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Firefox Beta Release Notes

v.8.0, offered to beta channel users on September 29th, 2011Thank you for helping us test the future of Firefox! If you do not wish to participate in the beta program, you can switch to the release channel or manually install the latest released version of Firefox.

Check out what’s new, the known issues and frequently asked questions about the latest beta version of Firefox. As always, you’re encouraged to tell us what you think, or file a bug in Bugzilla.

What’s New in Firefox Beta

The latest version of Firefox Beta has the following changes:

  • Add-ons installed by third party programs are now disabled by default
  • Added a one-time add-on selection dialog to manage previously installed add-ons
  • Added Twitter to the search bar
  • Added a preference to load tabs on demand, improving start-up time when windows are restored
  • Improved tab animations when moving, reordering, or detaching tabs
  • Improved performance and memory handling when using <audio> and <video> elements
  • Added CORS support for cross-domain textures in WebGL
  • Added support for HTML5 context menus
  • Added support for insertAdjacentHTML
  • Improved CSS hyphen support for many languages
  • Improved WebSocket support
  • Fixed several stability issues

Please see the complete list of changes in this version. Web and extension developers should also view the curated list of platform changes. You may also be interested in the list of changes in the previous version.

System Requirements

Before installing, make sure your computer meets the system requirements.

Downloading

Mozilla provides Firefox for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X in a variety of languages. You can get the latest released version of Firefox here or the latest development version of Firefox here.

For builds for other systems and languages not provided by Mozilla, see the Contributed Builds section at the end of this document.

Installing

Please note that installing Firefox Beta will overwrite your existing installation of Firefox. You won’t lose any of your bookmarks or browsing history, but some of your extensions and other add-ons might not work until updates for them are made available.

Uninstalling

If you do not wish to participate in the beta program, you can switch to the release channel or manually install the latest released version of Firefox.

You can remove Firefox Beta with the Add/Remove Programs utility on Windows, by moving the Firefox application to the Trash on Mac OS X, or by deleting the containing folder on Linux.

By default, removing Firefox Beta won’t remove your bookmarks, web browsing history, extensions or other add-ons. This data is stored in your profile folder, which can be found by going to the Help menu and selecting Troubleshooting Information.... The button next to the Profile Directory line in Application Basics will open your profile directory in your system's file explorer.

Please note that if you keep your profile, any version of Firefox that you install after removing Firefox Beta will continue to use the bookmarks, web browsing history, add-ons, and other data from this profile folder.

Add-ons and Themes

You can get Add-ons and Themes by opening the Add-ons Manager, or by visiting the Add-ons Web site. Add-ons installed with previous versions of Firefox may not yet have been updated by their authors to work with this Firefox Beta. If you wish to help test Add-ons, please install the Add-on Compatibility Reporter - your favorite Add-on author will appreciate it!

Known Issues

This list covers some of the known problems with Firefox Beta which will be resolved in future versions:

All Systems
  • For some users, visiting Google+ will cause the back and forward buttons to no longer work (see bug 670318)
  • For some users, scrolling in the main GMail window will be slower than usual (see bug 579260)
  • If you try to start Firefox using a locked profile, it will crash (see bug 573369)
Microsoft Windows
  • Some users of Adobe Reader X have experienced instability when viewing PDF documents in the browser. Uninstalling and reinstalling Adobe Reader X has been determined to resolve the issue (see bug 640901)
Mac OS X
  • Some users may experience a crash when moving bookmarks (see bug 681795)
  • This version of the beta will not work on Macintosh hardware with Power PC CPUs (see bug 587799)
Linux and Unix
  • The video control buttons may not work when viewing QuickTime videos with libtotem (see bug 625036)
  • Users compiling from source might need a newer gcc and libstdc++ as the build requirements have changed (see bug 578880)

Troubleshooting

  • Poorly designed or incompatible extensions can cause problems with your browser, including make it crash, slow down page display, etc. If you encounter strange problems relating to parts of the browser no longer working, the browser not starting, windows with strange or distorted appearance, degraded performance, etc, you may be suffering from Extension or Theme trouble. Restart the browser in Safe Mode. On Windows, start using the "Safe Mode" shortcut created in your Start menu or by running firefox.exe -safe-mode. On Linux, start with ./firefox -safe-mode and on Mac OS X, run:

    cd /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/
    ./firefox-bin -safe-mode

    When started in Safe Mode all extensions are disabled and the Default theme is used. Disable the Extension/Theme that is causing trouble and then start normally.
  • If you uninstall an extension that is installed with your user profile (i.e. you installed it from a Web page) and then wish to install it for all user profiles using the -install-global-extension command line flag, you must restart the browser once to cleanse the profile extensions datasource of traces of that extension before installing with the switch. If you do not do this you may end up with a jammed entry in the Extensions list and will be unable to install the extension globally.
  • If you encounter strange problems relating to bookmarks, downloads, window placement, toolbars, history, or other settings, it is recommended that you try creating a new profile and attempting to reproduce the problem before filing bugs. Create a new profile by running Firefox with the -P command line argument, choose the "Manage Profiles" button and then choose "Create Profile...". Migrate your settings files (Bookmarks, Saved Passwords, etc) over one by one, checking each time to see if the problems resurface. If you do find a particular profile data file is causing a problem, file a bug and attach the file.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. What can I do to help?

    We need help from developers and the testing community to provide as much feedback as possible to make Firefox even better. Please pick your favorite way to give us your feedback at any time!

  2. How do I stop testing beta versions of Firefox?

    If you do not wish to participate in the beta program, you can switch to the release channel or manually install the latest released version of Firefox.

  3. Where can I get extensions and themes (add-ons)?

    Extensions and Themes can be downloaded from Firefox Add-ons.

  4. Who makes Firefox?

    Lots of people. See Help->About Mozilla Firefox, and click the "global community" for a list of some of the people who have contributed to Firefox.

  5. Where’s the Firefox source code?

    A tarball of the Firefox source code is available for download. The latest development code can be obtained through Mercurial. Firefox-specific source is in mozilla-central's "browser", "toolkit", and "chrome" directories. Please follow the build instructions.

  6. Where is the mail client?

    Firefox works with whatever mail client is the default on your system. However, we recommend Mozilla Thunderbird, our next-generation email client and the perfect complement to Firefox.

Contributed Builds

These are unofficial builds and may be configured differently than the official Mozilla builds. They may also be optimized and/or tested for specific platforms. You can browse through the available contributed builds in the "contrib" directory on the FTP site.