Archive for: firefox
Like Google’s ChromeOS idea but still left wanting more? Perhaps Mozilla’s new project which involves developing their own web-based/Android OS specifically designed for mobile devices. The goal according to Mozilla is to take the normal functions of a phone — telephony, SMS, camera, USB, Bluetooth, etc. — and develop web-based protocols that will create an experience that mimics that of a native/locally stored one. In conjunction with the various web technologies, the OS will also feature the very core of Android (kernel, drivers, etc.), meaning current open source junkies in love with the jolly green giant have even more to love.
We’re not going to lie. We love discovering and using native apps via proprietary app stores as much as most anyone else. With that said, we dream for the day when using an app is as simple as firing up the browser. And if that web app can perfectly mimic a native one — jackpot.
It goes without saying Mozilla has a long, difficult road ahead of them that could very well lead to nothing ever being publicly released. Being the optimists that we are, however, we’ll continue on with our heads held high and our fingers crossed.
Yay! Browser market share numbers. This rather unexciting topic is oddly enough one of our favorite topics. On that note, Zdnet has released a new chart (above) that shows browser market share over the last year. Specifically, Chrome is up 6% along with Safari’s ~2.25%. Meanwhile Mozilla’s Firefox and Microsoft’s IE browsers continue to bleed users with the latter now falling to 53.7% overall. While IE still holds over half of the world’s browser share, we’ve seen it tank in the last couple of years thanks to faster updates from the likes of Chrome, Firefox and Opera as well as a continuing sub-par support of modern and upcoming web technologies. With that said, IE 9 has actually been rather relevant concerning new web technologies. Though Microsoft has always been extremely slow at updating IE, and unless things change, we’ll see competitors update their own browsers many times over before Microsoft can push out another worthwhile update.
Anyone care to share their browser of choice?
When Mozilla said they were moving to a new, more Google Chrome-like release schedule they weren’t kidding. Released just 3 short months ago, Firefox 4 is already being put out to pasture after yesterday’s Firefox 5 release.
Buried in the release notes for Mozilla’s latest browser are details outlining that no future security upgrades will come to the “old” browser. Add to that a comment made by Firefox Release Manager Christian Legnitto back in late May which stated “Firefox 5 is the security update for Firefox 4″.
In short: Upgrade. Upgrade often.
Google’s Chrome may get a lot of the media coverage these days thanks to a rigorous and fast-paced update schedule, but truth be told there is still a lot of fight left in Mozilla’s Firefox browser. Today the company has made good on their new faster revision schedule after Firefox 4′s mid/late March release by officially releasing Firefox 5.
While the changelog and feature list for Firefox 5 isn’t yet live, we know what’s in store: improved standards support (canvas, HTML5, XHR and MathML), speed enhancements, support for CSS animation, and improved do-not-track features. Don’t wait for Mozilla to update their Firefox download page with the latest links — get them below now!
Download: OS X | Windows | Linux
All to often we woefully read articles about people or companies rolling over to this generations greatest annoyance and corporate disease — the RIAA. So entrenched in the U.S. government is the RIAA (and similar organizations) that any law they want passed can make it through political red tap thanks to back room dealings that are witheld from the public and continuous lobbying dollars. Part of this new age cancer’s “enforcement” is being increasingly handled by the department of Homeland Security.
Getting to today’s story, the department of Homeland Security has sent a letter to Mozilla asking demanding that the company remove a plugin called “MAFIAAfire” that automatically re-routes users who visit a website/domain that is currently seized by ICE to alternate domains. Naturally, ICE wants this plugin removed as they say it circumvents domain seizure controls. Mozilla, however, didn’t just rollover and say “OK”. Though they didn’t just say “No” either. They did even better — they sent a lengthy response with 11 questions asking for detailed reasons, court rulings, specific laws that are being broken by keeping MAFIAAfire up, etc. It’s Mozilla going above and beyond to protect basic human rights of consumers and not just letting the government walk all over them.
Expect such stories to increase in the coming years as cyber regulations get more strict, RIAA-like corporations increasingly guiding government policies and practices, and consumers start fighting back.
Full response after the break…
In a move that is similar to Google’s newfound controlling nature regarding Android, Mozilla is getting antsy watching their Firefox web browser constantly being brought to its knees because of rouge or just downright slow plugins. Getting the message across to end users and simultaneously protecting them comes in two steps. First, Mozilla will be launching a new initiative in two weeks that will see them slapping a warning on plug-ins that reduce Firefox performance by 25% or more. On top of that, Mozilla is now publishing a list of Firefox’s worst performing plugins that will be updated weekly.
For now, developers will have to wait “a few months” until Mozilla makes their testing tools available to self-test any and all of their work. Furthermore, it’s worth noting that this initial testing by Mozilla is measuring startup time and nothing else. Mozilla says new tests that will incorporate page loading time will come at a later date.
In our testing, Firefox 4 has proven to be Mozilla’s best yet with return to the speed they were once known for. While it hasn’t replaced Chrome as the GS favorite, it is now sitting in a comfortable #2 position. So we ask our readers: Any qualms with Firefox past or present?
Firefox 4 was important not only for the bevy of new features Mozilla baked in, but also for the most dramatic physical change in several years. While not everyone has warmed up to the new look, Mozilla is already hard at work tweaking the UI for Firefox 5. And if you recall, Mozilla has mentioned that moving forward from Firefox 4, updates will come much faster though contain less features and updates. This approach is similar to the one that Google now uses for Chrome — essentially version numbers are less important than they use to be.
If you’re curious about the upcoming changes, point your browser over to Areweprettyyet.com for a diagram complete with explanations on fixed and pending issues.
If you like Skype and you like Firefox, it might be a time to forge ahead with a new partnership — at least for the near term. Today, Mozilla announced that they were blocking the Skype toolbar on all versions of Firefox due to it’s extreme crash-prone nature. This past week alone Mozilla claims to have tied over 40,000 crash logs to the toolbar/plugin alone!
The current shipping version of the Skype Toolbar is one of the top crashers of Mozilla Firefox 3.6.13, and was involved in almost 40,000 crashes of Firefox last week
While I’m not a fan of plugins in large numbers due to the fact that they slow down the browser, many other people are. I can certainly understand people being a bit peeved of being unable to use Skype’s in-page calling whenever and wherever. Skype understandably, can’t be too happy either. Though the company hasn’t officially spoken on the matter yet. We’ll let you know if/when they do.
This past Tuesday, Mozilla’s senior director of platform engineering, Damon Sicore, commented on the upcoming major release of Firefox 4 via a developer mailing list. The long coming update has been in the works for many months, and includes dramatic speed improvements thanks to the new JägerMonkey JavaScript engine, a more sandboxed design so that crashing plugins *cough…Flash* don’t take down the entire browser, and a revamped user interface among other things. Specifically, ~160 “hard blockers” (read: bugs) still exist. Once that number dips closer towards 100, we should see a release candidate pushed out. If everything goes according to plan, the Mozilla team plans to release Firefox by late February.
Who’s excited for the biggest release in Firefox’s history? (Or have you already moved over to Chrome?)
