http://www.mozilla.com/products/download.html?product=firefox-4.0&os=win&lang=en-US
Firefox Review !
Features
Mozilla Firefox 4 includes many new features since version 3.6.[13]
[edit]User interface
Firefox 4 brings a new user interface, with a new look designed to make it faster.[14] Early mockups of the new interface on Windows,[15] Mac OS X,[16] and Linux[17] were first made available in July 2009.
New features include improved "doorhanger" notifications, Firefox Panorama (a feature that lets the user organize tabs into windows called "groups" and perform various operations on groups),[18] application tabs, a redesigned extension manager,[19] Jetpack extensions support, integration with Firefox Sync,[20] and support for multitouch displays.[21]
Many changes were made to the user interface. By default, tabs are now on the top of the window.[22] The "stop" "reload" and "go" buttons have been combined into a single button, placed on the right side of the address bar. The button changes dynamically based upon the current state of the page.[23] On Windows Vista and Windows 7, the menu bar is hidden by default with the most common actions moved to a new "Firefox" menu in the upper left hand corner of the browser. Users can create persistent "app tabs", and customize the tab bar, as well as thebookmark and navigation bars.[citation needed]
[edit]Engine
Firefox 4 is based on the Gecko 2.0 engine, which adds and improves support for HTML5,[24] CSS3, WebM, and WebGL.[11] Also, it includes a new JavaScript engine (JägerMonkey)[25] and better XPCOM APIs.
JägerMonkey is a new JavaScript engine designed to work alongside the TraceMonkey engine introduced with Firefox 3.5. It improves performance by compiling "non-traceable" JavaScript into machine language for faster execution.[26]
Firefox 4 is the first version of Firefox to drop native support of the Gopher protocol; however, continued support is available through an add-on.[27]
Firefox 4 introduces an audio API, which provides a way to programmatically access or create audio data associated with a HTML5 audio element.[28] It allows, for example, to visualize raw sound data, to use filters or to show the audio spectrum.[29]
Firefox 4 no longer relies on the OS for text layout/shaping. Instead, it uses HarfBuzz. Like this, smart OpenType layout/shaping is consistent through different OS.
[edit]Performance
Firefox 4 has marked a major change in performance in comparison to former versions 3.6 and 3.5. The browser has made significant progress in SunspiderJavaScript tests as well as improvements in supporting HTML5.[30]
Since Firefox 4.0 Beta 5, hardware acceleration is enabled by default on Windows Vista and Windows 7 machines using Direct2D and on OS X usingOpenGL.[31] Using hardware acceleration allows the browser to tap into the computer's graphics processing unit, lifting the burden from the CPU and speeding up the display of web pages.
[edit]Privacy
Firefox 4 contains support for the Do not track header, an emerging standard for Web privacy.[32] The header signals the user's request to the web service that any web visitor tracking the service might do be disabled. In the future, this privacy request may become a legal requirement.[33]
[edit]Development
Nightly builds were marked as 4.0a1pre between February and June 2008,[34][35] but were renamed to 3.1a1pre afterward.
[edit]Timeline
| Release | Release Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Alpha 1 | February 10, 2010.[36][37] | Firefox 3.7 (Gecko 1.9.3) |
| Alpha 2 | March 1, 2010 | |
| Alpha 3 | March 17, 2010 | |
| Alpha 4 | April 12, 2010 | |
| Alpha 5 | June 16, 2010 | |
| Beta 1 | July 6, 2010 | The version number was changed to 4.0 (Gecko's 2.0) |
| Beta 2 | July 27, 2010 | |
| Beta 3 | August 11, 2010 | |
| Beta 4 | August 24, 2010 | |
| Beta 5 | September 7, 2010 | |
| Beta 6 | September 14, 2010 | |
| Beta 7 | November 10, 2010 | Originally scheduled for the second half of September, but was delayed in order to stabilize the new JavaScript engine and finish the planned features |
| Beta 8 | December 22, 2010 | |
| Beta 9 | January 14, 2011 | |
| Beta 10 | January 25, 2011 | |
| Beta 11 | February 8, 2011 | Ship eleventh revision of beta, with more betaN+ hardblockers fixed (14 betaN+ hardblockers not fixed) |
| Beta 12 | February 25, 2011 | Ship twelfth revision of beta, with all betaN+ hardblockers fixed. Mozilla senior engineering director Damon Sicore, urging his team to take this hill and push through to ship a release candidate by February 25.[38][39][40] |
| RC 1 | March 9, 2011[41] | Complete work on all blocking 2.0:final + bugs, generate release candidates |
| RC 2 | March 18, 2011[42] | Two very small, very isolated fixes in order to better protect Firefox 4 users. |
| 4.0 | March 22, 2011 | Release final version of Firefox 4.0.[43] |
| 4.0.1 (Preview) | April 15th, 2011 | Fixed several security issues. Fixed several stability issues. |
[edit]Reception
 | This section may require copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, or spelling. You can assist by editing it. (March 2011) |
During the 24-hour launch period starting on March 22, 2011, Firefox 4 was downloaded 7.1 million times as counted by Mozilla's download stats site glow.mozilla.org and verified by Mozilla.[44] Before the official launch, more than 3 million people had downloaded the second release candidate, which became the final version,[45] resulting in a total of over 10 million downloads by the end of the launch day.[46] In terms of the number of downloads for the first 24 hours, it failed to surpass the record-setting 8 million downloads attained by Firefox 3 in 2008. Downloads for the second day, however, were reported to be over 8.75 million in number, but because no on-site official from Guinness was there to monitor the numbers, the record attained by Firefox 3 has only unofficially been broken.[44]
[edit]
Usage share on official launch day was 1.95%, which is 0.34% higher than the day before according to website analytics company StatCounter.
For comparison, Internet Explorer 9 usage share on March 22, 2011 was 0.87%,[47] having launched about a week before on March 14, 2011. One potential reason for Firefox 4's higher usage share is the support for Windows XP and Windows 2000, which Internet Explorer 9 does not have.
However, at launch, Firefox enacted a method to prompt existing customers to upgrade, while IE users have not been prompted in such a manner.[48]
On March 26, 2011 Firefox 4 usage share exceeded the discontinued, 10 year old Internet Explorer 6 for the first time. As of that date, 4 days after official launch day, Firefox 4 usage share is greater than that of all versions of Safari and Opera as well as all older versions of Firefox except Firefox 3.6. [49]
[edit]Migration issues
Firefox 4 represents a departure in user interface layout and behaviour from previous versions.[50] Users face some issues negotiating these changes, some of which are not documented in the release notes.[51]
[edit]Firefox button
The Firefox button groups the menus in Firefox 4. It is displayed by default on the Windows 7 and Windows Vista operating systems.[52] It can be displayed on other operating systems by selecting ‘Toolbars’ from the View menu and unchecking ‘Menu Bar’. The Menu bar can be restored by selecting ‘Options’ from the Firefox button menu and checking ‘Menu Bar’. Certain menu items, such as ‘Page Info’ and ‘Import’ (for importing bookmarks and other browser data), are not available from the Firefox button menu but remain available from the Menu bar.[53]The Menu bar can be displayed temporarily by pressing and releasing the Alt key.[54] Selecting a Menu bar command or pressing the Alt key again dismisses the Menu bar.
[edit]Recent Pages button
On the Navigation Toolbar, The 'Recent Pages' button has been removed from the Back/Forward button group. In previous versions, this button would display a drop-down showing the recent history for the current tab. This list can still be easily accessed, however, by right-clicking on the Back/Forward button group.
[edit]Session data
A prompt to save the session (tabs and windows) was presented by default in Firefox 3, with the session restored on next start if the user selected the ‘Save & Quit’ option. In Firefox 4, all sessions are saved. On next start the session is available from the History menu.[55]
This new feature, called on-demand session restore, overwrites the previous session on exit without prompting. The user can check whether there is a saved session at any time by viewing the History menu item ‘Restore Previous Session’.[56] If it is available (not grayed out) there is a restorable session available.
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