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Firefox Inches Toward 1.0 Milestone

By David Worthington, BetaNews

June 16, 2004, 3:49 AM

The popular Firefox Web browser is inching closer toward a 1.0 milestone release on its product roadmap. Today, the Mozilla Foundation announced the availability of a preview release of Firefox 0.9. Firefox 0.9 is billed as a faster and more secure alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

Firefox developers vow to "raise the bar" by zeroing in on four main areas of concentration: ease of use, performance, robustness, and standards compliance.

"Months of development and hundreds of open source developers contributed towards this release, working within the Mozilla Foundation's proven development model," commented Ben Goodger, Firefox Lead Engineer.

The browser can import data from competing browsers such as the market leading Internet Explorer; sports a new default theme for Windows and Linux users; includes a download manager, a pop-up blocker, tabbed browsing, and has a comprehensive online help system; as well as being auto-updating and customizable.

One of Firefox's most intriguing features is its "extension" manager. Thus far, over 200 browser extensions have been developed by open source community members to extend Firefox beyond its core functionality. Extensions serve a variety of purposes ranging from "skinning" the browser to checking spelling, or even searching through eBay listings from within browser toolbars.

An earlier preview of Firefox 0.8 coincided with a name change that stripped Firefox of its previous moniker, "Firebird." Firebird conflicted with the name of another open source project, resulting in the change. Version 0.9 includes incremental improvements over 0.8 and boasts better performance while loading Web pages.

There is some evidence that Firefox is succeeding in its hunt for dissatisfied users of competing Web browsers. According to a Mozilla spokesperson, nearly 3 million users downloaded the 0.8 preview.

Later on this week, the Mozilla Foundation will upgrade its Mozilla Internet Suite to version 1.7 and issue a preview release of Thunderbird, a standalone e-mail application that complements Firefox. Version 1.7 of Mozilla incorporates Web browsing, mail client, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), and a Web page editor.

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By leemedic

edited Jun 22, 2004 - 9:32 AM

I have downloaded Firefox 0.9, and I do not see what the big hype is all about. I was not impressed. I felt it was slow loading web pages, and was not impress with the options. I have also tried Myie browser and was not impress. My favorite browser is the Avant Browser with the RoboForm addon. I guess it is just what you are used to playing with.Maybe I am missing the boat here, and someone can educate me on why Firefox is so great!

Score: 0

By mo_mo

posted Jun 19, 2004 - 11:15 AM

i can't wait till the firefox version 1.0 is release.

Score: 0

By Morsel

edited Jun 18, 2004 - 9:39 AM

Been using Firefox (previously known as Firebird) and version 0.9 is a real beauty! 10/10!!!

Score: 0

By baafie

posted Jun 17, 2004 - 10:32 AM

"An earlier preview of Firefox 0.8 coincided with a name change that stripped Firefox of its previous moniker, "Phoenix." Phoenix conflicted with the name of another open source project, resulting in the change."

Wrong. Firefox was at a certain point named "Phoenix" but this was later changed to "FireBird" because the Phoenix Corporation objected (there were some legal issues). The Phoenix Corporation is not an open source project.

However, there already was an open source project named "Firebird" (which is overseen by IBPhoenix, an organization that provides services to InterBase® and Firebird developers, NOT Phoenix or the Phoenix Corporation).

After the Firebird open source supporters protested the name change of Firefox, it was then decided to name "Firebird" (the browser) to Firefox.

Get your facts straight.

Score: 0

By appatique

posted Jun 17, 2004 - 4:55 AM

Did a clean-install, and I am realy satisfied.
Added a couple of extensions, and now I have what I need.
Swithed from Mozilla 1.7 to this one, and I doupt I will, in the near future, change my browser again.

Althgough, I must mention that my WindozeXP has stopen opening any links I click on, either being in my mail or that I recieve through ICQ... stupid Windoze...

Score: 0

By deadmonkey

posted Jun 17, 2004 - 5:44 PM

Actually the links problem you are having is because Firefox sets up DDE for URL handling which is not needed and so it errors. So not stupid WINDOWS but stupid Firefox!

Firefox is still the best browser on earth tho :D

Score: 0

By saabw

edited Jun 16, 2004 - 5:24 PM

I have windows xp and used firefox 0.7 to 0.8 and to 0.9 and have not needed to delete previous installations as I have downloaded the .exe file and not the .zip version. And have not lost profile or bookmarks.

Score: 0

By madjo

edited Jun 17, 2004 - 5:54 PM

I have done the same as you have done, and still I lost almost everything (from stored passwords to bookmarks) thank god I made a backup before I ventured into the upgrade from 0.8 to 0.9

Even had to do a clean install, otherwise it just wouldn't work right...

Now in the process of retrieving and storing all passwords again :-) (that's one point that this system has... you tend to forget your passwords :-) )

Score: 0

By singwolf

posted Jun 16, 2004 - 8:59 AM

Is anyone else using XP or Win 2000 having Firefox 0.9 identify as 0.8?? When you do an about it says 0.9 but below this it has the browser ID tag showing 0.8.

Score: 0

By boomdboom

posted Jun 16, 2004 - 10:52 AM

This is what mine says in the Help About

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040614 Firefox/0.9

Are you sure you guys didn't download 0.9 RC and di you clean install it.

Score: 0

By singwolf

edited Jun 16, 2004 - 11:29 AM

Didn't clean install it. Will do that now...

OK Did clean install and:

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040614 Firefox/0.9

Thank you!

Score: 0

By boomdboom

posted Jun 16, 2004 - 11:40 AM

No problem.

That's the only thing I hate about Mozilla and Firefox, I have to clean install it to get it to work right. Other than that it's the best browser out there.

Score: 0

By wormeyman

posted Jun 16, 2004 - 12:15 PM

I don't know about you but i learned a long time ago to always clean install a new version over an old unless it told me not too.

Score: 0

By deviantATTILA

posted Jun 16, 2004 - 9:09 AM

I'm running Firefox 0.9 on Windows XP and this is what is displayed on the Abot tab:

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040614 Firefox/0.8

I'll report this to the development team, and perhaps it will be fixed in a future build. But this is a fairly insignificant quip. :)

Score: 0

By nirwana

posted Jun 16, 2004 - 11:33 AM

In my case typing about: in the location bar says:

Firefox 0.9
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040614 Firefox/0.9

And Help > About says:

version 0.9
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040614 Firefox/0.9

Looks fine to me...

Score: 0

By rancidmeat

edited Jun 16, 2004 - 9:54 AM

deviantATTILA is right. The important thing is the build date.

Either way this product rocks. I have been using the nightlies for a long long time. This is the default browser on both my machines (Win98SE and WinXP). All my bros on Linux use this too. Everyone loves the Fox!

Score: 0

By jshindl

edited Jun 18, 2004 - 9:42 AM

I think FireFox .9 was rushed out the door in order to get a release to a meet a self imposed deadline. There are a lot of bugs (such as this one) which should have been fixed before release :(.

- Jason
http://artificialnature.blogspot.com

Score: 0

By stuclark

posted Jun 17, 2004 - 6:28 AM

I wish people would read the release notes! you HAVE to un-install previous versions to get Firefox working porperly!

And anyway...if the biggest thing you can find to moan about is a version string, then there can't be much wrong with this software!

Score: 0

By pipdipchip

posted Jun 16, 2004 - 12:54 PM

I agree that it may have been a little rushed. I think they wanted to stay with the June release. It was nice to see the release on time but I think I would have preferred if they waited a little longer. I downloaded and installed 0.9 and had quite a few problems like not tranferring bookmarks, lock ups, and was slower than normal among other things. I came back to 0.8. I'm a huge fan of Firefox and can't wait to see what happens until 1.0 comes out.

Score: 0

By wormeyman

posted Jun 16, 2004 - 12:16 PM

what is wrong with that page?

Score: 0

By mjm01010101

posted Jun 16, 2004 - 12:58 PM

AFter 1.0 you won't need to wipe your profile/ do a clean install per upgrade. 1.0 will be as bug free as possible, and have upgradeability in mind. (unless you test nightlies.)

Nothing to complain about with a browser that is 4.6 megs and (IMO) far superior to anything MS puts out.

Score: 0

By Lokheed

posted Jun 16, 2004 - 3:45 PM

Check your Firefox directory, its not 5 MBs large. Try 15 MBs.

Score: 0

By GhoS

posted Jun 16, 2004 - 4:47 PM

The 4.6 is reference to the size of the download. Small when browsers are considered. Naturally installed it will take up more space, but even 15mb is not really that much in todays' hard drives.

Score: 0

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