Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

Thought the community would like to know...

http://arstechnica.com/open-source/n...-benchmark.ars

Any experiences with the new browser? And if it rocks, is there a way to make it the default in Maemo?

Re: Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

dl'ing now, shall check it out and get back to you re: rockiness.

Re: Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

It's still very slow and there isnt flash support..

Opera 10 and default browser are much better.

Re: Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

You can make the browser default with the 'browser-switchboard' application. I don't have experiences with the new beta but i like the default browser more than the previous beta of Firefox. I dont like the tabbed interface, i like the idea of the separate windows more because Maemo has a really good multitasking solution.

Re: Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

indeed very slow, laggy, no flash.
nowhere near the default browser, as stated before. okay maybe just to tryout, browse in a little different environment for a change...

Re: Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

Flash works if you know how to enable it, the instructions are in one of the earlier posts. It works for me.

Re: Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

Fennec beta 5 is faster :)

p.s. make sure you install Qt version

Re: Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

I still use the default browser most of the time due to Firefox's (lack of ) speed issues, but I keep Firefox handy mainly for the sync functionality. It can be very handy to have all of my desktop bookmarks available on the N900.

That being said, I think the latest beta is slightly faster than the previous one. Still much slower than MicroB (the default browser), though.

Re: Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

I have to say that the new B4 is a vast improvement for me and is now my favourite browser. Speed isn't a problem for me and once up and running it loads pages very fast. I love the tabbed browsing and the sync, and the add ons such as personas, read later and save as pdf.

I also find that memory usage has also improved greatly.

For anyone thinking of giving it a go, I'd say try it, don't cost nothing!
Well done and thanks to the Mozilla team and keep up the good work :-)

Re: Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

As many people here, I tried it, and it's ok to have Sync.
Beyond that, it is unusable. Incredible slow.

Re: Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

Opera Mobile has tabbed browsing and opera link (like sync) since almost a year ago and it΄s bloody fast. And it's a beta still since it was a weekend project from the opera guys (I shudder to think what it could do if it was a fully backed project).
Why can't Mozilla get a half decent browser out with so many developers working at it and beta's upon beta's is troubling.
Come on guys microB is much faster (even if lacking in the UI department) and it's Firefox based.
I for one have stopped expecting anything decent from Mozilla (at least for the N900 and Maemo). It's the same as Android's. It's going to need an 1.5 GHz CPU just to run smoothly.
We used to curse Microsoft, Adobe and other developers that made our new hardware obsolete with their bloated software, now it's the mobile Os's and applications turn.
Back to the drawing board guys, you should get some lessons on mobile applications from Opera, Rovio and many guys from maemo.org.

Re: Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

it's not their priority to optimize it for the n900. The n900's lack of memory is what kills it, if you look it uses about 240MB of memory just to load up, so it swaps like crazy and gets slow. It's not that they have to get some lessons, they just are not interested in fixing this problem at the moment.

hey mbrubeck, please ignore rude comments and let us know if we can expect reduced memory usage soon?

Re: Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

all we need now is a swirl zoom add-on.

Re: Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

This beta is the best release so far. It is much more responsive and loads site much faster. My only concern is the startup time. It is too much when compared to microb or firefox.

Re: Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

micro b is still far and away better all around.

everytime they release a new version, i get sucked in to dl'n the 23mb file, installing, expecting something different.

*sigh* nope...

Re: Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

Well, it seems like it's subjective then judging by the varying comments.
Works acceptably well for some, not so for others, I guess it's a matter of preference. For me, as I've mentioned, it's my default browser now as the features make it worth the start-up trade off, although that's not really a problem as on mine it takes...hang on...15 seconds as opposed to....8 seconds for microb, I can spare 7 seconds.

Stick with it though and keep trying as it get's better with each beta.

EDIT...just timed again twice, first time was 40 seconds! then closed, left it a minute and opened, got 26 seconds...that's to a page, not the start up page. I usually just leave it running in the back ground so I don't notice it. Once it's open though I find it loads pages equally as quickly as Microb.

Re: Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

Yeah, Firefox has been my default browser on Maemo5 since its 1.1 release.

I wonder how many MicroB fanbois realize that it is mostly faster because the majority of it is always running in the background via the browserd daemon. The Firefox Mobile team has considered implementing such a feature for Firefox 4, but I'm not sure if anyone has opened an enhancement request for this. I would only want such a feature if I could turn it off. When I close an application, I want all of the memory it was using to be returned to the OS for other running processes.

Re: Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

I'm having trouble installing it.

I have been using Firefox 1.1 regularly, and if I go to
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/m/
and use the download for maemo button, I get a "Fennec already installed" message when the app manager runs.

If I uninstall 1.1 via the app manager, then download the beta from
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/m/
after installation 1.1 comes up again!

I see the link for the stable 1.1 release lower on the page, & no, that's not the link I'm using. It would certainly help reduce stress of wondering if the right link was clicked if the orange button for the beta contained text confirming its version number, even if that didn't solve the problem.

Re: Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

I have the same issue. I can't get anything but Firefox 1.1

Re: Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

@rotoflex and xxxxts
Install it from the ftp. The mozilla repo is broken.
Adress for the nightly build is in the guide below.

@those who want flash
follow my guide. It woks with 4b4 and 4b5pre
http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=933094&postcount=1

Re: Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

Aside from the slow startup, which doesn't bother me, it's good.

The tabbed browsing is an often welcome alternative to Microb's opening in foreground windows which keeps you from continujng to read the page you're on, adds more fingerstrokes to get to other windows instead of tabs, increases risk of accidentally closing a window in Microb, etc. I do use Microb for quick checks of single page sites like local weather, etc.

Where are bugs reported?
This Fennec beta I downloaded:
1. Lacks zoom via volume rocker
2. Shift and blue arrow keys on hardware keyboard are not sticky

The fact that installation of the beta via the official Fennec webpage is "broken" makes you wonder if Mozilla really cares about the product.

Re: Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

if you guys installed it from the ovi store (ever), there's some stupid file somewhere that has a line in it now telling it to ONLY get it from there. we figured it out already, there's a thread around somewhere with instructions to fix it.

Re: Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

I guess the broken repo shows that maemo is not their priority target. They have several repos though, maybe another one works. But I just stiick to using the ftp...

Re: Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

For those who can't find the FTP: http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=63508

Re: Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

can someone verify for me by going to www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/ using the latest firefox for maemo that i see "You have version 10,0,45,0 installed"

is this flash player 10?

Someone slap me on the face please.....

Re: Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

nope. my browser says 9

Re: Firefox 4 Beta released for Maemo
 

thanks, your using firefox right?

so im only dreaming, i'll refresh the page.