The Inside Track on Firefox Development.

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November 29, 2005

The Wait is Over

Firefox 1.5 is available now, the first major upgrade to Firefox since 1.0 shipped just over a year ago. Firefox 1.5 is the result of the contributions of thousands of volunteers from around the world. 1.5 is a midpoint on our track to our next release 2.0 - which will contain significant improvements to the user interface. The focus in 1.5 has been on developing various underlying sections of the application to provide a better overall user experience. We did not originally intend it to take this long, but you know how software is, and we wanted to get you the best software possible.

Notably,

Firefox 1.5 features a year and a half worth of improvements to the Gecko layout engine, including several significant new features: <html:canvas>, Scalable Vector Graphics, a prototype implementation of CSS columns support, key architectural changes to improve security and many performance enhancements. Part of this includes instantaneous back and forward navigation, which makes the 1.5 browser feel signifcantly faster than anything else out there.
There are numerous subtle enhancements to the browsing experience, including the ability to reorder tabs, many small UI improvements, more convenient Privacy controls, new Options, more migration options for Mac users, the list goes on and on.
Things are a little better for extension developers, with new directory and registry Install Locations that make it easier to developer and deploy extensions.
And at last keeping up to date with the latest security patches will be as simple as using the product. Firefox 1.5 checks with Mozilla.org every day to see if there are updates, and downloads and applies security fixes automatically in the background.

I want to express my thanks to everyone who has contributed to this release at all levels - without you, we would not be in this position today.

Draft plans for the content of the 2.0 release are forthcoming. A lot of ideas have been bounced around in various forums. We have many ideas, and the future is bright for web users everywhere. Stay tuned for more information.

-Ben

Posted by ben at November 29, 2005 2:24 PM

Comments

I've heard Quintura will make a toolbar for Firefox, anyways, it's a visual search but quite unusually scoping results. So I find very fast what I look for.
http://www.quintura.com

Posted by: Sandi at November 29, 2005 3:45 PM

This is great! A bright future lies ahead for firefox. Hail Mozilla!

Posted by: skywalker at November 29, 2005 3:49 PM

It's a small detail, but I noticed that the icon on the old Firefox product page was the firefox icon while on the mozilla.com page it is the mozilla icon.
Otherwise, woohoo!

Posted by: Mark at November 29, 2005 3:52 PM

Congratulate, I have downloaded new 1.5 version. And I have used it to develope extensions.

But can you tell Rorbet Ginda to make the JavaScript Debugger better to adapt 1.5 version. I need it to develope extensions in 1.5 version, maybe a lot of bodies also have this request.

Posted by: lzlhero at November 29, 2005 5:40 PM

Speaking of small things ... you might want to put a link to download and/or release notes, to make it more convenient.

Posted by: Joe Grossberg at November 29, 2005 5:45 PM

Congratulations! Firefox users go on increasing in Japan, too. We expect to release multi-language versions simultaneously, the same as 1.5 did.

Posted by: Takahiro at November 29, 2005 6:41 PM

Anyway to get the native menus back for Firefox 1.5? Now they look flat like java applets. Looks like I'll have to go back to Firefox 1.0.7.

Posted by: Lorendo at November 29, 2005 6:50 PM

So now that the only thing really failing Fx are lack of updated extensions and themes.

MoFo uses extensions and themes as part of their marketing strategy yet fails to tell new users that the extensions and themes break from Fx release to release and some are just abandoned outright.

Why not take some of that extra cash and buy the rights to all of these extensions & themes or at least the top 100 extensions and top 50 themes and make sure that they are developed in unison with Fx so they are always available and current.
.

Posted by: Greg at November 29, 2005 7:02 PM

I just come from the new mozilla.com web site and I was reading "It�s free and easy to try" and I understood "It�s free to try and easy to try" as in shareware.

I strongly believe this sentence is misleading and you should do something about it !

Posted by: Alban at November 29, 2005 7:36 PM

Greg, I'd rather they spend time fix some of the more glaring bugs in Firefox than to focus on some extensions that most people never use.

I do have an idea for tabs. They're the future and I think the tab bar should be enabled by default, with a new page icon next to the Close button. It'll make it apparent to users what they do.

Hey, I'm already bored with v1.5. C'mon 2.0!

(Oh, and great job on 1.5.)

Best,
Tsee

Posted by: Tsee at November 29, 2005 9:18 PM

Ben, are you planning on updating magpie to work with Firefox 1.5?

Posted by: Vitor at November 29, 2005 9:46 PM

What happens with auto-updates when you don't have permission to write to the browser? eg if you've installed as an admin user (on Windows) but are running as non-admin.

Posted by: Matthew Wilson at November 30, 2005 3:51 AM

whens firefox 2.0 due? mid-2006? 2nd quarter? 3rd? any specifics? any chance of supporting acid2? ;)

Posted by: mdew at November 30, 2005 4:30 AM

Tsee:

I think he's referring to the extensions that many people use -- like Greasemonkey, which has two entire books written on it.

Posted by: Joe Grossberg at November 30, 2005 5:22 AM

Hey Ben, why your experiments with the improved tab browser (discussed on Nov 3rd post) didn't make it to FF 1.5?
It seems a great improvement on usability. The close tab button on the right side is not very intuitive for new users.

Anyway, congrats about the new release! It is an awesome improvement from the 1.0x branch.

Posted by: Felipe at November 30, 2005 5:38 AM

Felipe, the tabbed browsing improvements I talked about earlier are on the agenda for 2.0. I will continue to update the test builds though!

Posted by: Ben at November 30, 2005 5:00 PM

Firefox 1.5 is great, congratulations to all! I have to agree with Felipes point on the the tab improvements, its a big disapointment that such core improvements to a huge feature and way of browsing like this have not made it to 1.5.

1+3 were rather simple, and its very surprising and disapointing this may not be implemented until verion 2.0, there's no way something like this can take 6+ months surely, this is crazy, and very important, basic stuff. Users of Firefox are getting new tabs from links in other applications such as Thunderbird, but not for links whilst browsing which is where it makes most sense and is most beneficial. This is very contradictory and not user friendly.

Firefox 1.5 is teriffic, but put it that something as simple, and fundamental as this should not be put of until Firefox 2.0, and urge that this be addressed. Again well done to all, will continue to support users, spread the word, promote this great product and look forward to it getting better and better!

Posted by: Kris Silver at December 1, 2005 3:06 PM

Firefox 1.5 is great, good work! Kind of off-topic question: is there any particular reason you don't syndicate the full article via your RSS feed? =) I tend to read most feeds directly in my reader, but yours is one of the few that only has a brief excerpt requiring a visit to actually read the whole thing. ;)

Posted by: Will at December 2, 2005 4:31 AM

After all still need more new extension to make firefox look better.

Posted by: firefox 1.5 download at December 2, 2005 10:28 AM

I was never really a fan of Firefox, mostly because it was so slow and it didn't have any of the functionality that Opera provides right out of the box.
Now there are plugins that I can use to give Firefox some of Operas functionality. And with version 1.5 the speed issue has dissapeared. This is great to see. I will still stick with opera, but now I would reccomend either Opera or Firefox depending on the user, normaly I'd only reccomend Opera, Opera or Opera but not any more.
It's nice to see Firefox evolving so well. Bigup to everyone that has been contributing to Firefox!

Posted by: B0mBjAcK at December 3, 2005 3:43 AM

Get the 'flock' out of here!!!

Posted by: BigFlocker at December 3, 2005 6:28 AM

Outstanding new release! It's faster, smoother, and slicker than anything else.

The only complaint I have is that little dotted box around everything I click on. Yuck!

Thanks so much for all the work you guys put into this stuff.

Posted by: Hugh at December 3, 2005 9:31 AM

Are you actually going to update your extensions now? :)
Christian

Posted by: Christian at December 3, 2005 2:09 PM

I think that integrating the foxPose extension as a part of v2.0 would be an amazing way to extend the usability of the tab system and a wonderful thing to promote as a core feature. I could imagine the foxPose view icon on the tab bar... Ben - if you actually read your comments :) - I'd love you to think about it. It's the best plug-in that is relevant to all users.

Posted by: Chris Hickman at December 4, 2005 10:11 AM

Sorry to use your comment form, but wanted to let you know that email to ben@bengoodger.com is bouncing.

Cheers,
Robert

Posted by: Robert Pickup at December 4, 2005 6:27 PM

Just a thought, using firefox 1.07, and this page looks ugly. the top layout seems to have a glaring space, and unsightly columns layout. I'm kind of surprised

Posted by: Stephen at December 5, 2005 2:41 AM

Ben, the magpie extension is one of the most important extensions out there. I have been using firefox since 0,8 and magpie probably since around that time. I wanted to upgrade to deer park, but since magpie hadn't been updated I went back to 1.0 and I've been using that since then. Please update this unique extension for the good of all firefox users!

Posted by: olafur at December 6, 2005 4:14 PM

That's great I'm happy with the overall result I can't wait for the 2.0 to arrive and see this features:
* Firefox:2.0 Accessibility
* Firefox:2.0 Institutional Deployment
* Firefox:2.0 Customizable Toolbars
* Firefox:2.0 Multi-locale Installers
* Firefox:2.0 Download Manager
* Firefox:Info Window
* Firefox:Extension Manager UI
* Places
* Browser History
* Feed Handling
* Firefox Development Integration
* Download Size

a and also can't wait to see this heh, I hope i wont be a 30 year old when it shows :) (im 20 now) :)

* Firefox:3.0 PRD
* Firefox:3.0 Password Manager
* Firefox:3.0 Configurable Keybindings
* Firefox:3.0 Tabbed Browsing
* Firefox:3.0 Extension Manager
* Firefox:3.0 Software Update
* Firefox:3.0 Download Manager
* Firefox:3.0 Unified XPInstall Download Back End
* Firefox:3.0 Search Service
* Firefox:3.0 Info Window
* Firefox:3.0 Options Dialog reorg
* Firefox:3.0 Accessibility
* Firefox:3.0 Customizable Toolbars
* Firefox:3.0 Bookmarks
* Firefox:3.0 Places

Posted by: Marko at December 9, 2005 10:25 AM

Fix the horrendous memory leak problem for 1.5 before saying it is better than 1.07. 1.07 had leaks but not as horrendous as this. 150 megs after 1 hour of use...I am very disappointed and had to revert back to 1.07 and noticed all the good themes are no longer compatible with 1.07. Beside the fanboys who would use firefox even if it sucked, you will lose everyday users if this stuff keeps up including me.

Posted by: Angry User at December 18, 2005 11:48 PM

++++++1 Magpie working on FF 1.5

Posted by: ted at February 11, 2006 8:04 PM

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