Mozilla schedules Firefox 4.0 for March 22

[Emil]

Mozilla plans to launch Firefox 4.0 on March 22, 2011. The news comes straight from the horse's mouth: the new release date was posted on the Mozilla Wiki and on mozilla.dev.planning.

Mozilla has found problems in the current RC1 build, but it has decided that those issues aren't critical. RC1 will be released as the final version and a 4.0.1 release will be issued instead. The company will enable users to update Firefox versions 3.5 and 3.6 to 4.0 without the need to navigate to a download page.

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. Last week, the company put out an RC build and now all that's left is the 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. The first 5.0 builds are already in the making; the next version is targeted for a late June 2011 release.

All,

Firefox 4 RC1 has received a very warm welcome; it's time to make a decision to ship. As of now, there are no known issues that would stop us from shipping RC1 as final. At the conclusion of our regular 11:30AM triage session on Wednesday, March 16th, release drivers will decide whether to ship RC1 as Firefox 4.

March 22nd is the day we would ship. Both IT and Marketing have indicated that March 22nd is an acceptable final launch date. If at any time we discover issues that would block final release, we would issue an RC2 as soon as possible, reset the ship date, and communicate to everyone.

All my best,

Damon

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/42868-mozilla-schedules-firefox-40-for-march-22.html

 

[Leeky]

I wonder if the new release version 4 will actually work for more than 10 seconds without crashing in Windows or Linux....

 

[Kibaruk]

Now... I hope they make some sort of count for the downloads + upgrades

 

[treeski]

I've been lightly using FF4 and I haven't noticed any real issues with crashing. I have noticed however that pages don't load as fast as Chrome or IE9, and the program itself takes longer to load (without any addons).

 

[rajwraith]

FF4 RC worked flawlessly for me with lots of addons enabled. Those of you facing problems should do a complete uninstall (complete as in use Revo or Ccleaner or some other software) first. That should solve your problems.

 

[Guest]

You must have bad hardware, using on Win7x64 & Red Hat and have no errors or crashes at all.

 

[Nima304]

rajwraith said:
FF4 RC worked flawlessly for me with lots of addons enabled. Those of you facing problems should do a complete uninstall (complete as in use Revo or Ccleaner or some other software) first. That should solve your problems.

I agree. I've been having a lot of issues with FireFox 4 Beta and RC, I'm going to do a complete uninstall and reinstall it to see if it'll fix any of the issues.

 

[Jibberish18]

My question is, if they had this much trouble releasing a final version of 4.0, how do they plan on releasing final version of 5, 6 and 7.0 for JUST this year alone? I'm sure they'll just be minimal upgrades and not major releases but still.

 

[madboyv1]

Kibaruk said:
Now... I hope they make some sort of count for the downloads + upgrades

What's funny is that a guest comment in the IE9 release article bawks at the concept of even using statistics anymore (at least for browsers, possibly more widespread). lol

Have not even tried the beta or RC because I'm lazy and "content" with FF3. Heck, I'll probably lazy and hit "later" on the upgrade button for like a month until I get tired at constantly being bothered by it. =p

 

[Leeky]

Thanks for the comments about the crashing people. I have tried every single combination one would care to think of in order to resolve the issue, in Linux and in Windows. Initially I thought the issue was LastPass (as some might have read previously) but unfortunately even with a bare install in both OS' its garbage after a few seconds. Even FF Safe mode is garbage after a few seconds as well.

Its possible is a hardware issue. I've not experienced a single issue hardware wise, or performance and stability wise in Linux, but Windows has been another story. I've been getting BSOD's daily until the last few days - that said, I'm not even bothering with Windows most of the time now so thats likely the reason I feel its been better.

I personally think its the motherboard. I didn't have any issues until I changed the motherboard for a used Republic of Gamers SLI motherboard, along with the RAM. I'm going to get some .dmp files up at some point and then hopefully we'll know more.

Until then its Google Chrome, which ironically I'm becoming to like much, much more as the days pass. I'd definitely return to FF4 though if I can.

 

[Guest]

Firefox 4 is basically Mozilla playing catch up to Chrome.

Now what I would LOVE to see, is for Mozilla to keep catching up to Chrome in terms of speed, responsiveness, and general simplicity by Firefox 5 and start blazing the trails with new features and speed again by Firefox 6 and 7 so everyone else will be having to catch up to Mozilla.

 

[Puiu]

I've been using FF4 since beta 7 and from beta 10 onward it hasn't crashed not even once.
If you have problems then your PC has a major problem (i have 2 win7 64 &32bit laptops - no problems on both - 64bit is my main). Try updating windows and also your drivers. Video drivers are the most important ones.
Other than 1 second slower starting time i see no reason to use chrome and other browsers other than to test the websites i work on (dev). For people like FF is still the only browser i can actually use work on websites. (addons help sooo much - ex:firebug is still the best on FF)

 

[tonylukac]

I use Firefox including various betas and on various oss and I can't say it ever crashed once either, except when enabling plugins not approved for that version. I use Asus, Dell, and Toshiba computers, if that's important.

 

[bonniesmith]

Leeky said:
I wonder if the new release version 4 will actually work for more than 10 seconds without crashing in Windows or Linux....

Mine doesn't crash every 10 seconds in either 7 or ubuntu.

 

[matrix86]

Jibberish18 said:
My question is, if they had this much trouble releasing a final version of 4.0, how do they plan on releasing final version of 5, 6 and 7.0 for JUST this year alone? I'm sure they'll just be minimal upgrades and not major releases but still.

Think about it: 4 upgrades in a year. That's one upgrade every 3 months. Version 4 is out this month...the third month of the year. So technically, they are still on track. And as you said, they'll be minimal upgrades. Version 4 is a COMPLETE overhaul, hence the lengthy and problematic release.

 

[DarkCobra]

I've been using FF4 RC1 for a week now. While there are no crashes, a good number of my add-on's have not been functional. I'll try and do a complete uninstall and fresh install on the day it is officially released because there could be some last minute changes. I'm also hoping the authors of those add-on's do whatever last minute upgrading they need to make them fully compatible. On balance I like FF4! It's definitely a little faster but not quite as fast as Chrome or the new IE9. However, given the richness of the add-on's for FF . . . I'll stick with it!

 

[Leeky]

Mine doesn't crash every 10 seconds in either 7 or ubuntu.

Yeah, I've pretty much exhausted the majority of tests - driver issues can also be eliminated as well, as Linux and Windows are totally different.

I think its a hardware issue with the motherboard in some way. I know the RAM is fine having tested it with memtest and had numerous passes successfully.

I'll live with it for now, as will be upgrading soon enough - I'd rather not spend a penny more on my LGA775 setup really, having now used this CPU in 3 different motherboard nows. :haha:

 

[fpsgamerJR62]

My Firefox 4.0 RC1 simply states that it is Firefox 4.0 without the RC designation. I guess that is the same one Mozilla will release on Tuesday as the final version of Firefox 4.

 

[Edito]

It will flop countless betas tsc i never used Opera in my life but because of those firefox betas and crushes i give it a try and im lovin it...

 

[Guest]

If you have windows 7 64 bit, Don't Download Firefox 4.0, It sure does Crash. It also won't except the Norton Toolbar. The support team told me they hope to have it fixed by sometime in April. I've had to delete Firefox 4.0 from my computer, and also had to re-download my Norton Security Suite, caused it made it curpit.