Firefox 3.5 Hits Release Candidate Milestone 202
macupdate writes "Firefox 3.5rc1 has started trickling to users (mirrors and appropriate pages should all be updated soon). You can read the release notes. RC1 still scores a 93/100 on the Acid3 test."
Still the slowest browser. (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, even slower than IE8. From start up times to rendering pages firefox is by far the slowest. If you don't believe me download IE8, use it for a week, and you'll see for yourself. IE8 sucks for other reasons (crashes more, no plugins, forgets log-ins), and firefox is my main browser, but it is seriously falling behind. It's speed, private browsing, and I would argue even security (no sandbox/protected mode) are subpar compared to the competition. And they really need to fix private browsing, it's pretty sad when an IE feature works better than the open source alternative. As repeated ad-nauseum here firefox is still my main browser due to plugins, but everytime the browser freezes because one tab decides it wants to do something I re-evaluate this decision.
v3.5 and still no MSI package for Windows (Score:5, Interesting)
I wish Mozilla would make up their minds: are they going to target the Corps or not?
Even if you can get an MSI from Frontmotion (http://www.frontmotion.com/Firefox/download_firefox.htm), the corps will never go for it unless it comes off the Mozilla servers and is on the same web page as the current XPI installers. It's a "warm and fuzzy" thing that they need.
If Mozilla could somehow sanction those MSIs from Frontmotion then the corps would be more comfortable with it. Even a link from here (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all.html) would give FrontMotion's MSI package credibility.
Have they improved the memory leaks? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:A little anti clamantic... (Score:3, Interesting)
That's interesting. Which version of Konq? On 3.5.10, the Slashdot discussion system is FUBAR for a few weeks now. It was working fine, in-place replies, dynamic comment loading and all, but it stopped at some point.
Re:93/100... (Score:5, Interesting)
Acid tests are designed to highlight rendering bugs in current browsers, giving browser developers a chance to easily see where something is going wrong. All major browsers currently pass Acid2, which means if you create a web page that only uses the kind of code that Acid2 tests for, you can be sure it will render precisely the same way in current versions of Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera, Chrome, etc. This is a huge step forward; ten years ago, it wasn't uncommon for a page to work correctly in one browser but be completely unusable in another.
Now that all the major browsers pass Acid2, we need to find other ways in which web pages can display differently between different browsers. Since there is an official standard that defines what the correct behavior should be, we have something to test against; this is what Acid3 does. You're absolutely correct that passing Acid3 should not be the top priority, and failure to pass Acid3 is not a good reason for a user not to choose Firefox. However, the remaining things that prevent Firefox from passing Acid3 are indeed bugs, and eventually, they do need to be fixed. There are also other bugs in Firefox, that also need to be fixed, and many of these are more important than the bugs that cause Acid3 to fail.
I agree that HTML5 and CSS3 are awesome, but if browsers can't render them correctly, they're not much good. Acid tests are an incredibly useful tool for browser developers to ensure that this happens. Acid4 is already being planned, and will help to find bugs in the way browsers handle HTML5 and CSS3 and SVG and other stuff, taking into account some of the lessons learned from problems with the Acid3 test (for example, Acid3 tests rendering speed; Acid4 will not).
to heck with firefaux (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:A little anti clamantic... (Score:3, Interesting)
The amusing part is that, on my screen, your post looks exactly as you describe.
I've found the problem goes away if I increase the window width sufficiently.
I'm running Firefox 3.0.11 on Windows XP, but I see the same problem on Firefox 3.0.? on MacOS Leopard at home.
Re:Have they improved the memory leaks? (Score:4, Interesting)
yes, as with 3 the memory footprint is significantly reduced, its still a bit on the high side here 128mb (the most any one program uses) but i have plenty of ram (~1.5Gb) so much of that may be features instead of leaks.
Re:93/100... (Score:3, Interesting)
What makes you think Youtube will move to video tag? Youtube's main reason for success was relying on Flash, a plugin which everyone has and trusts to.
Do you really think Youtube would lose that convenience? Do they really care if H264 is patented? I don't really. All I see is a platform neutral, documented standard which was designed with media professionals. I don't see some "evil monster" when I look to Flash or h264. I know what would happen if Flash and h264 didn't exist. We would be arguing about WMV and evil Microsoft not releasing a player/plugin for Linux and threatening some open source developers with lawsuit.
I am all for standards but thinking a proposed thing will replace Flash, even while MS is just being joked with their Silverlight billion dollar failure supposed to rival it...
Re:H.264 or Theora? (Score:5, Interesting)
H264 is industry standard since the day it was proposed/accepted. Industry standards aren't defined by nerds, they are defined by industry, huge boards of professionals and several computing specialists. There are billions (if not trillion) worth of broadcasting equipment, workflows, applications trusting to MPEG standards. Near all HD broadcasts are h264 and you should be thankful that TV industry didn't buy Microsoft's "but VC1 is documented too!" tricks.
They sit, argue, propose and after years, MPEG standards appear. H264, being part of MPEG 4 is more standard than anything you can imagine. It is result of 300 Experts discussions, several universities, companies and even governments.
Of course, it would be wise to wonder around saying "evil patents and mpeg la" but reality is a bit different. Even the reasons of patents are different than you may think.