[hugh]

After needing to release a second Release Candidate just over a week ago, Mozilla have finally signed off on version 4.0 and it should available within the next 24 hours.

The final version of Firefox 4 was originally scheduled to ship in November 2010, but repeated delays saw the release schedule revised on more than one occasion.

Based on the Gecko 2.0 engine, Firefox 4 sports an all new user interface, new ways to organize tabs, a revamped add-on manager, support for HTML5 video standards, multitouch support on Windows 7 and a range of performance and security enhancements.

 

[DdDave]

Only been using it today, but so far I like what I see.

The only issue I ran into during the upgrade was that some add-ons are not compatable and a couple did not update properly. I got messages that they were not supported and they could not auto update the first time I launched Firefox, but when I went into the add-on Manager they updated correctly. Not a big deal, and may have been an issue with server loads since a lot of people are likely upgrading today.

 

[MarcP]

I found that the MLS site doesn't work with Firefox 4. The map won't work.

Works well with Chrome, though.

 

[ScaryBob]

Been using it for a couple of hours. So far, very good. Just a couple of nits with the Navigation Toolbar. Putting it below the tabs may be more intuitive for new users but it's confusing for people accustomed to the old arrangement. The other is that the New Tab icon is gone from the customizations. Those are minor issues though. I expect that greater use of HTML5 and some of the other new features will break a few sites. That's normal. If it does, it's time for them to upgrade their site,

 

[hugh]

Downloaded and tried it out. Looks like Chrome now.

I found it worked fine for me although when I clicked on the plus sign, I expected (like Chrome) to see my favourites sites. I like the Opera Speed Dial and Chrome's most visited feature.

Didn't really find any compelling reason to switch from my current Chrome/Opera.

 

[Dioneo]

I'm not a big Chrome fan. It always had problems with multimedia (at least on my PCs).

I like this version of Firefox. I wasn't crazy about the button layout, but the customization feature is really well done. Now I have it set up the way I'm used to.

 

[cfloyd]

I like the pin as an app tab and the search function is simplified.

to search a page in FF4 use /

 

[JustinBarley]

Is the new version as slow loading as the old one?
That was the main reason for me to quit using Firefox...

Now I`m on Chrome and Chromium and despite the lack of some plugins they are a lot faster than Firefox...

 

[ScaryBob]

FF4 is supposed to be faster. It seems slightly so but I never had a speed problem with FF3. FF4 is quicker to start initially. Pages typically load in under a second and FF4 starts in under two seconds. If I have a lot of tabs to restore, sometimes there are dozens, it can take a little longer. I ran across a couple of tool bars that caused slow downs with FF3 but that's not the browser's fault. Just say no to tool bars in FF.

 

[North_of_Calgary]

FF4 seems to work much better with Citrix ICA now. Which is good since IE9/Citrix seems broken.

 

[van der Decken]

FF4 also seems to process javascript a fair bit faster than 3.x.

 

[logic_gate]

I hate firefox 4. It's cumbersome and awkward. And that added new 'security feature' where you click "don't follow me" so no sites will track you is a joke. It's only VOLUNTARY--the sites can 'volunteer' to obey you or not, as they wish.

Yeah, the html is broken allright--I can't log into some sites that I'm a member of. This is not acceptable and not excusable.

 

[hugh]

Firefox 4 doubles IE9's 24-hour download tally

Microsoft, not without reason, boasted that IE9 was downloaded 2.35 million times in the first 24 hours after its release last week. And that is indeed a big number, especially for a browser that tech enthusiasts had scoffed at for years.

But less than 24 hours after its own launch, Firefox 4 cleared 4.7 million, according to the Mozilla Glow site that logs downloads.

 

[MarcP]

Considering IE9 doesn't support Windows XP, is it really a surprise?

 

[hugh]

After one year, Win7 had 250 million units sold so I wouldn't be surprised if there are now between 500m and 800m computers with Windows Vista or Win7 installed so yes I am surprised.

 

[MarcP]

And Firefox also runs on Win7 as well. The point is that Microsoft handed over a chunk of their market to the other browsers. We're still running WinXP on a lot of our machines at work. That's a market share that will not get IE9.

 

[hugh]

I understand what you said. I'm just saying that I would have expected bigger numbers relative to Firefox.

It would be interesting to know how many of the 4.7 million downloads for Firefox are for WinXP computers.

 

[ScaryBob]

I put off upgrading IE as long as possible. That's due to bad experiences in the past on WinXP. With Firefox, I've never experienced any serious issues with an upgrade. YMMV, of course.

 

[asif9t9]

So after a year or two, I switched back from Chrome to FF4. Chrome was giving me trouble selecting text in certain forums.

A few niggling issues. I can't believe FF4 doesn't have a "duplicate tab" option. Or the ability reload a tab using a double click on the tab. Anyway, I found a great add-on, called Tab Utilities, which allows you to setup both the above.

I also didn't find FF4 to be all that fast, so I loaded up Fasterfox Lite.

If it wasn't for my selecting text issue, I would have stayed with Chrome.

 

[ScaryBob]

That's the nice thing about FF. If a feature is missing, someone has probably written an add-on to implement it.