Firefox 4.0 available to download. Official Release tomorrow

Shadows1990 · 21 Mar 2011 at 21:14

It isn't available from the official Firefox website yet, but Firefox 4 is now available to download from the Mozilla releases FTP server. Update: you can hit a random FTP mirror by using these links: Windows / Mac OS X / Linux.

Source: DownloadSquad

Firefox 4.0 is available to download from Mozilla's servers, with the official release set to appear tomorrow.

Supernaut91 · 21 Mar 2011 at 21:17

Nice, might try this out. Although im loving IE9 at the moment.

Craig321 · 21 Mar 2011 at 21:18

Fanks!!

braveheart · 21 Mar 2011 at 21:23

here link if you cant wait to download so here: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Download-Firefox-4-0-Final-190507.shtml

alex24 · 21 Mar 2011 at 21:25

Eww it's so much slower than Chrome. The only reason I'm trying it is because Chrome refuses to remember my passwords (seemingly randomly), which is infuriating.

Also, Firefox seems to draw fonts with cleartype-esque patchyness with the smoothing. Is there a way to turn that off?

Thanks for the link!

Brumboy · 21 Mar 2011 at 21:29

My Firefox updated itself to 4.0 automatically, didn't even realise!

I've only ever used Firefox, I tried IE9 the other day but didn't really like it.

Is Chrome a lot faster for browsing then? I thought Firefox was the fastest.

SiriusB · 21 Mar 2011 at 21:33

Chrome is usually the quickest. Though loading a page 0.01 seconds faster is not nearly enough to make up for the lack of extensions compared to FF.

Shadows1990 · 21 Mar 2011 at 21:40

SiriusB said:
Chrome is usually the quickest. Though loading a page 0.01 seconds faster is not nearly enough to make up for the lack of extensions compared to FF.

This.
Without a decent FTP Client (I use FireFTP at work & at home), and decent Adblocking abilities (tried loads of ad blockers in Chrome, but they never get all of the ones the FF extensions do), Chrome is just too basic.

gropingmantis · 21 Mar 2011 at 21:42

Once the first RC was out for Firefox 4 I moved straight over from Chrome, I missed the extensions too much and chrome didn't seem to get on too well with flash at times. I must say FF4 is great.

Also I found Chrome's UI too minimalist, I couldn't get to any settings, downloads, history or bookmarks easily without downloading some extra buttons for the address bar.

Biz.Kid09 · 21 Mar 2011 at 21:44

Just downloaded and it seems really slow compared to Chrome. Is there maybe some settings i should tweak?

Kainz · 21 Mar 2011 at 21:52

Not sure how you lot are finding it slow. It is blazing fast over here. Granted it is installed on an SSD, but the cache is relocated onto a hard disk and yet it is still fast.

alex24 · 21 Mar 2011 at 21:56

Trust me, installed both on an SSD and Chrome is more than 0.01 seconds quicker! A lot more. I agree chrome is pretty basic. Firefox is presented better as well, but it feels like how IE7 felt to Firefox a few years back. Chrome is just snappier and faster to load pages and images. Even on google search it's quicker.

I miss the extensions sometimes, but really not that often to care. Only other problem with chrome is these darn password issues. I know I'm not alone with that one.

gropingmantis · 21 Mar 2011 at 21:59

I've not noticed any slow down compared to chrome apart from really big pictures, but that could just be my internet.

mod1fied · 21 Mar 2011 at 23:10

Does anyone else use Firebug? Not sure if its just me but it slows Firefox down quite a bit.

I seem to be torn between Chrome and Firefox

cjkennedy · 21 Mar 2011 at 23:15

alexhull24 said:
Eww it's so much slower than Chrome. The only reason I'm trying it is because Chrome refuses to remember my passwords (seemingly randomly), which is infuriating.

Also, Firefox seems to draw fonts with cleartype-esque patchyness with the smoothing. Is there a way to turn that off?

Thanks for the link!

try this: go to about:config -> search for gfx.direct2d.disabled -> set to TRUE and restart firefox

MikeHunt79 · 21 Mar 2011 at 23:24

alexhull - give xmarks a bash

mod1fied said:
Does anyone else use Firebug? Not sure if its just me but it slows Firefox down quite a bit.

I seem to be torn between Chrome and Firefox

I find having quite a lot of extensions can slow down FF quite a bit, I try to only run as few as I can now and it seems to help a little...

I use both Iron and FF, depending on the sites I'm using...

alex24 · 21 Mar 2011 at 23:27

cjkennedy said:
try this: go to about:config -> search for gfx.direct2d.disabled -> set to TRUE and restart firefox

Worked a charm, thank you.

The browser still isn't as fast as chrome. I'll give it more of a chance as the cache builds, but I don't think it's simply cached files.

Craig321 · 22 Mar 2011 at 00:19

Rossuk89 said:
My Firefox updated itself to 4.0 automatically, didn't even realise!

I've only ever used Firefox, I tried IE9 the other day but didn't really like it.

Is Chrome a lot faster for browsing then? I thought Firefox was the fastest.

SiriusB said:
Chrome is usually the quickest. Though loading a page 0.01 seconds faster is not nearly enough to make up for the lack of extensions compared to FF.

I still find Chrome noticeably faster, and it's catching up on extensions.

Adblock Plus makes Firefox start up slowly as well

MikeHunt79 · 22 Mar 2011 at 00:32

Craig321 said:
Adblock Plus makes Firefox start up slowly as well

That's because it downloads the whole filter list everytime you start it up.

I prefer to use Adblock.ini along with Iron, this way I can manually update my filter so Iron starts up very quickly.

Orcvader · 22 Mar 2011 at 00:50

cjkennedy said:
try this: go to about:config -> search for gfx.direct2d.disabled -> set to TRUE and restart firefox

Thanks for that, hopefully they'll sort it out in future though.

Still getting use to the tabs being on the top, I prefer them at the bottom like 3.6

But I'll get use to it in time.

Another thing that bothers me is on the Google Toolbar search area I can't click suggestions or past searches, anyway to solve this?