News Firefox 4 shipping on 22nd March

The next big overhaul of Mozilla's popular Firefox, launches on 22nd March.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/bits/2011/03/18/firefox-4-shipping-on-22nd-march/1

 

I love the increased speed in Firefox 4, it's a whole world away from 3.6. I have been using Firefox 4 so long that sometimes I forget most people still use the old and slow 3.6. Other than speed Firefox has proper script blocking with the NoScript extension, something other browsers attempt to implement but never do nearly as well.

 

I haven't noticed an increase in performance over previous versions. Not to mention it still loads pretty slow the first time I launch it.

 

My findings exactly. Same speed once it's going but slower to launch. Will have to wait for the final release I think.

 

Greetings!

And more customization to be made to un-Chromify the UI.

 

I bloody hope so - I haven't tried the Beta but I've seen the screenshots and I really hope the interface can be changed to a 'Classic' Firefox 2/3-mode.
It's annoying how subject everyday software is to these interface fashions and design fads.
Whether or not the new design is 'better' is something up for debate and probably quite subjective, but the change to the tabs, title and toolbars is not to my taste at all.

Also, I'm baffled by people talking of browser speed and performance, and always have been when it comes to new browser releases. When people talk of 4 being faster than 3 or Firefox faster than IE, what are they referring to? Java performance?
As a non-web developer I always feel that articles on new browsers and their comments dwell far too much on something that really makes so little appreciable difference to the end user's experience compared to issues like standards compliance, features and interface design.
Especially when, as people point out, Firefox still takes its sweet bloody time opening from cold - Something I had hoped would've been fixed a couple of years ago.

Have I missed something in that regard, or is it just fanboys fighting over microsecond differences in javascript execution? Someone please explain.

 

I've just moved to chrome as the FF4 beta gets slower booting with every update.

I'll miss Firefox though...

 

IE9 working fantastic. Don't need FF.

 

Already running it here... autoupdate! Shame my graphics card is dying a death though, means i can't rely on the hardware acceleration

 

Hmm, looks like everybody's waiting for this thing.. can't wait to try it with my new pc.. Cool!

 

Not waiting for it at all. In fact I couldn't care less about FF4. Any browser which want to look like Chrome is dead for me. Forever. Best add-on for such browsers is installed on every MS Windows PC and is called "Add/Remove Programs" or "Programs and Features". Works like a charm.

 

Greetings!

Compat Menu 2
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/compact-menu-2/

 

I'm looooving Firefox 4 since beta 10 and RC just 2 things
- starting to type an URL offers looong urls to exact sub-pages for previous visited webpages rather then said webpages homepage (opera does this awesomely)
- does not remember and highlight EZTV download links once used (IE8 + FF3 did this )
Will compare to IE9 tonight.

 

I don't understand the obsession developers seem to have with hiding the menu bar. This has been going on for some time now and it annoys the crap out of me. Why must they hide things I want to use.

 

All this concentration on speed whilst page loading is still limited by the network and stupid javascript adverts.

 

"Firefox 4 shipping on 22nd March"?

Neat, will they send me a copy on disk?

Didn't think so. I think "releasing/released" is a better choice of word here.

 

This!
I think the prime examples of this ridiculous fad are the 'Ribbon' interface Microsoft forced onto newer versions of Office and apps like Paint; and the menu-hiding defaults of Media Player.
Why are companies suddenly trashing established, familiar interface conventions for no apparent benefit to the end-user?
If I want those extra 20px of space to view a page I'll switch to full-screen mode, thanks.

And also this!
This is precisely why I asked above what difference it makes (within reason) how well the browsers perform in these unrealistic speed benchmarks, when they seem to do nothing but let the likes of Mozilla, Opera and Google swing their Java e-peen around in the 'browser wars'.

 

I have Firefox 4.0 RC installed at the moment and prefer it over IE9, simply because it remembers all my usernames and passwords for the sites I visit (plus has a handy Password Manager) unlike IE9. I've yet to come across any incompatibility issues with site layouts either, again unlike IE9 (even with Compatibility Mode enabled)! IE9 does load web pages faster though and I like that it has a Save As option for downloads. There's also the DivX HD option for YouTube in IE9 which is currently disabled in Firefox due to incompatibilities.

Seems like neither is perfect really so I'll likely continue to use both.

 

Just cannot wait!

Lets hope is security too, and got better compatibility.

 

Still using the most current 3.6 version, gonna be nice to finally try something new.