After a significant wait, the seventh beta of Firefox 4.0 has been released. The latest test release is almost two months behind schedule, but Firefox 4.0 Beta 7, which is feature complete, is the first real preview of the upcoming Mozilla browser.
Firefox 4 Beta is based on the Gecko 2.0 Web platform. Please read below for more detailed information about what’s new in this version of the beta release, as well as the known issues.
This Firefox 4 Beta is considered to be stable and safe to use for daily web browsing, though the features and content may change before the final product release. At this time many Add-ons may not yet have been tested by their authors to ensure that they are compatible with this release. If you wish to help test Add-on compatibility, please install the Add-on Compatibility Reporter – your favorite Add-on author will appreciate it!
Check out what’s new, the known issues and frequently asked questions about the latest version of Firefox. Please tell us what you think using the feedback tools provided as part of the beta. We appreciate your input!
What’s new in this Firefox 4 Beta
* Uses JägerMonkey, a new, faster JavaScript engine
* WebGL is enabled by default on Windows and Mac OS X. WebGL support requires an OpenGL-capable graphics card. Support for other graphics cards on Windows (specifically Intel GPUs) and Linux will be coming in a future beta
* Certain rendering operations are now hardware-accelerated using Direct3D 9 on Windows XP, Direct3D 10 on Windows Vista and 7, and OpenGL on Mac OS X
* Improved web typography using OpenType with support for ligatures, kerning and font variants
* HTML5 Forms API makes web based forms easier to implement and validate
* See the complete changelist from the previous beta
As well as these features from previous Firefox 4 Betas:
* Firefox 4 Beta is available in 57 languages
* Support for the new proposed Audio Data API
* Direct2D Hardware Acceleration is now on by default for Windows 7 users
* Firefox button has a new look for Windows Vista and Windows 7 users
* Support for HSTS security protocol allowing sites to insist that they only be loaded over SSL
* Firefox Sync is now included by default
* A new feature gives users a visual overview of all open tabs, allowing them to be sorted and grouped
* An experimental API is included to provide more efficient Javascript animations
* Firefox now supports the HTML5 video “buffered” property
* Tabs are now on top by default on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux
* You can turn any tab into an “App Tab” by right-clicking on it and selecting “Make into App Tab” from the context menu
* Web developers can animate content using CSS Transitions
* Responsiveness and scrolling improvements from the new retained layers layout system
* JavaScript speed improvements due to engine optimizations
* Changes to how XPCOM components are registered in order to help startup time and process separation
* You can search for and switch to already open tabs in the Smart Location Bar
* New Addons Manager and extension management API (UI will be changed before final release)
* Significant API improvements are available for JS-ctypes, a foreign function interface for extensions
* The stop and reload buttons have been merged into a single button on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux
* The Bookmarks Toolbar has been replaced with a Bookmarks Button by default (you can switch it back if you’d like)
* Crash protection for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X when there is a crash in the Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime or Microsoft Silverlight plugins
* CSS Transitions are partially supported
* Full WebGL support is included but disabled by default at this time
* Core Animation rendering model for plugins on Mac OS X. Plugins which also support this rendering model can now draw faster and more efficiently
* Native support for the HD HTML5 WebM video format
* Web developers can use Websockets for a low complexity, low latency, bidirectional communications API
* Web developers can update the URL field without reloading the page using HTML History APIs
* More responsive page rendering using lazy frame construction
* Link history lookup is done asynchronously to provide better responsiveness during pageload
* CSS :visited selectors have been changed to block websites from being able to check a user’s browsing history
* New HTML5 parser
* Support for more HTML5 form controls
* Web authors can now get touch events from Firefox users on Windows 7 machines
* A new way of representing values in JavaScript that allows Firefox to execute heavy, numeric code (used for things like graphics and animations) more efficiently
System Requirements
Operating Systems
* Windows 2000
* Windows XP
* Windows Server 2003
* Windows Vista
* Windows 7
Minimum Hardware
* Pentium 233 MHz (Recommended: Pentium 500 MHz or greater)
* 64 MB RAM (Recommended: 128 MB RAM or greater)
* 52 MB hard drive space
Mac Operating Systems
* Mac OS X 10.4 and later
Minimum Hardware
* Macintosh computer with an Intel x86 or PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor
* 128 MB RAM (Recommended: 256 MB RAM or greater)
* 200 MB hard drive space
Linux
Software Requirements
Please note that Linux distributors may provide packages for your distribution which have different requirements.
* Firefox will not run at all without the following libraries or packages:
o GTK+ 2.10 or higher
o GLib 2.12 or higher
o Pango 1.14 or higher
o X.Org 1.0 or higher
* For optimal functionality, we recommend the following libraries or packages:
o NetworkManager 0.7 or higher
o DBus 1.0 or higher
o HAL 0.5.8 or higher
o GNOME 2.16 or higher
