RSSMozilla Launches Firefox 2.0 Browser
By Nate Mook | Published October 23, 2006, 11:38 AM
The Mozilla Corporation on Monday posted to its download site the final release of Firefox 2.0, the second-generation release of the popular alternative Web browser. An official announcement is expected Tuesday.
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, which launched last week.
JavaScript 1.7 and improved subscribing of RSS feeds are also among the additions. The update to Firefox's JavaScript interpreter is an important change, especially as more Web sites take advantage of the new benefits of Asynchronous JavaScript -- especially as they embed objects or functionality from Google and Microsoft Windows Live.
As Mozilla vice president for engineering Mike Schroepfer told BetaNews in an interview, JavaScript 1.7 is an interim build - a "check point" on the way to finally implementing JavaScript 2.0, which is based on (actually a superset of) the ECMAscript 4.0 proposal that Netscape made to the ECMA standards body in 2003, and which incorporates Macromedia's (now Adobe's) ActionScript 2.0.
Firefox 2.0 has been in testing since March and was originally slated to launch in August. However, a number of last minute bugs and security issues pushed back the release to October, and Mozilla said it would not rush FIrefox's first major upgrade.
Firefox 2.0 is now available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
I'm a fan of firefox. I've appreciated their innovativeness. But jesus Firefox 2.0 is buggy as hell on my computer practically unusable.
Tabs aren't working properly...
Address bar that assigns the url to the tabs isn't working properly.
Cant close tabs.
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Ahhh...something worth waiting for.
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On the Firefox download site http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/ I can still find only 1.5.0.7 or the RC3 of 2.0, but no word about the final version.
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it looks pretty.
now it have rounded edges.
and lots features that opera had that ff lovers called bloat.
OK OK it is good browser, but i dont think there are enough improvements to call it 2.0. It should have been like 1.6 / 1.7.
but still not as responsive as opera.And with too many tabs open it is slower than a leech.
Still for most ppl a very likable browser.
No more those memory leaks but now it is a CPU hog :(.
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I think the RAM fix itself is worthy of the 2.0 title.
What CPU usage? It's using the same amount as it always has from my viewpoint.
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that way Internet explorer should be like version 352.0.
and that problem is when one have too many tabs open.
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what make my computer to respond very slow even though i did all the basic scan,disc clean up,etc.
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don't forget, you can only transfer license once before your pc turns into HAL 9000, oh wait that would be retarded. no one would ever do that......./wrists
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I'll use it full time when I get all my extensions working. As for functionality, it looks and feels just like 1.5.0.7, except some of my themes won't work, and some of my extensions won't convert, even with the Nightly Build Tool.
If you're expecting something spectacular.... don't. It's much ado about little.
Still better than IE7, though.
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I cannot wait to try this out. As soon as i get home from work:-)
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Am I the only one that has problems with Firefox crashing continuously?
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Yep :-)
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Using TMP?
I would recommend starting with a new profile.
I had such problems with RC versions.
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I'm a heavy user/tester, and I had to build a new profile after using this version from RC3. I hear they are the same version, but I had tremendous slowness/stuttering after installing.
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No problems at all here.
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Nope, you're not alone. My Firefox 2.0 crashes 10 to 15 times per day. I've deleted and reloaded it. I've gotten rid of Google synch and Greasemonkey. All to no avail. Any ideas out there on what's causing these crashes and what can be done about it.
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My new 2.0 crashes All the time, and I get an hour glass that won't change. It seems to start when I scroll down a page too fast, or move a window but sometimes it just crashes.
I have had to use IE for some work issues, as it is just taking so much time to reset FF every few minutes.
While crashing, Task Manager lists FF non-responsive and as running twice. When FF is running OK, Task Manager just has it on the list once.
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well if you click "Firefox Help & Add-ons" on the main Google/Firefox homepage, they changed that page to what is Firefox 2.
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/central/
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I still want to know when they are going to fix the bug where if you right click on a bookmark and use a keyboard shortcut (like "d" to delete) it doesn't work. It instead loads whatever bookmark starts with that letter and then leaves the popup menu open.
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No, it still does that.
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a built-in spell checking
Nice
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PC_Tool is correct:
http://weblogs.mozillazi...10/the_antirelease.html
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Never.
I'm full of s***, everyone here knows that. :p
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Doesn't seem to be a big change. But i'm sure i'll notice something eventually.
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I've seen plenty of software recalled with 24 hours of a "release" because of news sites spoiling a launch and early downloaders discovering major bugs. As a result, I whole-heartedly concur with PC_Tool on release announcements.
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Lost all the search engines updating from 1.5 to 2.0 Went back to V1.5 Anyone else have this problem,?
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No such problem here.
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Try Portable FireFox, it's great.
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How would that fix his problem?
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This happened to me as well, so I uninstalled all of my extensions and reinstalled 1.5 and then just reinstalled 2.0 and everything is working again!
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1. Installed over 1.5.0.7
no major problems to report
a few extensions incompatible, but some of them now built-in (eg reordering tabs, spell check)
2. Installed clean
no major problems to report
some other information ...
enter "about:config" into addressbar to access...
browser.tabs.closebuttons
1 = show X (close) on all tabs
0 = show X (close) on active tab only
browser.tabs.tabMinWidth
100 = default
I set mine to 200
! need to restart browser
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"a few extensions incompatible"
All I want is my Ad Muncher extension to work on this :(
That's my only complaint with this version, otherwise this is a fabulous release.
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The admuncher extension works fine. Make sure you have the latest version from here: http://www.admuncher.com...erextensions/Ad_Muncher/
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Whoo-hooo! Thank you :)
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Any word on whether they fixed their infamous "memory leak" that leads to intense resource use even when minimized? I don't get why FF 1.5 was so popular. It was supposed to be lean and mean and instead it's a pig like none other.
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This is getting really, really old.
There is no one single memory leak that can be easily fixed. If so, it would be fixed and complaining about it would be more inane than it is now. Firefox and certain extensions have a fair amount of small memory leaks that add up.
No one has ever claimed 2.0 would fix the memory leaks. 2.0 is based on the 1.5 branch, with the brunt of development effort going into new UI, the integration of new features, and routine bugfixes.
3.0, due in March, will fix the vast majority of memory leaks. Of course, if extensions leak memory, there's nothing Mozilla can do about that.
Also, Firefox is popular because it's well-designed. Not many average people give a crap about memory leaks. They just care whether or not it works.
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I haven't been really caring for the problem, but I guess that's the problem ... I was wondering when I keep the browser open for few days, sometimes the memory usage goes up to 2 gigs...
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Don't get me wrong, I love FF and use it most everyday, I use IE for updates and FTP folder view, but why would you leave it open for days, and I have never been able to keep it open for one day as it will have an error on Yahoo mail at least twice a day on every computer I have ever seen with Adblock installed. Yes, it might be just Adblock, but I just wanted t point this out. Again, I love FF and I BELIVE that it is the best out there at this date and time. I am glad and grateful that it now has a spell checker that means I can get rid of this crappy Google tool bar!
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iono.. I just don't see a point in closing it.
I use both IE and FF (more FF nowadays) for making homepages, and sometimes it's just more convenient to leave the window there instead of closing and opening it a lot.
FF2 is quite nice though, some themes unsupport.
Maybe they need to make it so that even if they upgrade, they still can use the old version theme, with just some parts unskinned or something..
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2.0 still uses a ton of memory, but after 12 hours of use, it appears the leak has been stopped. Much like OpenOffice, the more pages you open, the more it hogs. With the same ten pages open, I've got:
IE7 — 55k
Opera — 67k
Firefox — 160k
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If anybody is paying any attention, you'll observe that the final release of the new Firefox 2.0, which is installed by the Firefox Setup 2.0.exe file that became available from the Mozilla FTP servers on Monday, Oct. 23, 2006, is installing Build 2006101023, which happens to be the same build and version as Firefox 2.0 RC3 which was released on Oct. 16, 2006. (Hence, those who downloaded and installed RC3 beginning on Oct. 16 already have the final Firefox 2.0 browser.)
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I made a binary compare of the file offered here, claiming to be the "final" 2.0 and the latest RC3 I downloaded, and there were diffeences, although the size was identical. On the FF sites, I couldn't find 2.0 final, they still offer 1507
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Anybody know off the top of their head the switches to silently install this?
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I think it's: -ms
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Not officially, no. :p
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mom
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dad?
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Betanews seems to be able to get the scoop. When it comes to FF announcements from this site, they are accurate. The build number is the same as RC3 which is not surprising. This is news on the Mozillazine Forums as well.
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Agreed.
This is news on the Mozillazine Forums as well.
See that PC_Tool? =p
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Haven't been there.
I have been to he site listed in the fileforum, as well as the Mozilla Firefox download page.
Both state 1.5 as the current release.
I am aware it's in the 2.0 releases folder.
I'm aware it almost definitely is the exact same file folks will be downloading once they make it official.
I'm aware I'm picking nits. They're mine to pick.
Back off my nits, man. ;)
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Lol sorry. I'll never even *think* about your nits again.
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lmao
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Damn straight...
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come on... stop behaving like nervous nerds. You know it's always the same. FF2 will be announced this afternoon or tomorrow, so what the hell...
Plus, i'll tell ya a little secret...
It ALWAYS happens that long-lasting bugs or security holes keep lasting for even longer, even along major releases, so don't panic, live life, it's the way it is.
T h A r t i s t
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FF 2.0 Looks great. Loads faster than the previous 1.5 version.
The user interface is pretty slick and high-tech.
Mo given problems found with 2.0
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Unpatched Flaw in the latest Firefox 2.0
This exploit works in Firefox 2.0: http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/ffoxdie.html
"Jonathan Watt and Michal Zalewski independently reported timing dependent testcases that trigger crashes at the same place during text display. We have seen no demonstration that these crashes could be reliably exploited, but they do show evidence of memory corruption so we presume they could be.
Note: Thunderbird shares the browser engine with Firefox and could be vulnerable if JavaScript were to be enabled in mail. This is not the default setting and we strongly discourage users from enabling JavaScript in mail."
Mozilla classified this flaw as CRITICAL
http://www.mozilla.org/s...e/2006/mfsa2006-59.html
It reported as fixed, but this is not true, because Firefox 1.5.0.7 and Firefox 2.0 are still vulnerable to this exploit http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/ffoxdie.html
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ow. that's annoying.
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The link crashes Opera too!
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Opera 9.1 Beta works fine here...
CONGRATULATIONS!
Your browser is probably not
vulnerable to this attack.
(You did use Firefox, right?)
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Crashes my 2.0 as well.
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Good for you, and for all of the users out there running 9.02, i guess the 9.1 beta does them lots of good. I know lots of users who wont upgrade to beta software, simply due to the word beta.
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Fubar'ed Opera 9.1 when I visited the link. Not closure like Firefox, but had to close the browser because it jammed up.
EDIT: Oop! I am actually on 9.02, not 9.01 as I thought! 9.1 was a typo.
A re-visit with Opera didn't crash the browser this time, just led to permanent 100% CPU usage.
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All the vulnerability does is crash the browser? Big deal. At least it doesn't allow remote-code execution like many IE exploits.
Seriously what can someone do with that exploit? Why would they want to?
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You have to leave it a while. the 20 seconds is quite optomistic...
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9.02 is not vunerable to this either (I have both here). It pegs the CPU for about 30 secs, then passes the test. I think the original poster got impatient and closed Opera before it completed.
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Depends on how the crash is achieved, if it's via internal buffer overlow in Firefox, then it COULD result in code execution with carefully scripted sites.
I am not say this site does this, but it may lead to an expliot that can do this...
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Yes, it does in fact crash the browser. I am not sure why they would not fix it when it seems to be a valid flaw which causes unexpected behavior.
It is sad that both Firefox and IE released their new versions and both had established flaws right at the onset of the release.
Having said that, I believe you are better off using Firefox than IE....Firefox is still safer.
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Opera 9.1 makes for 100% CPU usage for a few seconds then back to the normal very low CPU and memory load...
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If all the website at the end of your post does is crash the browser (which seems to be the case under 64-bit Windows Vista RC 2) then this is a very minor bug in Firefox 2.0. All you have to do is click on your Firefox icon in Windows, then click the "Restore Session" button when Firefox 2.0 tells you the browser crashed unexpectedly. The web browser will reopen every single last website you were viewing so you can pick up right where you left off before the crash.
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"I think the original poster got impatient and closed Opera before it completed."
Possibly. Either way, the script on the page is pretty indigestible for both Firefox and Opera.
To use the words "critical," "unpatched" and "exploit" for this flaw as jill123 did seems to be pretty close to FUD, rather than an accurate description of a minor problem.
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by max it took no more than 4% of cpu resources on 9.1 // 9.02.
before loading page opera was using 74mib after loading page it was using 80.09 mib
page gave this message:-
CONGRATULATIONS!
Your browser is probably not
vulnerable to this attack.
(You did use Firefox, right?)
SO I DOES NOT CRASHES OPERA period.
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According to Mozilla, the current release is still 1.5.
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
As I heard it, 2.0 was not due for "Official" release until tomorrow.
Jumping the gun a bit here, Nate?
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It's on the FTPs and ready for download (presumably for the mirrors to be populated through the day). It will likely be posted to the website tomorrow.
ftp://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/2.0/
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it only hasn't been announced but its already been "released"...
that sucks... same as IE... as soon as a new release comes out there's tons of ppl out there waiting to bash it..
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Dude, chill.
I ain't bashing 2.0. I am simply pointing out the fact that while BetaNews says 2.0 is released, Mozilla has not yet made it official.
That okay with you?
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Yeah, and 301a isn't "oficially" an alpha of 3.0.
If Mozilla has not made it oficially availble on their website, Betanews announcing it's release is still jumping the gun somewhat.
Mozilla could still pull the release on the FTPs and post something else by tomorrow. There is no guarantee this is the official build.
It may very well be.
...just sayin.
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you're really splitting hairs here.
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I was just thinking the same thing. I am sorry, but if history serves that mozilla posts RELEASES in the RELEASES folder when they are RELEASED, and this has been so since .1 of firefox and even back further with the mozilla suite, why would one think that it would change? I guess if you have to grasp at straws...
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i just installed it ....
checked the "About Mozilla Firefox"
and mentions nothing about being a beta ...
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The official *announcement* is coming tomorrow. But the final release is up and available for download now from Mozilla's FTP site.
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If history serves, people make mistakes, such as dragging things into folders they shouldn't. As a person who doesn't like putting beta applications on their primary machines, I too am usually hesitant to install things in the first 24 hours of their release. Sometimes it does help though. How many people have a copy of the totally free version of Alcohol 52%?
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Actually, the about box is identical to RC 3, which seems to have been released as the final version.
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Yeah, that's me. I hate firefox.
*laughs*
Mozilla Announcement = Official.
BetaNews Announcement = Not so much.
Got it?
'sall I'm sayin. Take it however you wish.
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But the final release is up and available for download now from Mozilla's FTP site.
;)
If it's all the same, I'll take Mozilla's word on it over yours. No offense intended. I can wait that extra day... (of course, I'm running RC3, and it appears to be the exact same build, so...I doubt I'm losing out on anything)
Sure, I could be splitting hairs. I'd hazard to guess it's the official build, but I wouldn't go telling everyone that, without a doubt, it is.
But then, I don't have a direct line to MozHQ, either. ;)
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2.0 RC1, RC2, and RC3 all do not advertise their RC status in the about dialog. They simply say Firefox 2.0.
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Once a directory is created on the official FTP server and files made available inside it, a release is official. You can wait for the pageantry of the PR announcements, or you can grab it now. It's real, unlike those "3.0 alpha" builds you claimed to be using.
For once, Betanews has NOT jumped the gun on a Firefox release.
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For once, Betanews has NOT jumped the gun on a Firefox release.
IYHO.
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I don't know why you have a problem with the release of FF2 in this manner. Why does the depositing of the final release in a clearly labeled folder on the official FTP site not constitute a release? Because Mozilla only did this to ensure FF2's distribution to download sites prior to a press release? Come on.
Kudos to Betanews for actually using the Mozilla FTP's labeling as an indicator of what is and is not released.
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Dude...
I made the simple point that it wasn't official....yet. It's everyone else that's making a "Big Deal" about it.
Is it really *that* bid a deal that I give a crap about whether Mozilla has made the announcement yet? Apparently ya'll think it's so important that you have to waste all this time explaining it to me.
I really couldn't care less. I'll grab it tomorrow, after the announcement.
Big deal? Not really. I just don't think it's official until the folks at Mozilla actually say so, and no, for me, that does *not* mean throwing it in a release directory. :)
....'til the Fat Lady sings kinda thing. Is it really that hard to understand? Is it really that important to convince me otherwise?
I doubt it...
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No, damn it! It's not ok, because I'm too lazy to actually read what anyone says or think about it long enough to understand, lol.
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"I just don't think it's official until the folks at Mozilla actually say so, and no, for me, that does *not* mean throwing it in a release directory."
The "Big Deal" is that, according to Mozilla, throwing it in a release directory does indeed make it official.
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"The "Big Deal" is that, according to Mozilla, throwing it in a release directory does indeed make it official."
not according to their build and release engineer...
http://forums.mozillazin...4c7cca0e383f7149ec0eea3
http://weblogs.mozillazi...10/the_antirelease.html
http://groups.google.com...f009d0/98630f21bc7c3d9f
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Unless something changes between now and the "official" release, RC3 is the final. My HIPS application did not alert me to any checksum algorithm changes.
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Show me.
No offense, but you saying it doesn't mean squat.
From anonymous Mozilla Engineer:
http://weblogs.mozillazi...10/the_antirelease.html
"So please... just remember: "Preed the Release Engineer says: friends don't let friends download Firefox before it's released."
We know everyone's excited for the 2.0 release. We are too. But give us 24 hours, so we can make sure that your first experience with Firefox 2.0 is befitting of everyone's hard work on this major release."
--Thanks to mjm for the linkage.
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