Stop/Go/Refresh button to the Location Bar.
• 492544 - Add 'Paste and Go' + 'Paste and Search' to context menu on location field + search field.
• 587908 - On hyperlink hover, display the target in the location bar.
• 574688 - Replace the status bar with the addon bar.
• 602964 - new deterministic throbbers (remove progress line added after beta 6; add new connecting and loading tab icons).
• 575561 - App tabs: external links should open in new tabs instead of replacing the app tab's page.
• 603298 - Add Bing to the default en-US search plugins; remove Answers.com and CC.

could a mod please edit main thread title to say beta 7, it will not let me change it for some reason. thank you

 

[Chiefcrowe]

Thanks for the heads up! looks like they're moving fast on this one!

 

[hclarkjr]

when you install this beta does it take the place of firefox3 or is it separate install?

 

[Chiefcrowe]

It is a separate install. On my machine I have both on there.

 

[hclarkjr]

to bad their are no add ons for it yet. almost all of mine got disabled when i tried them

 

[hclarkjr]

not seeing much difference speed wise over 3.6.8, what is supposed to be the improvement with this?

 

[Chiefcrowe]

It does seem faster to me. there are a lot of changes you can read about on the site. A new javascript engine is also coming (i think it's called jaegermonkey) but I don't think it's been added to this build yet.

 

[hclarkjr]

i used it couple of hours this afternoon, to me it is not an improvement over 3.6.8 i am back running that now

 

[13Gigatons]

I like tab candy, that will be very useful.

 

[hclarkjr]

maybe once they get the extensions to work with it i will give it another look but till then....

 

[Modelworks]

Under windows 7 you can enable direct2d and directwrite to make use of the gpu in html5 video and other sites. Also improves speed quite a bit.

To enable D2D and DW support in Mozilla Minefield:

* Point your web browser to: about:config
* Agree to the warning message if presented
* Search for value: gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled
* Set gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled to true (left click it)
* Search for value: mozilla.widget.render-mode
* Set mozilla.widget.render-mode to 6
* Restart Minefield

 

[hclarkjr]

how many sites are using html5 currently?

 

[Modelworks]

how many sites are using html5 currently?

enabling directwrite also moves the font rendering, page scrolling, etc to the gpu
Google does for video on youtube and many sites have demo applications for drawing and other fun apps .

a few fun apps that require a FF4 or newer browsers some are html5 some are svg
http://physicsketch.appspot.com/
http://mugtug.com/sketchpad/
http://srufaculty.sru.edu/david.dailey/svg/balloon.svg
http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/

 

[hclarkjr]

Under windows 7 you can enable direct2d and directwrite to make use of the gpu in html5 video and other sites. Also improves speed quite a bit.

To enable D2D and DW support in Mozilla Minefield:

* Point your web browser to: about:config
* Agree to the warning message if presented
* Search for value: gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled
* Set gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled to true (left click it)
* Search for value: mozilla.widget.render-mode
* Set mozilla.widget.render-mode to 6
* Restart Minefield

wierd, yesterday when i tried it my theme i use was disabled now today when i try it is enabled. that did speed things up too, thanx for the tip

 

[hclarkjr]

even wierder is when i check the theme section it says my theme is disabled

 

[Chiefcrowe]

It also supports Multitouch in Windows 7 which is kind of cool if you have that.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/203127/firefox_4_now_with_multitouch.html

 

[hclarkjr]

only complaint i have is no ad blocker!! i hate ads!!

 

[Chiefcrowe]

They should be making it compatible soon, until then i guess we'll have to wait.

only complaint i have is no ad blocker!! i hate ads!!

 

[lxskllr]

only complaint i have is no ad blocker!! i hate ads!!

Adblock+ works. If you install the Add-on Compatibility Reporter from Mozilla, you can override version checking, and see if your addons work anyway.

 

[hclarkjr]

Adblock+ works. If you install the Add-on Compatibility Reporter from Mozilla, you can override version checking, and see if your addons work anyway.

thank you for tip!! got it to work, no more ads!!!

 

[lxskllr]

thank you for tip!! got it to work, no more ads!!!

:^)

A lot of my addons broke, but some work fine. Many worked in beta1, but broke in beta2. That can be expected on a major version release. I always block compatibility checking, and this as been the worst release as far as compatibility goes. You can usually expect some themes to break, but this is the first time I've had major addon breakage. Not a big deal. I'm sure the big players will have their stuff right for release. I do have some concerns for a couple of my small time addons.

 

[hclarkjr]

my main ones are ad block+, stylish, no script and my theme i use. now that they are all working i am good to go.

 

[KeypoX]

Adblock+ works. If you install the Add-on Compatibility Reporter from Mozilla, you can override version checking, and see if your addons work anyway.

worked for me thanks, adblock and fast dial working.

 

[KeypoX]

hey does anyone know how to bring back the peak feature for all the tabs on beta 3? Beta 1 and 2 had it but it seems beta 3 does not

I assume its somewhere in about:config ?

just starting working again but would like to know where it is in about:config

 

[Fayd]

thank you for tip!! got it to work, no more ads!!!

the adblock+ dev builds always worked.