Mozilla Firefox 0.9 has been released. Release and download infromation can be obtained here. Major changes include a new extension manager, a new theme manager, improved tools for migrating from IE as well as various performance and stability enhancements. A review can be found here.
Mozilla Firefox 0.9 Released
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Thanks, and congrats to Mozilla.org for another fine release. It’s much snappier than the previous versions. I like the new default interface as well. Also upgrading went smoothly.
The performance improved a _lot_ on my machine, compared to 0.8. For some reason, on the old version, a second browser window would take a lot of time (some 5-10 seconds) to open. Now it’s instantaneous.
The fonts were a bit messed up and I had to reinstall flash, but apart from those small annoyances it’s great.
But still my favorite browser, GUI-wise, is MyIE2.
my sweet plastikfox-crystal theme still works on 0.9
I’m not really sure why the Firefox crew decided to change the default skin but IMHO I don’t think it was a change for the better.
The new icon set is flat and boxy with no appeal whatsoever.
I’ll be installing iCandy Junior just as soon as they release an update.
The best web browser.
Give it a chance and forget IE
Great. Now lets analyze.
New in Firefox 0.9
– Extension Manager (Long time due)
– Theme Manager (Long time due
– Data Migration/Import (ditto)
– New Visual Theme (ditto)
– Better Bookmarks (Oh Ok. Sure.)
– Better Search (ok um, what could this possible mean?)
– Smaller Download – Online Help (oh ya help. whoever uses help?)
You see, people need _time_ to implement things. Of course many of those new features are “long due”, but then again, the guys developing this thing (AFAIK, for free) don’t have unlimited time and resources.
The theme looks like those terrible WIMP GTK ports that I see on Windows all the time (Gaim, Ethereal, etc). Ugly, I will never use a product that ugly. Guess I’ll just stick with 0.8.
Seems like Ben Goodger has lost touch with his user base (happens frequently in open source projects with “dictators”).
“The theme looks like those terrible WIMP GTK ports that I see on Windows all the time (Gaim, Ethereal, etc). Ugly, I will never use a product that ugly. Guess I’ll just stick with 0.8. ”
lets keep in mind that this is a technology preview and the new theme is being revised and wont please everybody. i like it but it could be improved just like anything else
“Seems like Ben Goodger has lost touch with his user base (happens frequently in open source projects with “dictators”).”
actually this kind of model with a clear leaders gets better movement than the team leadership model where the modularity is clearly defined. for example, linus – linux, larry wall -perl etc
I’d recommend you get a theme you like on their website instead. There are several improvements on 0.9 that justify an upgrade, and since Firefox is themeable, the way it looks out-of-the-box is a minor issue (as it is with XMMS, Mplayer, etc etc)
“The theme looks like those terrible WIMP GTK ports that I see on Windows all the time (Gaim, Ethereal, etc). Ugly, I will never use a product that ugly. Guess I’ll just stick with 0.8. ”
Then us a different theme!!!!
“New in Firefox 0.9
– Extension Manager (Long time due)
– Theme Manager (Long time due
– Data Migration/Import (ditto) ”
everything is improved. whats the sarcasm about that huh?
Dude….that’s why it’s themeable. If you don’t like it, you can change it, easily.
The theme and icons, IMO, is acctually really good looking. Not too flat, not overly cartoon-ish. It fits well into my desktop.
Yup, there’s definitely a huge speed boost! Love it! And hey, the interface is really simple and tidy, which is great. No, I don’t think the icons are good at all, but the interface is clean and if they can make better icons for the buttons, we would have the best of both worlds.
Yes.
Installed with no installer on FC1,
took my 0.8 configuration. It took less than a minute.
First impression : Coooooool.
I’d like the 0.8 default theme more than this one.
just my 2 cents
– regards
– Paolo
You act as if the browser had changed it’s colors to bright neons against a black background or as if a toddler drew the picture. The new theme is very simplistic and yes it is a theme so replace it.
Your post almost sounds like flamebait to me.
did they fix middle click yet? in every OS under the sun, middle clicking a link opens a new tab in firefox.. yet it doesn’t in os x. (only apple-click does). i don’t have a 3 button mouse with me at the moment since i’m at work on my laptop.
I couldn’t get some common extensions to work with it. Has anyone else experienced this? Extensions like adblock and flashblock
Yeah me too. firefox 9 breaks alot of extensions. Your going to have to wait until new versions come out.
whoops 0.9
Folks, if you want the ol’ Qute theme (and I might when I get home and install 0.9), I do believe you can get it from http://update.mozilla.org. In fact, try here:
http://update.mozilla.org/themes/moreinfo.php?application=firefox&i…
Now, I’ve heard Update might be having trouble right now, but it might work.
the GTK (not GTK2) link takes you to the same file as GTK2. And, the nightly GTK builds have not been generated since 6/12. So, if you are running an older linux box, like my dev box at work, either build your own, or wait, or get the 6/12 build, which, seems a bit “flaky”
as for extensions, do a FULL uninstall, then reinstall. should fix some issues. remember, this is beta-ware
” ff.9
By sheesh (IP: —.197.227.210.static.spt.wi.charter.com) – Posted on 2004-06-15 19:41:22
I couldn’t get some common extensions to work with it. Has anyone else experienced this? Extensions like adblock and flashblock
”
extensions starting from .9 onwards will maintain the same format. due to the changes all extensions are disabled by default. major extensions are being updated now, for those who need them wait till 1.0 is released
http://update.mozilla.org/?application=firefox
http://update.mozilla.org/extensions/?application=firefox
http://update.mozilla.org/themes/?application=firefox
As already pointed out, the app is themeable. Download a different one if you don’t like the deafault.
It is interesting that such an obvious flambait has been marked “already reviewed” – found to be acceptable and on-topic. I’ve lately found the pattern of moderation to be very interesting, indeed.
Sensational web browser.
I wish everybody make the switch now. This is 1.0 stuff (even though, they still have time to improve, until they actually hit the 1.0 party milestone).
Nothing but problems over here since I installed it. It’s slow, locking up my system, crashing Explorer. What the heck?
“Ugh…
By Adam Scheinberg (IP: 66.20.53.—) – Posted on 2004-06-15 20:10:19
Nothing but problems over here since I installed it. It’s slow, locking up my system, crashing Explorer. What the heck?”
thats a odd experience. try uninstalling it completely and redoing it again. should clear out everything. save your bookmarks first
The UI is a lot nicer than the old one (especially the new back/forward buttons that aren’t enclosed within the menu). I still like the default Gnome buttons better. I also like the bigness of the Gnome buttons (like in Epiphany). Eh, it’s really nice. I can’t wait for 1.0.
Daniel: At the time of your post, iCandy was already updated for 0.9 by his owner – Check his website for the best theme.
http://mozthemes.tk/
Guys, it take me ~8 sec to download and change the theme… so if that’s your biggest complain about 0.9, we should be fine
When trying to compile the sources I found out that 0.9 has missing a bunch of files and permanently fails due to missing stuff. I use the same compile options there are for 0.8 so I wonder what’s messed here.
export PHOENIX=1 is also set.
Any ideas ?
The theme on Mac is ok (stripes in the background and slightly better icons), but on pc it looks horrible, bring back Qute as default! The Thunderbird folks finally got a matching theme and now the Firefox get’s a new one !?
Themeable my **s, I can’t get Qute installed (disappears from list after install).
“The theme on Mac is ok (stripes in the background and slightly better icons), but on pc it looks horrible, bring back Qute as default! The Thunderbird folks finally got a matching theme and now the Firefox get’s a new one !?
Themeable my **s, I can’t get Qute installed (disappears from list after install).”
qute theme author refused to relicense in acceptable terms for mozilla foundation and a new visual identity team is now responsible for all the brands, themes, logo and merchandise. for the qute theme it takes about 10 seconds to install it. talk about something else
It took me 5 to 6 hours to forget about it.
I haven’t tried 0.9 yet, but 0.8 crashed all the time. I really liked the tabbed browser, the usually snappy speed, but for some reason it would freeze up for minutes at a time when trying to close a .PDF file. It happened on every computer I installed Firefox on. Of course they were all Windows boxes, so maybe that was part of it.
I’ll have to give 0.9 a shot and see if it works any better.
Actually, if you shrink the spacing between the icons on the new theme, it doesn’t look half bad.
Instructions here: http://www.grack.com/news/FixingFirefoxWinstripeSpa.html
There is no smoothwheel extension for 0.9! For me that’s a can’t-live-without-it extension. I don’t seem to be able to install any extensions from Tools/Extensions/Get More Extensions on my laptop. I was able to install AdBlock 0.5 on my desktop but that’s it, none of the others will install. I would advise anyone who relies heavily on extensions to skip 0.9 for now.
“Actually, if you shrink the spacing between the icons on the new theme, it doesn’t look half bad.
Instructions here: http://www.grack.com/news/FixingFirefoxWinstripeSpa.html“
the space increases usability by decreasing the chances of you clicking the wrong button and improves spatiality. dont fix that one
I just read that version 6.01 of Acrobat Reader was buggy. I am going to try updating to 6.02 to see if it helps. Sorry about jumping to conclusions with my issues with Firefox.
is Flash Click to View! Man, I can’t wait for that to be updated.
I can’t find the Firefox download without the installer. Anybody know if there is one? I.E., just the zipped archive?
Anonymous: qute theme author refused to relicense in acceptable terms for mozilla foundation
According to the Qute theme author he would have been happy to relicense it according to those terms, but he was never asked. Mozilla just changed the theme and blamed it on a refusal he was never given the chance to give.
The real reason for the change was to make the browser usage patterns more uniform across platforms. Seems sensible if you ask me.
After setting it up and playing around with 0.9 for a few hours…. I’m back to 0.8 (which I had foolishly wiped out completely in my zeal to upgrade).
Too many extensions that I don’t want to browse without. Too few currently supported on 0.9.
I was having a problem installing themes in the Windows version. Wouldn’t work by clicking install now as it would pop up in the theme manager for a second and then disappear. It did work by downloading the theme and dragging it into the theme manager. Didn’t have a problem with the Mac version.
Anybody else getting the same results?
While Firebird 0.7 has always been OK, 0.8 wouldn’t even launch, and Firefox 0.9 is constantly launching crashing (without any message), eating all my memory, averting any reboot or shut down. I run Panther.
The Firefox team didn’t have any choice with regard to removing “Qute” as the default team. The developer of the Qute theme (the teme with Firefox 0.8) refused to license Qute under the new licensing.
If you don’t like the new theme, it is real simple, go get a new one and quit bitching.
I personally never liked Qute and every machine that I install Firefox on ever since 0.7 (aka “Firebird”) I have immediately installed the “Smoke” theme. Did I ever whine like an infant about the default theme? No. Instead I decided to pay attention to one of the features that makes Firefox cool, I downloaded a new theme.
As for those who are complaining that their Windows Firefox installation is jacked up, did you uninstall the previous version prior to installing the new version as stated in the installation instructions online? If you didn’t, it was not the fault of the Firefox team, but rather, your own.
Bear in mind this is technology preview. It is at version 0.9. Not everything is “finished.” If you can’t handle reading a paragraph of installation instructions, perhaps you should just hold of one installing it until it is completed with version 1.0.
Here. always look inside ftp for something you cannot find
ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/0.9/
Arghh.. and I liked the old look ebtter too. However, whenever I select Arvid’s Qute nothing happens.
“While Firebird 0.7 has always been OK, 0.8 wouldn’t even launch, and Firefox 0.9 is constantly launching crashing (without any message), eating all my memory, averting any reboot or shut down. I run Panther.”
any browser should never be able to gobble up all the ram and make the os crash esp something as solid as panther. seems to be rather unusual. do file a bug report with more details
” Installing new themes won’t work!!
By Alex (IP: —.client.comcast.net) – Posted on 2004-06-15 21:21:28
Arghh.. and I liked the old look ebtter too. However, whenever I select Arvid’s Qute nothing happens.”
seems to be a known problem with qute. wait for some more time possibly till 1.0
I’m not too happy with these changes… First I download
the tarball (no installer) as usual, untar it in /opt/firefox (for the smart asses that think I overwrote 0.8, I didn’t), add the flash player plugin, fire it up, it asks me to import my settings from 0.8. OK. Then it crashes, and no way to start it up again… :
I rename my old .phoenix to another name.
I get the installer version, which I don’t give a shit
about cause you have to install it as root, do xhost
etc… A waste of time… (They’re still not capable of
using proper file modes BTW, directories/binaries 0755, and normal files 0644). I rename my old .phoenix to
another name. Start it up, at last it works. Put back
my bookmarks.html, signon.txt etc… The fucking passwords
do not work anymore : I can’t access my internal https
server anymore with it as well : Next I want to put back
the “Add Bookmark Here” extension, I just go to the page
click download, it doesn’t work anymore :
New theme? It’s awful of course. But that can be fixed.
Overall I’m extremely dissatisfied with this new version.
Just when I thought this was the final solution to browsing on Linux… It could work a little faster also
on a P450 / 256 Mb RAM… Look at K-Meleon on Windoze,
that’s what I call fast…
Jesus, the Mac version of Firefox used to run with the neatest theme i’ve seen, monochrome and Safari-ish but neater.
Now it looks like a programmer has designed the theme, using old KDE icons or something from 1998.
Dumb move, most people won’t change the default theme – why select a, compared to the older ones, crappy theme as the default one?
And no, i can’t use the Theme Tool to get myself a nicer theme since all other themes removes the scrollbars in the mac version, which kinda sucks =) I figure this will be fixed in the future, but most people won’t find the new themes and just figure this browser is Extremely Beta(tm), which is what it looks like with this wierd KDE/Windows/Mac hybrid theme. Sorry to be pessimistic, i love Firefox and i use it everywhere, i notice the speed increase, but i really don’t like the new default look.
Sorry.
You can install Qute by downloading the jar file to your desktop and dragging this file into the themes dialog of Firefox 0.9
(works for me, at least)
Just download the theme and drag it to the theme manager. It should work that way as the install now option didn’t work for me either but it works fine on the Mac version. Must be a problem.
What other browser reaches for such audience: “KDE/Windows/Mac”?
Of course it won’t look “just like” you want, and it won’t work “just like” you want.
Mind you, if I had 3 different machines, each with a version of these three: “KDE/Windows/Mac”; I would love to use the same browser on all three, perhaps with the same theme, if I had the choice.
I could insult many themes from many different softwares all day long, if I wished. For example, I still use Windows 2000, and if I had to use Windows XP, I would try to make it look like Windows 2000, but guess what, 99% of the people using Windows XP find the default theme ok, and I don’t have a problem with that
Could you please move that pixel two pixels to the left, and change the color of that other pixel on the right to a brighter tone? Perfect!
The theme manager just didn’t work. Had to get around it by downloading and installing manually (http://texturizer.net/firefox/themes/ has a nice form to do it).
Seems fine other than that. Some pages are still a bit screwy (I realise this usually isn’t actually Firefox’s fault, but ‘We follow the standard’ is no good if people can display it in IE), especially foreign language ones, but it seems as good as 0.8 was and I’ve been using that as my browser for a while.
Finally, after a good cleaning to get rid of the remnants of previous installations (Phoenix, Camino, Chimera, Shiira, Firebird and some others) it works.
The theme manager works too (I’ve seen some people have problems with it). I tried 2 themes, and Firefox doesn’t have scrollbars with any of them (it has a scroll zone though
The main problem is that there’s a number of IE-isms that will break properly designed pages if you support them. It’s a very clear goal of Mozilla that they’ll never break a standard if it’s avoidable, so it won’t happen.
As for the theme, yes, I can change it, and so can you. Are we normal users? Far from it, sadly. Be honest with yourself. How many normal users do you think will ever change the standard theme? And for how many will the default theme be a (big) part of the first impression?
That said, I don’t have too much against winstripe. I prefer Qute, and things could have been handled smoother, but it’s not a disaster.
What’s this “Allow web sites to install software” option in the “Tools -> Options -> Advanced” tab? Sounds suspicious to me. If I uncheck the box for this option, what do I actually disable?
Did someone go through and just randomly report people? Because a lot of totally unoutrageous comments seem to have been reported?
BTW, please do mod this down after ya say what happened
.
I don’t think people expressing their opinion as to the new default theme should be labeled as trolls. They have a point regardless if you can change the theme or not. The new default theme sucks! Its ugly and should be replaced with something more pleasing to the eye. The uglier it looks the harder it will be to get people to use it. If someone loads it for the first time and sees this but ugly theme they are more likely to ditch it rather than go hunt down a new theme.
Aside from the lousy new theme. It seems pretty good so far. I had issues installing supposedly .9 compliant themes and extensions at first but after blowing away my .8 config files everything seems to work fine.
As soon as there is an official gentoo ebuild in portage I will be giving this latest version a spin. Can’t wait.
the only complaint I have is the icons could be a little smaller. I honestly don’t see why people hate the new theme so vehemently. What is so ugly about the icons? They are simple and get the job done.
I did not have a problem with qute either though. Guess I am just easy to please.
Sweet!
I love the new theme, and by the way, this themes is a copy of the Safari theme (Apple browser), which I love.
The first thing I tried to do, of course, was download Qute from update.mozilla.org. (All the apologists have failed to convince me that Winstripe is not very ugly, or that the removal of Qute has to do with anything other than ego.) Unfortunately, it refused to install, only giving me the choice to download it. Bug 246754, apparently. It might’ve been caught, given a real RC with proper time to test UMO.
Next, I installed the extension for the link toolbar, something that I think should be built in to Fx anyway. The extension installed, but doesn’t show up in the extension manager. Hopefully, I will never feel the need to remove or update it, because it looks like I’m stuck with it unless I want to go poking around in salty, not-quite-readable directories in my profile to remove the stang thing.
All-in-all, a good pre-release; the only problems are with ancillary sites and its general ugliness; hopefully, UMO and all the more useful extensions can be fixed before regular people start downloading this thing en masse.
“” still…….
By Adya (IP: 61.2.57.—) – Posted on 2004-06-15 23:44:04
light years behind OPERA!”
how about doing something other than trolling and specify your problems if any?
I really can’t get it! Even in the reviewer’s screenshots — look at the freakin’ radio buttons!!! They look like Atari 2600 caliber graphics. And the text input fields too — very Windows 3.1 chic. Am I the only one who notices this? Try going to a shopping cart site where the whole page is full of these chunky looking widgets — ugh! Other than that totally irritating aspect, I really like this browser.
the only complaint I have is the icons could be a little smaller.
Go to View->Toolbars->Customize… and check “Use Small Icons”.
In about two days I’ll probably be on it when the Arch maintainer for it works his magic
. I’ve been using the rc on my windows install already though; I didn’t really notice a great difference there but I used it for maybe 20 minutes.
“I really can’t get it! Even in the reviewer’s screenshots — look at the freakin’ radio buttons!!! They look like Atari 2600 caliber graphics. And the text input fields too — very Windows 3.1 chic”
how about a screenshot showing what you mean. they all look fine to me
if you are setting the homepage in the preferences the “ok” fails. you can edit the prefs.js in .mozilla/firefox/ but do this with the browser not running.
Yep.
I previously said that the thirst for extensions led me to give up on 0.9, and go back to 0.8.
However, I’m giving .9 another shot since I found the “Show Old Extensions” extension. With this, I can install the oldies-but-goodies. Everything seems to be working great, so far.
After a few hours, I can say that I never seen a browser that fast. But it is incredibly buggy, at least on OS X.
i like the netpositive touch in the top right hand corner.
Just keeps getting better and better. I only use IE with Windows Update and some of the trickier DHTML stuff now. Mozilla and Mozilla Firebird are getting better at handling DHTML though, wont be long till I only use IE for Windows Update. With the number of 0 day exploits floating around for IE ( http://www.codephish.info/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=… ), it just makes sense to use something else and Firebird is the best something else.
http://www.codefish.net.au/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=ar…
Expect the mirrors to be updated. Give one day for everything to settle down. Or else, ride the wave! 🙂
http://www.mozilla.org/press/mozilla-2004-06-15.html
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/16/0023225&mode=thread&tid…
Firefox 0.9 has a much more professional interface. The old was good but new theme is better with some improvements.
WHOOO!!! The new theme has it’s very FIRST FAN. You should email Ben Goodger. I’m sure he will then realize how correct he was, that you and him are the only true believers, and all will be good in the Firefox world.
The default theme looks wretched but I quite like the FirefoxModern theme. It’s not as cool, though, as some themes for Phoenix. IMO, the Firefox team should work to make Phoenity Classic and Phoenity Modern (both were available for Phoenix) the default themes in Firefox 1.0.
Is there any particular reason why the themes’ buttons are absolutely huge? Looks like something a toddler would like to bang his fists on imnsho …
is definitely ugly… Yeah, the thing is themeable — but if you’re gonna make a professional product, you should know that it’s the first impression that counts. I’m afraid many people don’t know how to install themes or scared of changing the defaults and will just give up just because of the looks… OK, to the ones that care I suggest iCandy Junior (mozthemes.tk) — so beautiful you’ll forget everything else! 🙂
The good news is that, the theme issue aside, 0.9 is a HUGE inprovement over 0.8. It’s significantly faster, download size has reduced by 2M (!), Options dialog actually closes when you click OK, theme and extensions managers are moved to the Tools menu. The future looks bright for this browser 🙂
old theme = toy theme
new theme = good theme (not beautifull) for a browser that is getting more famous day by day.
Dont be so “unchanged” minds…
They don’t look any bigger than the last version. You can select “Use Small Icons”, you know?
I like the new theme.. looks better than IE imho. Funny how people moan and groan about something that is FREE. Think you can do better? Do it.