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View Full Version : WHOA, Firefox 3.0b4's speed is AMAZING



jdong
March 15th, 2008, 12:01 AM
I just got my Hardy update for Firefox 3.0b4, and the speedup leaves me speechless.

I am on 100mbit internet so most of my web browsing delays are in rendering time, and this release just makes Firefox FLY and feel like Safari or Opera, even better in many cases (i.e. heavy table sites)


I am right now merging my Firefox 3.0 beta3 packaging with the beta4 packaging in Hardy to generate some backports. Expect about 1 week total time between now and the availability of official firefox 3 beta 4 backports :)

OrangeCrate
March 15th, 2008, 12:59 AM
If it gets any faster, I'm going to need a seatbelt. 3.0b4 is really really cool!

:)

Edit:

I'm on a 10/1 connection.

picpak
March 15th, 2008, 01:19 AM
WHOA, none of my favourite extensions work in Firefox 3.0b4! It's too bad. If they did, I'd switch in a heartbeat.

Joeb454
March 15th, 2008, 01:21 AM
You can't expect your plugins to work in a beta piece of software really though.
It'd be nice don't get me wrong, but it's just not gonna happen :)

Also jdong, is the Firefox 3 b4 going in Hardy's backports or Gutsy backports?

I can't wait til the final release of FF3 :) It's already better than FF2

jdong
March 15th, 2008, 01:43 AM
You can't expect your plugins to work in a beta piece of software really though.
It'd be nice don't get me wrong, but it's just not gonna happen :)

Right, currently it's still a beta and until the API finalizes (i.e. release candidate stage) no responsible plugin developer should mark their extension Firefox 3 compatible.



Also jdong, is the Firefox 3 b4 going in Hardy's backports or Gutsy backports?

It will be in Gutsy backports and is already in Hardy final. In fact, I am building its backport locally right now for testing (I've spent the time since my original post working on that)

These backports take a lot of my time to put together because I need to sift through the Hardy changes very carefully -- I want the Firefox 3.0b4 backport to install side-by-side with Firefox 2.0 on Gutsy and for the profiles to be safely duplicated rather than clobbered.

In other words, install Firefox 3 to play with it, and it'll work on a copy of your profile. Don't like it? Uninstall it and Firefox 2 and your Firefox 2 settings are untouched.

kindofabuzz
March 15th, 2008, 01:45 AM
WHOA, none of my favourite extensions work in Firefox 3.0b4! It's too bad. If they did, I'd switch in a heartbeat.

http://lifehacker.com/355973/make-your-extensions-work-with-the-firefox-3-beta

Joeb454
March 15th, 2008, 01:48 AM
Sure jdong :) I can understand that

I have Firefox 3 running from ~/firefox ;) I changed the shortcuts in the menu's to point to that instead of Firefox 2, so if I ever want Firefox 2, I just run firefox from a terminal :)

jdong
March 15th, 2008, 01:48 AM
Final warning: These changes may lead to unexpected wacky behavior. Proceed at your own risk!

Heed that warning from the site. Make a backup of your ~/.mozilla before doing this, lest be locked out from a crash-on-startup Firefox and be forced to take a lesson in editing firefox config with a text editor.

picpak
March 15th, 2008, 02:18 AM
http://lifehacker.com/355973/make-your-extensions-work-with-the-firefox-3-beta

Is that a really a wise idea? To just hack it to work like that? I can see there being unwanted side effects.

jdong
March 15th, 2008, 02:27 AM
Is that a really a wise idea? To just hack it to work like that? I can see there being unwanted side effects.

When it don't fit, defeat all safety features and make it fit :)

Joeb454
March 15th, 2008, 02:33 AM
:lolflag: Sounds like the kinda thing I'd do ;)

picpak
March 15th, 2008, 02:34 AM
Yeah, well, I want to too. :lolflag: Are there any debs for Gutsy for beta 4?

Joeb454
March 15th, 2008, 02:36 AM
Their might be one on getdeb.net :) Though I'll probably wait for the backport of jdong's :) I wouldn't want all that hard work to go to waste

p_quarles
March 15th, 2008, 02:37 AM
Swiftweasel released their version of beta 4 earlier today. That's the easiest thing to use if you don't want to wait for the repositories.

picpak
March 15th, 2008, 02:38 AM
Nothing on GetDeb. I'll wait for jdong, his debs are of better quality than getdeb anyways.

doojsdad
March 15th, 2008, 02:39 AM
The Acid3 test results (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Acid3_firefox3.png) aren't bad either. I <3 Firefox.

jdong
March 15th, 2008, 02:59 AM
I just uploaded a preliminary test backport (just = 30 seconds ago) for Gutsy into the Backports PPA:
https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-backporters/+archive

WARNING: These are TESTING packages. I've only tested on my machine that nothing seems to blow up. I do not recommend installing this unless you are daring of heart and would like to help me test.

Wait for firefox 3.0~b4+nobinonly-0ubuntu1~gutsy1~ppa1 and xulrunner 1.9~b4+nobinonly-0ubuntu1~gutsy1~ppa1 to build successfully before adding that repository (or wait before accepting updates until the above versions show up).

If you use these packages, I would like to ask for you to report feedback at https://bugs.launchpad.net/gutsy-backports/+bug/191796 to help speed up the testing process.

kindofabuzz
March 15th, 2008, 04:50 AM
My adons work fine. Check out the mozillazine.org forums if you need help with anything. best forums ever. =)

Polygon
March 15th, 2008, 05:44 AM
when is this gonna be backported to gutsy? been waiting at least a week...

jdong
March 15th, 2008, 05:49 AM
when is this gonna be backported to gutsy? been waiting at least a week...

Patience, boy, I just spent 2.5hrs working on this backport; the Hardy packages were only introduced on March 13th, see my previous post for test packages (AMD64 and lpia built, i386 is currently sitting in the build queue)

Polygon
March 15th, 2008, 02:51 PM
oh, i thought that was your own personal repo, and i forgot you were a packager ;)

OrangeCrate
March 15th, 2008, 03:15 PM
When it don't fit, defeat all safety features and make it fit :)

I notice that a couple of my extensions have posted .xpi files. One was user generated, and posted in the comments section of the extension site, and the other was developer generated, to "help with testing". Out of curiosity, what is your opinion on those?

Edit:

No need to comment, unless my understanding is wrong. I just found an explanation that I missed the first time around. I guess if you trust the source, they're O.K, and FF only allows them for approved extensions. It blocks all others. Thanks anyway.

jdong
March 15th, 2008, 03:58 PM
I notice that a couple of my extensions have posted .xpi files. One was user generated, and posted in the comments section of the extension site, and the other was developer generated, to "help with testing". Out of curiosity, what is your opinion on those?

Edit:

No need to comment, unless my understanding is wrong. I just found an explanation that I missed the first time around. I guess if you trust the source, they're O.K, and FF only allows them for approved extensions. It blocks all others. Thanks anyway.


Right; just remember that an xpi browser extension could do ANYTHING on your system that your user account can (i.e. create/delete files, run programs/commands locally, etc) PLUS it has easy access to all the browser contents, like the passwords you're typing in, the stored passwords, etc etc etc. I'd be very cautious about trying xpi's that are not from the developer himself or someone else that you trust.

jdong
March 15th, 2008, 03:59 PM
oh, i thought that was your own personal repo, and i forgot you were a packager ;)


:) If all goes well, these packages will become the Firefox 3.0beta4 backports.

Joeb454
March 15th, 2008, 04:00 PM
I'll be looking forward to getting it :)

StOoZ
March 15th, 2008, 05:06 PM
when its planned to be released?

jdong
March 15th, 2008, 05:08 PM
You can follow the progress on https://bugs.launchpad.net/gutsy-backports/+bug/191796, but right now I need about 3 or 4 beta testers to test the packages I provided in the PPA and report back on them before I continue.

tbroderick
March 18th, 2008, 05:54 AM
Just installed beta 4 and have been using it all day. Very nice. It does seem lighter and faster, not sure if it's actually is though.

SomeGuyDude
March 18th, 2008, 06:35 AM
Swiftfox is usually the most recent build of FF. Currently I'm on 3.05pre.

mech7
March 18th, 2008, 07:25 AM
Swiftfox is usually the most recent build of FF. Currently I'm on 3.05pre.

Firebug doesnt work :(

imronak
March 18th, 2008, 08:32 AM
WHOA, none of my favourite extensions work in Firefox 3.0b4! It's too bad. If they did, I'd switch in a heartbeat.

Dude, i also had the same problem. but i installed FF3 bets B-) and its awesome

Regarding addons, the addon authors are making there addons compatible wiht FF3. I got half of them working.

and i also didnt have any issue with my previsous version of FF2. it still runs fine.

bash
March 18th, 2008, 11:58 AM
I installed the .debs from your PPA. Work nice so far. Only thing that isn't there is Flash. Haven't tried if Java works. But any idea how to get Flash working?

jdong
March 18th, 2008, 03:09 PM
I installed the .debs from your PPA. Work nice so far. Only thing that isn't there is Flash. Haven't tried if Java works. But any idea how to get Flash working?



ln -sf /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/* /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins

Lord Illidan
March 18th, 2008, 03:15 PM
I'd just like to ask, Jdong, how are you building firefox? Are you using Ubuntu's cairo library or Firefox's? Because I recall having a problem with fonts looking extremely ugly when I used Mozilla's binaries.

jdong
March 18th, 2008, 03:22 PM
I'd just like to ask, Jdong, how are you building firefox? Are you using Ubuntu's cairo library or Firefox's? Because I recall having a problem with fonts looking extremely ugly when I used Mozilla's binaries.
This package is actually using Mozilla Cairo, I believe, as system Cairo in Gutsy is not new enough.

However, otherwise this package is the same as the one that ships in Hardy -- I only backed out the changes that set Firefox 3.0 as the default Firefox, which we clearly don't want in Gutsy :)

Lord Illidan
March 18th, 2008, 03:26 PM
But don't you notice that the fonts look icky, or was I over sensitive when I used it in Hardy?
I am using an LCD btw.
Hell, it bothered the hell out of me in Arch until I got a pkgbuild which uses system-cairo (http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=15172).

jdong
March 18th, 2008, 03:29 PM
Hmm it seems to look like any native app, but I am using Firefox's cairo.

anantshri
March 18th, 2008, 03:30 PM
got the install done yeternight, speed is blazing for me too, also for the extension freaks have patience coz extensions are slowly making thier ways in ff3 also.


but stil i am missing Webdeveloper as well as google toolbar in FF. hoping to get them soon in FF3

SomeGuyDude
March 18th, 2008, 04:25 PM
Firebug doesnt work :(

I did the little hack to make all my extensions work. Some don't work (any of the ones not updated for 3 at all), but everything that's listed for any of the FF3 betas is fine.

kmak
March 19th, 2008, 05:32 AM
jdong, thanks and nice work.

Firefox 3 does seem promising, however I am experiencing terrible font rendering under what I assume is mozilla-cairo.

kpkeerthi
March 19th, 2008, 07:00 AM
Been using it for about a week. Very impressive. Best beta software I have ever used.