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Mozilla Unleashes Firefox 6
Datamation ^ | 16 August 2011 | Sean Michael Kerner

Posted on 08/17/2011 4:46:57 AM PDT by ShadowAce

At Mozilla the trains run on time. The open source group is out with its second rapid release browser today, providing users with improved functionality and performance.

Firefox 6, which is being officially released by Mozilla today, follows Firefox 5, which debuted in July. Both Firefox 5 and 6 are part of Mozilla's new rapid release cycle, which aims to deliver more browser updates with incremental features. Previously Mozilla had released major browser update on a less predictable cycle with long with development cycles of a year or longer in between releases.

While the new rapid release cycle does not present the same volume of new features as the longer release cycles, Mozilla is confident that the process is working.

"We’re refining our own process constantly and are seeing dividends with smooth transitions as a release moves from Aurora to Beta to release," a Mozilla spokesperson told InternetNews.com

The Aurora channel is Mozilla's development release for Mozilla and is followed by the beta and then finally the release. Work is often done in parallel on Aurora and Beta channels as part of the rapid release cycle methodology.

One of the key improvements in Firefox 6, which will further be expanded upon in Firefox 7 and 8, is performance improvements.

"With Firefox for Windows, Mac and Linux, Panorama users will enjoy faster start-up times because tab groups are only loaded when selected," Mozilla's spokesperson said.

Panorama is a feature that debuted in Firefox 4, enabling users to group tabs. The Panorama feature began its life as a Mozilla Labs project known as Tab Candy.

Firefox 6 is also being released for Android users. The new Android release offers faster zooming, crisp text and reduced pixelation due to enhanced image rendering.

"There are even more improvements coming in Firefox Beta and Firefox Aurora," Mozilla's spokesperson said.

For developers, Mozilla is including a new tool called Scratchpad that is intended to make it simple to quickly enter, execute, test and refine JavaScript snippets in Firefox without needing to work in a one-line console.

"Scratchpad is a simple tool, and we want it to stay that way," Mozilla's spokesperson said. "We’re planning a handful of improvements to Scratchpad that will show up in Firefox over the coming months, but the simple text editor that runs JavaScript core will remain."

Firefox 6 will also support the Event/Source specification that is an emerging standard at the W3C.

"This specification defines an API for opening an HTTP connection for receiving push notifications from a server in the form of DOM events," the W3C specification draft states. "The API is designed such that it can be extended to work with other push notification schemes such as Push SMS."

Mozilla isn't the first browser to implement Event/Source. Both Chrome and Opera already support the draft specification.


TOPICS: Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: browser; firefox; firefox6; mozilla
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1 posted on 08/17/2011 4:46:59 AM PDT by ShadowAce
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To: rdb3; Calvinist_Dark_Lord; GodGunsandGuts; CyberCowboy777; Salo; Bobsat; JosephW; ...

2 posted on 08/17/2011 4:47:53 AM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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Comment #3 Removed by Moderator

To: ShadowAce

The last version of Firefox for Android was disappointing; I’ll see if this one is any better.


4 posted on 08/17/2011 4:54:00 AM PDT by HerbieHoover
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To: ShadowAce

I’ve been a whole lot happier since switching from IE.

The first step was admitting that I had a problem.


5 posted on 08/17/2011 4:55:31 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin)
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To: cripplecreek

Chrome for me.


6 posted on 08/17/2011 4:57:56 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: 9YearLurker

ChromePlus here. Switched from Firefox about 3 months ago.


7 posted on 08/17/2011 5:01:39 AM PDT by expat1000
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To: expat1000

Interesting—I hadn’t heard of ChromePlus before!


8 posted on 08/17/2011 5:04:52 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: expat1000

Chrome = 100% Google spyware. They know ever website you visit, search term used, etc.

At least with Firefox with Noscript, AdblockPlus, BetterPrivacy you can avoid tracking and spying.


9 posted on 08/17/2011 5:05:00 AM PDT by WaterBoard
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To: ShadowAce
Both Firefox 5 and 6 are part of Mozilla's new rapid release cycle, which aims to deliver more browser updates with incremental features.

If they have "incremental features" then why jump whole version numbers? I'm still running Firefox 3.6 so I've missed two "major" versions already.

10 posted on 08/17/2011 5:10:26 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (The Repubs and Dems are arguing whether to pour 9 or 10 buckets of gasoline on a burning house.)
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To: ShadowAce
Did the FF 6 update this afternoon...works very well...so far. I do seem to note an increase in program response.
Mozilla also did an update on Thunderbird, their email client. It is also at 6.0 now.
11 posted on 08/17/2011 5:11:45 AM PDT by Tainan (Cogito, Ergo Conservitus.)
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To: ShadowAce

Opera 11.5!


12 posted on 08/17/2011 5:13:00 AM PDT by yuleeyahoo (Liberty is not collective, it is personal. All liberty is individual liberty. - Calvin Coolidge)
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To: ShadowAce

Opera 11.5!


13 posted on 08/17/2011 5:13:12 AM PDT by yuleeyahoo (Liberty is not collective, it is personal. All liberty is individual liberty. - Calvin Coolidge)
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To: yuleeyahoo

So nice, it posted twice.


14 posted on 08/17/2011 5:14:10 AM PDT by yuleeyahoo (Liberty is not collective, it is personal. All liberty is individual liberty. - Calvin Coolidge)
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To: 9YearLurker

It has AdBlockplus, anon browsing,and mouse gestures built in. Search right from the address bar. I like the bookmark layout more than Firefox and I find I spend a lot less time messing around with addins than I did with Firefox. I go back to Firefox every now and then but keep on coming back to Chromeplus.

http://www.chromeplus.org/download.php


15 posted on 08/17/2011 5:22:11 AM PDT by expat1000
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To: 9YearLurker

I bailed on Chrome the morning after I watched an “It gets better” ad sponsored by Google (specifically, Google Chrome) a few months ago. Gotta stand for something.


16 posted on 08/17/2011 5:29:32 AM PDT by GreenAccord (Bacon Akbar)
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To: ShadowAce

It seems like just yesterday that they were stuck on 3.xx


17 posted on 08/17/2011 5:34:31 AM PDT by mikrofon (Putting 6 thru its paces)
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To: ShadowAce

Mozilla is getting ridiculous with their rapid releases.

I just upgraded to 5 (bypassing 4 altogether) a few weeks ago.

I looked on their website, but could not find a definitive list of improvements/changes for 6. Is it worth the effort? One earlier review (from a year or so ago) indicated that 6 would be only minor improvements with 7 being some significant improvements.

I lost a few extensions/add-ons when I upgraded from 3.6 to 5. How many might I lose upgrading to 6? I don’t know — I may not bother to find out, unless I can find a good description of what is new/better in 6.


18 posted on 08/17/2011 5:34:41 AM PDT by TomGuy
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To: expat1000

The search in the address bar is part of the regular Chrome. What’s your favorite of ChromPlus’s added features?

My experience with Microsoft Office and such is that over-featured software becomes a real issue, but useful features are, well, useful.


19 posted on 08/17/2011 5:36:07 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: expat1000

The search in the address bar is part of the regular Chrome. What’s your favorite of ChromePlus’s added features?

My experience with Microsoft Office and such is that over-featured software becomes a real issue, but useful features are, well, useful.


20 posted on 08/17/2011 5:36:14 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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