“Spread Firefox”:http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=user/register&r=5005 has started a new campaign to get 10,000 users signed up to help spread the word.
If you haven’t signed up, yet, get your butt in gear!
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Firefox Preview Release
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Every day moves us closer to a full release of Firefox. The “1.0 Preview Release”:http://www.getfirefox.com went live this morning. I’ve downloaded and installed it, and I have to say it was the smoothest Firefox upgrade I’ve ever been through.
The only quibble I have is that a few of my favorite extensions aren’t compatible yet, but the installer didn’t miss a beat. It found all the incompatible extensions and asked me if I’d like to search for upgrades. It only found a few, but the process sure was slick.
This release also has some nice RSS/bookmark features, a master password system, improved FindFast, and — remarkably — it’s even _smaller_ than the last version, weighing in at only 4.5 MB.
On a related note, the “Mozilla Foundation”:http://www.mozilla.org announced a new website this week, “Spread Firefox”:http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=user/register&r=5005. It was slashdotted a few times today, so if it displays a static “Welcome Slashdotters” page, wait a few minutes and try reloading. It’s got a number of new buttons and advertising graphics and a myriad of new resources for the Firefox evangelism community to help spread the word.
Fresh Face for Mozilla
“The Mozilla Foundation”:http://www.mozilla.org debuted a new website this week. I say it’s a long overdue improvement. I never much liked the previous website. Hm, I need to set up a links section on my sidebar again…
Toulouse on Firefox
According to “Wired”:http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.09/view.html?pg=3, Stephen Toulouse, security program manager for Microsoft, uses Firefox.
Toulouse was interviewed about recent security flaws in IE. He mentioned Firefox in passing, and I think he only brought it up in a lame attempt to show that all browsers are subject to the same security issues as IE — all he said about Firefox is that he had to download a security update recently.
It sounds to me as though he only uses it for testing, but it’s at least comforting to know that Microsoft is sitting up and taking notice of their latest competitors.
Thanks to “Tom”:http://www.tompreuss.com/index.php?p=69 for the heads up.
Mozilla Firefox 0.9.3
I haven’t made mention of any of the Firefox releases lately, because they’ve all been pretty trivial, but I suppose it’s worth mentioning that “Firefox 0.9.3”:http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox and “Thunderbird 0.7.3”:http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird have been released.
Get ’em while they’re hot, folks.
Make Your Computer Smarter
I uninstalled Internet Explorer from my work computer this morning, and let me tell you, I feel a lot better. My computer somehow seems smarter.
The only reason I was keeping IE around was so I could listen to my favorite streaming radio station, “K-LOVE Christian Music”:http://www.klove.com. Fortunately for me, they addressed some problems with Windows Media Player in Firefox 0.9, so now I can actually connect to the station in Firefox.
Uninstalling IE is easier than you might think. In Windows XP, you simply go to the “Add or Remove Programs” option in the Control Panel and choose “Add/Remove Windows Components” from the buttons on the left. IE appears on the list with a little check box next to it. Simply remove the checkmark and continue through the setup wizard. In no time your computer will be free from inferior browsers.
Happy Firefoxing.
Mozilla Firefox 0.9
I hesitate to write this review. I’m quite afraid that someone reading what I’m about to say might not want to try Firefox. Please don’t get the wrong impression. I absolutely love Firefox, and I whole-heartedly recommend it to _everyone_. The story below is simply what happened to me during an upgrade, and is not intended to reflect negatively on Firefox or the Mozilla Foundation in any way.
“Mozilla Firefox 0.9”:http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox was released to the general public yesterday morning. I was so excited I could’ve wet my pants and not noticed. As soon as I knew it was available, I immediately went and downloaded it, taking care to check the release notes so I could avoid having a bad experience upgrading. Little did I know what was in store for me.
Mozilla Firefox 0.8
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On Monday, Mozilla announced the release of version 0.8 of their standalone browser, formerly named Mozilla Firebird. Version 0.8 carries a new moniker: Mozilla Firefox. The name took a few minutes to grow on me (after I got over the initial question, Why a name change?). “Firefox” is apparently another name for the Chinese red panda.
I’ve downloaded the new browser on my work and school computers (haven’t done it at home or on Janene’s computer, yet), and so far there aren’t a whole lot of differences other than a spiffy new logo and icon set.
One thing worth mentioning is the new download manager, which can be set by default to download things directly to your desktop (or any old place) so you don’t have to click through two or three dialog boxes to get a file you want. Like the previous download manager, it also keeps a list of previously downloaded items and has the ability to pause and resume downloads.
Another enhancement is that version 0.8 has a Windows installer. While this dumbs down the process of installing the program (I’m not sure how smart you have to be to unzip something, but whatever), it has given me a little trouble on my school computer because I don’t have admin privileges. I get an error every time I start Firefox at school, complaining that some-such DLL file is missing.
With the new branding, they are really starting to market Firefox. Consequently, this release has caused a lot of downtime on Mozilla’s web-servers. I was able to get the program and all of my favorite extensions yesterday at school (extensions aren’t compatible between milestone releases), but today the extension room seems to be down.
Firebird 0.8 Coming
MozillaZine announced today that a branch has been cut for version 0.8 of Mozilla Firebird. They use a lot of tree terminology to describe the source code for Mozilla, so let me break it down as best I understand it.
Ditch Your Google Toolbar
Mozilla Firebird offers an extension that emulates the Google Toolbar. It doesn’t have some of the newer features such as the popup-blocker (Firebird has it’s own popup-blocker that works great), but it does have the familiar options (e.g. the search bar, next/previous result buttons, highlight options, individual search term “find” buttons, etc.).
Every since I discovered the Google Toolbar, I can’t stand browsers that don’t have it installed. However, I have discovered that the features I use most often are available through Mozilla Firebird without having to clutter up my browser with an extra toolbar.