Firefox 4

Black Swan

Just upgraded today from FF 3.6 to 4 and it does appear to load boards.ie faster than the earlier version. I would assume that it loads other sites faster too. What has been your experience with the new version of FF? Any problems? Security improvements or vulnerabilities? Comments?

danjo-xx

There seems to be a few probs allright. I normally wait until they iron out any bugs that are in it first before I install anything new like this.

T0mmyM

There seems to be a few probs allright. I normally wait until they iron out any bugs that are in it first before I install anything new like this.

What problems are you having? out of curiosity.

Running better than 3.6 for me.

Risteard

Anyone having trouble thanking posts with FF4?

When I click the thanks button it essentially refreshes the page and adds the thanks then.

I'm running no script so this could be the problem even though I've enable it for boards.

Voodu Child

I found the font rendering looks rotten when using hardware acceleration, fuzzy subpixel crap.

And also hardware acceleration makes my GPU about 6 or 7C hotter just sitting idle on a webpage. Wouldn't mind but it kicks the fan into a level that is more audible/annoying. Not exactly a weak card either, can't really understand why it would have such an effect.

Turned hardware acceleration off and it's fine now.

overshoot

only running it a day but so far it beats the pants of 3.6 for speed. havnt come across any problems so far myself. they had massive uptake of the beta version didnt they so id say that helped

jeffk

For me its a let down, there still is some issue where the CPU usage goes mental and its hard to use the PC.

Back to SRWare Iron for now!

chin_grin

jeffk wrote: »

For me its a let down, there still is some issue where the CPU usage goes mental and its hard to use the PC.

Back to SRWare Iron for now!

Yeah me too. Can't stand the look of the new FF. Also doesn't resolve any of the slow start up issues they had. Iron is much faster for me and sure I run ccleaner to clear cookies after each session.

jeffk

chin_grin wrote: »

Yeah me too. Can't stand the look of the new FF. Also doesn't resolve any of the slow start up issues they had. Iron is much faster for me and sure I run ccleaner to clear cookies after each session.

Yeah the mad slow start up, I had it loading at startup and then tried not to close/re open FF unless I HAD to. Try this add on if you want to clean when you close it

http://www.hotcleaner.com/

IE9 is an option, but it seems too fast if that makes sense, plus the lack of add ons and tweaking. Its great for a joe soap user who wants to start it up and surf the web and have no bells and whistles.

James G

I like it. The new native app tabs and the "tab group" manager are great.

T0mmyM

chin_grin wrote: »

Yeah me too. Can't stand the look of the new FF.

I didn't like the layout, so I switched to menu bar instead of the dropdown thing. And also moved the tabs to the bottom aswell. now it's similar to 3.6 again.


Anyone notice that if you click on a link, the "open in new tab" option has been moved to the top? the same as chrome. That will take getting used to.

Performance has improved for me. I had lots of lag and freezes in 3.6 but now everything is smooth.

CaSCaDe711

I'm only seeing 3.6.16 when checking for updates..? Where can me get me hands on v4..?

T0mmyM

CaSCaDe711 wrote: »

I'm only seeing 3.6.16 when checking for updates..? Where can me get me hands on v4..?

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new/

sebastianadams

T0mmyM wrote: »

Anyone notice that if you click on a link, the "open in new tab" option has been moved to the top? the same as chrome. That will take getting used to.

this is surprisingly annoying..

the untitled user

You guys realise the tabs on top can be removed? The whole interface is entirely customisable. View -> Tools -> Customise.

I've always used Firefox almost entirely because it's ease of customisation, and I customise it to maximize screen space. Tabs on top gives me even more screen space for the pages so rather happy there, although I did notice the CPU spikes and freezes mentioned above.

AlmostQuick

T0mmyM wrote: »

What problems are you having? out of curiosity.

Running better than 3.6 for me.

The search box on my Google toolbar isn't working properly with FF4. When I type in a couple of letters, Google's suggestions appear under the search-box but if I click on one of these suggestions it's not filling in the search-box. Any suggestions?

jack presley

AlmostQuick wrote: »

The search box on my Google toolbar isn't working properly with FF4. When I type in a couple of letters, Google's suggestions appear under the search-box but if I click on one of these suggestions it's not filling in the search-box. Any suggestions?

yeah, same here. Bug apparently.

T0mmyM

AlmostQuick wrote: »

The search box on my Google toolbar isn't working properly with FF4. When I type in a couple of letters, Google's suggestions appear under the search-box but if I click on one of these suggestions it's not filling in the search-box. Any suggestions?

Instaed of clicking, try pressing the down arrow to highlight and then press enter.

philologos

On trying Firefox 4 for the last few months in beta, and on trying the release. Although a part of me hates to admit it but Internet Explorer 9 actually loads faster than either it or Chrome.

AlmostQuick

T0mmyM wrote: »

Instaed of clicking, try pressing the down arrow to highlight and then press enter.

That works but it's just instinct to click on a suggestion and hit enter...

cormie

The "open in new tab" bit will certainly take getting used to, hopefully it will save me a few seconds of my life that would have been spent going down that extra 5mm of screen space though

Another bug (?) is that if I used to type something like "docs" into the address bar (not the search bar) it would bring me to google docs, even though I don't have a bookmark of google docs and would perform a search through google sometimes too depending on what I typed, basically it could be used as a faster method to get to a page you didn't have bookmarked, now when I type docs, and other things, I just get this:

File not found







Firefox can't find the file at jar:file:///C:/Program Files/Mozilla Firefox/omni.jar!/chrome/en-US/locale/browser-region/region.propertiesdocs.





Check the file name for capitalization or other typing errors.
Check to see if the file was moved, renamed or deleted.

K-9

Find the refresh/stop button on the address bar takes getting used too but barring that, I like it after a day or so. As usual, a few add ons aren't compatible but if you go to the developer sites most have beta versions ready.

It's the customising and Add ons that do it for me. Didn't seem to be able to rearrange the add on bar easily but there is an add on for that, Organise Status bar.

jeffk

Heres a custom build that people are recommending to use. It seems to run smoother and with portable you can just delete the folder if you dont like it

http://www.mediafire.com/?92qh3344n552bv9

CaSCaDe711

Have tried Clear Recent History from the tools menu, unlike v3.6 this now seems to hang for a while and Adobe Reader decides to open up a window. Looking at the processes running AcroRD32.exe is the reader, taking up 24mb RAM. Shutting down also hogs a bit, with numerous (10+) plugin-container.exe's appearing before clearing out.

jeffk

Seen as Iron was mentioned and thats meant to be a better version of chrome. Has anyone tried palemoon? its meant to be a better version of firefox!

Adyx

jeffk wrote: »

Seen as Iron was mentioned and thats meant to be a better version of chrome. Has anyone tried palemoon? its meant to be a better version of firefox!

Yeah I was using it on my desktop. Performance is better because it's optimised for Windows machines. I've switched back to FF 4 now because performance isn't an issue but I still use Pale Moon on my netbook. I suppose if you're sticking with FF 3.6xx, it's worth switching to Pale Moon but I don't know if there is a PM 4 coming any time soon.

Edit: Anybody else get rid of that horrible orange Firefox button? I changed it to transparent, much less distracting.

jeffk

Adyx wrote: »

Yeah I was using it on my desktop. Performance is better because it's optimised for Windows machines. I've switched back to FF 4 now because performance isn't an issue but I still use Pale Moon on my netbook. I suppose if you're sticking with FF 3.6xx, it's worth switching to Pale Moon but I don't know if there is a PM 4 coming any time soon.

Edit: Anybody else get rid of that horrible orange Firefox button? I changed it to transparent, much less distracting.

There is a 4, im using it as we speak, they also have a program that copies your firefox profile to your palemoon profile. I know you can do that if you know the directories but for those who dont or are lazy its great!

Palemoon 4
http://www.palemoon.org/download-v4.shtml

Copy profile
http://www.palemoon.org/migrationtool.shtml

K-9

Adyx wrote: »

Yeah I was using it on my desktop. Performance is better because it's optimised for Windows machines. I've switched back to FF 4 now because performance isn't an issue but I still use Pale Moon on my netbook. I suppose if you're sticking with FF 3.6xx, it's worth switching to Pale Moon but I don't know if there is a PM 4 coming any time soon.

Edit: Anybody else get rid of that horrible orange Firefox button? I changed it to transparent, much less distracting.

I moved it down to the tab bar using the Moveable Firefox addon and the used the Hide Titlebar add on to get rid of the Titlebar, seems a waste of space to me.

How do you change the colour? stands out a mile.

Adyx

jeffk wrote: »

There is a 4, im using it as we speak, they also have a program that copies your firefox profile to your palemoon profile. I know you can do that if you know the directories but for those who dont or are lazy its great!

Palemoon 4
http://www.palemoon.org/download-v4.shtml

Copy profile
http://www.palemoon.org/migrationtool.shtml

Hmm, just the other day it updated to 3.6 something on my netbook and it's not showing any other updates. Might give it a try so.

jeffk

Adyx wrote: »

Hmm, just the other day it updated to 3.6 something on my netbook and it's not showing any other updates. Might give it a try so.

Maybe its a beta?

jeffk

K-9 wrote: »

I moved it down to the tab bar using the Moveable Firefox addon and the used the Hide Titlebar add on to get rid of the Titlebar, seems a waste of space to me.

How do you change the colour? stands out a mile.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/stratiform/

Adyx

K-9 wrote: »

I moved it down to the tab bar using the Moveable Firefox addon and the used the Hide Titlebar add on to get rid of the Titlebar, seems a waste of space to me.

How do you change the colour? stands out a mile.

If you just want to change the button to transparent, you can edit your userChrome.css file. See here.
Saves installing an extension.

Hogzy

Sometimes if i right click one of my favourites on the toolbar and open in new tab it opens a new tab but it doesnt load the website. It only opens a blank tab.

This also happens when opening links on a webpage in a new tab. Its really annoying. So annoying that im in the process of uninstalling FF4 and reinstalling my older version.

K-9

Like the Wave theme so used that colour.

Personal Menu is another good Add on for space, you can move the File, View etc, menus to the Firefox button. I know they are hidden anyway until you need them, but I like my screen space!

I changed the UI back to the original style, I hate this Ribbon-esque rubbish. At least they let you do it unlike Microsoft. :rolleyes:

The font rendering is terrible with hardware acceleration enabled but from what I've read about the problem it's a DirectWrite issue rather than FF4 itself. IE9 seems to have the same problem. I just turned hardware acceleration off.

alb

Chrome tbh.

Blazer

hate the new firefox..it looks like a poor man's chrome or something about it that's offputting.
On another point boards is brutal slow on it it so I've switched full time to it at home..still using 3 at home though

r3nu4l

Updated to FF4 about a week ago and am having a serious issue that I don't think has been mentioned so far.

In firefox 3.6 I was able to type a search directly into the URL bar and it would perform a google search for me.

In FF4 if I type 'bbc news' into the URL bar it says:
"The URL is not valid and cannot be located", so it's obviously treating it like a full URL rather than a Google search

I've tried using about:config via the URL bar but all of the options that I thought should allow me to use the URL bar as a google search bar are already enabled!

e.g. keyword.URL is enabled
I even tried browser.fixup.alternate.enabled but that's okay too

Anyone know how to fix this?

Apart from that I really don't like the look and feel at all but I can mess around with that as appropriate later.

K-9

I use this, Omnibar :: Add-ons for Firefox which combines the search box and the url bar.

cormie

r3nu4l wrote: »

Updated to FF4 about a week ago and am having a serious issue that I don't think has been mentioned so far.

In firefox 3.6 I was able to type a search directly into the URL bar and it would perform a google search for me.

In FF4 if I type 'bbc news' into the URL bar it says:
"The URL is not valid and cannot be located", so it's obviously treating it like a full URL rather than a Google search

I've tried using about:config via the URL bar but all of the options that I thought should allow me to use the URL bar as a google search bar are already enabled!

e.g. keyword.URL is enabled
I even tried browser.fixup.alternate.enabled but that's okay too

Anyone know how to fix this?

Apart from that I really don't like the look and feel at all but I can mess around with that as appropriate later.

I think I mentioned the same problem in post 21 on this thread. I miss being able to type something I didn't have as a bookmark but use the odd time like "translate" and it taking me to google translate, or "docs" and it taking me to google docs, as opposed to doing a google search. Any idea how to get that back?

r3nu4l

K-9 wrote: »

I use this, Omnibar :: Add-ons for Firefox which combines the search box and the url bar.

Thanks K-9, that's a workaround by add-on but I'm wondering if I can restore the feature that was already present in 3.6. If not then I'll most definitely use this!!

cormie wrote: »

I think I mentioned the same problem in post 21 on this thread. I miss being able to type something I didn't have as a bookmark but use the odd time like "translate" and it taking me to google translate, or "docs" and it taking me to google docs, as opposed to doing a google search. Any idea how to get that back?

Yeah, I think it's the same problem except when I type 'docs' into the bar it brings me to docs.com and 'boards' brings me to boards.com so URL guessing is functional but it's not searching Google and presenting Google search results the way it used to

Risteard

I'm not having any problem with it. when I type something into the url bar it's a google search.

cookie1977

Neither am I. I'm like risteard in that it works fine. Try uninstalling it and removing any remaining files and folders pertaining to firefox and reinstalling it.

jeffk

http://www.aeinrst.info/firefox-address-bar-search/

Thats on a quick google, it could easily be something else.

cookie1977

jeffk wrote: »

http://www.aeinrst.info/firefox-address-bar-search/

Thats on a quick google, it could easily be something else.

I think r3nu4l said they'd tried that

jeffk

Mine searches ok in the address bar, but when I type in docs it goes to Google Docs.

r3nu4l

Got it, actually jeffk was right.

I'm an idiot

I was looking at keyboard.url yesterday and for some reason I thought I'd added the search string query when I modified it but having looked again, it hadn't saved...don't know what I did, must get more rest!!

Working now

jeffk

r3nu4l wrote: »

Got it, actually jeffk was right.

I'm an idiot

I was looking at keyboard.url yesterday and for some reason I thought I'd added the search string query when I modified it but having looked again, it hadn't saved...don't know what I did, must get more rest!!

Working now

Good to see your sorted now. A small problem that becomes a big problem to fix!

cookie1977

Ha ha well at least it's working again. Good one jeff

Adyx

Firefox never did that for me before. :eek: It only ever searched my bookmarks or gave an error from OpenDNS. The keyword.url value was blank. Thanks people!

r3nu4l

jeffk wrote: »

Good to see your sorted now. A small problem that becomes a big problem to fix!

Ah it was only a big problem because I thought I'd added the search string when I hadn't!! I don't know what I did, I may have hit delete after I pasted the search string in.

Anyway, sorted now. So did any one else have to make the change manually? My value form was entirely blank, I thought that a Google search was default in Firefox URL bar...or is that anti-competitive? Maybe they left it blank to 'allow' people the choice of using a number of search providers...