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Firefox 5 Beta is available for download

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Re: Firefox 5 Beta is available for download

#31

Post by jaysonelliot »

randallsquared wrote: post #15
cemerick wrote: post #12

The state of PDF support in Firefox on OS X has me stuck at FF 3.6, and it doesn't look like that'll be changing for a while (unless I want to experiment with random xpi's and running FF 4+ in 32-bit mode, etc). Until that's resolved, all the fancy CSS tweaks in the world won't mean a hoot.

On OS X, there's possibly the best PDF viewer ever, in Preview. I'm curious why you'd want so strongly to avoid using it?

Whatever engine Apple is using to view PDFs in Preview, it doesn't always display PDFs correctly.

It's much faster than the bloated beast that is Acrobat, but I'd say about 20% of the documents I open in Preview have to be viewed in Acrobat to be usable, so I've just defaulted to avoiding Preview instead.

A good, fast PDF viewer in the browser would be far better than either of those options.

Re: Firefox 5 Beta is available for download

#32

Post by jcitme »

dpcan wrote: post #26
sapper2 wrote: post #24

Unless they have the quick, silent updates of Chrome AND the (so far) perfect quality control of Chrome, these quick releases do more harm then good.

I JUST downloaded FF4 and now I see 5 is coming out. Version-less updates of browsers makes sense, and they should be seamlessly, silently, updated in the back-ground. This is getting crazy. I install Firefox for friends and family who I want off IE, and this actually embarrasses me a little. If I have to keep telling them to update, they will quit - or end up using REALLY OLD versions of Firefox and we'll have an IE…

if Firefox 17 came out 3 months ago and we are currently on Firefox 20, I don't think that's any less secure than running 3.6.5 when 3.6.7 came out...

Re: Firefox 5 Beta is available for download

#33

Post by code_duck »

dpcan wrote: post #26
sapper2 wrote: post #24

Unless they have the quick, silent updates of Chrome AND the (so far) perfect quality control of Chrome, these quick releases do more harm then good.

I JUST downloaded FF4 and now I see 5 is coming out. Version-less updates of browsers makes sense, and they should be seamlessly, silently, updated in the back-ground. This is getting crazy. I install Firefox for friends and family who I want off IE, and this actually embarrasses me a little. If I have to keep telling them to update, they will quit - or end up using REALLY OLD versions of Firefox and we'll have an IE…

Firefox has always done a good job of handling updates. It is not in the background, but it is painless and automatic once you agree to upgrade. It will never be anything like IE6 - how many people do you see using Firefox 2? or even 3.0?

The upgrade to 5 isn't much different than going from 3.8 to 3.16. Mainly, they've changed their numbering scheme, so there's no reason to make a big deal about it.

Re: Firefox 5 Beta is available for download

#34

Post by code_duck »

cemerick wrote: post #12

The state of PDF support in Firefox on OS X has me stuck at FF 3.6, and it doesn't look like that'll be changing for a while (unless I want to experiment with random xpi's and running FF 4+ in 32-bit mode, etc). Until that's resolved, all the fancy CSS tweaks in the world won't mean a hoot.

If PDFs are that important to you, why not just use the external PDF viewer of your choice?

Re: Firefox 5 Beta is available for download

#35

Post by lurker19 »

jonathansizz wrote: post #21
joshz wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's about faster release cycles not copying features.

That doesn't explain why we have Firefox 5 rather than 4.1. It must be that the Mozilla marketers were worried that the major version numbers were too low compared to Chrome and IE, so by bumping them up every few months they can catch up! I'm so impressed!

Trye, but unfortunately no one can match Chrome teams ability to rapidly ratchet version numbers. Chrome is is in a weird spot where they "had to" rapidly catch up to MS, but now it is awkward to shoot ahead to version 20 or 30. Presumably his is why they started downplaying version numbers once they caught up.

I wonder if Google is now committed to never break the Eextensions API now. To their credit, Android has done a great job with API compatibility over versions, not breaking old apps. Maybe Chrome can too, and dropping version numbers has raised the bar for software quality, just like forcing auto-upgrades has.

The whole thing is a bit silly.

This post composed in emacs 23. (Not really)

Re: Firefox 5 Beta is available for download

#36

Post by randallsquared »

timtadh wrote: post #30
cemerick wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, I'm surprised this had to be said.

As a linux user I am surprised. When I download to open in my reader the pdfs go into /tmp. This is fine, because since /tmp is a ramfs it just goes away when I turn off my computer. If I want it I just save it to a permanent location.

Unlike m_eiman and cemerick, I regard dumping debris into my Downloads folder as a feature. I basically never clean it out; it's just a convenience place to keep stuff that I have a low probability of ever wanting again, auto-sorted by how likely I am to want it (most recent first, in other words). Since I almost never bother with more than the first few items in the stack display of Downloads, it didn't occur to me that cleaning it out might be a chore, or even desirable.

Re: Firefox 5 Beta is available for download

#37

Post by lurker19 »

jmilloy wrote: post #14
afhof wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I wanted Chrome features, I'd download Chrome. The reason I use FF is /because/ I don't want to use Chrome. If FF just copies from other browsers, why have FF at all?

Of course, chrome-style versioning doesn't necessarily mean Chrome features. As I recall, at some point plans for Firefox just had way too many features and goals, so in draft at least they got split into 4 separate (and relatively rapid) releases. Is that correct? That sounds like necessity-driven decision making, rather than imitation-driven.

Firefox 4 took forever to launch, and in the meantime WebKit room over the world. A shorter tease cycle is the right thing the to do, and we can only hope that it didn't happen too late. Also, FF needs to fix extension versioning and API compatibility stat, or else the new release cycle will manslaughter 80% of Firefox's appeal: extensions.

I guess Google is lucky/smart because Chrome extensions are juiced up user scripts with no native code (I think?), but FF needs to do something to save old extensions.

Re: Firefox 5 Beta is available for download

#38

Post by lurker19 »

nothis wrote: post #29
ujjvala wrote: post #2

Use it if you want break all the working addons for nothing.

This was with FF3, I think, but I once managed to over-write all my bookmarks with the temp ones from doing a separate install for a beta. Probably "my fault" on some level, but it still sucked. I have an aversion to trying out betas since then.

Not your fault, but that is a risk of using a Beta (before Google hijacked the term to mean "Upgrades are Planned").

Bugs like what you saw are flagged as high-importance "data loss" bugs, and FF has gotten better about avoiding those, even in pre-release builds, since the bad old days of accidentally deleting non-FF data from your home folder.

Re: Firefox 5 Beta is available for download

#39

Post by edu »

cemerick wrote: post #22
m_eiman wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I prefer opening a PDF in a tab until I've had a chance to see if it's something I want to keep. With download-and-open-in-Preview I'm filling up my Downloaded Files folder with a lot of PDFs that I don't want to keep, and I'll have to delete them manually.

Indeed, I'm surprised this had to be said.

This is the way (download, open in preview, keep/delete) I prefer. It's just a matter of taste.

Re: Firefox 5 Beta is available for download

#40

Post by thomas11 »

dpcan wrote: post #26
sapper2 wrote: post #24

Unless they have the quick, silent updates of Chrome AND the (so far) perfect quality control of Chrome, these quick releases do more harm then good.

I JUST downloaded FF4 and now I see 5 is coming out. Version-less updates of browsers makes sense, and they should be seamlessly, silently, updated in the back-ground. This is getting crazy. I install Firefox for friends and family who I want off IE, and this actually embarrasses me a little. If I have to keep telling them to update, they will quit - or end up using REALLY OLD versions of Firefox and we'll have an IE…

Firefox 5 is not coming out. It's a beta. You shouldn't bother friends and family with it.
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