7:39 PM
A while back, the
Firefox 2012 roadmap was announced and it included quite a few important changes, some of which are already available in the latest Firefox Nightly.
A few days ago, a Firefox Nightly update finally introduced a new built-in download panel which is displayed on the top right and shows the time remaining until the download finishes:
But this is just one of the new features presented in the 2012 roadmap which are already available in the latest Firefox Nightly. There's no new default theme yet, but for instance, the new tab page is already available for quite some time (with some improvements to the initial release):
There's also a
new home page (has been available in Nightly for a while) which lets you quickly access the downloads, bookmarks, history, addons, sync and settings:
And finally, there's also a
built-in HTML5 PDF viewer:If you're not using Firefox Nightly and want to use the build-in Firefox PDF viewer, you can get the extension from
HERE.
Install Firefox Nightly in Ubuntu
Firefox Nightly can be installed in Ubuntu, side-by-side with Firefox stable, beta or aurora (it will not overwrite any of these Firefox versions). To add the official Firefox Nightly PPA and install it in Ubuntu, use the commands below in a terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install firefox-trunk
Debian users can use a repository to test Firefox and Thunderbird development builds - see
http://mozilla.debian.net/ .
For other Linux distributions, Windows, Mac OSX or Android, you can download Firefox Nightly from HERE.
» read more....
4:15 PM
A while back, Firefox got an option to only load tabs when they are clicked, which makes Firefox a lot faster if you have many open tabs.
But
this was only implemented for regular tabs and didn't work for app tabs (pinned tabs), until Firefox 12 which got an about:config option to load app tabs on demand too.
So
if you're using Firefox 12+ (
Firefox Beta,
Aurora or
Nightly)
and want app tabs to load only when clicked, type "about:config" in the Firefox location bar, then enter:browser.sessionstore.restore_pinned_tabs_on_demand
in the search box and double click it (or right click it and select "Toggle") so it's value becomes "
true".
This won't work unless you also set regular tabs to load on demand so in the Firefox Preferences, on the "General" tab, make sure "Don't load tabs until selected" is checked.
Now restart Firefox and the app tabs should only load when selected, just like regular tabs.
» read more....
2:05 AM
According to the Firefox 2012 roadmap, Mozilla plans to introduce some major changes and new features this year, including a new default theme called Australis:  |
| Firefox - default GNOME 3 theme |
 |
| Firefox - Ubuntu (Ambiance theme) |
 |
| Firefox - OSX |
 |
| Firefox - Windows 7 |
Unfortunately, there are still no plans to support tabs in the titlebar for Linux (because of GTK limitations), but most other UI changes should be available for Linux too.
As you can see in the images above, Firefox will use Chrome-like curved tabs on all platforms, the bookmarks star will be separated from the locationBar and merged with the bookmarks menu and apparently, the menu will be moved next to the locationBar. Further more, a new built-in download panel should finally replace the separate Firefox download window. There's already a
custom Firefox build that comes with an initial version of the new download panel:
If you want to try the new theme, there's an unofficial Australis theme HERE (but it needs some work, at least under Linux).
Besides the changes mentioned above, there are many other new features that should land in Firefox this year:
- a new tab page (an initial version is already available in the latest Firefox Aurora builds - screenshot above) powered by the Awesomebar, with a new "speed dial" and new home tab which lets you access the Firefox preferences, etc.
- Chrome migration
- Web Apps (-webapp mode) and WebApps Marketplace integration
- reworked session restore and a new Firefox restore which lets you restore bookmarks, passwords, etc.
- Firefox Share: share links / update status across social networks
- Firefox Login: user-centric site logins - one login for all the websites you us
- in-line Preferences Manager
- seamless plug-in install and update experience
- built-in PDF viewer
- more!
For more info, visit the
Firefox roadmap page.
» read more....
9:14 PM
Firefox 9 has been released today (is already available for download via direct links but the website hasn't been updated yet) with improved JavaScript performance (by 20 to 30%) thanks to
Type Inference, some additional HTML5 and CSS support, support for querying Do Not Track status via JavaScript and the usual bug and stability fixes. More info,
HERE.
Firefox 9 will be available as a security update via the official repositories for Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot and 11.04 Natty Narwhal users, but if you don't want to wait, you can already install it by using the Ubuntu Mozilla Security PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-security/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install firefox
For Ubuntu Lucid and Maverick, Firefox 9 should be available in the Firefox Stable Channel PPA soon: "ppa:mozillateam/firefox-stable" (in fact, the packages have already been built successfully, but publishing has been disabled for the PPA for now).
Until the Mozilla website is updated to provide the latest Firefox 9, here are direct download links:
Linux,
Mac and
Windows.
» read more....
4:24 AM
A quick update for those of you are using Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat or 10.04 Lucid Lynx and want to upgrade to the latest Firefox 7: the new version is now available in the Firefox stable PPA.
Firefox 7 should be available in the official Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal and 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot repositories very soon.
Firefox 7 is brings improved memory usage and sync, CSS3 text overflow,
Azure for improved HTML5 animation,
web timing spec - a feature that enables developers to measure page load time and more.
To install the latest Firefox 7 in Ubuntu 10.10 or 10.04, use the commands below:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install firefox
If you want to test newer Firefox versions, see:
» read more....
6:03 PM
(Firefox passwords saved in GNOME Keyring)
A bug requesting Firefox Password Manager integration with the GNOME Keyring was submitted back in 2005 and unfortunately it still hasn't been fixed.
Since it doesn't look like this is going to be fixed anytime soon, a Firefox extension has been created which allows storing the passwords in GNOME Keyring.
But unfortunately there are a few issues with Firefox GNOME Keyring extension:
- password sync doesn't work properly
- there's no way to migrate your old passwords so once you start using the extension, you'll have to re-enter the passwords and save them again. Also, the old passwords remain untouched so if you don't want them to be available in the Firefox Password Manager you must manually remove them before installing the extension
- if you set a master password, when you click on preferences > security > saved passwords > show passwords you still get asked for it, even if GNOME Keyring is active
GNOME Keyring extension was recently updated and works with Firefox 3.6.x, 4.0 and 5.0 as well as Thunderbird (I've only tested it with Thunderbird 5.0 but it probably works with older versions too).
To install the GNOME Keyring extension in Firefox or Thunderbird, download it (.xpi link below) to your computer, then open the Firefox / Thunderbird Add-ons Manager and simply drag'n'drop the .xpi file to it and you should be prompted to install the addon.
After you restart Firefox, you should be asked to enter a password for the new Mozilla keyring (if you've set Firefox to remember your passwords) - enter your computer login password or else you'll probably be prompted to enter a password when you start Firefox.
Download Firefox GNOME Keyring extension (.xpi) |
Github homepage / source files
» read more....
9:25 PM
A quick update for Ubuntu 10.10 / 10.04 users: Firefox 5 has just been uploaded to the Firefox Stable PPA. Ubuntu 11.04 users do not have to add any PPA because Firefox 5 is available in the official Ubuntu 11.04 repositories so all you have to do is run a regular update.
You can install Firefox 5 in Ubuntu 10.10 or 10.04 using the commands below:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
» read more....
3:17 PM
Update: Firefox 5 is now available in the official Ubuntu 11.04 security repository so you no longer have to follow the instructions below to upgrade to Firefox 5. Just run a normal update.
Firefox 5 is available to download via
Mozilla's FTP servers and because this is a security update for Firefox 4 (which will no longer get updates), it will be available in the main Ubuntu 11.04 repositories soon (I'm not sure when though).
For now, Firefox 5 is available in the Natty proposed repositories, for testing purposes only. Once it's properly tested, it will be uploaded in the main repository. If you want to test Firefox 5 (final), enable the proposed repository in Software Sources (in Ubuntu Software Center, click Edit > Software Sources and enable the proposed repository) and you should get a Firefox update. But please note that enabling this repository, you'll get a lot of other updates which are currently in testing (I'm using it and everything seems to work ok, but it's not recommended you enable it for anything other than testing purposes).
Firefox 5 is also available in the Mozilla Security PPA (for Ubuntu 11.04), but if you use Firefox from this PPA, anything that requires a language pack will fail. If you want to add the PPA anyway and help test Firefox 5, use the commands below:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-security/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Firefox 5 bugs for Ubuntu 11.04 are tracked
here | Read the
"Call For Testing: Natty Firefox users" announcement
» read more....
5:14 AM
A quick update... well, actually two:
- Firefox 5.0 beta 5 is now
available in the Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal official "Proposed" repository which means that the final Firefox 5.0 version will probably be available in the main repositories after it's released (if there aren't any issues with the package that's currently in the proposed repo).
- Nautilus-Dropbox is now available in the official Ubuntu 11.10
Oneiric Ocelot repositories as well as in
Debian Unstable / Experimental. So starting with Oneiric, you won't have to manually download and install Dropbox, you can simply search for it and install it via the Ubuntu Software Center.
» read more....
