We're only a few days from the 0.8 release and this one is going to kick some serious ass. There's just no other way to put it. We've got all kinds of cross-platform improvements, including a brand new download manager that also handles extension installs, much faster web page rendering, NTLM authentications support, new and improved bookmarks functionality, major stability improvements, -- the list goes on.
I'm convinced that this is going to be our single biggest milestone leap forward since the project began. This release has something for everyone and with 0.8, there simply aren't any excuses left for using IE.
In addition to all of the awesome cross-platform improvements, there are some wonderful platform-specific changes too. For Mac, 0.8 will be the milestone debut of the drool-on-your-keyboard-sexy new OS X front end that, if you haven't seen it, is gonna just knock your socks off. Not only is it super slick, but it feels "right at home" on both Jaguar and Panther.
With 0.8 on Windows, we get a brand new installer that makes installation painless and easy, as well as providing all the standard shortcuts/registry/program group/start menu/etc. integration that Windows users have come to expect. With the installer also comes uninstall capability, but you won't want or need that!
This is the fastest, most featureful, most stable, most fun release yet. It's going to take the world by storm. If you thought there was buzz around 0.6 and 0.7, just you wait.
Posted by asa at February 5, 2004 04:44 PMAh, what about that bug that deletes folders on installation? It's been discussed on MozillaZine. It would be a *bad* thing if users' data was lost.
Buzz is good. Bad buzz is fatal.
Or was this fixed?
What's this 0.8 you are talking about? I thought this was a weblog about Mars! :)
This is good news. For the last coupla days, the Firebird version I've been using 0.7 on MacOS X.2 has all of a sudden gotten crashier. Have no known reason why (of course I have multiple browser windows open, each of which have plenty of tabs apiece). So this news of the release is nice and timely. :)
(heh, and you thought I was just blogging about Mars using, well, some other browser or something. Actually, when I'm doing live updates using boyfriend's iBook, I am- Safari. But converting to Mozilla was pretty easy what with pop-up blocking and tabbed browsing, Firebird was a slam dunk after that. Ran Mozilla after crashiness got to me yesterday. Oh, did I miss that Google window on the right).
K. nuff blathering, but consider this a tip of the hat toward your *other* job :)
S
Posted by: Susan Kitchens on February 5, 2004 05:27 PMGreat! Hope the Linux version works well.
Posted by: Mikail Capone on February 5, 2004 05:44 PM> I'm convinced that this is going to be our single
> biggest milestone leap forward since the project
> began. This release has something for everyone
> and with 0.8, there simply aren't any excuses left
> for using IE.
If this is the case, why not call it "1.0"?
Seriously, even though it's just a version string, some people get very anxious when asked to use software with version numbers below 1.0 -- no matter what the quality or utility. If Firebird is ready for them, then maybe the version number should be, too.
Posted by: Alderete on February 5, 2004 08:45 PMInstalling Panther and another 1/2 gig of memory tomorrow, now I've got a new and improved Firebird to look forward to? Be still my beating heart!
Posted by: Joel on February 5, 2004 10:01 PMI used Firebird 0.6 for a bit, I think, but ended up switching back to Mozilla (now on 1.6, I think).
The main reason for my switchback, I think, is that Firebird didn't seem to do as good of a job at remembering my passwords, or knowing when to add entries to the password. Is that better now?
Posted by: Jerry on February 6, 2004 02:48 AMI have experienced the same thing with 0.7 as Jerry mentions in the comment above. Instead of loading a page and getting my username and password displayed, I have to start typing my username until it offers a possibility which, when chosen, will fill in the rest of the username and password. It also tends not to like URLs with ? in them, sometimes refusing to load them. I've been waiting for 0.8 for ages, so I'm really pleased it's out soon.
Posted by: Nik-W on February 6, 2004 03:07 AMIf you want adoption in corporate Windows environments you need to rollout installers that utilise "Windows Installer" technology. That means that organisations can roll it out using Active Directory and SMS.
Firebird and Mozilla are getting some good review at the moment as regards ease of use, function etc.
If you can make it easy to deploy for these organisations then another hurdle to adoption will be removed.
Posted by: Neil Corlett on February 6, 2004 03:32 AMBen Goodger covers the installation bug in more detail:
http://www.bengoodger.com/weblog/archives/cat_mozilla_firebird.shtml#000544
have you thought of doing a "rough changelog" for MF.8 like you typically do for suite releases?
Posted by: cb on February 6, 2004 08:04 AMHave you guys fixed the 204 No Content bug?
Posted by: Thomas Paine on February 6, 2004 09:47 AM1: I really need to be able to turn off the download manager. I hate hate hate hate hate it. I like being able to click OPEN on an .exe when I get done. I am not an idiot user so please do not treat me like one.
2: Has the "not work with Outlook Mobile Access" been fixed yet? It that NTLM?
Posted by: Rosewood on February 6, 2004 11:18 AMThomas, what 204 No Content bug? It really doesn't help to ask things like "did you fix the 204 No Content bug" because that's really not much more clear a question than "did you fix that back button bug" or "did you fix that page loading bug".
Give me a bug number and I'll look into it.
Posted by: Asa Dotzler on February 6, 2004 11:22 AMSorry Asa, I should have been more clear. I'm talking about bug #183407. I'm not sure if it's a general Mozilla bug or specific to Firebird.
Posted by: Thomas Paine on February 6, 2004 11:44 AMHmm, I was just able to reproduce the bug in Mozilla so I guess it's not specific to Firebird. Sorry for wasting your time.
Posted by: Thomas Paine on February 6, 2004 11:46 AMAre there any plans to distribute 0.8 via Gnutella and Bittorrent (in addition to conventional downloads of course)?
If 0.8 is "going to take the world by storm", P2P technology might help to take some load off of mozilla.org's servers. When 0.7 was released, I had some trouble with poor transfer-rates from mozilla.org and eventually found a bittorrent link in the firebird forum on mozillazine. Official magnet and bittorrent links on mozilla.org's download pages would be cool.
I was lead to this blog by reviewing the coming news for monday.. sorry to jump in but I have been using Firebird 0.7 for some time now and its f'n fantastic.. I have istalled just about all of the extentions (or so it seems) and have used many of the tips to customize to my liking.. I am pumped for Monday..
Keep up the great work with this project.. With all the customizations and friendly flow I have officially moved from IE. I can't see how anyone would go back. This IS just what I have been praying for. And for those that are not using Firebird yet I have to say that the support is 1000x better and faster than you will ever get from the monopoly...
Posted by: StamfordRob on February 7, 2004 04:25 PMI've been using Firebird 0.6.1+ (the commissioned version that's now off the net AFAIK), and haven't had the problem with usernames/passwords that I've seen with newer Firebirds. I also understand that AppSuite 1.6 and higher are also better at this. I think it's a serious usability issue that I hope has been fixed by now.
Posted by: Tsee on February 8, 2004 10:24 AM"This release has something for everyone and with 0.8, there simply aren't any excuses left for using IE."
Yeah? The major blocker for me (since I use the keyboard to navigate) is mozilla not remembering the focused element and scrollbar position when you click the back button. Not to mention the selection rectangle seems to be implemented differently than IE. I can't tell if it's a simple xor or not but it seems to make some elements appear black over a black background which makes it impossible to browse links on a page with the keyboard.
Posted by: asdf on February 9, 2004 09:23 PMYeah, remembering the scroll bar position is huge.
The donwload manager is nice but not critical. Same with the bookmark manager (does anyone even use bookmarks anymore?).
I haven't been able to get Flash, Adobe and some other plug-ins to work yet. That should be among the very top priorities as it is a non-starter for the vast majority of users (unlike the DL and BM mgrs which are nice-to-haves at best).
Posted by: pb on February 9, 2004 11:17 PMJerry and Nik-W: please add to your bookmarks the Remember Password bookmarklet found on Jesse Ruderman's site. I've been using the latest nightlies for quite some time now and haven't encountered any password-related problem that it cannot fix.
Cheers,
Strat