Mozilla Firefox 4.0 Beta 7 released!

Funky Doodle · **Mozilla Firefox 4.0 Beta 7 released! -** 11-11-2010, 12:17 | posts: 792

Change Log:

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

finally looks good!

cheesebeard- · 11-11-2010, 16:26 | posts: 3,401 | Location: New England - M@ss

Anyone know if there's a glasser plugin for Firefox 4? I find the default theme dull without it. I wish they had stuck to that concept they released awhile back before the beta came out.

tsunami231 · 11-11-2010, 19:56 | posts: 2,284 | Location: USA

I dont know what you mean by glasser theme, But I D/L FF 4 beta 7 and I sorta like it dont know if renders any faster then 3 as I just start using 4, not fond of alot my plug ins not working tho, but what can you do.

Kaleid · 11-11-2010, 22:03 | posts: 2,010 | Location: Sweden

To those who test this..are the fonts still a bit messed up when compared to FF3.x?

marantz69 · 11-11-2010, 22:19 | posts: 70 | Location: UK

Beta 7 is weeks old,Beta 8 has been out for a while now.

ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/ni...zilla-central/

cheesebeard- · 11-11-2010, 22:21 | posts: 3,401 | Location: New England - M@ss

Quote:

Originally Posted by marantz69

Beta 7 is weeks old,Beta 8 has been out for a while now.

ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/ni...zilla-central/

I think he meant Beta 8.

3x3cUt0r · 11-11-2010, 22:23 | posts: 319 | Location: Colombia

Beta 7 is the official release (they reached a milestone), b8 still a preview.

tsunami231 · 11-11-2010, 23:52 | posts: 2,284 | Location: USA

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaleid

To those who test this..are the fonts still a bit messed up when compared to FF3.x?

the text looks different compared to 3.x dont look messed up but look different like size or font is slightly different

BlueIce1 · *Last edited by BlueIce1; 11-12-2010 at 05:48.*

Quote:

Originally Posted by marantz69

Beta 7 is weeks old,Beta 8 has been out for a while now.

ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/ni...zilla-central/

Beta 7 was just released. What you linked to is pre beta8. These are known as nightly builds. Once all the beta 8 blockers are fixed then they split the build off the trunk, run though test and if the build past the test beta 8 will be released while the build for the trunk will change to I would assume pre beta 9.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaleid

To those who test this..are the fonts still a bit messed up when compared to FF3.x?

Text will be different due to different rendering from 3.X. It has to do with hardware acceleration with the graphics card. Text has improved from earlier betas though.

Finchwizard

They removed the status bar.

NOT COOL.

I don't mind some design changes, but don't change things like the status bar. You can't even change it back. There were massive arguments over changing it yet they still did it.

Chrome would be great if they actually put NEW features in, it looks the same options the day they released it. And I'm sick of having to Save Files then go hunt for them and open them. Then clear my Download History.
Add some more options dammit.

Looks like when Opera 11 comes out they might win some people back.

nutyo · 11-12-2010, 09:56 | posts: 4,596 | Location: Brisbane, Australia

Why would they get rid of the status bar!? It is genuinely useful. Not happy. Not sure what to do now. I want my add ons back so i might go to ff3... or ditch the whole thing and try a new browser.

Black_ice_Spain · 11-12-2010, 10:10 | posts: 4,154 | Location: Spain

Quote:

Originally Posted by nutyo

Why would they get rid of the status bar!? It is genuinely useful. Not happy. Not sure what to do now. I want my add ons back so i might go to ff3... or ditch the whole thing and try a new browser.

usefull for what? o_O. I always delete it on opera and chrome doesnt have it. Only thing i find it usefull its taking screen space and looking at which link im going (both chrome and opera (via popups on mouse position or popping up status bar), and now too FF has a way to show it).

Unless you use it for other buttons... anyways maybe you can make a custom bar at down? xP.

Finchwizard

Well firstly it displays the links when you mouse over them.

Now they try to shove it in the address bar, so when you already have a long address in the address bar, and it tries to display another long address, then bah, doesn't look great.

The other one is that it shows any downloads you have going and the ETA.

Luckily, we have it back with Status-4-Evar Addon. THANK GOD.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/235283/

Labyrinth · 11-12-2010, 12:35 | posts: 3,441 | Location: Cheshire, England

They should of left leaving the status bar as optional at least you get the choice

Decane · 11-12-2010, 12:57 | posts: 4,997 | Location: Finland

Does anyone know if Firefox 4 is going to be native 64-bit?

Sieras · 11-12-2010, 16:25 | posts: 3,857 | Location: Lithuania, Kaunas

Quote:

Originally Posted by Decane

Does anyone know if Firefox 4 is going to be native 64-bit?

Win 64-bit support will be officially introduced in later 4.x branch versions as far as I know, so 4.0 will not have it. Although there are 4.0 x64 nightly builds but I guess that it's not quite ready yet for general public so they postponed it for later date

Ven0m · *Last edited by Ven0m; 11-12-2010 at 16:48.*

I'll check it out, but I was disappointed with b5 font rendering - it was really bad.

Regarding status bar, they could make it as in IE9 - there's no explicit status bar, but some stuff is displayed when needed.

--- UPDATE ---
Font rendering isn't that terrible, but it's a step backward compared to GDI. I don't want them smooth aka blurry. I want them clear, easy to read.
Companies like Microsoft spent a lot of time and resources on improving the way we read stuff from computer screens. They introduced font hints, so small fonts can be rendered properly. Unfortunately, D2D doesn't use hints and small fonts look pretty bad.

cheesebeard- · 11-12-2010, 16:31 | posts: 3,401 | Location: New England - M@ss

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ven0m

I'll check it out, but I was disappointed with b5 font rendering - it was really bad.

I actually don't mind it, fonts seem much smoother. If only I could get Windows to render fonts like this...

Zer0K3wL · 11-12-2010, 16:35 | posts: 3,088

Quote:

Originally Posted by Finchwizard

Well firstly it displays the links when you mouse over them.

Now they try to shove it in the address bar, so when you already have a long address in the address bar, and it tries to display another long address, then bah, doesn't look great.

The other one is that it shows any downloads you have going and the ETA.

Luckily, we have it back with Status-4-Evar Addon. THANK GOD.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/235283/

that basicly also means firefox has become way less safe cous now people using new firefox would easy get scammed.

like clicking this link for example.

forums.guru3d.com

edit: oh did't read that it now shows them in adress bar.

cheesebeard- · 11-12-2010, 16:37 | posts: 3,401 | Location: New England - M@ss

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zer0K3wL

that basicly also means firefox has become way less safe cous now people using new firefox would easy get scammed.

like clicking this link for example.

forums.guru3d.com

That or I hover over it and see in the address bar that your linking to youtube, mmk...

Though I agree there should be an option and it shouldn't be in the address bar by default.

Darren Hodgson · 11-12-2010, 16:45 | posts: 9,661 | Location: England

Is it worth installing this over Firefox v3.6.12 or is it still rather buggy? I'm pretty much using IE9 beta as my main browser now anyway so I wouldn't lose much installing a beta.

When is the final version due to be released?

Sieras · 11-12-2010, 16:50 | posts: 3,857 | Location: Lithuania, Kaunas

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darren Hodgson

When is the final version due to be released?

Early 2011.

Labyrinth · 11-12-2010, 17:17 | posts: 3,441 | Location: Cheshire, England

Quote:

Originally Posted by Decane

Does anyone know if Firefox 4 is going to be native 64-bit?

You can try the 64bit now although the updates are slower than the 32bit builds (minefield)

http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.o.../latest-trunk/

Ven0m · 11-12-2010, 18:20 | posts: 1,035 | Location: Warsaw, Poland

I do hope they'll do something with the fonts.
They look like I need some glasses, I'm trying to focus my eyes, but it doesn't help; what does help is switching to other browser.

D2D offers better rendering performance, however I think they should do it in a bit different way. Maybe drawing a set of fonts using GDI, then copying the images to D2D buffer? I don't know, but it's difficult to accept it. I had a similar problem when I had to work with Safari (testing pages).

Morpheous416 · 11-12-2010, 19:14 | posts: 3,525 | Location: U.S.A.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darren Hodgson

Is it worth installing this over Firefox v3.6.12 or is it still rather buggy? I'm pretty much using IE9 beta as my main browser now anyway so I wouldn't lose much installing a beta.

When is the final version due to be released?

Here's what I did.

Uninstall FF 3.6. Do not have it remove your saved preferences.

Install the beta. This installs to a beta folder, not the original Program Files\Mozilla folder.

If you don't like it, just uninstall, and re-install the 3.6 version.

As far as this beta goes, scrolling thru sites that have flash video, and having part of that video scroll up into the Bookmarks Toolbar and thru the background "persona" is driving me up the wall. I mean, for the developers... how in the bloody hell can you miss this?

And yes... having the Add-On bar off by default, and the progress bar gone is quite irritating because it's something that we've all become accustomed too with almost any browser.