I have been happily using FF3 Beta 3 and it has been my default browser. Upgraded to FF3 Beta 4 (build Gecko/2008030714) today after hearing news about some significant improvements.

However, I am finding that with Yahoo Mail my browser is crashing. Anyone else see this?

You can obtain Firefox 3.0 Beta 4 the following way:

Go to http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html; copy the link to the beta language-platform of your choice; replace "b3" with "b4"; go to the new address.

If the download does not pop-up right away, click the bottom-right link. Voila!

Different version that the prior 'release' version, as well... that one was Gecko/2008030317, this one is Gecko/2008030714.

@c4p0ne edited Mar 10, 2008 - 8:55 AM

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And btw the reason malware spreads so quickly is because of the stupidity of computer illiterate people combined with the inherent perpetual insecurities of windows and sprinkled with
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Computer illiteracy does NOT EQUAL stupidity.
Rank arrogance, however, does.

Obviously it doesn't, anyway, I have found in my travels that computer-illiterate users often do possess strikingly peculiar levels of elevated stupidity in other non-computer related areas! :0 In other words (i know its gonna sound crazy but..) I belive that there IS an (albeit yet unclear) link between computer-literacy and actual stupidity!!

Not for all people, but for a shockingly large amount! Sad but true. I swear I think they should actually get some scientific studies underway for this as it is highly intriguing!

The idea of a way to measure intelligence or the opposite "stupidity" is nonsense, and to attempt to quantify intelligence in a study is folly. How would you know that someone was behaving stupidly? if they behaved more like you, would they have been less stupid? If so, then clearly you have far too much pride.

Well, that's an awesome question. Right from the door, I can tell that you're obviously NOT stupid! It's just that simple. There HAS to be a way to *reliably* gauge intelligence/stupidity! We just don't know it yet. And that point you brought up, again excellent. I guess I could answer by first denouncing the word "stupidity" as "insufficient" to scientifically describe "lack of intelligence".

That taken care of, I guess you could say some people are just LESS intelligent then others. For example, we could add up everything an individual knows and conclude "this person is less intelligent then me", or vice-versa.

One crazy thing I notice about stupid people is that they can't seem to gauge others less intelligent then them (even though they exist) although an intelligent person *seems* always to be able to tell who is less intelligent, as well as *more* intelligent! You know what, this subject is so way-off-base that I'll just stop here since I can feel this turning into a super-rant.

ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/3.0b4-candidates/rc1/ The download link

Been using minefield and updating every day (thru the no-hassle autoupdate) and have been extremely happy with it. But WTF is minefield though? Is it FF Beta4 or some separate sh*t?

I believe they are nightlies on a branch or trunk and not to be confused with betas and alphas for generic public testing. They might have gross bugs that bring data loss or system malfunction. i.e. no guarantees and should be avoided unless you have a prepped testing environment.

I tried a minefield release from last week, and while it was indeed fast, it was simply too unstable to use seriously.

Minefield is the code name for the development trunk that is working towards Firefox 3. The current trunk version is Minefield 3.0b5pre 2008030804, which is to say that is Firefox Trunk (Minefield) version 3.0b5pre build on March 8, 2008 at 4:00AM.

And honestly, how can you be using Minefield nighties with out knowing what it is?

Not sure how you can say that. I've been using it from alpha4 (4/27/2007) and since reaching beta it hasn't had any major crash or data loss bugs.

Not sure how you can say that.

Perhaps...and I'm just guessing here, his system configuration is different that yous, hmmm?

Your system!=everyone else's. What runs without glitch on yours may not run as well for others, *especially* when considering alphas, betas, and nightlys.

Someone fed him an FTP link?

Happens all the time...

And that perfectly illustrates why there is so much viruses/spy ware/malware and why it spreads so quickly.

Best practice is to always know what an app is and where it came from before installing it. The where it came from is covered (hopefully mozilla.org), but to not even put in the effort to learn more about it is almost embarrassing.

Well duh. Believe it or not, I know a fair about about Computers and Computer Systems. I run updated version of WinXP, Vista, and Linux, which covers the major platforms. In addition to personal experience, there does not appear to be any major crash/data loss/usability bugs in the Mozilla bug tracker. So, at this point in the release cycle, most stability issues should be worked out.

There is also may be a discrepancy between our definitions of 'stability'.

Is Minefield stable on most major platforms? Most likely, and if not that may be because the user hasn't kept a clean, healthy, up-to-date system.

Does Minefield preform as expected? Probably not, as it's pre-release software. In addition, plugin providers (flash, adobe, etc...), complex sites (yahoo, gmail, etc...), and addons haven't updated their software to be compatible. But, this isn't exactly Mozilla's problem.

Dose Minefield render all pages correctly? No, but that's not Minefield's fault. Good work was made to make it more standards compliant, so it won't always be able to render broken HTML/CSS the way the designer intended. Once again, not really Mozilla's problem.

But yes, I do realize there are exceptions and known circumstances which could affect the user experience.

Never had a piece of malware. Ever in 15 years. Don't be so quick to "illustrate" why malware spreads "so quickly" before you know an individual.

And btw the reason malware spreads so quickly is because of the stupidity of computer illiterate people combined with the inherent perpetual insecurities of windows and sprinkled with the talent of malware writers to always be 2 steps ahead of antivirus firms.

THAT'S why malware spreads so quickly. Not because I'm using minefield (which WAS downed from mozilla) and incidentally IS more secure then IE even in a f*cking pre-alpha stage to be honest.

Oh and rude egotistical insecure penile-implants need to stop making useless idiotic quips to show their self-believed superiority over other forum-goers... you know who you are (not you Sparky)....

Yeah...

Never trust a link from your best friend labeled: New Firefox Browser! Latest Builds!

Because, you know your best friend is going to send you links to viruses....right?

"Best Practices" is good for the business world. It doesn't, however, means squat IRL.

(And yes, the business world *is* just another MMO..)

Then why post "Not sure how you can say that." if the answer is, "Well, duh."?

Sorry man, that statement made you look a bit elitist and I had to call you on it.

That said, you are absolutely correct. One man's rendering issues are another man's "stability" issues. Of course, while you may run an updated XP, that's one one PC... How well the release performs on another PC (with the same installation of Windows, just different hardware/drivers) is another thing entirely.

I had an issue with ONE version of Minefield, where every time I tried to open it up, it would crash to desktop... if that happened to be the version he grabbed, his complaints make perfect sense. The fix for that one was uninstalling completely and, the next day, reinstalling.

I'll concede that point. Looking back that was worded extremely poorly. Perhaps "That's surprising" and gone on with what I said in my last comment would have been better.

I'm glad you don't consider me one, and though that was not my intention, I think I have kind of come off as one... apologies.

And I think you missed what I said. I just made a comment on how malware is generally spread by people installing software when they don't know what it is and/or where it came from (or from untrusted sites). That in no way had anything to do with Minefield, only that you said you didn't know what it was (aside from a browser, of course).

And that also wasn't meant to characterize you in any way. I was merely making an extremely generalized comment from what PC_Tool said.

That very true, but best practices do help, and they are better than nothing at all.

Just because the release is branded as 3.0b4 doesn't mean it actually is. The branding usually changes at least a week before the official release for the RC process.

This has happened for every Alpha, Beta, and Major/Minor release I've seen. You'd think by now that all of these news sights would learn to double check this info with official and reliable sources, suck as http://wiki.mozilla.org/Releases or the daily build threads On the forum http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewforum.php?f=23 or even the http://mozillazine.org news site.

Also, if anyone took care to notice that the "Testing Day" page that was linked in the article states "We will use the Release Candidate for testing"

This build also fixes the New Yahoo Mail Bug in Firefox 3 Beta 3 (Mail fails to load and then your prompted to revert to Old Yahoo Mail).

Seriously, who cares whether it's a preview or a RC of a *beta*. If you're using a beta in whatever form, you should know what you're dealing with.

Besides, beta 4 is already old news. Beta 5 is available for people who like to stay ahead of the masses *and* contribute as serious betatesters.

thats beta5pre, so its not beta5 yet

Whatever.

We all know Firefox pre alpha nightly 10 (only when the moon is full) is where it's at.

You're not even close to kewl unless you're using it.

looser.

I have been using FireFox 3.0 beta 3 since it hit the streets. It's my default and has never yet let me down. No crashes just the best browser I have ever, ever used. This from an Opera fan of years ago and recently a IE7 user. They can leave this version of Foxy as is, it really needs nothing altering, hope they don't mess with it too much.

This is absolutely fascinating news!

Are we surprised? Betanews has a long standing history of posting files without verification and simply relying on reader submissions. I know this because I've watched several users submit releases that clearly are not the version or build they claim to be of various programs.

Whoa. If this history really is long standing someplace, then certainly I'd like to read it sometime, because I'm something of an historian myself.

But this file was posted with verification, then it ceased to exist. This wasn't some tip from Frank in Poughkeepsie, this was from Mozilla.

If you're going to sling mud, make sure it's got some rocks in it first.

-SF3

Really. I love how the Betanews bashers seem to hate this site so much, but they continue to come here every day and whine about it instead of just going to some other site.

My tupennies' (for what it's worth, yep pun intended) is that this site is the first one I look at each morning. Indeed, am oft of the opinion many of the posters' here would be better off at Cnet, or something similar, there they can find like minded (small though they may be) trolls.
I rarely have any issues with the reports other than phrasing/context at times.
And, it must be acknowledged if indeed an error is made it is usually remedied rapidly.
Anyway, thanks for the heads up Scott, much appreciated!

I feel the same way... and yes, this site is the first one I check in the mornings as well.

Do you people seriously go around looking for something to b**** about? Did the world stop revolving because of this and I missed it or what?

Same here. Some people just like to b**** about anything they can.

And exactly what kind if verification was that? That the releases/3.0b4 folder existed?

It isn't officially released until Mozilla officially makes a statement that it is released. And, as of yet, I haven't heard any such statement.

And as far as history goes, pretty much every user-contributed news site has jumped the gun on Firefox alphas, betas, and releases at some point. Some sites do it more than others, but this has always happened at least once a milestone release.

I've installed and uninstalled FF3 betas a few times because it just isn't ready for primetime. It messed up my bookmarks and the bookmark toolbar, while it doesn't like the chrome hacks for a two line bookmarks toolbard and a few others that I have.

I don't worry about the extensions, I use nightly tester to get around incompatibilities.