RSSFirst public Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 builds now downloadable
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published October 14, 2008, 6:11 PM
6:08 pm EDT October 14, 2008 - This afternoon, two Mozilla spokespersons confirmed to BetaNews the official availability of Firefox 3.1 Beta 1, which should include some features that could catch it up with IE8 Beta 2.
"The main work in beta 1 has been done on Web compatibility as well as enablement of new Web features such as geolocation, video, offline application support and CSS improvements," one Mozilla spokesperson told us. We've been invited to test such features as a thumbnail preview for tab switching.
"A second beta is scheduled for later this year to early next year, and the release of the product will be in early 2009," the second spokesperson told us.
2:56 pm EDT October 14, 2008 - Though official word has yet to come from Mozilla on the subject, a public version of Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 was posted to the organization's servers, and BetaNews has confirmed its authenticity.
One user interface change we noticed almost immediately was a big green "+" button on the right side of the tabs bar, that enables the user to open a new tab. What we are not noticing -- at least not yet -- is any clear indication of Private Browsing mode, a feature that is slated for the final version 3.1 and continues to be the topic of much discussion among Mozilla's community of developers.
A Mozilla spokesperson told BetaNews this afternoon that the organization does not have a specific time for the public announcement of version 3.1 Beta 1. However, if history is any indication, Mozilla typically makes a public proclamation within 48 hours of the installation file's appearance on the organization's servers.
It's been a busy day, so our tests with Beta 1 have only just begun. However, we did have time to check out Beta 1's performance with the Acid3 standards compliance test. Here, Firefox posted its highest rendering score in a very long time: 89%. By comparison, a quick check of Firefox version 3.0.3 showed a score of only 71%.
Why does the acid test matter? Honestly, it is not inclusive of real world results. I am not going to judge a browser on it's ability to render a page which is DESIGNED to exploit a browser's design flaws when it comes to rendering, but whether or not it renders the sites I visit properly. Tests are great in a control lab, but in the wilds of the internet, they are pointless.
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|Me Myself and I !!!!
"YOU" don't see ..
but YOU are probably not a web developer are you ?
The test is DESIGNED to impose conformance to a standard/spec in a demanding way that is not just the bare minimum, and that is much needed to stop "coding" for "one" browser but against a spec. And It has advantage beyond simplicity for dev..
It means less plug-ins (flosh, silverDollar and such), more timelessness in the data and presentation for archival and collective memory, lower development costs, better practices etc ...
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|Agreed. If all developers aimed for compliance with that one test, then Browser devs, web devs, users would benefit incredibly in the long term.
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|I don't know if its just me, but at first glance FF 3.1 on OS X looks like it "matches" the interface better than FF 3.0.x currently does. And when the hell did IE8 surpass FF3? Apparently I missed something.
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|IE 8 Beta 2 never did get better than Firefox 3. It only scores 21/100 on the Acid3 test which is horrible for a web browser that's supposed to be more standards compliant.
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|if SMIL had managed to land before beta1, the acid test would have been much higher, reported at 97/100 here: https://bugzilla.mozilla..._bug.cgi?id=216462#c111
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|finally the retards have added the "new tab" button BY DEFAULT so that tabbed browsing is not like a hidden feature, or difficult to handle for the average joe! >:( i've been complaining about that for ages and they played mistery saying "it's not added for reasons explained many times before". what reasons!
disclaimer: i use, like, recommend to my mom and friends, and know how to configure and customize upside down firefox.
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|I turned it off. I don't like having the tab bar up by default. :p
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|"finally the retards have added the "new tab" button BY DEFAULT so that tabbed browsing is not like a hidden feature, or difficult to handle for the average joe! >:( i've been complaining about that for ages and they played mistery saying "it's not added for reasons explained many times before". what reasons!"
Exactly! I've been fussing about that for a couple of years now as well.
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|these builds usually erase all my bookmarks for good! :(
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|these builds usually erase all my bookmarks for good!
Right. For Good. Not for Evil. ;)
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|Back up everything. You'll sleep better at night.
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|Taken care of. WHS, man.
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|I believe he said back up your data, not corrupt it.
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|According to the weekly status meetings, The 3.1 beta 1 should be out this week (meeting on the 8th).
Beta 1
* builds coming out now
* QA estimate is 5-6 days
* looking to launch next week
https://wiki.mozilla.org...atusMeetings/2008-10-08
From their QA pages,
https://wiki.mozilla.org...Plan/Beta1#Test_Results
it looks like they have to complete a few more QA tests before what they call 'testday' which is, I believe scheduled for the 17th.
http://quality.mozilla.org/node/1902
Hope this helps.
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|Does this break any Plug-Ins, Themes, etc.?
New releases almost always seem to...
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|no workie for download statusbar.
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|yes.
this post now 100% snark free!
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|SF3: Thanks for the heads-up while at the same time making it clear that the binaries are not official yet.
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|Heh...
See, you *can* teach an old dog new tricks. :p
//sarcasm added free of charge.
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|Seconded on the "old dog" part.
I think both Mozilla and BetaNews are getting this scheduling thing down a little better. We've learned that the developers have one schedule, the marketers have another schedule, and then there's the actual order of events. Something tells me the development of the universe was planned using a similar strategy.
-SF "Dang, Where Did That Planet Come From? It's Not on the List" 3
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|I suspect Richard Dawkins would take a different stance.
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|Yours, mine, and the truth, eh? ;)
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|Hey, my dog might take offense here...
And I still didn't get the address for that delivery waiting for you ;-)
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