One year after the debut of Firefox 1.0, and more than 100 million downloads later, Mozilla Corp. today released Firefox 1.5, the latest version of its acclaimed open source Web browser, available now as a free download from http://www.getfirefox.com. Firefox 1.5 builds upon the success of its predecessor to deliver an improved browser with significant performance and usability upgrades, security and privacy enhancements, best-in-class support for Web standards, and greater customization options.
“With dozens of enhancements, Firefox 1.5 will draw many new users to the improved Web experience it affords,” said Mitchell Baker, CEO of Mozilla Corporation in a statement. “Firefox is proof of our passion for promoting choice and innovation on the Web and making the Internet accessible and productive. Firefox 1.5 is the easiest browser to install, use, customize, and keep up-to-date and secure.”
Firefox 1.5 has been enhanced in several key areas:
User Experience
• New “drag and drop” feature for tabbed browsing helps to better organize page viewing.
• Improved pop-up blocker screens users from more unwanted pop-up ads.
• New reference search engine Answers.com is now included in the integrated Search box.
• Improved Live Bookmarks feature enables easier discovery of and subscription to RSS feeds.
• Improved Options interface makes it easier to adjust browser settings.
Security and Privacy
• New Automatic Update system alerts users and prompts them to act when security and functionality updates become available, allowing users to have the most up-to-date browser at any time. With Automatic Updates, Firefox 1.5 is ready for even the newest Web surfer or computer user, because it essentially makes Firefox an “install once and forget it” application. Firefox takes care of security updates for you.
• New Clear Private Data tool simplifies maintaining privacy. Users can clear all private information, such as history and form entries, via one easily accessible settings window.
Performance and Accessibility
• Improved performance with a next-generation rendering and layout engine that speeds navigation between previously viewed Web pages through intelligent caching and displays complex Web pages more accurately.
• New capabilities contributed by IBM that make it easier for the aged or mobility and sight-impaired to navigate the Web. The browser can now be used with technology that reads Web content aloud; allow users to navigate with keystrokes rather than mouseclicks; and reduce the tabbing required to navigate documents such as spreadsheets.
Extensibility/Customization
• The browser remains easy to use, in part by not loading it down with a “jack of all trades, master of none” approach to features and functionality. Instead, Firefox integrates the most used technologies into the browser itself, while allowing users to add specific functionality through third-party extensions to the browser.
• Developers have already created more than 700 extensions for Firefox, with many more expected in the weeks following today’s release.
With Firefox 1.5, Mozilla continues its search partnership with Google in the Americas and in Europe and begins a new search relationship with Yahoo! in China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.
“Yahoo! is very pleased to enter into a strategic relationship with Mozilla that enables us to offer Firefox to further extend our network of products and services in four of the most rapidly-growing Internet markets in the world,” said Farzad Nazem, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Yahoo! Inc., in a statement. “By combining Yahoo!’s global Internet leadership with Mozilla’s innovative, easy-to-use, open source Firefox Web browser and our shared commitment to end users, we will deliver an enhanced Web experience for millions of users worldwide, beginning with China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.”
“Firefox has connected with the global community of Web users because it delivers a fast, easy, modern browsing experience”, said Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, in a statement. “Google continues to support the growth of Firefox because of the strong alignment between our mission to organize the world’s information and make it useful, and Mozilla’s principled approach to developing great software.”
“Firefox 1.5 represents the tireless efforts of our global community of developers and consumer advocates, who continue to work to make the Web experience better for everyone,” said Baker.
Firefox 1.5 is now available as a free download from http://www.getfirefox.com/
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Great! So… why does it load the .dmg file into my browser window as gobbledygook text instead of downloading the file to the desktop? I don’t have that problem with other downloads. And this is in Tiger 10.4.3 with Safari 2.0.2!
Having gone back and forth between Safari and Firefox (I prefer Safari but it spins the fans on my old TiBook and still crashes too often, particularly on the Washington Post Web site), I’d love to give this latest version of Firefox a try.
Congratulations to all the Firefox devs! Firefox is a great browser and validates the open source philosophy. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s IE7 is still vaporware. I’m really enjoying the increasing mindshare surrounding Linux and OS X.
BTW, KDE 3.5 was released yesterday as well. For all who haven’t tried Linux lately, Suse 10.0 with KDE 3.5 is a very professional, polished desktop with an impressive suite of applications.
“Improved pop-up blocker screens users from more unwanted pop-up ads.”
Bad news, right MDN?
Just downloaded it. It doesn’t block MDN’s annoying pop-unders. I can’t use Opera at work because the ISA server blocks it. Bugger!
sorry, but Firefox 1.5, at least on the Mac, is total crap. broken CSS, loss of access to banking sites, lackluster performance, and even though it contains the Java Embedding plug-in now, Java’s more broken than it was before. for now, i’m sticking with 1.0.7.
MDN: “meaning,” as in “i’d been meaning to upgrade to 1.5 but i see it’s not worth it.”
jackspratt: I agree with you i removed after it didn’t work with Yahoo small business and some other sites.
I am sticking with 1.0.7 for now
EvangelizeWithRespect: I had the same problem. Download Firefox with your old version of Firefox. It didn’t seem to work in Safari. Or on the download page, there should be a link you can click on to force the file to download instead of displaying in your browser.
Safari is still streets ahead of Firefox.
(..but only after Safari slowed up, beachballed me galore and even crashed..then I got rid of PithHelmet, formfilling, cookies, et al and added SafariBlock and usercontent.css and everything is sweeeetness and light!).
Download Firefox with Camino.
Better yet, just use Camino. Your brain will thank you.
I generally like Safari better, but Firefox has a feature that I have been looking for ever since tabbed browsing came about – the ability to move the tabs around. Why do they have to stay in the same order in which I opened them or even associated with the same window. It would be great to be able to keep related web pages in the same window and order them how I like. It is a very nice update, but still doesn’t have the same niceties has Safari (particularly the bookmark syncing with .mac).
Just right-click and “Open Link in New Tab”
Thanks, all! Right-click didn’t work (more gobbledygook), but using older version of Firefox did. I think I’ll hold off a bit before installing, though – like until the next time Safari crashes.
Macaday, SafariBlock sounds intriguing but I’d just as soon automatically block Flash ads, etc. from the get-go, rather than with a right-click. I’ve just installed the usercontent.css file from http://www.floppymoose.com and will edit it to block Flash files using the css that he’s got at the bottom of that page, to see if that works. Thanks for the tips!
I love all the cool-ass extensions available for Firefox, but on the Mac it just feels so slow and clunky that I ended up going back to Safari. Plus, Safari works with my bank site while Firefox just seems to explode.
What i like about FireFox is not so much FireFox itself, as a handful of extensions: AdBlock, FlashBlock and SessionSaver. If Safari had that, i’d have no reason to use FireFox. Sounds like SafariBlock and userContent.css might do what AdBlock and FlashBlock do; still want SessionSaver and TinyMCE (Midas) support.
Info about SessionSaver:
https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=436
SessionSaver .2 – Firefox Extension
Quick Description
SessionSaver restores your browser -exactly- as you left it, every startup, every time. Not even a crash will phase it. Windows, tabs, even things you were typing — they’re all saved. Use the menu to add + remove sessions; right, shift, or middle-clicking will delete. “Simple mode” for peace of mind, or “Expert mode” for advanced flexibility. Just Click. Install. Rad.
Added TextSaver: everything you type, saved (even in frames). Added RemoteSync: session-syncing between browsers (syncs Adblock, too). Added intelligent postData-restore. Added various patches + bugfixes, per discussion in the official support thread.
Editor’s Review
Sessionsaver saves you time
Sessionsaver is a popular extension that restores the pages you had open the last time you used Firefox – even if it crashes or there is a powerout. It is a great time saver if you often have a lot of webpages open.
Note: Sessionsaver has now been updated for Firefox 1.5 at http://adblock.ethereal.net/alchemy.cgi/SessionSaver/.
This page has a wealth of information about this popular extensions: http://kb.mozillazine.org/SessionSaver .
use firefox at work (w/ a dell >-O)
page loading in 1.5 feels slower…first impression.
This dude here has a sweet build of Firefox which works better on a G5…… http://www.beatnikpad.com/index.php