Mozilla Firebird now Firefox 0.8

Scorch · Post by **Scorch** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 8:57 am

Whee, yet another name change for Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox!

http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox

Don't see much of a difference, I must say. Some more options to muck with, and I imagine some bug fixes, but I never really had any problems with any older versions, so I don't know.

The site is getting hammered right now, so don't expect to download it right away.

Tyranny · Post by **Tyranny** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:44 am

All we need now is Mozilla Foxtrot Alpha Bravo

I think I'll stick with Mozilla 1.6, I like it quite a bit.

Kyouryuu · Post by **Kyouryuu** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 12:25 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by the web site:
â??To avoid overlap with another open source project, we have also decided to changed the name of this product from Mozilla Firebird to Mozilla Firefox.â?

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 12:36 pm

Cool - I have been checking the Fire<s>bird</s> fox site just about every day for the new version. Did they finish the windows installer? Because upgrading used to be a friking pain up the kazoo!

DarkShadow · Post by **DarkShadow** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 12:51 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Mobius:
Cool - I have been checking the Fire<s>bird</s> fox site just about every day for the new version. Did they finish the windows installer? Because upgrading used to be a friking pain up the kazoo! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

http://www.mozilla.org/press/mozilla-2004-02-09.html
FireFox .08 Press Release.

Pulled from that site for Mobius

An easy to use installer for Microsoft Windows users.

-DarkShadow

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 2:07 pm

EDIT: Facetious comments made in heat of moment. Problem was ZoneAlarm - see below!

Scorch · Post by **Scorch** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 2:47 pm

Funny. It works fine for me and everybody else who downloaded it.

Actually, on another forum someone said they were getting the same error, but somehow they fixed it. Didn't say how though. I guess that's up to you to discover.

DCrazy · Post by **DCrazy** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 3:36 pm

Mozilla was actually doing that to me once... fixed itself but I never understood why.

CritterB · Post by **CritterB** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 3:37 pm

Worked fine for me. Gl with the fix Mobius.

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 3:38 pm

OK, PING and TRACERT was also shagged: error code 65.

Turns out Zone Alarm's VSMON process (even with zonealarm NOT starting at boot time) shags certain processes for ALL outgoing query requests.

It had facked my Lotus Notes mail too.

Uninstalled ZoneAlarm Pro: everything works again.

Apologies to Mozilla staff.

kurupt · Post by **kurupt** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 3:44 pm

damn, i love the browser, but that name is hideous.

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 8:09 pm

Once upon a time there was a browser, it was called Phoenix.

There was a company called Phoenix technologies, who made BIOS's but also had a web browser. They called the trademark lawyers and Phoenix changed its name to Firebird(later Mozilla Firebird).

There was an open source database and they called all the waabulances possible. So the browser told them to talk to the hand and waited until an more apt time to pick a new name.

time to pull the source again, and build.

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 11:28 pm

Well, the EXTREMELY good news is that it is VERY slow going right now to get to the EXE file. The other REALLY good news is that ALL the sites offering extensions and themes are completely DOWN!

That may not sound like good news - but believe me it is! This is the first Fire/Nix/Bird/Fox/Bat/thing

browser release where the servers are clogged because of demand!

This means Firebird/fox/cow/sheep/thing is gaining market penetration!

With the Windows installer - how muc heasier can it get???

All they need to do now is pimp the hell out of the extensions at the download locations - because let's face it, a naked firebird/crow/frog/elephant/rabbit is a pretty lame duck/ant/tiger!

There's some really excellent features in the list of Firebird/nix/fox'n'sox/lemming/donkey extensions! My personal feeling is that the following extensions should come with the download package with the following status after setup:

Tabbed Browsing Extensions: ENABLED
Radial Contect menu: DISABLED (Too freaky for newbies!)
Pop-Up ALT attribute: ENABLED
Copy Image: ENABLED
Make IMG tag: ENABLED
View in IE: ENABLED
SmoothWheel: ENABLED
Image Zoomer: ENABLED
Bookmark Backup: ENABLED

Boy - this is exciting - because with 0.8, Non-Geeks and Non-Gimps can install and run Fire/bird/goat/lama/crocodile/horse in about 10 seconds flat! Not only that, but they can INSTANTLY see and feel that this browser destroys Idiot Exploder 6.0

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 11:44 pm

if they came with the package, they would cease to be extensions.

Namely because they would need to be incorporated into the main tree, cuz both the installer and the standard zipped packages are the result of a specifc compile command.

the only one you get a lot of people to agree on merging into the tree is TBE, the rest are Mobius specific preferences(I can backup my bookmarks without a seperate extension, the export command does wonders, for instance)

Vindicator · Post by **Vindicator** » Tue Feb 10, 2004 12:31 am

Looks and feels exactly the same as Firebird .7, with a retarded name. It was pretty cool to have a standalone installer though, and it copied over all of the themes, bookmarks, and download settings from Firebird. The only thing I had to change was I had to reinstall Flash. Even Java worked from the outset.

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Tue Feb 10, 2004 1:25 am

Yes - but now, because 0.8 is in the registry, the Flash 6.0 Installation can recognise 0.8 as being your browser without you having to navigate the file structure!

Now - you know I hate and despise Flash (Except for advertising and certain highly specific applications) but that's a Giant Leap forward for Browserkind!

Yeah - I admit my list of extensions is somewhat Mobified. How about I try it again, but this time for surfing features ONLY:

Tabbed Browsing Extensions: ENABLED
Radial Contect menu: DISABLED (Too freaky for newbies!)
Pop-Up ALT attribute: ENABLED
View in IE: ENABLED
SmoothWheel: ENABLED
Image Zoomer: ENABLED
Bookmark Backup: ENABLED

In fact, I think "View in IE" should be on the toolbar.

All of these extensions make Firebird/sloth/panther/tapir/kiwi the most powerful browser there is. Without them, it's plain old blah blah blah. Might as well be using IE.

Because we can now HONESTLY begin to say that Firedeer/bobcat/monkey/camel is BY FAR the most powerful, most useful, most friendly, and most bestest browser out there. Gone are the days when only geeks used Phoenix (or could use it - more to the point!) and now the sky's the limit.

I can see IE on the ropes and Firerat/hippo/dog/shark/sea anenome dealing out killer blows from here on in.

P.S. Wasn't Firefiox a diabolically bad late 70's cold war movie starring Clint Eastwood as a US-sponsored theif of a telepathically controlled "Soviet" fighter-bomber?

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Tue Feb 10, 2004 1:48 am

Your also presuming that all installs of FireHorse/River/IceCreamTruck are single-user installs.

you can install extensions into a users profile directory, or the main application directory, where yours would go.

you are basically proposing that mozilla do what MS did with IE for these extensions.

DarkShadow · Post by **DarkShadow** » Tue Feb 10, 2004 1:00 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Mobius:
P.S. Wasn't Firefiox a diabolically bad late 70's cold war movie starring Clint Eastwood as a US-sponsored theif of a telepathically controlled "Soviet" fighter-bomber?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yes it was.

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Tue Feb 10, 2004 2:58 pm

FlipTW - yeah - I am.

I mean, come on - how many times have you wanted to zoom in on an image and not been able to? And how many times have you had to click-once-in-address-bar, Hit-CTRL+C-Open-IE-Paste-into-address-bar-hit-return??? Because morons use VBScript, or write a form using FrontPage?

How many times have you had your bookmarks corrupted and realised the last time you exported them was 2 months ago and now you're missing 123 Bookmarks? (Not so common now I admit)

The Smoothwheel is a no-brainer - because without it, scrolling through long text pages, it's almost impossible to mentally maintain an accurate "link" to the location on the page.

With no ALT tag support (W3C spec) - you see no image titles because programmers are lazy, stupid axeholes who wouldn't know a TITLE tag if it bit them!

Like you say, TBE is a must - as this actually unlocks the power of Fireweasel/stoat/gazelle.

P.S. OH NO! Firefox now violates a hollywood movie name! Better change the name AGAIN! Can I suggest "IEFcuker 0.8"?

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Tue Feb 10, 2004 6:55 pm

Techincally, the alt tag is only for user agents that can't render images.

The spec itself never mentions what to do with the text if the user agent can render it.

That aside, your selections of extensions are useful to you. I find myself opening IE once every three or four weeks, and almost never had cause to zoom in on an image.

And then they are users of FireDud on other OS other than windows.

If you want to distrubute such a package, get the permissions straight and go ahead.

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Tue Feb 10, 2004 8:19 pm

Well, I'm no hacker - so I'm not about to start distributing "FireMobi" any time soon. I think V3 of my list:

Tabbed Browsing Extensions: ENABLED
Radial Contect menu: DISABLED (Too freaky for newbies!)
Pop-Up ALT attribute: ENABLED
SmoothWheel: ENABLED

makes Firephone/fax/tablet a browser which can take on the best of the rest and beat them hands down. Without these extensions, it's just another non-IE browser with some Tab capability.

I'd fight long and hard to include Radial Context (Pie Menus) as it seriously does kick ass. There hasn't been an improvement to Computer Interaction as powerful since the invention of the mouse and the GUI!

If you don't have Radial Context Menus - GO GET IT! Have it activate "onDrag" only. That way you never lose your main Context Sensitive Help options.

Vindicator · Post by **Vindicator** » Tue Feb 10, 2004 9:30 pm

Wow, just installed Radial Context menus and I'm impressed. Not nearly as weird as I had thought it would be, to right click and sweep the mouse leftward/rightward to go back/forward. Pretty neat.

woodchip · Post by **woodchip** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 7:27 am

Mobi, you might want to switch to Sygate as a firewall. I had similar problems with zone-alarm.

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 10:32 pm

OK - Radial Context Menus suck!

Disable it an install "Easy Gestures" instead!!111

Easy Gestures combines a Radial Context Menu system with customisability so you can set whatever you like where ever you like. Plus it has 3 levels of cascading pi menus too - as well as a lot of other cool stuff!

I've set the Right Click to be simply "Open in new Tab" with a delay of 100 ms. Works a treat.

Plus it's got big/small icons (or no icons!) for those with dodgey eyes.

The guy is working hard to refine and change it - while Jens has abandoned his Radial Context Menu. I noticed that the most recent builds of Firebird/fox/dog/parakeet didn't work too well with Jen's RCM - the menu would often fail.

So Far, Easy Gestures beats it hands down - and provides EVEN MORE POWER! muhahahahaha!