Firefox 4 debuts: The last kitchen sink release

I like it

Been using it all afternoon under Windows 7 (shush, I dual boot) and it's pretty good. Can't comment on load times as the initial load was obviously converting my profile/checking add-ons, but once loaded, it's pretty sprightly. Opera and Chrome die-hards will probably crow about theirs being 0.2ms faster to load a page, but really, the difference now is slight enough that I couldn't care less. There's far more to browsing the web than rendering speed, after all. Now that FF4 is out and IE is becoming less of a hog, I don't think there's a current browser out there I'd describe as "slow".

I'm not a fan of the new minimalist interfaces in any of the current browsers, to be honest, but getting everything back where it belongs really didn't take long. (This was also the first thing I did in IE9.)

Some of the new options and fiddles are nice. Having Sync built straight-in is a boon, and the new add-ons/personas screen is very nice indeed. I also like the "app tabs" or whatever they call them - very useful indeed for getting my most used sites down to a wee pinned favicon and out of the way.

The concept of tab groups appeals, but there really really needs to be a keyboard shortcut to switch between them. I might knock together an add-on that does just that. My personal view has always been that every second spent reaching for the mouse is a second wasted. ;-)

Probably half my add-ons aren't listed as compatible, which is the real bitch. Some of these are stupid things I haven't used in ages, like Froggr (exactly what you think it is), so I've removed them, but others are useful to me, and I'm hoping that the add-on developers are still around to fix them up. That's the risk you take with a system like this, though. You can't just assume compatibility, after all. The major must-haves still work, fortunately, like Firebug and the Developer Toolbar. Thanks guys!

Incidentally, being able to install/uninstall without restart is a kick-ass addition. That always used to do my head in.

In all, I like it. There are a few tweaks that I would have made here and there, but it seems stable enough, it zips along, and it works as well as it ever did. Just got to wait for some of my add-ons to update. Looking forward to playing under the hood with the new developer tools, as soon as I get chance.

Now, over to the inevitable Opera fanboy to yell about how rubbish it is and how all the good bits were stolen from the Cult of the Chosen.

Not massively impressed...

Truth is, we're so spoiled for choice now, firefox is no longer the exciting new contender for the crown.

I recall earlier days of firefox, when the download was a mere 3.7mb, microsoft was resting on the laurels of ie6, chrome was nowhere to be seen & opera was hardly a blip on the radar.

It seemed to me, back then, that FF was a damn side faster than it is now - the whole web was faster.

Now we're being bombarded with largely pointless wads of Javascript, to the point where browsers are touting how fantastically fast thier javascript engines are - yet I'm hard pressed to see exactly what benefits all this Javascript is bringing me in terms of serving *data*.

Sure, it's nifty not to have to reload an entire page for all page update operations, but it's hardly a 'killer' feature when your browsing for information.

There's too much page bloat & poor coding practices - Javascript has become the new *flash* on the web - loads of widgets that are supposed to make the web 'richer', when all along, it's the content that makes it richer - how it's displayed is largely irrelevant, so long as it's viewable.

... I'm having a grumpy day ... and a big issue with pointless use of Javascript all over the place.

"The browser is only as good as the operating system it runs on..."

What utter crap. What about when the browser IS the OS?

What they meant to say is that, due to a management oversight, all of middle management were given a bonus goal for 2010/11 of making sure none of their devs were running XP anymore.

Quarterly releases

Are a good thing! I've always used late beta versions of firefox since it was called phoenix. They are always pretty stable. The only downside is that extensions often don't keep up. Hopefully, quicker releases will make developers keep their extensions in sync sooner rather than wait for release candidates.

I've been using firefox4 since well before Christmas and it's been great. Today is a bit of yawn moment for me :)

Not bad at all

Today FF3 asked me if I wanted to upgrade on my work's XP box. I said yes and to my surprise the download was only a few minutes even over our crap network. At first I thought it was was just downloading an installer but when it restarted it was all fully installed. All but two extensions worked out of the box, one needed an upgrade the other I don't need/use.

I ran the rest of the afternoon with FF4 testing various intranet sites that I have to use and some internet sites I frequent. Overall much faster on XP than FF3, making the company standard IE6 seem dreadful.

Visually you can see the Google influence on it, but it's not that radical, especially when compared to Opera. After a few hours of use it seems fine we shall see if it's fast enough on my home Linux boxes to make me switch back from Chrome/chromium.

Always .

Firefox,

Always rough around the edges, and an unfinished look and feel.

Firefox is done. Mozilla is DONE.

Switched to Chrome and not looking back.

Firefox/WebGL? Driver dependent

"unlike IE, Firefox 4 supports WebGL, which provides hardware accelerated 3D inside the browser"

If your video drivers support it. Want to find out if yours do? Go to demos.mozilla.org (spoiler alert - if you have an Intel integrated chipset from Dell, likely not)

Over-the-top bullshit hyperbole alert!!!

"[...]a browser running on a ten year old operating system tethers the web to the past."

<-- Made me honk all over my keyboard

Puh-fucking-LEEEZE!

"The browser is only as good as the operating system it runs on..."

Yes, that nugget almost made me fell out of my chair laughing too :D

Youtube Videos

Anyone else having issues watching youtube videos?v Just get a black screen but the video plays and if you double click on it it does go full screen.

No problem in 3.6.15 or chrome for that matter.....grrrrr

O-RLY?

"The browser is only as good as the operating system it runs on and a browser running on a ten year old operating system tethers the web to the past..."

FF4 on linux is fine, and that's been kicking around for >10 years. Maybe if MS concentrated on writing an OS that wasn't so spaghetti, they might find they could update core pieces of it as required to make it run better over time, without complete borking the whole thing.

But then I suppose they're happy forcing their users to install complete OS upgrades every 3 years, keeps the cash coming in...

FF4 is ok

..speed has improved and the sync'ing with mobile phones is great. Good job this time and dont listen to M$.

Better on the Mac

Performance is much improved on the Mac over 3.6, and no stupid orange button. Nice work.

Developers

"The developer community has been vocal that they want to push the web forward"

And everyone in Infrastructure and Operations actually knows that developers are idiots. If they developed decent code that was optimised and efficient then we wouldn't require the powerful machines with the extreme OSs. The developers are pushed along by the arty-crafty poofters in Marketing who haven't got a clue either.

Given the numerous FAILS by many websites in recent years, do the public really want the web pushed forward? Or let me phrase that better - is it in the public's best interest to push the web forward!