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Firefox 2.0 Gets Closer to Release

By BetaNews Staff, BetaNews

September 26, 2006, 11:57 AM

Mozilla Corporation on Tuesday released the first official release candidate of Firefox 2.0, signaling the second-generation browser is nearing completion. Previously slated for release in August, Mozilla pushed back version 2.0 until October due to last-minute bugs and security issues.

New features in Firefox 2.0 include enhancements in security, tabbed browsing, performance, and extensions. The browser update also includes a built-in spell checking and an anti-phishing feature, much like Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7. JavaScript 1.7 and improved subscribing of RSS feeds are also among the additions.

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By SteveJohnSteele

edited Sep 27, 2006 - 12:59 PM

memory hog ? slow ? - what rubbish

I have Firefox 1.5.0.7
running continuly now for over 3 weeks,
I have 25 extensions,
20-30 pages open,
many pages with Flash and/or Java ...

memory is at 112mb and Firefox is fast

:-)

Score: 0

By huttman

posted Sep 27, 2006 - 1:29 PM

thats a lot of pop-ups :P

Score: 0

By huttman

posted Sep 27, 2006 - 11:25 AM

"New features in Firefox 2.0 include enhancements in security, tabbed browsing,..."

how is this a *new* feature? Dont get me wrong i love firefox, but lets not reach to make the list seem longer

Score: 0

By Pensador

posted Sep 27, 2006 - 11:22 AM

A great browser getting even better!

Score: 0

By tipsyboy

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 6:44 PM

http://mozilla.osuosl.or...x/releases/2.0rc1/win32/

This one is REALLY a lot faster than 1.5.0.7 and the rest.

Just try it out in your own language.

Score: 0

By dwaterman

edited Sep 26, 2006 - 2:47 PM

comment removed

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 2:47 PM

Just seemed a hell of a lot slower to react in the older builds.

Score: 0

By dwaterman

edited Sep 26, 2006 - 3:21 PM

I remember that... seems like startup was a lot slower too.

Score: 0

By DaveBG

edited Sep 26, 2006 - 2:03 PM

Firefox Gets Closer to Recycle Bin for me :D

Score: 0

By dwaterman

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 3:23 PM

...perfect, right where your comment belongs too.

Score: 0

By samanathon

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 7:55 PM

lol !

Score: 0

By sanawar

edited Sep 26, 2006 - 1:19 PM

Has the huge, huge MEMORY and PERFORMANCE issues been corrected in this new version? I hate when Firefox takes too long to startup!

Score: 0

By dwaterman

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 2:47 PM

You mean backwards/forwards in memory caching feature? The number of pages that are cached can be changed in about:config

Score: 0

By smarterthanyou

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 2:01 PM

You must have a really slow computer if Firefox takes that long to start up. In my experience Firefox loads faster than IE7 in both Windows XP and Windows Vista build 5728.

Score: 0

By mjm01010101

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 1:26 PM

My answer: don't close it!

Apps run faster when kept in memory anyway.

Score: 0

By DaveBG

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 2:04 PM

And what to do when it eats 981MB of ram? when i have only 1024 total?

Score: 0

By Desides

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 5:32 PM

"And what to do when it eats 981MB of ram? when i have only 1024 total?"

Close the browser once in a while. Problem solved.

2.0 integrates session saving, too.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 2:21 PM

Buy more RAM? Stop browsing Porn sites? Install the Adblock extension?

(Most, but not all, of the above respone was tongue-in-cheek)

Score: 0

By DaveBG

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 3:54 PM

"Stop browsing Porn sites?"

Hahaha, no way man! I would rather sacrifice the browser here ;)

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 4:43 PM

lmao...

Score: 0

By ascheinberg

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 3:21 PM

Adblock may be the problem. I run about 10 very popular extensions. By the end of the workday, Firefox is routinely at 500MB and runnig DOG SLOW.

I love the browser, but once you open 8 tabs or so, it's a bear to keep speedy.

Score: 0

By crashoverride

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 4:22 PM

Another thing I've noticed is that the Faster Fox extension with the prefetch option enabled boosts memory usage considerably.

Score: 0

By fewt

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 6:34 PM

Sure, it's probably got 1/2 the internet in memory.

heh

Score: 0

By crashoverride

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 7:44 PM

Hence the reason I don't even use that extension anymore. Everything it can do can be set through about:config rather easily. So that extension is basically useless. I notice a lot of people that do use it complaining about memory usage and most of the time they have the prefetch turned on.

Score: 0

By fewt

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 8:41 PM

I wouldn't recommend using it, unless you don't want memory or disk space lol.

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By crashoverride

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 10:21 PM

The only reason I ever used it was because of the speed tweaks that it was supposed to have but like I said, I can do those myself so the extension is kind of redundant.

Score: 0

By xxdesmus

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 1:07 PM

your point about Acid2? Acid 2 is not the be-all-end-all of browser testing, hardly in fact.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 1:47 PM

An opinion which I myself have stated several times on this very site.

I was merely supplying information. Relax, man.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

edited Sep 26, 2006 - 2:34 PM

Clicky...

Mozilla Release Candidates Downloads Page: (*gasp* another edit?/ OMG!)
http://www.mozilla.org/p...cts/bonecho/all-rc.html
(looks like they pulled them until 3PM PDT, follow link for more info) How odd....

Fails Acid2.

Tweaked the theme. Startup feels faster, and rendering seems quicker (Even during tab-opening/closing). Back / Forward is quite responsive now.

Feels better than Beta 2 for sure.

Did not have to manually upgrade a single extension.

{EDIT}Build I tested may actually be an older build. They pulled the links off the page and the builds that *were* available had a build number of 20060918.

Score: 0

By Metheny33

edited Sep 26, 2006 - 12:37 PM

Here's the correct URL:

http://ftp.mozilla.org/p...etup%202.0%20RC%201.exe

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

edited Sep 26, 2006 - 2:35 PM

Same version. Build number is exactly the same. Both are direct from Mozilla. Both seem to be outdated. Ofiicial builds have since been pulled from the RC Downloads page until 3PM CDT.

Hell, since they're both coming off the same server, it doesn't even count as an alternate (mirror) URL.

So there.

(one more edit. Just for Metheny33...)

Score: 0

By Metheny33

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 12:38 PM

PC -- Tool?

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 12:38 PM

Meth -- eny33?

Score: 0

By Metheny33

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 1:03 PM

How many times are you going to edit your original response?

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 1:45 PM

You mean instead of endlessly replying?

Considering you'd fixed the formatting of the link you provided, my "original" response no longer quite fit, now did it?

That, and I can't spell for sh1t. ;)

In other words...

...as many times as I need to.

Score: 0

By horsecharles

edited Sep 26, 2006 - 1:34 PM

ROTMFFLMMFAO!

It rocks that you typed out call/greeting to each other within the same minute...in that identical spaced format!?!
It'd'a took me several minutes just to type it out- while likely not getting the exact same format right..coupla more edits until it looked just purr-fect....Witness how long this response took me-- started it just before 1:04 pm hit....

Score: 0

By itanshi

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 1:51 PM

sheesh, dumb, acid2 is for malformed code corrections not for the amount of css code interpreted by the browser

Score: 0

By AntiochMedia

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 9:26 PM

I believe that Opera claims that it is the only browser to pass the Acid2 test. I'm a Firefox user and find that while Opera does pass the Acid2 test, many sites that appear perfectly across Safari, IE6/7, and Firefox and validate 100% W3C Compliant HTML, will crap out on Opera.

Opera is getting there, but the Acid 2 thing doesn't really seem to prove anything to me. I think it would be cool if all browsers passed it flawlessly, but that doesn't ensure that the browser renders 100% correctly.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Sep 26, 2006 - 1:56 PM

Gee, thanks.

I'm sure no-one here knew that.

Score: 0