an ordinary blog — andr3.net

Everyone is posting about this, so i'm just going to join the crowd and maybe give Firefox a push. If it ever needs one, in the first place.

It's here. After a few betas and release candidates the final version is out. I've been holding out from testing the previous not-final versions, but now the time has come to put my hands on 1.5 goodness.

Get Firefox 1.5.

What's New?

I'll just pass out what's on mozillaZine:

Firefox 1.5 introduces several new features, including an improved software update system, faster Back / Forward page navigation, a new options to clear private browsing data, drag-and-drop reordering of browser tabs, a redesigned Options/Preferences window and more robust popup blocking. Standards support is also improved, with support for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), JavaScript 1.6 and additional CSS properties. Accessibility is much improved (including new DHTML accessibility features), security has been enhanced and Mac OS X support has also been improved.

You can also check the release notes.

This launch brings more than just a new browser version, since there are now two Mozilla websites – .com for distributing the products and .org for Mozilla projects and issues regarding Mozilla Foundation. They have also realigned the site's aesthetics. They went for a smarter look and in my very humble opinion, it seems to have lost a bit of personality, but it's still as appealing as it was before. I really like that thin, discrete, yellow line at the top of addons.mozilla.org; they could've expanded it to all their sites, just to please me. ;) But well done, regardless.

SpreadFirefox.com is also preparing something new for the new version. Something called Firefox Clicks Flicks. According to informationweek.com, it's going to include videos demonstrating Firefox features for easier promotion. Users will be able to record their own videos, submit them for approval and have them hosted on spreadfirefox.com. At the end, prizes will be handed out to the best videos. Also, a separate marketing campaign will ask people – or film making students – to create 30 second ads to promote Firefox. Making use of the community strength... Neat.

By the way... Portable Firefox

If you have a flash drive/usb pen/data pen/whatever-they-call-them-these-days, you can put it to good use by carrying around your personalized Firefox. I mean, your Portable Firefox, by John Haller. Thanks to Hugo Vicente for providing the link. Version 1.5 is still missing-in-action, but there's version 1.5 RC3, which ended up as being the final version. You can either sit tight for a couple of days and wait for the final, or use the RC3. Your choice.

I don't know about you, but i know i've had times when i missed my DOM Inspector and my other extensions while working elsewhere – namely at the university. I haven't tried this extensively, but the concept seems to be hella-useful.

There's also a Portable Thunderbird, Portable Sunbird, Portable OpenOffice and more... Enjoy.

If you're struggling with outdated extensions, you can make them work in 1.5 – or sort of... some extensions still won't work – by creating a new string variable app.extensions.version with the value 1.0 in about:config. For full instructions visit Dan Cameron's website.