The much-anticipated Firefox 3.1 beta 2 is out and about for Windows and Mac users, incorporating the faster JavaScript engine TraceMonkey as the default setting and introducing Private Browsing, which has been in development for years. There are other improvements, of course, but the big one is the ability to turn off the cache and other private data settings with a single click.
Firefox 3.1 beta 2 is the first chance the public has had to use Mozilla's long-awaited privacy feature.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Private Browsing works similarly to Google Chrome's Incognito, or Safari's setting of the same name. Go into Tools on the Menubar and click Private Browsing, and all your movements on the Internet will not be recorded. Firefox's version of the feature saves all your tabs and closes the browsing session, re-opening a new and empty browser window. Unlike Chrome, Firefox doesn't sport a clever little icon indicating that you're browsing on the sly. The program title bar does state that you're using Private Browsing, but there's no blatant icon.
Firefox has also posted the about:config setting needed to set Private Browsing as your default browsing configuration. Once you're in the about:config, type in browser.privatebrowsing.autostart and double-click on the False setting. This will change it to True, and when you restart your browser you will automatically be in Private Browsing mode.
What's interesting about this is that it removes the indicator from the Title Bar and grays out the Private setting in the Tools menu. The only way to resume normal browsing is to change the about:config back to its original False setting. Doing this restores your last previous non-Private browsing session, tabs and all.
There is more in Firefox 3.1 beta 2 than just the ability to surf surreptitiously. TraceMonkey, the new JavaScript engine that Mozilla introduced in the previous Firefox beta, is now on by default. It feels even faster than it did in the first beta. The SunSpider JavaScript test showed 2449.2 for FF3.1 beta 2, about an 8 percent improvement over FF3.1 beta 1, with a margin of error at around 5 percent. Part of the change could be due to changes in the Gecko layout engine such as "speculative parsing" that Mozilla claims resulted in faster content rendering.
Mozilla has killed the new visual tab switching feature, introduced in the previous beta.
(Credit: CNET Networks)One of the big disappointments is that the new tab-switching behavior has been removed. As a serial tab abuser, I thought it was extremely useful that FF3.1 would have a visual representation of the tabs I was jumping between. Hopefully, this feature will be at least rolled out as an add-on, but I've been known to abuse those, too.
For developers, this beta includes support for Web worker threads, which I was also somewhat disappointed to learn was not a Mozilla-sponsored fashion plan for style-deficient techies. Instead, they're about the JavaScript implementation and what kind of requests can be made in the code.
Firefox 3.1 beta 2 will not be the final tester update. According to Mozilla, it will be followed by at least one more beta release.
Good news for Firefox users who have lusted over Chrome and Safari's option that lets you "tear" away tabs from an open window. The latest build of 3.1 offers it as a standard feature--and it works marvelously.
As in Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari browsers you simply pull away a tab from the interface and it turns into its own window. Likewise you can drag it back into an already opened window, just like you'd do to re-order your existing tabs.
While not a ground-breaking feature, tab tearing is a large step forward in changing the way we interact with our browsers. It's a cross between the idea of having multiple tabs and multiple windows, but does not relegate the user to being pigeonholed in either one permanently.
If you're feeling brave you can download the latest development build of 3.1 here. As mentioned before, this also comes with some nice JavaScript speed improvements and a new look for Windows Vista users.
Below is a quick demo of how the new tear-away feature works, both with dragging tabs and choosing to open them via contextual menu.
(via MozillaLinks)
One of the most useful hot-key commands in Firefox is Ctrl+Tab. Unlike the Alt+Tab hot-key combo for Windows, which lets you jump from program to program in an interface based on the program's icon, the browsing tab switcher has never had a graphic interface--until now.
In this CNET TV Quick Tip, Molly Wood shows you the new tab switching GUI (graphical user interface) that's coming in Firefox 3.1. It's only in beta now, so if you're not comfortable installing unstable software, I recommend holding off for the official release.
After playing around with the feature a few weeks ago, all I can add is this: what on Earth took Mozilla so long?
Mozilla fans can now play with the anticipated speedier JavaScript engine in the first beta for Firefox 3.1, as well as explore improvements to the Smart Location Bar and a slick interface for hotkey tab switching. Now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux users, the new JavaScript engine, called TraceMonkey, is not turned on by default.
The latest Firefox beta introduces a visual tab switcher and rolls in the Geode geolocator plug-in.
(Credit: CNET Networks)To activate it, type "about:config" into the Smart Bar, then type "javascript.options.jit.content" into the filter. Double-click on the preference listed to change the boolean setting from "false" to "true." Close the window and you should notice an immediate improvement to the JavaScript rendering speed.
Don't take my word for it, though. Using the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark test, Firefox 3.1 beta 1 completed the test in 2787.6 milliseconds--about twice as fast as the current stable release, Firefox 3.0.3, which clocked in at 5446.6 ms.
Using CTRL+Tab to jump between open tabs now has graphic overlay, much like the Windows Vista ALT+Tab program switcher. The Geode geolocator plug-in has been rolled into FF3.1. The Geode drop-down worked for me, but it wasn't always able to find my location.
You can now restrict searches in the Awesome Smart Bar using special characters such as "+" and "#". These and other aspects of the character restrictions are customizable through about:config.
Two much-anticipated features did not make it into this beta. Private Browsing, Mozilla's answer to Google Chrome's Incognito, and enhanced session management features were not available in this beta.
I found that several of my plug-ins were not compatible with the new tab switcher, so I just disabled all of them. Using a plug-in to force forward-compatibility in other plug-ins can lead to instability and crashes, arguably even more so because this is a beta. However, if you're interested in getting the fastest version of Firefox that we've seen to date, Firefox 3.1 beta 1 is going to deliver the goods.
You can read the full list of changes here.
Firefox 3.1 alpha 2, code-named Shiretoko, adds functionality for Web developers with very little eye candy for users.
Johnathan Nightingale of Mozilla described Firefox 3.1 as having more refinement than new features. This alpha release is intended for developers and testers only and should not yet be for general-purpose use.
The most visible enhancement in this alpha release is a feature that allows you to drag and drop tabs between two open Firefox browsers.
There are considerable under-the-hood enhancements here. Built on a pre-release version of the Gecko 1.9.1 rendering engine, Firefox 3.1 alpha 2 includes support for a video tag element in the HTML 5 standard, which allows designers to embed video directly into pages without using proprietary formats. It also includes support for CSS 2.1 and 3, further enhancing the browser's overall performance.
To make Javascript run faster, there is support for "Web workers," a threading process that allows scripts to run in parallel in the background.
For Windows Vista users there's a new Aero "glass" style for the Mozilla browser interface. This means that developers can write Web applications that will appear to be translucent on browsers running Windows Vista with Aero turned on.
The first public beta for Firefox 3.1 should be available in late September or early October. Final release will be in late 2008 or early 2009.
Firefox 3.1 alpha 2 is available from Mozilla.
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