Mozilla Firefox

Release Notes - Firefox Preview Release ("Greenlane")

Firefox is a fast, full-featured browser that makes browsing more efficient than ever before. More information about Firefox is available.

Firefox Preview Release (henceforth refered to as PR) is a Technology Preview. While this software works well enough to be relied upon as your primary browser in most cases, we make no guarantees of its performance or stability. It is a pre-release product and should not be relied upon for mission-critical tasks. See the License Agreement for more information.

These release notes cover what's new, download and installation instructions, known issues and frequently asked questions for the Firefox PR release. Please read these notes and the bug filing instructions before reporting any bugs to Bugzilla.

We want to hear your feedback about Firefox. Please join us in the Firefox forums, hosted by MozillaZine.

What's New

Here's what's new in this release of Firefox:

• Live Bookmarks

  You can now subscribe to and read RSS feeds in your Bookmarks. When you visit a page that advertises a RSS feed by using a <link> tag, a icon will appear in the status bar. Click it to view a list of feeds the page is offering. Click one to subscribe - this adds a Bookmark Folder that contains all the recent posts from the feed.

• Improved Find

  Find is easier and more powerful now with our new Find toolbar. The Find toolbar (which shows at the bottom of the browser window) automatically highlights text in the page as you type and has a useful highlight feature.

• Managing Annoyances and Protecting Security

  You can now open blocked popups, and the Extension install system now blocks all attempts to install software from sites other than update.mozilla.org. Users can add other sites to a list that allows them to offer software, but software is never automatically installed. In addition to these steps, several other measures have been taken to prevent phishing attacks and to highlight when a page is being viewed over a secure connection.

• Better Bookmarks

  Numerous improvements to bookmarks including more reliable presentation of Site icons, and a split pane view in the Bookmarks window.

• Strong Encryption For Passwords Available

  Passwords saved with the Password Manager can now be more easily encrypted with strong encryption by creating a "Master Password". If you create a Master Password, you are prompted once per session to enter the Master Password so that Password Manager can automatically fill in site logins. A useful feature for people who share computers with others and want improved security.

• Improved Compatibility for IE users

  Undetectable document.all support for site compatibility and improved compatibility for keyboard accelerators further smooth the transition for IE users.

• Better System Integration for GNOME users

  You can now configure Firefox as your Default Browser on GNOME, and Firefox will adhere to your GNOME settings for edit field key bindings, etc.

• And a horde of other bug fixes...

See The Burning Edge's release changelog for more details.

System Requirements

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

Downloading Firefox

The Mozilla Foundation provides Firefox for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

Windows: Installer

Linux: GTK2 + XFT installer

Mac OS X: Compressed Disk Image

Installing Firefox

Once you have downloaded a Firefox installer or compressed archive, follow these instructions to install:

Windows

Double click the Firefox Setup 1.0PR.exe installer to start the install.

Mac OS X

Double click the Firefox Compressed Disk Image to mount. Your browser may have already uncompressed the image and mounted it for you. Double click the Firefox Disk Image and drag the Firefox application onto your hard disk. Drag the icon to your Dock if you want it to appear there.

Linux/GTK2

Extract the tarball and run the installer like so:

tar -xzvf firefox-1.0PR-i686-linux-gtk2+xft.tar.gz
cd firefox-1.0PR-i686-linux-gtk2+xft/
./firefox-installer

Other Platforms

Extract the compressed archive and run firefox

Uninstalling Firefox

To uninstall Firefox, follow these instructions:

Windows

From the Start menu, choose Control Panel. When the Control Panel appears, double click Add or Remove Programs. Find "Mozilla Firefox" in the list and click Remove to uninstall.

Mac OS X

Drag the Firefox application to the Trash.

Others

Remove the firefox folder.

These instructions leave your profile in place in case you install Firefox again in the future. If you wish to remove your Firefox profile folder, follow these instructions:

Windows

Locate your Application Data folder, this is usually under Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data. You may need to make hidden files visible in Windows Explorer, since the Application Data folder is hidden. If your username is "Joe", and your Documents and Settings folder is on C:\, your profile folder is here: C:\Documents and Settings\Joe\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox. Delete the Firefox folder to remove your profile data.

Mac OS X

Open the Library folder in your Home folder, and remove the Firefox folder. (~/Library/Firefox/).

Other

Remove ~/.firefox.

Changes You Should Be Aware Of

Profile Folder

Firefox now stores your user data in one of the following locations:

Windows	Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox
Mac OS X	~/Library/Application Support/Firefox
Linux	~/.mozilla/firefox/

If you were using Firefox 0.8 as your default browser prior to upgrading to Firefox PR, data from your profile will be copied into the new location. You can remove the old "Phoenix" folder at your leisure.

Old Extensions and Themes

To prevent the kind of problems we had with the 0.8 release (users were having the browser not start with "No XBL Binding for Browser" errors, and finding that their theme was broken), all of your extensions will be disabled when you move to PR. If you were using 0.9, when you first run PR, Firefox will try and connect to update.mozilla.org to look for newer, compatible versions of your Extensions, and if they are available it will download and install them. If you were using 0.8, you will have to find newer compatible versions yourself.

Known Issues

This list covers some of the known problems with Firefox PR. Please read this before reporting any new bugs, and watch it regularly (we'll update it as new bugs are found in the release).

• If Firefox PR is placed in a location with limited access privileges, it should be run by a user with access to that location first, so that all initial startup files are generated. There may be issues still where if a restricted-access user is the first to run the app, these files may not be generated properly and Firefox may enter an infinite restart loop. This will be fixed in a future release. MacOSX users: Do NOT run Firefox from the Disk Image! - doing this may cause an infinite restart loop. To break Firefox out of this loop, open a Terminal and type "killall firefox-bin" and press enter.
• If Firefox will not display a browser window on Mac OS X, quit Firefox using Cmd+Q and open ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/default.abc/ and remove localstore.rdf. Restart Firefox. Any toolbar customizations you have made or window placement will be lost
• Firefox utilizes large chunks of Mozilla Application Suite code. Many of the problems you may experience in Firefox are actually problems in this Mozilla core code. If you find a problem with page content or connectivity then it is probably a Mozilla problem and should be reported to the Browser product in Bugzilla, not to the Firefox product.
• We are still easing ourselves into this new world of automated Extension Updates, and are trying to work out any kinks that remain as quickly as possible. Extension and Theme authors need to update their listings in addons.mozilla.org (or their own custom update services) every time a new version of Firefox comes out so that we know they're compatible. If you find your favorite Extension or Theme is disabled by upgrading to PR, please write the author and encourage them to either update their listing or their custom update service file. If they are not listed in addons.mozilla.org, encourage them to do so, doing so will make handling version changes a lot easier.

For additional issues, FAQs, Tips and Tricks plus general Firefox help be sure to check out David Tenser's very useful Firefox Help site and the firefox forums hosted by MozillaZine.

Troubleshooting

It should not be necessary to create a new profile when you upgrade from a previous version of Firefox providing you do disable all extensions from the prior version before upgrading. To do this, open the old version and open Tools > Options and click the Extensions panel. Click on each of the extensions listed and choose Disable Extension. Click OK to close the Options window. Now it is safe to install Firefox.

Once you have installed Firefox, check to see if there are new versions of all of your extensions that are compatible with the new version, and install them. In the future this process may be automated.

If you enable an extension from an older version of Firebird or Phoenix and it causes problems, run the older version of the browser and disable the extension, then run the newer version again.

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 all the exposure we can get. Join Spread Firefox and become a part of the largest grassroots marketing campaign in history. Make it your mission to convert as many of your friends, family members and coworkers as possible. If you're a student, get it distributed at your college. Submit a story to Slashdot and other news sites about the release. Make some noise on your blog. Mass distribution via the Internet is possible -- look at Kazaa. Spread the word!

2. I use another browser because...

   If you're not using Firefox, tell the development team why. We read the feedback at the Firefox forums.

3. Why haven't you responded to the mail I sent you?

   Use the forums. The Firefox team reads them regularly. We all get a lot of email and your email may get lost.

4. Is offline help available?

   The Mozilla Store offers the Firefox Guidebook.

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

   Extensions and themes can be downloaded from Mozilla Update.

6. Who is working on Firefox?

   Lots of people. See Help->About, Credits... for a list of people who have contributed to Firefox.

7. Where's the Firefox source code?

   cvs.mozilla.org. Mozilla trunk + mozilla/browser + mozilla/toolkit.

8. What happened with the name Phoenix Firebird?

   It had to change because of trademark issues. The new name is Firefox. See the Renaming FAQ for more information.

9. 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.