Mozilla Firebird gets .8 Release, and New Name

Yage writes "Firebird, the lightweight version of Mozilla gets release 0.8 and changes its name again (remember Phoenix?) to avoid confusion with another OSS project. The new name is Firefox. There's a press release out about the name change and new version. And, as usual, download it from mozilla.org." Worth noting that ThunderBird .5 has been released as well. Update: 02/09 14:55 GMT by H : Thanks to Steve Garrity for pointing out the name change FAQ.

Mirror

[Patik]

Be sure to use a mirror [mozilla.org], it's getting slow already.

More Information

[dryan]

A FAQ about the name change can be found here [mozilla.org].

There's also a thread on the mozillazine forums about the name change here [mozillazine.org]

Theme

[gngulrajani]

Be sure to set your theme to default --

i lost my scrollbars and some buttons when i used
the "Orbit Green" theme.

otherwise the aa'ed fonts look great under linux and copy/paste seems is improved.

-greg

Trademarked by Mozilla. Good thing!

[simpleguy]

Word Mark:FIREFOX

Goods and Services:
IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Browsers, namely, software for browsing and interacting with data on the global computer network and secure private networks, and software programs to connect computers to the global computer network and to secure private networks

Owner(APPLICANT):
Mozilla Foundation NON-PROFIT CORPORATION CALIFORNIA 1350 Villa Street, Suite C Mountain View CALIFORNIA 940411126

Filing Date:
December 22, 2003

Information found with a search on uspto.gov

The name change was done for a reason

[The One KEA]

Ben Goodger made a blog entry where he explained the entire rationale behind the name change to Firefox: http://www.bengoodger.com/weblog/archives/cat_mozb log.shtml [bengoodger.com]

Some of the MozillaZine forum members share the dismay of earlier posters over how this may damage evangelism efforts, because of the effort required in explaining the similarities and differences between Firebird and Firefox. Either way, because Firebird is beta software, these types of name changes can happen with minimal disruption. Imagine what would have happened if this was Firefox 1.0, not Firefox 0.8.

New release...

[Shinobi]

yet it's still sluggish compared to Opera, and uses more memory on my box here in class.

Re:firefox

[blackcat++]

As stated in the press release [mozilla.org], "[t]o avoid overlap with another open source project". That would be the Firebird database [sourceforge.net].

This is because of an API change

[The One KEA]

This is because the authors of the themes have not updated their themes to support Firefox 0.8. In between Firebird 0.7 and Firefox 0.8 there were several changes made to the internal APIs which broke many themes. Because the theme authors do not want to waste time on a moving target, they collectively decided to wait until Firefox 0.8 was released. As a result, you will either have to wait for your theme to be updated or bug the theme author to fix their theme.

Re:I'm just thinking...

[azzy]

Wasn't it a book before being a film? Anyway, Mozilla have consulted lawyers, and trademarked/copyrighted/whatever this name in the US and Europe, so I think we can assume no legal probs with the name.

FAQ on the naming available...

[Xpilot]

...here [mozilla.org]. The other open source project in question is a database (obviously) called Firebird [sourceforge.net].

The mail client is still called "Thunderbird", which IMHO introduces and incongruity in the naming schemes. But then again, what's in a name, eh? Besides, "Thunderfox" would sound dumb.

Re:missed the Bird

[The One KEA]

A new download manager.
Bugfixes.
Improvements in tabbed browsing.
Bugfixes.
A new Help dialog.
More bugfixes.
Changes in the Gecko rendering engine.
Even more bugfixes.

Seriously, I'd upgrade.

NOT mozilla-lite

[levell]

The point is that Firefox is NOT supposed to be mozilla-lite or Mozilla-Jnr; it may replace Mozilla in the long term (although the suite has a stay of execution for now). It's supposed to be a powerful browser, not what would be implied by your (already discussed) Mozilla-lite tag.

Just stop

[SushiFugu]

I can see the trend already today with people posting all the different things that the new name conflicts with. The whole point is that the new name (atleast as far as I know/have heard) doesn't conflict in any way with other software products/open source projects, whereas Firebird did.

"Official market share"

[levell]

Well I'm not sure about official but you can see what fraction of Google hits come from each browser at the Google Zeitgeist [google.com]. For some reason they don't have browser figures in there year end summary so for the moment the latest figures are for November [google.com]. The numbers for gecko based engines are depressing.

Re:needs to integrate better

[dwhitman]

I just installed Firefox, and all my Firebird bookmarks came across fine.

Most of my extensions were there too, but for some reason, TabBrowser Extensions disappeared. And texturizer.net is slashdotted.

Re:How creative

[DeadSea]

Buikoler is unique, but you are correct, a good name has to make a good brand.

• It has to be easy to remember
• It has to be easy to pronounce
• It has to be easy to spell
• It can't sound like something nasty
• It can't mean something nasty in some other language
• Should actually remind people of something pleasant

Buikoler:

• To many syllables to remember easily
• Not pronouncable
• Hard to spell. There could be multiple spellings. Even worse, there would be easier ways to spell it and have it sound the same.
• Sounds too much like "buccaneer", "bukkake", or even "butt"

A good name is chosen through a brainstorming and making sure that everything coming out meets these criteria. An example of a good name that was chosen this way would be "Expedia" (the travel company):

• It is part of "expediate" (to make easier) giving it posative connotation
• Easy to remember for the same reason
• Totally unique
• Easy to spell (at least in English) because all the vowel combination are common and not easily mistaken.

Bit Torrent Download

[ed_g2s]

A Torrent [66.90.75.92] seeing as they've been slashdotted, which I supposed is a Good Thing for them.

Re:Lightweight?

[MrHanky]

Anybody know of an even _lighter_ browser, preferably gecko-based, that will work on Solaris? Binaries would be nice :)

Opera for Solaris [opera.com] does exist. Never tried the Solaris version, and it's not based on Gecko. And it's binary only. But still a nice, lightweight, modern browser. Yes, it's at version 7.23, the same as the Windows version. Should be worth a try.

Problem with themes?

[eraserewind]

It didn't display any scrollbars on any pages when I installed it, and it picked up the seamonkey theme from my previous firebird install. Once that theme was uninstalled, it worked fine though.

Hopefully I can re-install it again though, since the default theme is not nice. Unfortunately the themes site seems to be down.

Re:Mirror

[afree87]

BitTorrent [thedarkcitadel.com]

Reasons to use Mozilla Firebird/fox

[e03179]

Here's a great article from Kuro5hin [kuro5shin.org] that tells (Internet Explorer) users the advantages of using Firebird/fox. Check it out http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/1/31/125914/125 [kuro5hin.org]

Re:needs to integrate better

[mst76]

> ... because I can't see an easy way to keep FireFox in memory like I do with Mozilla

I just never close it, just minimize :)

> ... because FireFox lacks the wonderful Mozilla ability to simply type text into the URL bar, hit the up key and then enter, and run a Google search.

For newbies, Firefox is much better, because there is a constant reminder. When I started using Mozilla, I forgot to use the up-button half of the time. Now that I'm used to it, on Firefox I just press ctrl-k to search (or hit tab if I happen to be in the url-box).

Re:needs to integrate better

[Max Romantschuk]

FireFox lacks the wonderful Mozilla ability to simply type text into the URL bar, hit the up key and then enter, and run a Google search. I find the separate Google search field an annoying complication of Mozilla's search ability.

Actually, typing directly into the Address bar does an I'm feelin lucky -search, which I've found darn convenient. Granted, the search box uses space, but usually so little it's not a problem. The ability to add alternate searches to the search box is great as well.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'd still say the Firefox aproach has it's benefits.

Re:needs to integrate better

[Anonymous Coward]

The migration of mozilla settings is scheduled for 0.9. Remember, in spite of appearances, Fire(bird|fox) is still beta software, and it's not feature complete. The plan is to make 0.9 feature complete and then work on polish in the run up to 1.0.

I'd agree that the mozilla search functionality is easier for advanced users than the corresponding functionality in Firefox. However, the FF functionality is more obvious to less advanced users and more consistent with the behaviour of other programs. Personally, I find that Custom Keywords make for a better search interface than Seamonkey or Firefox. In fact I believe that FF now comes with some custom keywords built in - although you've probably just deleted those by overwriting the bookmarks. See How Cool are Custom Keywords [mozilla.org] for more information.

Firefox Ad Campaign

[GarfBond]

Now that a brand name has finally settled, get the Firefox ad campaign buttons! Stick em on your website!

http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/buttons. ht ml

WOW.

[Viduliya]

I am using firefox to post this message.. WOW.. I don't know what they did.. but it seems alot faster than firebird 0.7

Is it too early to say R.I.P to IE?

Torrent for firebird

[mishac]

For those look for a torrent to download the windows version, there is one here [66.90.75.92]

Re:Lightweight?

[Bazman]

Here's some comparison memory usages for opera, firebird , and NS4, on our solaris box, looking at www.plone.org:

SIZE,RSS, name
33M, 29M, opera
38M, 31M, firebird
17M, 15M, netscape 4

opera isn't much lighter than firebird in this metric.

See the small footprint of netscape 4? Shame it can't render the plone page properly because it really doesn't do CSS properly. Gah.

Baz

Re:"Official market share"

[DeadSea]

1.8% Gecko users: My employer, major travel website.
12% Gecko users: My personal site (1500 uniq a day, tech oriented)
20% Gecko users: Slashdot (at least the ones that slashdotted me)

Re:zip file distribution

[mr_sas]

the .zip will be up within the week according to ben goodger (one of the main developer guys)
there's an unoffical build (based on the installer build) here [mozillanews.org]

Re:needs to integrate better

[CeZa]

For the longest time you could type 'google $searchString' and 'dict $word' where $searchString and $word were what you were trying to find, into the address bar. I liked the feature and started to rely on it. It has been in all the nightly builds except the most recent one. Downloading now, hoping it's back.

Note: I found out the reason why and if you don't trash your default bookmarks you will be able to do it. See http://devedge.netscape.com/viewsource/2002/bookma rks/. There is a google bookmark that has a keyword that allows you to search by typing 'google' in the address bar.

More info

[sepluv]

It looks like this name change (mainly to satisfy complaints from the Firebird DB guys [sourceforge.net]) will be the last one.

The name is being filed as a trademark [uspto.gov] and is apparently pretty unique. I was at first leery of another name change, but this should hopefully sort things out once and for all. Also the new fiery-fox-on-globe logo [mozilla.org] is really cool and firefoxes [binderparkzoo.org] (aka red pandas) are just soooo cute.

BTW, the long delay in the new 0.8 release -- which adds a MSWindows installer, a new default theme for MacOS X and improved filetype, XPI and download management and other stuff [mozilla.org] -- is explained by the time taken to verify that the new name was unique and to file the trademark [uspto.gov].

There is more info about the name change in the official FAQ [mozilla.org] and a lot of unofficial detail on Ben Goodger's blog [bengoodger.com]

Re:Any Mirrors?

[ObNoX]

Thank god for google cache!:

http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:_PnqbgP1GpI J: www.mozilla.org/mirrors.html+&hl=en&ie=UTF -8

Re:To mantain browser in memory...

[Jisakiel]

about:config

Find "turbo"

enable it :)

One working mirror:

[s88]

Oregon State FTP [oregonstate.edu]

Re:Side buttons and gtk2

[Anonymous Coward]

Add this to your .imwheelrc:

"(null)"
None, Up, Alt_L|Left
None, Down, Alt_L|Right

A button campaign! Woohoo!

[WWWWolf]

So now there's a button campaign [mozilla.org]! Back in the day, we had Netscape Now!, then there was a MSIE Now!, and then there was a loooong silence. Way too long. Way way WAY too long.

Party like it's 1996!

In case you still have that personal homepage thing gathering dust in some corner of the web, or a blog that you think no one reads but several people actually do - DO the button thing! RELIVE the nostalgy! HEAR the whining from standards-brandishing people [anybrowser.org] (who, gritting their teeth, will admit Firefox supports W3C standards well, unlike that other browser)!

I'll try that page as soon as the mozilla site isn't completely slashdotted. I had to make my own stupid "Mozilla Now" button several months ago, glad Mozilla folks have finally done them themselves =)

Re:Dammit.

[Jugalator]

It's just in beta / technology preview stage yet. I think geeks are using it now, mostly. You often don't want to install 0.x software in corporate environments. They probably use Mozilla 1.x / Seamonkey, which isn't getting any name changes. From what I've seen, it serves mostly as a code name now, and will probably not cause more confusion than Windows Cairo did before it was named Windows 2000. Eventually, Firefox should replace Seamonkey.

Mozilla Thunderbird release notes

[MagicFab]

(from http://www.mozilla.org/projects/thunderbird/releas e-notes.html )

Mozilla Thunderbird 0.5

Release Notes

Mozilla Thunderbird is a redesign of the integrated Mozilla App-Suite mail component. Our goal is to leverage much of the existing functionality of that product to produce a stand-alone mail application that is simple and extensible. The Thunderbird Mail Product page has more information.

Owing to the maturity of the foundational code of the app-suite, Thunderbird is very usable; however, it is considered a Preview Release, and as such is assumed to have defects. To help find the defects, the developers happily receive user feedback (via comments in the Mozilla Thunderbird Support forum kindly hosted by MozillaZine, or via bugs filed in Bugzilla.) Please carefully read these release notes before filing any bugs in Bugzilla.

The focus of this fifth milestone release was on stability and bug fixing. This milestone is based on the recently released Mozilla 1.6 Application suite. Read the Thunderbird Roadmap about the goals of this release. While there is much more work yet to do, the developers are excited about recent progress and are anxious to share their latest efforts with the community. Enjoy!

This document covers the following topics for the Thunderbird 0.5 milestone release:

What's New

Here are the highlights for this Thunderbird release:

* New Features

We now support the notion of multiple identities per mail account. This makes it easy to have several email addresses which end up going into the same account. Read More about how to hook this up.

Thunderbird 0.5 includes Secure Password Authentication using a new cross-platform NTLM authentication mechanism for POP3 and SMTP.

Option to turn on the Mozilla 1.x style folder columns in Thunderbird (Tools / Options / Advanced / General Settings).

A new Palm Sync Address book conduit is now available for 0.5. You can now do a one way sync, PC -> Palm or Palm -> PC, by changing the hot sync conduit setup. We now prevent duplicate cards in Thunderbird address books when syncing with Palm categories. Numerous improvements with the initial sync.

A new, improved version of the offline extension is now available for 0.5. Please read the installation notes in this document about how to first uninstall old extensions.

Improved Spell Checker including a new US dictionary.

Ability to paste names or addresses from a spreadsheet directly into the addressing widget of a new compose window.

Improved profile migration from Netscape 4.x.

* Recently Fixed Bugs

If a new message arrives while you are reading a message, we no longer scroll the message body back to the top.

When saving an IMAP attachment, we no longer re-download the attachment from the server.

Saving an attachment now brings up a standalone progress window.

Copying a message to a Sent Folder now shows progress in the progress window.

When saving or opening an attachment, the progress dialog now reports accurate progress information.

We now mark IMAP messages read in a folder if they are deleted or moved to another folder. This fixes incorrect unread counts when checking folders other than the Inbox for new messages.

LDAP searches now honor the directory search filter property.

Ability to paste a single cell of data from Microsoft Excel into the compose window body.

Problems with IMAP folders three levels deep not showing up when you are not using the IMAP subscription model.

Tools / Options / Attachments / Attachment Folder setting is now remembered.

Linux builds no longer crash when viewing HTML messages requiring a JAVA plugin.

Improved handling of apple double encoded attachments from OSX clients.

No more

Mirrors

[The_Systech]

A few mirrors that aren't (yet) saturated... http://ftp.iasi.roedu.net/mirrors/ftp.mozilla.org/ pub/firefox/ ftp://mozilla.mirror.pacific.net.au/mozilla/firefo x/ ftp://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/pub/mirror /ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox

Re:Mirror

[Judas-Priest]

USA:
California [isc.org]
Georgia [gatech.edu]
Indiana [indiana.edu]
Oregon [oregonstate.edu]
Europe:
Spain [rediris.es]

The full list may be found on the google cache [google.pt]

Re:Totally brutal...

[goates]

The real MIG-31 is the Foxhound. In the Clint Eastwood movie it's the Firefox.

goates

Re:Mirror

[philthedrill]

Since mozilla.org is slashdotted, here are the primary mirrors:

ISC [isc.org] (FTP)
ISC [isc.org] (HTTP)
Georgia [gatech.edu] (FTP)
Georgia [gatech.edu] (HTTP)
Indiana [indiana.edu] (FTP)
Indiana [indiana.edu] (HTTP)
Oregon [oregonstate.edu] (FTP)
Oregon [oregonstate.edu] (HTTP)

And the google cache [216.239.41.104] for more mirrors.

Re:Confused about names

[perdelucena]

Correction. It was a theme bug. When I changed theme to default logo became OK. And the scrollbars are back too...

Re:What about SVG?

[Drathos]

They've been rewriting the SVG backend [mozilla.org].

This was marked as fixed on Feb 7, so now they're probably working on getting more of the bugs it blocked fixed. Once they major ones (there's at least 2 that caused crashes) are fixed, it should start showing up in nightly trunk builds.

Re:More Information

[Galvatron]

Well, it was WWE's own fault. They agreed to a legal settlement back in the day where they got the rights to use WWF in the USA only. Once they made a website (wwf.com), the wildlife people sued saying that the Internet is an international forum, and hence in violation of the agreement. Kind of like Apple Computer's ongoing fights with Apple Music, there wouldn't have been a problem if the original settlements hadn't been so shortsighted.

Updated FTP, HTTP, RSYNC mirror

[David McBride]

We updated our mozilla.org mirror this morning in anticipation of a slashdotting.

http://www.sunsite.org.uk/package/mozilla [sunsite.org.uk].

Hmm, I'll have to update our summary...

They ARE registering it as a trademark

[marnanel]

And, they should f'n register a trademark...

They are indeed registering it as a trademark. [uspto.gov]

Mozilla Mail / Thunderbird on Windows

[Daath]

Be warned that if you use Mozilla Thunderbird on windows that there is a very serious bug [mozilla.org]! More on in here [mozillazine.org]...

Some spam/virus mails has mangled invalid headers that Mozilla Mail/Thunderbird chokes on. When receiving mails, it simply stops when it encounters the bad mail, but it doesn't mark the previous mails as received or anything. So next time you check mail, you get every mail again until the bad mail, and so on...

Error launching browser window: no XBL binding for

[gav1n]

Error launching browser window: no XBL binding for browser. If you get this error when starting Firefox...go into Firebird and disable all extensions and switch to the default theme. You may have to do the same for Mozilla if you have that installed too.

Mandrake packages available

[Götz]

I've uploaded a package named mozilla-firefox for Mandrake Cooker, if you have Mandrake 9.2, you can get a version from my page:

9.2 packages [uni-rostock.de].

Re:firefox

[Captain Zion]

The point is, even though you and I know that a database and a web browser are two different things, Google doesn't.

Maybe google doesn't know the difference, but Vivissimo [vivisimo.com] does. It clusters the results into categories like Mozilla, Pontiac, Database, and Paragliding, among others.

Explanation

[tepples]

Only three of those folders are the result of name changes. "Chimera" is now Camino(tm). "Phoenix" and "Firebird" are now Firefox(tm). Because I can't seem to connect to Mozilla.org as I write this (congestion?), I had to look in Google's cache for a couple of them: Minimo is apparently something like Firefox optimized for size for handheld devices. "Grendel" is a mail/news user agent for the Java platform, apparently completely unconnected to the Gecko underpinnings.

Changes since Firebird 0.7 (new stuff in 0.8)

[Jack Zombie]

(from Burning Edge [squarefree.com])

New features

* Windows installer
* New download manager
* Work Offline
* Add Bookmark dialog: recent-folders dropdown and folder-selection tree (replacing a single dropdown listing all folders)
* DOM Inspector is now included in zip builds
* IDN support
* IPv6 support on Windows 2000/XP/2003

Major improvements

* 220807 - prompt user about invalid text/plain content. (Solves most problems like "Firebird tries to display some .rar files instead of downloading them.")
* 214266 - Find should wrap by default
* 217286 - Cookie whitelist should override session cookie option.
* 142459(?) - Shift+click and middle-click on scroll bar should jump to that location
* 214260 - XPInstall UI improvements
* 33282 - enable external scheme handlers (like aim: and telnet:) in Linux
* 6% faster page loading (comparing December to September on a Tp (pageloader time) graph)

Important bug fixes

* 210910 - Right-clicking a file within a bookmarks folder in the bookmarks menu or toolbar makes that folder inaccessible.
* 203102 - URL typed into address bar lost after switching tabs; "Open in new tab" should prefill URI in address bar.
* 222157 - View Source: Find and Save don't work.
* 213250 - Autoscroll prevents middle clicking on links in XML (XHTML) documents.
* 224416 - Tabs don't remember focused element.
* 216170 - Send Page (as Link) omits query string
* 98564 - caret overlaps the last character in textfield (if positioned after the last char).
* 212366 - Make -moz-opacity apply to descendants as a group, as required by CSS3 opacity
* 219705 - Linux: Blackdown Java crashes, saying "Internal error on browser end".
* 102578 - Linux: Clicking wrongfully fires onmouseout (breaks some dhtml menus, css/edge menus)
* 201209 - GTK2: -moz-opacity makes things invisible.

... and much more!
You can also download a non-installer (.zip) build based on official installer build here [mozillanews.org] and if you look around in the MozillaZine Firefox Builds Forum [mozillazine.org] there's some Windows/Linux Firefox 0.8 builds optimized for AthlonXP/P4/P3/P2/whatever you have.

Re:To mantain browser in memory...

[Anthracks]

This has absolutely no effect in Firefox to my knowledge, I'm pretty sure the -turbo option has been deprecated.

100mbit Firefox server

[aldoman]

http://www.tekwar.net/FirefoxSetup-0.8.exe

don't forget the laserdisc game 'Firefox' by Atari

[Matt Ownby]

Firefox! [dragons-lair-project.com]

The large crowd of laserdisc arcade collectors will surely be confused over a browser named after this famous game :)

Re:needs to integrate better

[dwhitman]

Managed to get through and found new TBE version 1.10, which that seems to be Foxfire friendly. Nice turnaround on Hiroshi's part; I was missing TBE badly after only 30 minutes with Foxfire.

Re:Holy Volkswagen!

[CuratorTom]

Obviously none of you have even driven a VW Fox. It's not a sports car by any means but it'll keep up with any similarly priced sub-compact, and blow it away on the turns. Roomier inside, too.

(Best $7200 I ever spent. 14 years and 160,000 miles ago. Spent about $200 on maintenance total last year.)

Now, the Audi Fox, THAT was a crappy car.

Re:With the way these guys get into name disputes.

[TheTomcat]

NSFW warning!

S

Re:marketing school

[Planesdragon]

It's spelt light, lite is the creation of some semi literate PR bunny--

--and now it's an accepted spelling of a hononyom of "light" that means smaller and airy, as opposed to the object of luminescence.

Deal with it, or go jump in a volcano. ;)

Re:needs to integrate better

[Gerv]

You can create fake bookmarks that have some smarts to them

Er, this feature is called Custom Keywords [mozilla.org] and it's been in Mozilla for several years.

Gerv

Re:Mirror

[Lord Ender]

Try this: http://whatever/downloads/mozilla.exe.tgz

The Apache web server will automatically zip files or directories and send them to you if you ask for the download with a .tgz. I am not sure if this feature is turned on by default, though. Should get you around having to get a .exe if you find a server that does it.

My review of Mozilla Firefox

[NXprime]

Mozilla Firefox 0.8 Review

Some of the best things I like about Mozilla Firefox 0.8:

1. Two words - Bookmark Management

Wow! I was able to modify/delete/rename/move 450 bookmarks in a few short hours. It was a combination of being able to edit bookmarks off the menu bar easily and opening a whole folder of websites in seconds. It makes Internet Explorer's 'Organize Favorites' look like a sick joke. Actually it is and I consider it one of the very weak things about Internet Explorer (lets call it IE for short). I simply cannot check all 450 bookmarks to see if the website still exists while using IE. With Mozilla Firefox, it only took like a half hour to get that part done. Tabbed browsing works. Big time. I used to use Tabbrowser Extensions to add some additional tweaks but found it hindered things more than helped. I'll mention what those are in my what I dislike about Mozilla Firefox section.

2. It doesn't crash

Oh Mozilla Firefox can still crash if there's bad code written for a web page, make no mistake about that. Still, it's very very rare and it's so much more stable than any Mozilla 1.x Application Suite release. Perhaps its because I have more confidence in Mozilla Firefox than with the Mozilla Application Suite (call it App. Suite for short), due to some previously bad experiences doing real web development with Composer with the 1.5 release. However, this whole crash issue is more of a release-by-release kind of thing. It's my hope that the Mozilla development team continues to focus on making Mozilla Firefox as crash proof as possible. Keep up the good work!

3. Mozilla Firefox loads up fast

It is way faster than the App. Suite due to it not preloading several applications I don't use at all. I have no confidence in using Mozilla Mail, nor do I use an email account with POP access. I've tried Composer and it crashed on a regular basis that it was a totally useless program. I also have no clue on how to use ChatZilla, and I keep my small address book in a text file. So my main focus has always been on how well the Mozilla web browser was. Now with Mozilla Firefox I have a web browser that loads almost as fast as IE and to me it's important that it loads fast because it greatly hindered me from switching over for good.

4. Properly displayed webpages

There's always going to be one minor annoyance per website since it was built with IE in mind, but all in all, Mozilla developer team finally nailed it. It's good enough for most webpages and when I can't view a webpage properly in Mozilla Firefox , I switch over to IE quickly. There's an extension called 'IE View' that adds a right-click menu option that'll open IE for whatever webpage you are currently on at the moment. Very handy feature and its something I use every now and then. Certain webpages that just don't work well include any Microsoft/MSN website, pages like this http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime .php?id=1825 (try to click on the details link in the middle where they rate the anime, note the website seems down at the moment). MBNA payment page won't work anymore.. ect. Little things like this.

5. Options dialogue box

This was one of the things I always thought were desperately needed for a Mozilla web browser. The Application Suite way only shows a directory name (which is sometimes truncated), and you have to double click to see more directories underneath it in order to get to the specific preferences you wanted to change. First of all, you can't at a quick glance get to the section you want right away. There needed to be a visual aid to help guide you to the section you wanted. I always thought the most *ideal* way was a combination of icons and a word or two to describe the general section of preferences. I couldn't believe what I was seeing with the first release of Mozilla Firefox that I tested. Icons plus a short word or two that's not truncated plus I didn't need to do anymo

You're actually right

[jeti]

AFAIK it's still planned to name version 1.0 of Firefox "Mozilla Browser". Thunderbird will become "Mozilla Mail".

mirrors that have builds

[dbaron]

The following is a full list of the primary and secondary mirrors that have Firefox 0.8 builds. This list will also be maintained and updated [mozilla.org].

Apologies for not listing one per line, but slashdot rejects posts with "too few characters per line".

North America: mozilla.isc.org (http) [isc.org] mozilla.isc.org (ftp) [isc.org] trillian.cc.gatech.edu (http) [gatech.edu] trillian.cc.gatech.edu (ftp) [gatech.edu] mozilla.ussg.indiana.edu (http) [indiana.edu] mozilla.ussg.indiana.edu (ftp) [indiana.edu] mozilla.oregonstate.edu (http) [oregonstate.edu] mozilla.oregonstate.edu (ftp) [oregonstate.edu] mozilla.gnusoft.net (http) [gnusoft.net]

Europe: sunsite.rediris.es (http) [rediris.es] sunsite.rediris.es (ftp) [rediris.es] sunsite.cnlab-switch.ch (ftp) [cnlab-switch.ch] ftp.cvut.cz (ftp) [ftp.cvut.cz] www.artfiles.org (http) [artfiles.org] ftp.rediris.es (ftp) [rediris.es] ftp.rediris.es (http) [rediris.es] ftp.task.gda.pl (ftp) [task.gda.pl] ftp.task.gda.pl (http) [task.gda.pl] sunsite.icm.edu.pl (ftp) [icm.edu.pl] (Windows only) sunsite.icm.edu.pl (http) [icm.edu.pl] (Windows only) ftp.mirror.ac.uk (ftp) [mirror.ac.uk]

Asia/Australia: ftp.lab.kdd.co.jp (ftp) [kdd.co.jp] ftp.kaist.ac.kr (http) [kaist.ac.kr] ftp.kaist.ac.kr (ftp) [kaist.ac.kr] ftp.nctu.edu.tw (ftp) [nctu.edu.tw] mozilla.mirror.pacific.net.au (ftp) [pacific.net.au] mozilla.mirror.pacific.net.au (http) [pacific.net.au]

Re:Error launching browser window: no XBL binding

[Anonymous Coward]

You MIGHT not have to go to such lengths. IF you have tabbrowser extensions, disable that specific extension in Firebird, then fire up Firefox and see if it works. If it does, you can reinstall the extension and it should work. I did have some funkiness on the second start, but killed the app in process mangler and restarted it and everything seems to be the same as I had it in Firebird.

Re:My review of Mozilla Firefox

[jacobito]

And after you've set browser.xul.error_pages.enabled to "true," you should install the Show Failed URL [pikey.me.uk] extension so that the URL for the failed page will show in the address bar.

I really do wish this behavior would become default behavior soon, and I also wish that error page would get a makeover. This seems like a pretty big usability issue to me; I'm not sure why it hasn't received much attention from the developers.

That said, I'm very happy with the 0.8 release!

Re:You're actually right

[niker]

From the Firefox brand name FAQ [mozilla.org], concerning their current name:

Will this name be permanent?

We sure hope so. We've learned a lot about choosing names in the past year (more than we would have liked to). We have been very careful in researching the name to ensure that we will not have any problems down the road. We have begun the process of registering our new trademark with the US Patent and Trademark office.

I suppose they changed their minds