OSNews: http://www.osnews.com/story/20620/Mozilla_Firefox_3_1_Beta_2_Released Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2009, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Sun, 06 Dec 2009 04:08:54 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif OSNews.com http://www.osnews.com download http://osnews.com/thread?339611 http://osnews.com/thread?339611 Download link missing from post (you'd think it is something important...):

Linux - http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-3.1b2&os=linux&...

Windows - http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-3.1b2&os=win&=...

Osx - http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-3.1b2&os=osx&=... Edited 2008-12-08 21:14 UTC Mon, 08 Dec 2008 21:09:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (maaxx) Comments Not for XUL? http://osnews.com/thread?339612 http://osnews.com/thread?339612 Why is it not turned on for XUL? Mon, 08 Dec 2008 21:33:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (unclebob) Comments RE: Not for XUL? http://osnews.com/thread?339613 http://osnews.com/thread?339613 XUL ("chrome") JIT is prone to crashes because of extensions; much work is still being done on it, but don't expect it for 3.1 ...and don't complain if, after turning it on, Firefox crashes and you (or whoever does it) have two dozen exotic extensions.
OTOH BetaNews has jumped the gun again, since the builds named 3.1beta2 are just the first test builds for localizations (which are not built daily, so they have to be tested before getting released) and not the final beta builds, which are still to be announced. Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:01:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (xfranky) Comments RE[2]: Not for XUL? http://osnews.com/thread?339615 http://osnews.com/thread?339615 ...and the official release can be tracked here:
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Releases/Firefox_3.1b2

There it actually seems that the build should be final, even though they might not be on all the mirrors, yet.Edited 2008-12-08 22:13 UTC Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:11:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (xfranky) Comments Here is a silly question http://osnews.com/thread?339621 http://osnews.com/thread?339621 I just downloaded Firefox 3.1 beta 2 and on the first welcome screen it says "Watch a video in your browser without needing any plugins or external media players." So me being the curious spud that I am decided to give it a shot. I was able to get the video to work. My question is how does the video work? Will Firefox 3.1 now include codecs like ogg or is it using some type of bittorrent to stream it to the player?

On a side note, it gets 92/100 for acid3 test. Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:42:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (TaterSalad) Comments RE: Here is a silly question http://osnews.com/thread?339622 http://osnews.com/thread?339622 try http://www.tn.com.ar if you get a real-time stream on Linux, I'm interested; otherwise, no. Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:52:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (nbensa) Comments lol http://osnews.com/thread?339623 http://osnews.com/thread?339623 They should call it the "Chrome Catchup" releaseEdited 2008-12-08 23:00 UTC Mon, 08 Dec 2008 23:00:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (google_ninja) Comments Tab switching http://osnews.com/thread?339625 http://osnews.com/thread?339625 Awww... they removed the new, MRU-order tab switching! ;)
In Beta1, ctrl+tab would cycle between tabs in most-recently-used order. So if you're repeatedly switching between two tabs, you only need press ctrl+tab once each time regardless of where the tabs are positioned in the tab bar. But "based on feedback from users" [release notes] they removed it in Beta2. Now it's back to moving linearly through the tab bar.
I preferred the new behaviour - which matches alt+tab. Guess I'll have to install Ctrl-Tab extension after all.

Tip: disable extensions.checkCompatibility in about:config before upgrading to prevent Firefox from disabling your 'incompatible' extensions (Adblock, flashblock work fine on Beta2 despite the warning).Edited 2008-12-08 23:22 UTC Mon, 08 Dec 2008 23:20:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Morph) Comments RE: Here is a silly question http://osnews.com/thread?339629 http://osnews.com/thread?339629 Theroa

http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/2008/07/theora-video-backend-for-firef...

We all adore Theora Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:18:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Michael) Comments RE: Tab switching http://osnews.com/thread?339631 http://osnews.com/thread?339631
But "based on feedback from users" [release notes] they removed it in Beta2. Now it's back to moving linearly through the tab bar.
I preferred the new behaviour - which matches alt+tab. Guess I'll have to install Ctrl-Tab extension after all.


Not surprising, really - even if some people prefer the new behaviour, it has to be a fairly big improvement to win over the majority that don't like it when things change unexpectedly. And in this case, the majority doesn't seem to be convinced. Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:32:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Delgarde) Comments Javascript + DOM getting slower http://osnews.com/thread?339639 http://osnews.com/thread?339639 I was pretty excited about the new tracemonkey javascript engine when it was first announced. It looked to be a big improvement in the synthetic benchmarks they showed. And a big step in catching up to Google Chrome in speed.

But testing Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 with the jsBalls fight timedemo ( http://www.jsballs.com/benchmark.html ) it seems slower than Firefox 3. Safari 3.2 and Opera 10 alpha 1 both were much faster than their predecessors in this benchmark, I was hoping Firefox would keep pace.Edited 2008-12-09 00:52 UTC Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:49:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (theorz) Comments Comment by RawMustard http://osnews.com/thread?339643 http://osnews.com/thread?339643 When are they going to get with the times and offer 64bit downloads?

If Adobe can do it, I'm sure Mozilla can do it also! Tue, 09 Dec 2008 01:46:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (RawMustard) Comments RE: Comment by RawMustard http://osnews.com/thread?339644 http://osnews.com/thread?339644
When are they going to get with the times and offer 64bit downloads?

After GA is out, it should just come with your 64 bit distro. If not, you can just "yum install" or "apt-get install" it. Tue, 09 Dec 2008 02:16:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (sbergman27) Comments RE: Javascript + DOM getting slower http://osnews.com/thread?339650 http://osnews.com/thread?339650 I'm not seeing any speed increase at all, in fact it's much slower than v3.0. Am I missing something?

I tried this site: http://www.dhteumeuleu.com/ to test both and 3.1 just choked? Tue, 09 Dec 2008 05:24:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (RawMustard) Comments RE: Comment by RawMustard http://osnews.com/thread?339652 http://osnews.com/thread?339652 Yeah and Photoshop CS4 is 64bit on OSX right?

Seriously, like OSX Photoshop CS4 users, patience grashopper. It will come to those who wait. Tue, 09 Dec 2008 07:12:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (shotsman) Comments Gopher? http://osnews.com/thread?339655 http://osnews.com/thread?339655 Did they remove gopher support in this one? I am currently re-experiencing gopher, and a browser with no support is a no-go ;) Tue, 09 Dec 2008 09:14:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (liber) Comments RE: Gopher? http://osnews.com/thread?339657 http://osnews.com/thread?339657 That's scheduled for Mozilla/2.0 (Gecko/XUL 2.0, current is 1.9.1). Firefox 4 timeframe, possibly. Tue, 09 Dec 2008 10:07:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Kroc) Comments RE[2]: Here is a silly question http://osnews.com/thread?339658 http://osnews.com/thread?339658 I get a live stream with firefox 2.018 in BeOS using the VLC plugin on that page, works great. But firefox3 isnt available for BeOS or haiku yet so i cant test that.

BTW: what is the point of elimminating the need for plugins? I thought customization and simplicity to port was one of the strong points of gecko nad other mozilla products?
Maybe im wrong but shouldnt this make it harder to port the stuff. Tue, 09 Dec 2008 10:19:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (judgen) Comments RE[2]: Tab switching http://osnews.com/thread?339659 http://osnews.com/thread?339659
"But "based on feedback from users" [release notes] they removed it in Beta2. Now it's back to moving linearly through the tab bar.
I preferred the new behaviour - which matches alt+tab. Guess I'll have to install Ctrl-Tab extension after all.


Not surprising, really - even if some people prefer the new behaviour, it has to be a fairly big improvement to win over the majority that don't like it when things change unexpectedly. And in this case, the majority doesn't seem to be convinced. "

I myself hate it (the new style), since I can't really know in which order the tabs are going to be selected, so Ctrl+Tab switching then becomes slower to use for me.

It might be OK for a big number of randomly ordered tabs, but Firefox anyways already supports manual positioning, so I don't see anything good in it. If one needs to cycle between same two tabs, there always exists the Ctrl+Shift+Tab for backwards cycling.Edited 2008-12-09 10:45 UTC Tue, 09 Dec 2008 10:45:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (SJ87) Comments RE[2]: Here is a silly question http://osnews.com/thread?339663 http://osnews.com/thread?339663 I'm on Arch Linux and I get a real live stream via the mplayer plugin on that page fine. Tue, 09 Dec 2008 11:44:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (doublec) Comments RE[3]: Here is a silly question http://osnews.com/thread?339665 http://osnews.com/thread?339665

BTW: what is the point of elimminating the need for plugins? I thought customization and simplicity to port was one of the strong points of gecko nad other mozilla products?
Maybe im wrong but shouldnt this make it harder to port the stuff.


The point is to provide an easy way for people to add video and audio to their sites, with a defined JavaScript API allow them to build their own video controllers.

The video element is in the midst of being standardised and other browsers are implementing it. Tue, 09 Dec 2008 11:47:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (doublec) Comments RE: lol http://osnews.com/thread?339676 http://osnews.com/thread?339676 The only "catchup" that Firefox 3.1 is doing is with tracemonkey that has been in development for 2 years and private browsing that has been in development for the past year. Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:02:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Fergy) Comments RE: Tab switching http://osnews.com/thread?339677 http://osnews.com/thread?339677 I hated the new behavior. I use ctrl+tab to go to the next tab without using the mouse. If I want to go between 2 websites I use a second window. Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:04:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Fergy) Comments RE: Comment by RawMustard http://osnews.com/thread?339678 http://osnews.com/thread?339678 Why would you want a 64 bit version? It doesn't speed it up. You can't use 32bit plugins anymore. And the only benefit you get is Firefox 64bit would be able to use more than 2GB memory. Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:12:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Fergy) Comments RE[3]: Here is a silly question http://osnews.com/thread?339680 http://osnews.com/thread?339680 the point was to get it working _without_ plugins ;) Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:19:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (nbensa) Comments RE[4]: Here is a silly question http://osnews.com/thread?339682 http://osnews.com/thread?339682
the point was to get it working _without_ plugins ;)
As soon as that site starts streaming in Theora format, no problem ;) Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:57:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (doublec) Comments RE[2]: Comment by RawMustard http://osnews.com/thread?339688 http://osnews.com/thread?339688 Running a 64-bit browser on a 64-bit system means you don't need 32-bit libraries installed just for your browser.

Besides, now that Adobe has released a 64-bit flash plugin for Linux, is there any reason to not use 64-bit browser? Java, sure, but that is not too common anymore via regular browsing. Were there any other 32-bit only holdouts? Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:00:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (ChrisIrwin) Comments Fixes google maps http://osnews.com/thread?339691 http://osnews.com/thread?339691 Google maps was broken in 3.1 beta 1. But it works now in the second beta. I also experienced several crashes in the previous beta, which have yet to occur. So it looks like my bug reporting has payed off. Google Chrome is still faster on more limited hardware, but on my current core two duo two gig desktop I prefer having the firefox extensions available. Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:07:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Bill Shooter of Bul) Comments RE[3]: Comment by RawMustard http://osnews.com/thread?339693 http://osnews.com/thread?339693
Running a 64-bit browser on a 64-bit system means you don't need 32-bit libraries installed just for your browser.

Nobody seems to do this, but there is really something to be said for installing a 32 bit distro and running it under a 64 bit kernel. This combines the nice flat memory model of 64 bit in kernel space with the memory efficiency of 32 bit in user space. You miss out on having the extra x86_64 registers available to the user space code, but save significantly on memory. And, of course, the whole 32/64 bit browser plugin issue is side-stepped, along with any duplication of 32/64 bit libraries.Edited 2008-12-09 16:33 UTC Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:18:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (sbergman27) Comments RE[2]: Javascript + DOM getting slower http://osnews.com/thread?339694 http://osnews.com/thread?339694 Sorry if I worded my message funny. I was complaining about it getting slower. So yes, no speed increase at all. Just a marginal decrease.

That site is really cool. People are doing some really neat things with javascript. Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:29:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (theorz) Comments RE[2]: Tab switching http://osnews.com/thread?339714 http://osnews.com/thread?339714 Except that MRU is the order most operating systems use with ALT-TAB, so it isn't entirely new behavior. Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:34:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Michael) Comments mixedloving http://osnews.com/thread?339762 http://osnews.com/thread?339762 **********Welcome to------www.Mixedloving.com------the first, largest and most-trusted interracial dating site in the world.
This is the best place for looking for interracial dating relationship or marriage. We bring together interracial-dating minded singles from all races, ethnicities and cultures, whether they are in your own neighborhood or around the world. Wed, 10 Dec 2008 02:53:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (nikky123) Comments Tracemonkey 64-bit http://osnews.com/thread?340003 http://osnews.com/thread?340003 Does anyone know if tracemonkey is working in a 64-bit browser yet? Last time I tried tracing wasn't available in a 64-bit browser and I haven't found any information saying that it is now working. Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:48:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (abraxas) Comments