Mozilla releases Firefox 4 Release Candidate 1

Emil

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Mozilla has released Firefox 4 Release Candidate 1. The new build comes less than two weeks after the Beta 12 release. There's no major changes here: the company is just working on "general stability, performance, and compatibility improvements." For more information on what's changed throughout the development of version 4.0, check out the release notes.

If you're already running a previous build of Firefox 4 you should see an automatic update soon. Alternatively, you can download RC1 directly for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux 32-bit/64-bit. The RC supports 79 languages.

Mozilla was originally planning on having Firefox 4 out by the end of last year, but it has had to delay the release multiple times. The company has fixed more than 7,000 bugs in the 12 betas. After this RC build there will likely be at least one more, followed by a final release.

Mozilla has been struggling to get Firefox 4.0 out the door. As a result, the company has announced that in 2011, not only will we see Firefox 4.0, but we will also see Firefox 5.0, Firefox 6.0, and Firefox 7.0.

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Lovin it. Noticing a big improvement in speed from 3.6 to 4 RC1. Ran the Peacekeeper benchmarker between this and Chrome 10 (meant to run it when I was still on FF3.6 but got too excited and jumped the gun, lol). Chrome ranked 3954, FF 1587. Disappointing, sure, but in real world usage, I haven't noticed any difference between the two. Once add-ons start working again (I imagine in the full release) then i'll make the full switch back to FF.
 
Just downloaded it, crashed on the first try, maybe just need to restart. Will report back when I have a week of usage. ;)
 
Found a gripe...it no longer asks if you want FF to save your open tabs. That's what I liked before. Sure you can pin them, but I don't always want to do that. Sometimes I just want to click the close button on my browser, tell it "yes" when it asks to save my tabs, and next time I open it, they come back up. No need to click on each tab to pin it or put it in a group. Just click, click, and done.

Other than that, though, it has functioned pretty well all day.
 
So many bumps in the path to 4.0 that not only I've reverted back to 3.6 in all my machines but for once I've started using Chrome as my sole browser on my notebook. Compared to FF it flies, and no, I don't care about those JS simulation tests.
 
Firefox 4 saves your tabs by default. When you start the next time, if you want to restore them it's a menu item under the "History" menu: "Restore Previous Session".
 
Im still thinking about Firefox , its a nice browser , its the first browser i went to after i started getting some knowledge about computers , still i was always about speed and Google Chrome gave me that , still i feel more comfy with firefox . Mhmm..
 
@ matrix86

The feature is in there and should be enabled by default. If that's not the case, enter "about:config" (without the quotes) into your URL bar. Tell Firefox that you know the risks and type
"browser.tabs.warnOnClose" (again without the quotes) into the filter box. This being set to "False" should be causing the problem. Double click the "browser.tabs.warnOnClose" entry and it will be set to true. This will most likely fix your problem. Good luck.
 
I have Firefox RC1 already and although I have no complaints about the browser's performance, the long road to version 4.0 is definitely not doing Mozilla any favors. Internet Explorer 9 will be out before FireFox 4.0 and Google might even be able to push Chrome stable to version 11 if Mozilla continues with the current pace of Firefox 4's development.
 
Julio said:
So many bumps in the path to 4.0 that not only I've reverted back to 3.6 in all my machines but for once I've started using Chrome as my sole browser on my notebook. Compared to FF it flies, and no, I don't care about those JS simulation tests.

Chrome does indeed fly. However, I find myself in the opposite situation: I'm hoping to go back to Firefox once 4 is official after being a Chrome user for about a year.

I really do like Chrome, but I feel constrained when I use it. I cannot configure certain aspects of it... Some of the features such as history, the download manager, p rinting etc.. feel like afterthoughts. Extensions help but some a couple of extensions I've been interested in can't function the way they were intended because of limits imposed by the Chrome extension system.

I had quite a few problems with early betas and even 10... 11.... but 12 (for whatever reason) fixed all of the issues I have been able to enumerate so far. I'm hopeful that I can go back when it is safe. :)

In the mean time, I use FF4 at work and Chrome at home so it is a pretty even split between the two and has been for some time.
 
Yep, Chrome is quick but for privacy its at the bottom of the heap. The only browser I would trust less is one provided by Homeland Security.
 
I guess I am the lucky one Julio, as except for earlier couple of betas, all the FF4 betas never missed a beat, not a single crash or instability issue; and by the way I have tried Chrome but it just doesn't seems the browser for me, beside the issue of Google's putting their dirty hands on all the user information they can kind of a turn off.
 
I'm on Google Chrome now, least until FF (stable and beta) can begin to run stable once again. Ever since recent updates on both I've been getting constant crashing - though it could be my hardware as I recently changed that as well.

I swear this Asus motherboard is possessed... I'm getting 2-3 BSOD's a day in use since changing over to it.
 
May be there is a 'little' ghost living on it? Obviously when you try to do anything else but pron, it get angry and causes all these BSODs.
 
May be there is a 'little' ghost living on it? Obviously when you try to do anything else but pron, it get angry and causes all these BSODs.

Yeah I did think that might be the issue, so fired up a Ubuntu VM and loaded my favourite video on continuous loop just to be sure - I'm afraid to report the issue is the same.

Tbh reading the dump files isn't my strong point, so not really read them much. I did setup the timings, voltage and speeds of my RAM up, as the motherboard was well off. Thats now running fine, but the BSOD's persist. Its a bloody pain personally, I never had a single BSOD with my Gigabyte motherboard, and it even overclocked better as well.
 
Luckily I returned the Asus (replacement board for a dead Intel one) the next day, for similar instability reasons, and frankly I don't see myself ever buying one any time soon. Also I am not someone who overclocks, so I am content with Intel's boards, which generally offer rock solid stability and driver support is good.
 
I certainly wouldn't spend my money on a new one, but then I didn't this one to begin with.

Its weird though, because running Linux its rock solid - Can run for 20 hours and not have a single fault, but if I run up W7 I can have a BSOD within 10 mins. I know something isn't right, and its not software, as I've now re-installed the OS several times to no avail - whatever it is, Linux doesn't seem bothered in the slightest!
 
Yeah, could do. I'll give it a couple of days first though, as wiped them all doing disk cleanup earlier. :haha:
 
Ive noticed that tabs are somewhat bigger than in beta.And that means less space for pages on a netbook ;(
 
Chrome is a good toy for those who don't work, but when it come to work, Firefox is still the only way to go.
I've been following FF4 since beta 7 and since beta 11 it didn't crush not even once. It's a good start and i'm sure that the final release will be better. I've also started using it for my work since beta 9.
 
I've used firefox alpha nightly since it came out. I haven't had any stability issues. There have been bugs but nothing that caused me to crash. I can't wait until the official release comes out though, I'm kinda tired of updating my browser everyday.
 
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