CAM Posted March 21, 2011 Posted March 21, 2011 Firefox 4 now available to download, official release tomorrow It's due for release tomorrow but you can grab it now. This is the final copy, not the RC. 2
mattx Posted March 21, 2011 Posted March 21, 2011 Just installed - been playing with the beta for a while without any problems so just installed. Thanks for the heads up. Can't live without my menu bar though - that's the first thing I put back !!
Norphy Posted March 21, 2011 Posted March 21, 2011 Hah, funny, after Microsoft re-enabled the menu bar in IE7+, it was the first thing I turned off! I've just downloaded and installed it on my Mac, it's all differenty!
mattx Posted March 21, 2011 Posted March 21, 2011 Hah, funny, after Microsoft re-enabled the menu bar in IE7+, it was the first thing I turned off! I've just downloaded and installed it on my Mac, it's all differenty! I must be old fashioned - I can't live withou menu bars.
EduTech Posted March 21, 2011 Posted March 21, 2011 Downloaded and Installed been playing this evening and will play more tomorrow James.
CAM Posted March 22, 2011 Author Posted March 22, 2011 Time to see if sync works between work and home.
Andrew_C Posted March 22, 2011 Posted March 22, 2011 I've been using Beta for a while. The thing that irks me most is the repositioning of "refresh" button.
sonofsanta Posted March 22, 2011 Posted March 22, 2011 Finally downloaded the RC yesterday actually, and I must say, I'm liking it very much. It certainly feels snappier. Bit of a shock at first to see the chrome shrunk so much (and the tabs moved) but I'm liking it now. I hadn't even noticed the refresh button moving... I set up TabMixPlus to refresh on double click of a tab, always found that much more useful (and an easier target to hit with a cursor)
AngryTechnician Posted March 22, 2011 Posted March 22, 2011 From the linked page: Update: Mozilla has asked us to say that this might not turn out to be the actual final build. It's still going through QA right now, and something might come up. Don't worry though: your browser will automatically update if a new build is released. 1
Admiral208 Posted March 22, 2011 Posted March 22, 2011 I've been using Beta for a while. The thing that irks me most is the repositioning of "refresh" button. I thought it was only me that thought that!! Its so annoying, I keep losing it then remembering that its been moved.
tommej Posted March 22, 2011 Posted March 22, 2011 I accidentally shift-deleted my old profile while installing this last night. Probably for the best
CAM Posted March 22, 2011 Author Posted March 22, 2011 I'm finding it to be very responsive at work. My laptop is terribly slow but Firefox was changing pages almost instantly.
Arthur Posted March 22, 2011 Posted March 22, 2011 The U.K. is in fourth place on Mozilla's live download stats map. Germany is currently winning... http://glow.mozilla.org/
JHeaton Posted March 22, 2011 Posted March 22, 2011 Using it and loving the performance increase. Has anyone noticed a font rendering difference between 4.0 and 3.6, though? My eyes don't seem to like it since upgrading... :/
AngryTechnician Posted March 22, 2011 Posted March 22, 2011 (edited) Has anyone noticed a font rendering difference between 4.0 and 3.6, though? My eyes don't seem to like it since upgrading... :/ Yes. Subpixel rendering seems... different. Looking for more info on it now, not sure whether I like it or not. Edit: it's using Direct2D hardware rendering like IE9 does. You can turn it off in Options > Advanced > General as below, or set gfx.direct2d.disabled to true in about:config This almost certainly has a performance implication. Edited March 22, 2011 by AngryTechnician
Arthur Posted March 22, 2011 Posted March 22, 2011 (edited) You may want to enable Firefox's hardware accelerated graphics feature as this greatly improves text rendering... http://www.addictivetips.com/internet-tips/enable-firefox-hardware-accelerated-graphics/ Edit. There's also an add-on which lets you adjust your anti-aliasing when Firefox has the hardware acceleration option enabled. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/anti-aliasing-tuner/ Edited March 22, 2011 by Arthur
AngryTechnician Posted March 22, 2011 Posted March 22, 2011 You may want to enable Firefox's hardware accelerated graphics feature as this greatly improves text rendering... "Improves" is subjective. The use of Direct2D and DirectWrite makes it look different from previous versions, but not necessarily better. I find text is crisper without it and that looks "better" to me.
Arthur Posted March 22, 2011 Posted March 22, 2011 True, but once you have used the add-on I mentioned above, it's possible to make it look "normal" again, while still keeping the hardware acceleration feature enabled (webpages do render faster with this on). Using the "ClearType" and "Natural Symmetric" settings I have managed to make the text in Firefox look more like it does in Chrome (at least to my eyes).
CyberNerd Posted March 22, 2011 Posted March 22, 2011 official release already has 2.4 million downloads and the day is not finished! Mozilla | Firefox web browser & Thunderbird email client compare IE9's 2nd rate attempt 2.3 Million Downloads of IE9 in the first 24 hours
RabbieBurns Posted March 23, 2011 Posted March 23, 2011 Since installing FF4, Outlook Web App 2010 seems to play a sound when I get a new mail.. Is this related to FF4? Or something updated in OWA ive missed?
mattx Posted March 23, 2011 Posted March 23, 2011 Installed it on my nix laptop too [ and the laptop is around 5 years old ] - no problem. Have to say that it's the best new release of FF for a long time. I think this version will really take off and give IE a run for it's money - [ it was doing alright before but this release will certainly help matters ]
2097 Posted March 23, 2011 Posted March 23, 2011 not sure if its my windows theme. But my firefox browser was really playing up with hardware acceleration enabled the top of the window was black and was flickering like crazy Once i disabled 'hardware acceleration' it seems ok now Nice browser just very strange i cant use 'hardware acceleration' on my laptop it has a nvidia 1gb 260m gtx ... so doubt its a GC issue ?
Arthur Posted March 23, 2011 Posted March 23, 2011 so doubt its a GC issue? Is everything up-to-date? Have you got the latest graphics drivers installed (v266.58 - x86/x64) and Windows updates/service packs e.g. SP1 for Windows 7 or KB2117917 & KB2505189 for Vista SP2?
Arthur Posted March 23, 2011 Posted March 23, 2011 The use of Direct2D and DirectWrite makes it look different from previous versions, but not necessarily better. There are series of articles on the TypeKit blog which covers text rendering in all of the major browsers. Very interesting reading if you like fonts or create webpages. 01. Type Rendering On The Web 02. Type Rendering: Operating Systems 03. Type Rendering: Web Browsers 04. Type Rendering: The design of fonts for the web 05. Type Rendering: Font outlines and file formats 06. A closer look at TrueType hinting 07. Type Rendering: Review, and fonts that render well DirectWrite, the latest and greatest text rendering engine for Windows, is available on Windows 7 and Windows Vista. It is markedly clearer, smoother, and has less intense color fringing than Core Text and older Windows text rendering engines. As with Core Text, there is y-direction antialiasing for smooth curves. (Compare, however, the bottom edges of paragraph text in DirectWrite with those of Core Text; Both engines use y-direction antialiasing, but Core Text’s closer adherence to actual glyph outlines translates to subtle antialiasing smudges below the baseline. Microsoft engines clean this up.) And as with Core Text, sub-pixels in DirectWrite are used not only to antialias text but also to space letters horizontally, which means letters can sit more naturally next to one another than in Microsoft’s older text rendering engine, GDI. (Source)
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