After three release candidate builds, Firefox 1.5 is expected to be made available for download this week. And when it does arrive, it will be accompanied by a marketing campaign aimed at getting Firefox 1.0 users to upgrade and convincing users of other browsers to switch.
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Member since:
2005-07-06
will the upgrade to 1.5 register on firefox 1.0.x as one of those upward-facing-arrows-in-a-colored-circle? if so, i'll definately upgrade as soon as it's available. otherwise, i'll probably wait until i have a few spare moments...the update notification features always seems like it's faster than "manual" upgrades, for some reason.
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Java will not work, flash apps are a no go
The problem with Java and Flash is a problem with the adblock extension in 1.5RC3. It seems to block all Java applets and Flash stuff. You just have to disable adblock and everything works OK.
It happened to me over this weekend when I wanted to try out a really cool Java chemistry applet the NLM has mounted on their Chemidplus page:
http://chem.sis.nlm.nih.gov/chemidplus/
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I have posted before on the problems with Java and Flash ..The flash problem seems to be due to the Ad Block extension, if you have it than there is a preference you can uncheck that will let flash work properly, I think its the "allow obj tags" preference, not sure exactly what it says but its something along those lines ...For java I am having problems with certain apps (that work fine with IE) , for exaple Firefox crashes everytime I go to Domino WebAccess (which uses Java) , also it crashes with some other Java based web apps but not all of them, still something that has to be looked into.
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2005-07-06
All this advertising stuff isn't free, and I find it hard to believe that your average Joe is PayPaling the Mozilla foundation (especially when his credit card is maxed out buying XBox 360s for his brat^Wkids).
Who is really paying for all this marketing and development? IBM? Sun? AOL? The MHA (Microsoft Haters Anonymous)?
This isn't a troll; I use Firefox on a daily basis (and love it). I'm honestly curious.
Edited 2005-11-28 16:05
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2005-11-13
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2005-09-13
Uh ... why do you need a marketing campaign, for users of your *free* product to upgrade (for free) to the latest version of your free product?
Seems to me the marketing has already been done (word of mouth). I wouldn't spend much money on marketing something that's free for the consumer.
Member since:
2005-06-30
I haven't had a single problem using Firefox 1.5 RCs. I've used it on Windows and Linux, and the only difference I've noticed between the two are OS specific. Everything seems to work as advertised. The new update feature is much better than the old update method. All of my extensions are even compatible with the latest RC. I would recommend that anyone interested in Firefox upgrade to the latest RC now. If there is any difference between RC3 and the final release, it will be a very fast and simple update.
The only addition that I would like to see with the new update feature would be an option for the whole thing to be completely transparent whenever possible. If all installed extensions are either compatible or have a compatible update for the patch, Firefox should give the option in the preferences panel of automating the entire update process without asking about applying the patch immediately. All updates would be installed the next time Firefox was restarted. That would eliminate one more phone call from my mother asking me if she should install now or later.
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I'm not having any crashing issues, java and flash work and I quit paying attention to the title bars but there certainly was an issue withthem not updating ; there may still be.
What I have run into is tabs that I'm not currently viewing wind up at a different position when I come back to them. I leave the TV schedule at a particular channel, go to a different tab or tabs, come back and find that the page has scrolled. And it's not just the TV page, several other pages exhibit this behavior.
Anybody else see this in RC3?
Member since:
2005-07-06
Have they finally fixed Firefox so that it doesn't leak memory like a sieve? If not, then it's no better than 1.0 as far as I'm concerned.
I've gone back to using a combination of IE6/Opera, because after about a week of uptime, Firefox actually makes quite a resource/performance dent on my 2 GB-of-RAM box.
Member since:2005-10-10
Member since:2005-07-06
Oh how wrong you are. The last time I checked, my main PC running Server 2003 SP1 had an uptime of 50 days or so, all of which have been spent running browsers, IM clients, FTP/SMB servers, media players, and whatever other junk I have running on it right now.
All of those applications, IE included, run without problems for however long I want them to run (usually before I decide to fiddle with the hardware yet again) -- except Firefox. Firefox needs to be restarted every few days because it just starts slowing the *entire* goddamn system down.
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2005-11-12
Unless they have fix some things, 1.5 is not ready.
I develop extensions both for open source and for profit and a lot of users don't understand that the instability they experience in Firefox is due to their extensions. Extensions are kind of a mixed blessing since they can greatly add functionality to Firefox but when they mess up they can cause crashes, wierd intermittent bugs. When testing out a new version always disable your extensions first. Then turn them on. If a problem occurs do an extension conflict test. Get Mr. tech local's extension to manage the installation of your extensions. In one click you can use it to disable all your extensions.
If have been using Firefox 1.5 RC3 and it works fine for me. I don't get crashes. I had some problems with Flash, java and extensions. Solution: disable the offending extensions.
Edited 2005-11-28 21:12
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I don't see it winning many more converts. Firefox easily won me over back in the .x days. There were four basic reasons why i switched; Speed, popup blocking, security, and tabbed browsing. 1.5 is cool but my feeling is that it doesn't offer any new convincing feature to persuade people to switch now. If people have not switched already, there isn't a good reason to do so now.
Member since:2005-07-13
I don't see it winning many more converts. Firefox easily won me over back in the .x days. There were four basic reasons why i switched; Speed, popup blocking, security, and tabbed browsing. 1.5 is cool but my feeling is that it doesn't offer any new convincing feature to persuade people to switch now. If people have not switched already, there isn't a good reason to do so now.
If I wasn't already using FF, I'd switch just for the fast-back browsing, such a simple thing makes a big difference in browsing.
There could be opportunity with the XP crowd. Although MS will be offering IE7 for XP, they're leaving out the most important security addition from Vista (the restricted profile thingy). Hell, there's that "new" showstopper bug with IE6 / XP SP2 that allows code execution. No patch yet. Once again the security vendors are recommending either disabling active scripting or using another browser.
So there's still some potential there I think, just MHO.
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I sure hope this one gets fixed before 1.5 final is released:
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=305970
A show-stopper, in my not so humble opinion.
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>Isn't linspire supporting the mozilla firefox project as well?
Linspire sponsor NVU
http://www.nvu.com/about.html
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Flash problems with Firefox?
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For all those Flash problems, please understand that the Adblock on https://addons.mozilla.org and http://adblock.mozdev.org is NOT the latest (author hasn't updated it in a year, leading to all sorts of issues). Please UNINSTALL Adblock 0.5.2.039 and get the latest HERE:
http://aasted.org/adblock/viewtopic.php?t=2264
Bookmnark that link.
Might want to read this thread, too, for more info:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=338417
Updating from Firefox 1.0.x?
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Keep in mind if you are updating from Firefox 1.0.x, it is HIGHLY recommended to make a NEW PROFILE and DELETE and/or move the old profile somewhere else. This is to avoid issues with the new 1.5 (that includes 1.5 Release Candidates), where big changes have been made to the profile. Remember uninstalling Firefox will NOT delete your current profile, so you really need to familiarise yourself with the profile and move or delete the profile yourself. Files like bookmarks.html can be migrated to the new profile just fine, though, so you may want to keep your bookmarks, etc.
More info on profiles:
http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/profile
Searching for plug-ins?
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Java
http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp
Test Java
http://www.java.com/en/download/help/testvm.jsp
Macromedia Flash & Shockwave Players and uninstallers
http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/alternates/
Be sure to get the right versions) Macromedia Shockwave for Netscape actually works for Mozilla Firefox but it's still bizarrely listed as Netscape there.
Test Macromedia Flash & Shockwave
http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/welcome/
Apple Quicktime
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/standalone.html
Test Apple QuickTime
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/troubleshooting/
Improvements in 1.5?
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*Flawless upgrades (at last!) using the 1.5 Release Candidates for testing. Installing a Release Candidate now from http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox should get you upgraded to the final 1.5 release seamlessly (if my experience is anything to go by). At last we can leave auto-updates on without issues now.
*Draggable tabs (yay).
*No "missing bookmarks" / profile-in-use problems of version 1.0.x (can we say hallelujah they finally fixed this?) - after a whole year?
*A reworked Options dialogue more Opera-like in its privacy-clearing features.
*Report Broken Web Site feature (under the help menu)
*faster backwards navigation (again, more Opera-like but still got a way to go)
*many bugfixes and lots more, mostly behind-the-scenes stuff.
Looking to encrypt mail with Mozilla products, like Mozilla Thunderbird and so forth? (you know plain text email is NOT private, right?)
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http://enigmail.mozdev.org (must install GnuPG first since it does the dirty work. GnuPG, incidentally, still doesn't have what I would call a newbie-friendly install procedure on Windows, unfortunately. Adding a path variable to GnuPG should not be required in this day and age just to get encrypted mail, I feel, but I digress).
Looking for help/ tips/ tricks?
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http://kb.mozillazine.org Knowledge Base
http://forums.mozillazine.org Help forums
Looking for Extensions and Themes?
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https://addons.mozilla.org Mozilla Update
Have fun!
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It looks like they finally updated Adblock on https://addons.mozilla.org ! Finally!
w00t. Ignore the comments above about it not being the latest version. Looks like they did it! Uninstall your old one, people.
