Showing posts with label Mozilla. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mozilla. Show all posts
Sunday, 7 October 2012
Friday, 5 October 2012
Wednesday, 3 October 2012
Monday, 1 October 2012
Thursday, 19 April 2012
Mozilla Begins Work on Firefox Metro Version
If you have followed the development progress of Microsoft’s upcoming operating system Windows 8 closely, you may know that it ships with two different versions of the Internet Explorer browser. First a standard desktop version of Internet Explorer 10, and then a second version for the new Metro user interface part of the operating system.
This opens up a new predicament for other browser developers as their browsers suddenly only work in one part of the operating system, and not the other. While it is possible to install browsers like Chrome, Firefox or Opera in Windows 8, they only work in the desktop environment and not the Metro UI part of the browser.
Mozilla were the first to announce that they would start to develop a Metro UI compatible version of the Firefox web browser to make the browser available in the Metro interface as well.
Development has begun on the new version, and the developers plan to release a proof of concept demo in the second quarter.
In order to deliver a compelling Firefox for Windows 8 Metro experience, we need to understand what’s possible. A technology proof of concept is the first step. This is not a Alpha or a Beta, but should demonstrate the feasibility of Firefox in Windows 8 Metro. (Timing here is dependent on when Microsoft releases their Windows 8 consumer preview and developer documentation.)
Mozilla developer Brian Bondy revealed additional information about the Metro version of the Firefox browser in a blog post. According to this post, Mozilla can build a Metro browser that is equally powerful as the desktop browser. One restriction seems a bit odd.
Unfortunately a browser can only participate in Metro mode if it is the default browser. So if Firefox is not the default browser on a system, you can’t use it in Metro mode. This is a decision made by Microsoft.
This basically means that Firefox can only be used in the Metro UI if it is the default system browser. It is also not clear at this point in time how the web browser will be distributed.
Mozilla’s move to develop a Metro UI version of Firefox makes sense in a number of ways, including usability and consistency. Firefox users who work with the browser on the desktop, may for instance prefer to access their browser bookmarks and information in the Metro version, instead of having to work with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 10 there.
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Mozilla Plans To Hide Firefox Version
Mozilla Releases Firefox 3.6.28, Last Firefox 3 Version?
Mozilla Checks Flash Version After Firefox Updates About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Saturday March 10, 2012 -
Tags:firefox news, metro ui, windows 8
You are here: Home » Browsing » Mozilla Begins Work on Firefox Metro Version
Wednesday, 18 April 2012
Mozilla Retires Add-on Collector
Remember the Firefox collections feature? No? Then you are not the only one. Back in 2009 Mozilla introduced collections to the official Firefox Add-ons repository. With this feature users could create their own add-on collections, and publish them publicly on the Mozilla website. A collection usually listed between 5 and 30 different add-ons that other Firefox users could then install more comfortably in the browser.
There was no option to install all add-ons in one go though, but a third party add-on Massive Extender made that possible. The collections in theory were quite useful, as many were curated by Firefox users in the know. Mozilla itself created a few, for web developers and travelers for instance, and other users added theirs which soon became popular as well.
One of the issues here was that the creator of the collection had to maintain the list. Add-ons that were not updated anymore or even entirely removed by their author or Mozilla from the Add-ons repository had to be removed, new add-ons had to be added and so on.
Mozilla yesterday announced that it has made the decision to retire the Add-on Collector. The core reason for retiring the extension are the following:
The add-on is not popular, only “a few hundred people have used the add-on in the past few months”.The Add-on Collector would need a rewrite of all APIs once Mozilla goes forward with plans to improve the collections feature.Some of the features that the add-on offered were already integrated into the site natively.Firefox users should not confuse the Add-on Collector add-on, with the collections feature itself. From the announcement it is clear, that Mozilla plans to retire the former and improve the latter.
Have you used collections in the past? If so, which features would you like to see to make the feature more attractive and usable? (via Techdows)
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Firefox 2.0.0.4 available on Mozilla ftp
Mozilla Labs Lab Kit
Mozilla Firefox 3.5 RC1 About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Thursday March 8, 2012 -
Tags:firefox add-ons, firefox news
You are here: Home » Browsing » Mozilla Retires Add-on Collector
Thursday, 12 April 2012
Mozilla Personas Renamed to Background Themes
And the confusing name changing continues. If you are a Ghacks regular you know that Mozilla made the decision earlier on to rename their email-based login system BrowserID to Mozilla Persona. The issue here was that the name conflicted with Personas, which provided Firefox, Thunderbird and SeaMonkey users with the means to change their program’s skin easily.
Mozilla therefor made the decision to change the name of Personas as well, to avoid one being mistaken for the other. The new Personas name was announced yesterday on the add-ons blog, and what a surprise, it too may cause confusion.
Personas joins the Firefox themes family and Mozilla will distinguish between background themes (formerly Personas) and complete themes (total conversions). For the most part though, Mozilla will refer to both as themes.
To sum it up:
BrowserID renamed to Mozilla PersonaPersonas renamed to Background ThemesThemes are now Complete ThemesThe Personas website will be migrated into the Mozilla Add-ons repository to become available in the Themes category there.
When Personas have finished the migration to their new home, they’ll be called themes. Until then, our websites will continue to refer to them as Personas or Persona themes.
The move, according to the blog post, will be finished in the coming months.
Mozilla considered renaming Personas to skins first, as it was the most popular suggestion in the naming poll. Skins came first with 41% of the votes followed by themes with 22%. Skins was rejected because of “negative reactions and associations” and because Mozilla thought it would be less confusing to unify all visual modifications under a single name.
Firefox users can install background themes directly and without installation dialog in the browser. That’s different from complete themes that display an installation window and require a restart of the browser. Both background and complete themes require site authorization though before themes can be installed.
What’s your take on the new name? Does it add to the confusion or sort everything out nicely?
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BrowserID Becomes Mozilla Persona
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Firefox Themes Website Updated About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Friday March 2, 2012 -
Tags:firefox themes, personas
You are here: Home » Browsing » Mozilla Personas Renamed to Background Themes
Wednesday, 28 March 2012
BrowserID Becomes Mozilla Persona
BrowserID, a technology and service of the same name, has been in development by Mozilla since last year. The aim is to fundamentally change the way log in systems work on the Internet. Instead of concentrating on username and password based login systems, Mozilla plans to shift it to verifiable email addresses instead.
The basic idea behind the system is simple: If you can verify ownership of an email address, you can use it to sign up and log in to sites and services on the Internet.
Take a look at this – early – demonstration video of BrowserID:
What made the system confusing at first was that both the technology and the service that Mozilla started to implement were both named BrowserID.
The Mozilla Identity team today announced that they are about to change the service’s name to Mozilla Persona. The transition may take a few months to complete.
The Persona name resonates with the idea of personhood as well as online identity as a facet of our lives, and therefore strongly tied to user identity. We’re very excited about this new name and the new features our identity system will offer. Some of the things we’re planning: an identity dashboard, user data interconnect features, and more.
And while we are talking about confusing, it should not be confused with Personas, the technology that lets Mozilla users change their browser’s or email client’s toolbar theme comfortably. To add to the confusion, the Personas team has announced that their technology will receive a name change of its own in the future.
So lets take another look at the technologies and services in play:
BrowserID – Name of the underlying technology that powers Mozilla PersonaMozilla Persona – Mozilla’s implementation of BrowserID, the new name of the service.Personas – A background changer for Mozilla products that will be renamed in the near future.The Mozilla Identity team notes that the next few weeks will without doubt cause some confusion, but once things settle down, it should result in a better experience for users of their service. (via)
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The Difference Between Firefox Personas And Themes
Mozilla Account Manager
Mozilla Weave 0.4 About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Thursday February 23, 2012 -
Tags:browserid, mozilla, personas
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Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Mozilla To Release Firefox Version For Windows 8 Metro UI
If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that Microsoft’s upcoming operating system Windows 8 will ship with two different interfaces. First a classic interface that is more or less identical to what current Windows users are working with, and the new Metro user interface that is more tablet centric and minimalistic.
You cannot just use desktop applications in the Metro interface and the other way round, which means that you may also access two different versions of the same application depending on the interface you are in. A special version of Internet Explorer 10 has been designed for the Metro UI that is in many regards fundamentally different from the classic desktop version of the browser. Among the changes are a minimalistic interface, the lack of browser plugins or the fullscreen mode.
Mozilla has published two new Wiki pages that detail how the company intents to cope with the changing design requirements.
The Windows 8 wiki describes that Mozilla plans to release a Windows 8 Metro-specific Firefox browser, to complement the classic version of the browser. This Metro-specific version would be accessible on Windows 8's Metro user interface only.
The wiki page describes some of the challenges that the developers face at this point in the planning stage:
Firefox on Metro, like all other Metro apps will be full screen, focused on touch interactions, and connected to the rest of the Metro environment through Windows 8 contracts.We will need to determine if the Firefox front end on Metro will be built in XUL, C/C++, or HTML/CSS/JS (I’m assuming for now that .Net and XAML are off the table.)Firefox will have to support three “snap” states — full screen, ~1/6th screen and ~5/6th screen depending on how the user “docks” two full screen apps. Our UI will need to adjust to show the most relevant content for each size.We’ll need to handle being suspended by the OS when out of view.We may want to offer a live tile with user-centric data like friends presence or other Firefox Home information updatesIdeally we’d be able to create secondary tiles for Web-based apps hosted in Firefox’s runtime.The second Wiki page, Windows 8 Integration, highlights additional restrictions or challenges:
Unlike Desktop, Metro apps will ONLY be available through the Windows store.There are no overlapping windows, nor traditional popup windows, everything is chromeless, everything is designed to be consistent across applications.Not possible to simply and easily port existing apps to Metro. A significant amount of conventional desktop functionality will not be available.Some interprocess communication is possible within Metro, but it is very limited.It appears as if Mozilla is currently in an information gathering stage to find out if and how they can create a Metro UI version of the Firefox web browser.
No release related information are provided on the two wiki pages. It is however likely that we won’t see alpha or beta versions before the release of the Windows 8 Release Candidate, or maybe even later.
There is a lot of uncertainty. Users for instance might want to know if they can use their extensions in the Metro UI version of the browser, or if that would be prevented somehow.
Windows 8 users with the intention to use Metro UI will surely welcome options to switch the default interface browser.
A Firefox Metro UI version, would that be something that you are interested in? Or do you think that Mozilla should concentrate development on the desktop version of the browser?
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MetroIE, Run Internet Explorer 10 Metro Under Windows 7
Mozilla Drops Plan To Remove Firefox About Page Version
Mozilla Rushes To Release Firefox 9.0.1 About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Monday February 13, 2012 -
Tags:Firefox, metro ui, windows 8
You are here: Home » Browsing » Mozilla To Release Firefox Version For Windows 8 Metro UI
Friday, 16 March 2012
Mozilla Firefox 10.0.1 Update About To Be Released
Mozilla Firefox 10.0.1 Update About To Be Released .download-info .download-button {background-image: url(http://www.ghacks.net/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/page-addon/downloadbutton.gif);}.download-info .more-button {background-image: url(http://www.ghacks.net/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/page-addon/morebutton.gif);} HomeWindowsLinuxSoftwareInternet ExplorerFirefoxChromeOperaEmailContactAdvertiseMozilla Firefox 10.0.1 Update About To Be Released free newsletter or RSS feed to kick off your day with the latest technology news and tips, or share the articlewith your friends and contacts on Facebook or Twitter.
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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand.You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Friday February 10, 2012 -
Tags:Firefox, firefox updates
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Responses so far:Roy says: February 10, 2012 at 3:33 pmReplyiusafdifya says: February 10, 2012 at 5:09 pmReplyRoy says: February 10, 2012 at 7:58 pm February 10, 2012 at 10:37 pmReplyOSS says: February 10, 2012 at 5:33 pmReplyRedbad says: February 10, 2012 at 8:10 pmReplyAnonymous says: February 11, 2012 at 12:30 amReplyWill says: February 11, 2012 at 2:16 amReplyPaul(us) says: February 11, 2012 at 3:31 amReplySomeguy says: February 11, 2012 at 3:46 amReplyHy says: February 11, 2012 at 8:43 amReplyLeave a Reply Follow Ghacks Subscribe To Comment Rss
Mozilla, developers of the popular Firefox web browser, have just released an update for the browser’s stable branch that moves the version to 10.0.1. The release may come as a surprise to users of
This is not the first occurrence that a critical update is released shortly after a major version upgrade of the web browser. Similar updates had to be delivered after the release of
Firefox 10.0.1 fixes critical issues that came to light shortly after Firefox 10 had been released to the public. This includes at least one startup crash when the browser is opened by the user, and one Java related issue that is causing text fields to hang in the browser. Firefox users can resolve that issue manually by minimizing or resizing the browser. The patch released later today will fix the issues permanently though.
The product planning summary
Other issues mentioned in the summary are additional crashes, and incompatibilities with Norton products and RealPlayer Video Downloader.
The release is already available on the Mozilla release ftp server and on third party download portals such as Softpedia. It is likely that the new version will be pushed to all users later today. At that point it will also be offered for download on the Mozilla website and as an update in the browser.
Please note that both the standard Firefox 10 build and Firefox 10 ESR will receive the update to Firefox 10.0.1.
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Responses so far:
Three times running – more proof that the 6 week rapid (let’s just copy Chrome) release cycle is flawed in Mozilla’s case.
They clearly don’t have time to test properly AND develop worthwhile changes within 6 weeks so should consider moving to a 3 month cycle instead. I doubt they will listen though – Mozilla seem to have lost focus on users which may be why their market share has stopped in its tracks.
Features are developed for six weeks, then tested for twelve weeks. Stop spreading lies.
Never said they weren’t – think before insulting. You ignore that it’s a rolling release cycle, in parallel not in series.
12 weeks testing one version runs alongside new development x 2 and testing of the subsequent version – spreading resources much thinner than if they changed to a 3 month cycle. Project management 101.
aardmaat says:nonsense, other browsers do the same (release quick patches). only difference is that Mozilla is open about it and microsoft, apple and google aren’t
Well, much as some of us may hate the quick release cycle, it’s perhaps time to get used to it. Personally, the release cycle is too fast yes. But till now, it has not changed/screwed up any of my firefox settings (touchwood!:). So, I’m not complaining.
This appears to be a stability update (problems with third party plugins (Norton products and RealPlayer Video Downloader).
“Rant begins”
For people who think their addons break with each version, use the addon compatibility reporter.
For people who think that the 3.6 series rocks, you still have the latest 3.6.26.
For people who think the updates are useless, disable them. Problem solved:).
Yes, it does become very, very tiresome to:
1. Allow Firefox to download the update.
2. do a restart.
3. Get back to browsing.
I mean that is such a difficult thing, is it not? Takes a couple of minutes, I’m guessing. Jokes apart, the updates (though they are frequent) are a good thing.
“Rant ends”
Congratulations to Bob in Accounting who wins $75.00 in the “Firefox dot one version When?” office pool for nailing it with his prediction within 30 minutes of the announced release! Stay tuned for the next pool for 11.0 and 11.0.1.
I found the already (at the same time main browser update automatically) the update on:
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/Mozilla-Firefox-v10-for-Windows/1032985422/34
I accepted the 10.0.1 update and when it was applied … it crashed.
Not a good start.
Will, It happened by my to, I thin probably because Firefox could not handle a add-on update and a version upgrade at the same time. When I restarted main Firefox version update there where no troubles at all.
Ans sorry Martin i forgot the mention by name with the fileforum release update.
Have they fixed the massive memory leaks yet? I can leave a single-tab FF session open just on Google and overnight it’ll gobble half a gig of RAM for no reason.
Chrome might be better, but it’s more memory for every tab you open. It’s kind of sad when the oft-maligned IE has better memory management than alternatives that build up their brands on the user base slamming IE.
I agree, I am sorry to say. I ran FF8, 9, and 10 the last few months, and with multiple tabs (30, 40, 50, etc.) open for only a few hours memory usage was up to a gig or almost a gig and a half, and browsing became noticeably slower. Only closing and reopening FF would help. This was with Bar Tab-like addons, not loading tabs on startup, etc., and on an otherwise very fast, new, loaded machine. Although I liked newer features like app tabs and especially tab groups, I had to go back to FF3.6 recently, because it performs so much better with many tabs open. How sad that Firefox’s memory problem is getting significantly worse. And what I really wonder is: can this memory problem EVER be fixed? If so, why haven’t they fixed it already?
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