Mozilla launches Firefox 4

Mozilla pushes on development with release of Firefox 4.2 Alpha 1

This morning Mozilla has made version 4.2a1pre available on the Mozilla Nightly website, under their "Minefield" branding. In an effort to speed up their development cycle, we should see Firefox 5 by the last week of June.
Under the plan proposed by Mr Sayre, new features would start life in the nightly channel, before moving to the experimental and beta channels before either being disabled or included in a final release build. Features that take a long time to develop can stay in the nightly channel until ready or scrapped. New code would be moved from the nightly channel every six weeks during a development cycle.

Neowin.net - Mozilla pushes on development with release of Firefox 4.2 Alpha 1



Fixed:

1. #644139 [Toolkit:Build Config]-mozapps/preferences no longer included in omni.jar (Change Master Password dialog doesn't work) [All]
2. #644164 [Core:Build Config]-make configure depend on the various version files [Win]
3. #638292 [Toolkit:Add-ons Manager]-InstallTrigger is not defined when a new page is opened by clicking a link with target="_blank" or using window.open [All]
4. #639090 [Toolkit:Startup and Profile System]-Safe Mode dialog doesn't allow the user to restart in normal mode [All]

Partial Landings/WIPs/Incoming:

1. #636190 [mozilla.org:Release Engineering]-Change firefox version on mozilla-central to 4.2a1pre [All]
2. #259861 [Core:XBL]-Should log errors on bindings with no id attribute [Lin]
3. #457102 [CoreDOM]-kill nsIXPointer [Mac]
4. #585786 [Core:XPConnect]-Get rid of slimwrapper checks in quickstubs when we can [Mac]
5. #595785 [ToolkitDownload Manager]-Getting a download's nsIChannel appears unreliable [All]
6. #601332 [Core:Layout]-Sunspider 0.9.1 never paints its subframe [Win]
7. #614145 [Core:XPConnect]-Fast-path null return values in quickstubs [Mac]
8. [BACKOUT]#617339 [Core:HTML: Parser]-window.arguments is undefined when opening an HTML file with a long-ish comment at the start. [Mac]
9. #632904 [Core:Editor]-Editor/IME/spellcheck use content states when they mean IsEditable() [All]
10. #636336 [CoreDOM: Core & HTML]-img/video/audio/source.setAttribute()/getAttribute() on src trims whitespace [All]
11. #637644 [CoreDOM: Core & HTML]-adding elements through javascript to Popup windows does not work. [All]
12. #643429 [Core:Geolocation]-Remove IsBetterLocation functionality [Mac]
13. #640201 [Core:Geolocation]-mGeolocation should NOT be set before Init() is called [All]

Changelog
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewto...f=23&t=2140511

unifex said:

Is it wrong to ask why there won't be a version 4.1 ?

They skipped 4.1 because a different branch (Fennec aka. Firefox Mobile) was already using 4.1 in their build system.

The first FF4.2Alpha is available, a native 64-bit version is released too
http://nightly.mozilla.org/

Have managed to get firefox 4 working at last ,not sure what was causing all my problems,but am very happy now with the look of it and it seems to work well.

[QUOTE=Snowdog;1308864]

mr pc said:

Is there a comprehensive list of add-ons/extensions/themes that work well with 4?

So install it in a different directory to coexist, so you can try it. That would take 5 minutes.

Did that (on external HD) and well - somehow it's confused now. So, if I use the 3.6.16 shortcut and then try to open the 4.0 to make comparisons it opens the first version and vice versa.

I do recall being able to do this with older betas though, so not sure what's going on

mr pc said:

Did that (on external HD) and well - somehow it's confused now. So, if I use the 3.6.16 shortcut and then try to open the 4.0 to make comparisons it opens the first version and vice versa.

I do recall being able to do this with older betas though, so not sure what's going on

It has always worked this way for me when I had two versions, the first thing it does is check and see if FF is running. If it is it just opens a window with the running version.

Why do you need both running at the same time? 4.0 should try to use the same extensions as 3.6 so you could tell immediately which ones don't work... That is the quickest way to find out what needs update/replacement.

Was hoping the 4.0 would be a raw version of it - but you are correct, it sniffed out my exts and tried to apply them and that was the view, bleh.

I'll eventually migrate over to 4.X, seeing it is my preferred browser - I hate to be picky but Chromifox is a really nice theme and I'll keep it where it's at.

just being picky over aesthetics really...

mr pc said:

Was hoping the 4.0 would be a raw version of it - but you are correct, it sniffed out my exts and tried to apply them and that was the view, bleh.

I'll eventually migrate over to 4.X, seeing it is my preferred browser - I hate to be picky but Chromifox is a really nice theme and I'll keep it where it's at.

just being picky over aesthetics really...

I have been one to not care too much about aesthetics, but I'm becoming more so over time. It is not just a matter of eye appeal, it also crosses over into functionality. When this occurs, I can be very picky, and not ashamed to admit it. Of course, no one can judge this type of thing, except the user himself. I guess that is why there are so many options offered, both by the OS and programs. Sometimes i can't understand some people's choices, but I just bite my tongue, and keep my mouth shut.

You are correct - but for many function follows form and I know that at this point my browser is exactly what I want in functionality and form. The only theme other than the FF standard is Chromifox, so trust me - the aesthetic is function, I really can't stand 99% of the themes out there.

And my add-ons are running great and seamlessly and are about 95% function (Cooliris being the only toy add-on honestly)

Seeing that the role of the browser is to integrate home computing with the internet - aesthetics is a rather large part in customer interest. Look at the cult of Apple - yes, they may have nice products, but many of them are popular because of form first.

I know that there is more to the browser behind the "glitz" which honestly i have very little of - but I have my browser optimized and configured to almost perfect function for my needs and if I like 1 theme out of hundreds, nothing wrong with that.