updates Meet the browser: Firefox Next

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Because Windows 7 has a blue tinted UI, it fits better with the system.

[SharpGreen]

There's no proper status bar in the current release, hasn't been for a while.

And the Cut/Copy/Paste buttons aren't in the download menu, they're in the toolbar palette.

If you click the "Downloads" button in the Win8 mockup linked above, there are indeed Cut/Copy/Paste buttons there.

[bawz]

If you click the "Downloads" button in the Win8 mockup linked above, there are indeed Cut/Copy/Paste buttons there.

odd. looks like a Bug in the Mockups 

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Oh yeah, I was trying the 7 mockup where the menu wasn't working. I assume they shared some code between both dropdowns and forgot to remove those buttons from the download one.

[yowanvista]

The mockup looks cleaner on Windows 8, I wonder if it'll constantly be pushed into later releases. We won't probably see it anytime soon.

[insanelyapple]

There's no proper status bar in the current release, hasn't been for a while.

And the Cut/Copy/Paste buttons aren't in the download menu, they're in the toolbar palette.

Damn, i was thinking about add-ons bar and write status bar. Anyway, i don't think that putting all add-ons icons into menu button/main menu bar is a wise idea especially when these are like idk, 32px? In both cases this can cause visual clutter. Of course they may add slider - same as in Chromium but still i think that add-ons bar is much better.

[+Zlip792 MVC]

Few good and improvements landed in Firefox recently:

 

1. Enable TLS 1.1 by default

2. Async XPI unpacking

3. Threaded Interpreter (if JS code does not run in JIT, then it will go to Interpreter).

4. Enable input type=color

 

Also Nightly branch has been tagged as FF28 now.

[bawz]

Few good and improvements landed in Firefox recently:

 

1. Enable TLS 1.1 by default

2. Async XPI unpacking

3. Threaded Interpreter (if JS code does not run in JIT, then it will go to Interpreter).

4. Enable input type=color

 

Also Nightly branch has been tagged as FF28 now.

just watch all the whinners run now that Australis will be enabled in Nightly 28, i can see them all running back to IE :D

[+Zlip792 MVC]

just watch all the whinners run now that Australis will be enabled in Nightly 28, i can see them all running back to IE :D

 

I am using IE11 and Chromium 32 snapshots myself. I didn't install FF27 Nightly for more than 3 days.

 

For some people like if you see FF25 news article comment that it does not have new look etc, so majority does like Australis.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

TLS 1.2 should only be waiting on enabling the AES GCM cipher suites, I think that's the only real difference between 1.1 and 1.2.

[bawz]

I am using IE11 and Chromium 32 snapshots myself. I didn't install FF27 Nightly for more than 3 days.

 

For some people like if you see FF25 news article comment that it does not have new look etc, so majority does like Australis.

i think as it goes Australis looks much better in Mac an Linux Distro's than that of Windows so yeah i like Australis in Linux 

[+Zlip792 MVC]

i think as it goes Australis looks much better in Mac an Linux Distro's than that of Windows so yeah i like Australis in Linux 

 

 

I am unluckily (or might be luckily) Windows user so Australis is not up to mark yet IMO. Although let see they have full 6 weeks to land and fix stuff up with Australis UI in FF28.

 

 

I forgot to mention that Brian R. Bondy landed Chromium Sandbox code so in future if they want to sandbox multiprocess Firefox. Also Firefox Graphics dev is now converting many many stuff to link  with Moz2D, hopefully it will in long term manage to replace Cairo and Skia altogether while initially it needs backend for it.

 

If and which seems to Skia is moving toward enabling DirectWrite support then Mozilla might ditch Cairo API although its just my assumption.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

I don't think they want to write their own graphics backend (Could be wrong though, did read about NVPath support, Text is easy to do with shaders, etc.) Something like SkiaGL is probably a much better fit (Being like Direct2D, but using OpenGL so it can run on Linux, OS X, Windows, etc. from a single codebase, which is always nicer than each platform having a different backend)

With Skia as the main drawing backend and D2D for Windows, Cairo would only be left for PDF output, and I'm pretty certain Skia can do that as well. As for printing on Windows (Which has always been kinda meh, due to how Windows handles it), the latest release of Direct2D does native XPS output, so Mozilla could use that to boost the quality a fair bit (On Vista+ at least, XP still needs a mix of WMF/PostScript output, which is ehh)

[Syanide]

The Windows 8 version actually looks okay. If they have to go through with the theme change at all they should use that version for both Windows 7 and 8. I really do not get why they keep using that ugly blue color.

 

They're just following the  system theme, and that's what the system theme looks like in Windows 7. I use Soft7 theme on my Windows 7 so in my case it looks closer to the Windows 8 mockup.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Now we just need GCM re-enabled and we can get TLS 1.2.

[cetla]

I don't know if this is just me but the current firefox tab are not rounded out at the bottom like this:

 

 

However, if you go to firefox download page it shows rounded out tabs which you can see at their page: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox

 

 

any know if this is a bug?

[Brandon H Supervisor]

^ it's an old screenshot on mozilla's page.

the bottom of the tabs haven't been rounded for several versions now

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

They're still rounded on OS X (Y)

 

I haven't tried on my Windows machine (because Direct2D), but it seems you can use SkiaGL for <canvas> rendering in Nightly builds now, it's crazy fast on my Mac (This with shadows disabled sits on a constant 60fps on my 2009 Mini)

 

about:config > gfx.canvas.azure.accelerated to true & gfx.canvas.azure.backends to "skia"

[+Zlip792 MVC]

Firefox devs is improving JS performance really impressively, jandem is focusing Peacekeeper benchmark and improved performance on several DOM benchmarks and few on Strings benchmarks.

 

TLS 1.2 landed in mozilla-inbound: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=861266

 

Also Moz2D (previous Azure API) is now being used and in migration to accommodate SVG.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

The work on converting SVG to use Moz2D should just help performance in general, now we just need Moz2D for content on more platforms (OS X can't use Skia outside of <canvas>, etc.)

 

Edit: TLS 1.2 has been enabled, but the AES GCM cipher suites haven't. I don't know if that's still yet to happen (i.e. it just hasn't been pushed yet), or if it's still waiting on code work (They were disabled because they were getting announced for 1.0/1.1 connections, which is invalid and broke stuff)

[Bi4me]

So after the 25.0 update my forward button disappeared. Tried to add it manually but still couldn't fin it in the customization menu. What the heck? I used that thing!

[kilara1988]

I think they changed it and if you don't have anything to go forward to it hides.When you browse and then go back the forward button shows.

[ViperAFK]

I think they changed it and if you don't have anything to go forward to it hides.When you browse and then go back the forward button shows.

Its been like this for quite a while too...

[Brandon H Supervisor]

Its been like this for quite a while too...

yeah, since version 10 I believe

[kilara1988]

Well i always used the small icons,so idk when it changed.