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Firefox 25 is released

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Re: Firefox 25 is released

#121

Post by muizelaar »

lobster_johnson wrote: post #105

Wow, on my MacBook Pro Retina, Firefox is now faster than Chrome. It's noticeable during any graphics update, scrolling pages in particular. I wonder if this is because Firefox has been optimized, or whether Chrome has simply stagnated. I suspect it's the latter; when I got the Retina MBP I immediately noticed that graphics performance was laggy compared to what I was used to on my previous (slower but non-Retina) MB…

Firefox 25 has some big changes in the graphics area on OS X. It removed a layer of abstraction used for drawing content and switched to off-main-thread compositing. Either of these changes could have caused the speed up you're seeing.

Re: Firefox 25 is released

#122

Post by bovermyer »

I do like the release schedule for Firefox.

However, I haven't used it in years, except for testing. Philosophically, I agree more with Mozilla than Google, but I just can't seem to get past three things:

1) Chrome gets out of my way. The UI is unobtrusive. Firefox is still bulkier here. 2) For whatever reason, more websites render oddly in Firefox/Gecko than in Chrome/Webkit. 3) Chrome, being a part of the Google ecosystem, plays very nicely with my Android phone.

This is not to say I'm not open to switching back to Firefox, but I'm going to need a compelling reason to uproot my workflow and abandon my apps and extensions.

Firefox 25 doesn't appear to give me that compelling reason.

Re: Firefox 25 is released

#123

Post by rohitv »

Yoric wrote: post #41
agentultra wrote: post #16

I developed a patch that added the VAO WebGL extensions earlier this year and it's finally out there! So. Cool. And everyone at mozilla is really helpful if you're thinking about contributing for the first time.

We love contributors :) https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/introduction

This is great! Thanks :) Anyone know of any other open source projects that one can contribute to?

Re: Firefox 25 is released

#124

Post by 3825 »

qwerty_asdf wrote: post #32
null_ptr wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the stub is for an improved experience for the average user with slow internet access. You're likelier to download and run a 1MB file and then wait for the install to finish, than you are to wait for a 25MB file to finish downloading in the first place. (I wonder if they push the stub so as to collect more (system) information without having to say that it's Firefox itself that's collecting that information.)

I think it's mostly a tactic to mitigate, prevent, defend against denial of service, since the Mozilla user base is absolutely gigantic. My suspicion is that it's essentially a "security through obscurity" tactic, so that the majority of users are left with no choice but the "smart" installer, which offers greater control for load balancing heavy duty traffic during peak download periods. See also: http://news.ycombi…

Sorry for the trouble you had to go through. If you have access to an FTP client, you can go to ftp://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/latest

or you can go to http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases... from a traditional web browser as well

Cheers!

Re: Firefox 25 is released

#125

Post by Aldo_MX »

Yoric wrote: post #110
Aldo_MX wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are missing his point that it's not easy to find. "Systems & Languages" doesn't tell me anything about being able to find the offline installer there. Either changing the phrasing to something more explicit like "Other downloads", and/or adding a title attribute explaining what can you find there could be a good improvement. Also, giving a hint at the "thank you" page (ex. Having trouble? Try the offline installe…

Well, if I understand his post correctly, his process was "putting Firefox installer in a file share and be done." Well, this process still works. > You are missing his point that it's not easy to find [...] That, on the other hand, is a valid point.

Well, to be honest, I completely ignored the "putting Firefox installer in a file share and be done" part, because there are infinite reasons why an offline installer is needed (and also because I already saw people killing themselves in this discussion).

Entering in much detail of a specific use case is not really a helpful way to leave feedback, but it's understandable since users have the perception that their use case is completely ignored/forgotten.

Re: Firefox 25 is released

#126

Post by baddox »

kevingadd wrote: post #96
qwerty_asdf wrote: post #14

I find it irritating that Mozilla now herds its Firefox users toward the Stub installer, and not the full offline-install redistributable binary. The actual download itself is available on the "Systems & Languages" page: > https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/ This kind of download is important, when you want to try out a new release, without committing yourself to it. For example, let's say you want to load it…

Large downloads dramatically decrease the number of users who get from a download page to actually running an application, even for web browsers. As a result, any steps you can take to make an install process faster or easier will have a tangible impact on the number of customers you have (and any revenue potential that results). Mozilla, like any other company, has salaries to pay, so they would be foolish to make t…

All your points are valid, but none of them explain why Mozilla couldn't or shouldn't just put an explicit link from the main download page to something like "offline install" or "redistributable install."

Re: Firefox 25 is released

#127

Post by belandrew »

eYsYs wrote: post #75

Hey FF team, did you get the cake from IE guys? This tradition started by IE always makes a good story to tell, especially for an industry infamous for cut-throat competition.

They stopped a couple of years ago. For the first few small releases 5-7 the IE team sent a cupcake instead but they stopped with 8.

Re: Firefox 25 is released

#128

Post by baby »

bovermyer wrote: post #122

I do like the release schedule for Firefox. However, I haven't used it in years, except for testing. Philosophically, I agree more with Mozilla than Google, but I just can't seem to get past three things: 1) Chrome gets out of my way. The UI is unobtrusive. Firefox is still bulkier here. 2) For whatever reason, more websites render oddly in Firefox/Gecko than in Chrome/Webkit. 3) Chrome, being a part of the Google ec…

Try Tree Style Tab and you'll see how hard it is to leave Firefox.

Re: Firefox 25 is released

#129

Post by acdha »

Surio wrote: post #37
qwerty_asdf wrote: post #14

I find it irritating that Mozilla now herds its Firefox users toward the Stub installer, and not the full offline-install redistributable binary. The actual download itself is available on the "Systems & Languages" page: > https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/ This kind of download is important, when you want to try out a new release, without committing yourself to it. For example, let's say you want to load it…

Super annoying, yes! I completely agree with you. It's not just Firefox being the culprit here though... .NET is the same, and so is Chrome, and the list can grow like a mayor's coat-tails! Also, here's a genuine usecase for a truly offline installer... What if you are the "resident software/pc maintainer" of your extended family.... In such a case, would it not make better sense to have one complete download, then c…

The automatic updater takes care of all of the use-cases you mentioned better – why waste time manually copying files around when your relatives could be running the update days before you make it over with that thumb drive?

That said, they do make the full installers easily available (google “Firefox offline installer”) should you need to update a ton of computers behind a slow connection.

Re: Firefox 25 is released

#130

Post by eevee »

bovermyer wrote: post #122

I do like the release schedule for Firefox. However, I haven't used it in years, except for testing. Philosophically, I agree more with Mozilla than Google, but I just can't seem to get past three things: 1) Chrome gets out of my way. The UI is unobtrusive. Firefox is still bulkier here. 2) For whatever reason, more websites render oddly in Firefox/Gecko than in Chrome/Webkit. 3) Chrome, being a part of the Google ec…

Maybe sites would render correctly in Firefox if more web developers used it as a primary browser, rather than just for "testing". ;)
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