Hardware 2.0

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Mozilla releases Firefox 4 beta 5

By Adrian Kingsley-Hughes | September 8, 2010, 6:06am PDT

The road to final release of Firefox 4 has been a long and dusty one, but Mozilla is finally getting there with the release of Beta 5.

New in this build is hardware-accelerated rendering for Windows 7 enabled by default. This means the browser can use Direct2D to offload some of the workload onto the PC’s GPU, dramatically improving rendering performance. Benchmarks seem to conclude that Firefox 4 beta is now faster than Google Chrome, but I’m going to wait until the final release to carry out detailed testing. In read-world usage, it’s hard to see any real speed gains.

Another new feature is the Audio Data API which gives developers the ability to read and write data to audio files as part of HTML5.

There is also a revamped UI for Windows 7/Vista users.

You can download Firefox 4 beta 5 from Mozilla, as well as check out the complete release notes (if you are thinking of using this beta, do check out the “Known Issues” section of the release notes).

One more beta of Firefox 4 is planned by Mozilla.

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Mozilla Firefox, Beta, Mozilla Corp., Web Browsers, Internet, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.

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RE: Mozilla releases Firefox 4 beta 5

Has the conflict in Firefox 4 beta 4 with Adobe Flash player 32 bit been resolved when used with 64 bit WIN 7?
tonyinma@...
8th Sep 2010
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Will ANY...

...of my plug-ins work with this version?

Previous betas break FireFTP, the plug-in i have been keeping Firefox around for.

Also they break Adblock, without which i won't run Firefox.
fairportfan
8th Sep 2010
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NoScript

@fairportfan A good alternative to AdBlock is NoScript. It blocks out ALL scripts, and you allow scripts on a domain by domain basis (x.com can be blocked and y.com allowed).

I tested it with beta 4 and it works. As far as FireFTP or any other plugin goes, it isn't much of anyone's fault other than the developers of the plugins if they don't work. I know for a fact that the NoScript guy (or guys?) work during beta phases for future browser releases. However, that is extra work not all developers are willing to take. So most other plugins should start re-development when final release is out there. At least that is what I expect.
morales2k
8th Sep 2010
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RE: Mozilla releases Firefox 4 beta 5

@fairportfan Probably not. From what I've seen, many plugin and addon authors wait until there is a stable release before updating their addons, lest they spend a ton of work updating for Beta X then Beta Y comes out the next day, breaking the addon/plugin again.

IMO, stick with release versions on your main computer, leave the betas for a VM or secondary machine.
Gritztastic
8th Sep 2010
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RE: Mozilla releases Firefox 4 beta 5

The string/feature freeze is set for beta 6, but there's still a few more betas planned after that to get everything ironed out, as far as I can tell.
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/4/Beta#Milestones
KWierso
8th Sep 2010
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RE: Mozilla releases Firefox 4 beta 5

@fairportfan Adblock Plus's development version works just fine for me in Firefox 4.

And FireFTP appears to work for me if I disable compatibility checking.
KWierso
8th Sep 2010
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RE: Mozilla releases Firefox 4 beta 5

This beta worked more like an alpha. That is to say, it wouldn't browse ANY sites for me. The sync looks nice, if they can get all that to work. Sticking with 3.6.9 for now tho. The beta barked about most of my addons..
WareWolf801
8th Sep 2010
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RE: Mozilla releases Firefox 4 beta 5

I have a firefox beta which is called "minesweep" anyone know if this was an old beta or if its a different browser they are working on?
Fletchguy
8th Sep 2010
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RE: Mozilla releases Firefox 4 beta 5

@Fletchguy
correction i meant Minefield not minesweep
Fletchguy
8th Sep 2010
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Minefield in a nightly build

@Fletchguy

Hi Minefield is a nightly build.

The nightly build is the very latest code (of a branch), as it says, it is usually build every night.

I think normally the Mozilla nightly builds are the latest version of the current stable code branch. So that would mean it is the code which when found ok, will be releases as the next 3.6.x

These builds in case of Mozilla are not just used for testing, but also used to point people to who have reported bugs, so they can try if it has solved their problem.
silentlennie
8th Sep 2010
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Minefield is "edge" code

Minefield is a nightly build of the main trunk: it contains only the latest code.
If a beta is branched from trunk, then you get two Minefield builds a day per architecture:
- one for the beta branch (say, Minefield 4.0pre5 while Firefox 4 beta 5 was being stabilized)
- one for the trunk branc (currently, Minefield 4.0pre6)
When a browser reaches "release" status, it is branched off the trunk and maintained in its own branch, often nicknamed by the release's code name (say, "Lorentz") - but still called Firefox.
Mitch 74
8th Sep 2010
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RE: Mozilla releases Firefox 4 beta 5

"one more beta"? what happened to the article with the Mozilla Firefox Beta 6, 7, 8... ? that's a very quick change of heart.
Naryan
9th Sep 2010
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RE: Mozilla releases Firefox 4 beta 5

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MACKENZI
10th Sep
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RE: Mozilla releases Firefox 4 beta 5

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MARAGARET
11th Sep
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RE: Mozilla releases Firefox 4 beta 5

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RHIANNONA
13th Sep
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