Miscellaneous Ramblings.... - Firefox

Firefox 3 Released

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:00:45 -0500

Firefox 3 has been released (at last!).

Firefox 3 RC2 Released

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Thu, 5 Jun 2008 06:48:00 -0500

Firefox 3 has released RC2. This release seems to have primarily bugfixes as well as performance and stability improvements (at least I could find no mention of any new features explicitly in this version).

Here are the release notes for those who want to delve into the details.

For those who want to track the progress of Firefox 3, here is the release schedule for Firefox3, as well as the general release roadmap.

Firefox 3 RC1 Released

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Fri, 16 May 2008 20:43:20 -0500

Firefox 3 had finally released RC1. This release seems to have primarily bugfixes as well as performance and stability improvements (at least I could find no mention of any new features explicitly in this version).

Here are the release notes for those who want to delve into the details.

For those who want to track the progress of Firefox 3, here is the release schedule for Firefox3, as well as the general release roadmap.

Update (05/29/08): It looks like Firefox 3 RC2 is due out on June 5th, 2008.

1Password: Nice Password Management Tool

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Sun, 4 May 2008 06:59:00 -0500

In the course of having to remember more passwords as well as having to make some more secure ones, I came across a handy password tool called 1Password, which lets you store multiple passwords and while only having to remember the one master password. I have been using it for about a week now and I must say that it has made my life much easier. It integrates with quite a few web browsers that are available and can easily remember several different passwords on the same web form.
It also has a built-in password generator as well as a Secure Notes feature, which doesn't allow any to view your notes unless they know your access password (unlike the Sticky Notes program that comes with Mac OS X).
For those who are interested, MacNN has a nice review of the tool.

(Note: Lifehacker has a nice roundup of some of the other password management tools for the Mac). For the OpenSource folks, there is also PwManager (Linux only) which is also good.

Firefox 2.0.0.14 Released

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:32:11 -0500

Firefox 2.0.0.14 has been released, mainly to fix the Javascript garbage collection crash.
Here are the release notes for the interested.

Note: For all you Mac users who have been using Beatnik's optimized builds, there is now a 2.0.0.12 version available.
I have used these builds in the past with great success (I am currently beta testing the Firefox 3 beta builds at the current moment however).

Firefox 3 Beta 5 Released

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Wed, 2 Apr 2008 10:18:45 -0500

According to the Firefox 3 Beta wiki, Firefox 3 Beta 5 has been released. Here are the known problems as well as the release notes. Currently the only known problem that bothers me is the only being able to customize toolbars once per session (bug# 426380). I appreciate the fact that one of the enhancements in Firefox 3 Beta 5 is that in the Mac OSX version, the new Firefox theme makes toolbars, icons, and other user interface elements look like a native OS X application.
Just got the new version installed, so I will be putting it through the paces...

Update (4/10/08): Here is the release schedule for Firefox3RC1 (scheduled for sometime in April).

Firefox 2.0.0.13 Released

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 15:50:35 -0500

Firefox 2.0.0.13 has been released, mainly containing security fixes.
Here are the release notes for the interested.

(Note: For all you Mac users who have been using Beatnik's optimized builds, there is now a 2.0.0.12 version available.
I have used these builds in the past with great success (I am currently beta testing the Firefox 3 beta builds at the current moment however.

Fiddler: Version 2.X released

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 12:37:12 -0500

For those users of the handy Fiddler HTTP Debugging proxy, version 2.x has been released. Also, if you are one of the Firefox users, there are several links (here and here) that give instructions on how to make Fiddler work with Firefox.

Firefox 3 Beta 4 Released

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:44:47 -0500

Firefox 3 Beta 4 has been released today. According to the release notes, it promises improvements to performance and memory usage.
One of the bug fixes that I noticed immediately is that the cut-n-paste quirk with the Serendipity postings is corrected, however, I am bumping into some problems with some web pages rendering improperly from time to time as well as the disappearing Bookmarks Toolbar whenever the browser crashes (it returns once you restart the browser - BugID 319196).

Update (3/20/08): Might have found another bug - looks like the Clear Caches option (under "Tools" menu option) doesn't actually clear out the browser cache (ended up having to do it manually, which then cleared up my page rendering issues ).

Note: For those interested in following the progress of Firefox 3 Beta, here is the wiki page on the builds and the status on Firefox 3 Beta 5 test day.

Firefox 3 Beta 3 Review

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:10:00 -0600

A couple of weeks ago I downloaded the latest Firefox 3.0 Beta 3 browser (on my Mac OSX) to put it through the paces. I am very happy to give a very positive review so far - only two crashes (and that is with running with 20+ tabs for several days on end.
Pros:

Performance (especially with native Mac OSX
widget support)

Stability

Drag tabs between windows

Integrated support to add extensions from within Firefox

Cons:

Some funkiness with cut-n-paste, most notably
with some Serendipity Blog Forms

Even with the compatibility check turned off,
some funkiness with some of the extensions
(to be expected with a beta version)

So there are my initial first impressions. Feel free to download.

Note: Rumor has it that Firefox 3.0 Beta 4 should be coming
in a couple of weeks. Yeah!

Firefox 3 Beta 3 Released

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 06:35:00 -0600

Getting closer and yet closer still...
The third release of the Firefox 3 Beta 3 is now in the wild (and rumor has it that there will only be one more beta release after this before Firefox 3 is officially released). Ars Technica has a review up (complete with screenshots). The review is pretty positive, and the new version is rumored to have better MacOSX native widget support (yes!). Some other huge pluses is the ability to add extensions from addons.mozilla.org from directly within Firefox 3 and also being able to move tabs between windows. Here is more info on what is new in the beta release.

Update (2/15/08): I have just installed this on my MacBookPro and am in the process of putting it through the paces. Initial impressions is that it is very fast. I'll see how it performs once I have it up with 20+ tabs for a couple of hours.

Update (2/21/08): So far, so good with the Firefox 3.0 Beta 3 testing on my box - the only drawback is that a lot of the add-ons that I use (duplicateTabs & scrollbarAnywhere among some of my favorites) are not yet compatible with the beta version, but here is a nice work around to get some of your add-ons back. So far there has only been one crash, even with having 20+ tabs open regularly and it still performing well.

Firefox 2.0.0.12 Released

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Sat, 9 Feb 2008 06:15:00 -0600

Firefox 2.0.0.12 has been released, mainly containing bug fixes and security fixes.
Here are the release notes for the interested.

(~~Note: For all you Mac users who have been using Beatnik's optimized builds, it looks like it might be a little bit before there are any new builds available. )~~
Update (3/26/08): It looks like there is now a 2.0.0.12 optimized version available - yeah!

Firefox 2.0.0.11 Released

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Sat, 1 Dec 2007 17:39:33 -0600

Firefox 2.0.0.11 has been released. It looks like this release is mainly to correct the instabilities introduced with the previous Firefox 2.0.0.10 update.
Here are the release notes for those who are interested.

Firefox 2.0.0.10 Released

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 07:35:55 -0600

Firefox 2.0.0.10 has been released. It looks like this release mainly contains security fixes.
Here are the release notes for those who are interested.

Firefox 3 Beta 1 Released

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 23:42:26 -0600

Getting closer...
Firefox 3 Beta 1 has been released and there is already an add-on to fix memory leaks.