AfterDawn: News

Mozilla releases Firefox 1.5

While browser updates aren't really what we cover here, we have covered some articles about Mozilla Firefox in the past so we thought it would be important to announce the release of Firefox 1.5. While most Firefox users would have noticed this by now, this is a good time for unsatisfied users of Microsoft Internet Explorer to check out the open-source web browser. Amongst other things, it now has a more efficient pop-up blocker, better stability and a better update system.

Some smaller items too could help users a bit, such as improvements for the forward and back buttons to help web pages load faster. Firefox 1.5 also supports new Web programming standards, such as AJAX, that enable more graphical capabilities in Web pages. According to Chris Beard, vice president of products at Mozilla, Firefox now also automatically checks for updates every day, downloads them and then prompts a user to install them.



Firefox has about 40 million users and it has been downloaded over 100 million times in total. Thousands of volunteers have contributed to the new version of the open-source browser, and a further 750,000 users were involved in testing it. Mozilla now pans to release updates more frequently. Firefox 2.0 is aimed for a mid-2006 release, and Firefox 3.0 is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2007.

You can download Mozilla Firefox 1.5 for Windows at: http://www.filepedia.com/network_software/web_browsers/firefox.cfm

You can download Mozilla Firefox 1.5 for Linux at: http://www.filepedia.com/alternative_platforms/linux_software/firefox_for_linux.cfm

You can download Mozilla Firefox 1.5 for Mac OS X at: http://www.filepedia.com/alternative_platforms/mac_software/firefox_for_mac.cfm

Source:
News.com

Written by: James Delahunty @ 30 Nov 2005 18:54

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• 34 comments

• pollution

  I used FireFox for a long time and then one day a page would not open unless i used Microsoft Internet Explorer and of course i caught not one but a few or more viruses. FireFox has security built into its browser unlike IE last time i checked.
  
  Point is use FireFox and stay away from IE if possible.

  30.11.2005 18:58 #1

• gozilla

  firefox is great. it's far more immune to the evils of the web the IE.
  plus tabbed browsing is the great. you haven't browsed the web until you have browsed with tabs.

  30.11.2005 20:06 #2

• kaosX

  good deal.. didnt even know it was released.
  theres an extension or maybe option that allows you to right click a link to open in IE... good for flash pages.
  tab browser preferences and noscript are good extension.

  30.11.2005 20:17 #3

• jedi69

  Pollution there is a great little extention by Chris Pederick called User Agent Switcher that allows you to fool web sites into thinking you are using IE (or Netscape or Opera) for those stupid sites that demand you use Internet Explorer.
  
  It works great on the sites I've tried it on. Check it out here ... http://chrispederick.com/work/useragentswitcher/

  30.11.2005 23:04 #4

• arcanix

  I suggest you get a plugin called adblock. It removes ads from sites, you can select which ads to remove. You can add filter words like *adclick* or *pagead*. It's great, give it a try.

  30.11.2005 23:22 #5

• j0j081

  I am using Opera for now but FireFox is great to. Will prob go back to it one day or use both.

  1.12.2005 00:37 #6

• dikdimond

  Love FireFox but when I upgraded to this version,I can't add wikipedia as a search engine. Last version I had no problems adding any search engine to my search bar.

  1.12.2005 02:53 #7

• Morph416

  Did you try adding Wikipedia from Mozilla's page of search engines? Cuz that's where I added it.
  
  https://addons.mozilla.org/search-engines.php?application=firefox

  1.12.2005 05:33 #8

• Mik3h

  Love the way you can have your own themes :P
  
  -Mike

  1.12.2005 06:13 #9

• al98

  I've been using FireFox for ages now and i cant remember the last time my PC got F%&&ed up badly.
  
  I Love Firefox

  1.12.2005 10:24 #10

• dg0896

  h
  

  1.12.2005 11:23 #11

• dg0896

  h
  

  1.12.2005 11:23 #12

• dg0896

  h

  1.12.2005 11:24 #13

• dg0896

  h

  1.12.2005 11:24 #14

• dg0896

  h

  1.12.2005 11:24 #15

• Darkhadou

  All great, except for the fact that videos of any format don't work on 1.5 but work on the older version like 1.0.7, same probs with a couple of friends of mine :(

  1.12.2005 11:25 #16

• arcanix

  Quote:All great, except for the fact that videos of any format don't work on 1.5 but work on the older version like 1.0.7, same probs with a couple of friends of mine :(Yeah, same problem here. Can't stream gamespot videos anymore :/

  1.12.2005 11:36 #17

• attar

  http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
  
  -and you don't have to give anyone your email address.

  1.12.2005 12:51 #18

• dikdimond

  @Morph416 I figured it out...I found a plug-in that allows me to delete my search engine plug-ins by right-clicking on them and deleting,without going into the program files. For some reason instead of Wikipedia in my serch there was a blank space...I deleted and reinstalled,no problems!

  1.12.2005 14:41 #19

• Jamaal10

  I just recently heard of FireFox...and have had numerous spyware problems with IE. Would FireFox cut down/eliminate these kind of problems?
  

  V7 PS2 w/ Swap Magic 3.6
  

  2.12.2005 07:19 #20

• Darkhadou

  Ah... To get videos to work in FireFox 1.5 you must disable the OBJ-TABS option in you Adblock options :D

  2.12.2005 07:33 #21

• ringhofer

  I am new at this. Is there a way to make VCRs into DVDs/

  2.12.2005 17:01 #22

• gear79

  @ ringhofer
  your question has absolutely nothing to do with this topic.
  try here instead....
  http://forums.afterdawn.com/forum_view.cfm/79
  

  
  160gb hd, 1.0gb pc3200, P4 3.06ghz, lite-on sohw 1633s
  if you use bad media, you will get bad results.
  
  

  2.12.2005 19:06 #23

• Ghostdog

  I tried out FireFox when 1.0 came out - but I decided to stay with Opera. It´s just an overall better browsing experince with Opera.

  3.12.2005 00:55 #24

• AngryAnt

  One thing drives me nuts about FireFox. The only thing that makes it really good is the plethora of extensions you can install to make it useable. Trouble is, everytime it's updated, half the extensions stop working, and you're left with a basic browser with tabs. One with far less options than most of the other tabbed browsers out there.
  To my mind, this doesn't encourage people to upgrade straight away. Quite the oposite. After upgrading to 1.5, I've now decided to wait a month or two after each new version before I upgrade. If I don't, despite the upgrade, I'm left with a browser with less abilities than the previous version, while I wait for the extensions writers to catch up.
  Maybe by the time version 2 or 3 is released, many of the features provided by extensions will be built in, so it won't be so much of an issue. But for now, it's a real pain.

  3.12.2005 20:56 #25

• Mik3h

  What sort of extensions do you use?
  
  -Mike

  4.12.2005 01:30 #26

• AngryAnt

  Mik3h:
  "What sort of extensions do you use?"
  
  Lots. :-)
  Many I can live without. But two of the three I use that control tab actions were broken, the one that controls popup blocking was dead, the one that lets me drag links to open them in a new tab was gone, the spellchecker no longer worked, I could no longer save pages in IE's mht format, and I don't think I could undo closed tabs anymore.
  
  Many of these are in fact now updated, although there's still some less important ones that don't work.
  It just frustrates me no end to upgrade a browser, only to have most of the features I'm used to disabled.

  4.12.2005 05:36 #27

• AngryAnt

  Oh, and I had about 20 themes installed.
  Six of them now work. :-(

  4.12.2005 05:40 #28

• ness0108

  I have been using FireFox for about 12 months now and just love it. I installed 1.5 but for some reason my scroll bar on the right hand side disappeared! I uninstalled and reinstalled my previous version and I think I will wait some months until they iron out any problems and try again. Would never go back to IE. I am using the Red Cats Theme although I wouldn't say I'm a cat lover, it's a great interface. Very user friendly!

  4.12.2005 19:40 #29

• Johnxpx

  Fire Fox is good and I prefer using it to IE, but unfornately I have to log on to IE to download some Virus Protection, Spyware Protection and other updates that SBC Yahoo DSL provides for free.

  6.12.2005 13:48 #30

• torxdrive

  i have been usiing IE for ever and had now bug problemes with it i put fire fox and ait is slow and i get more pop up then ever now i have to reinstall windows to get IE back fire fox suxx big time in my book

  12.12.2005 10:11 #31

• gear79

  you must not have the 'tweaked' version then..............
  
  but, whatever !!
  i love it !

  12.12.2005 10:16 #32

• rsims17

  "i have been usiing IE for ever and had now bug problemes with it i put fire fox and ait is slow and i get more pop up then ever now i have to reinstall windows to get IE back fire fox suxx big time in my book"
  
  FireFox is a great browser and I love it. Some things are over looked by most. Common belief is that its far more secure than IE, by all means i think it is but I have no room to say either way I do not know anything about coding. That asside nothing is perfect just a little better than others. One of the biggest reasons fire fox was "so secure" at first is the same reason mac's dont have virus problems. No one was writting virus's for it. If you are going to create a virus you would want the largest share of computer users to get hit... hence windows IE. FireFox to me is a far better browser when equiped with the right extensions such as adblocker setG and session saver. That asside, to each there own.

  12.12.2005 10:41 #33

• tensky

  how do I enable the pop ups, it makes me sick when i'm surfing in www.animeyume.org ,click some link there then pop ups will occur, I was using the old ver. I forgot what version but it was before ver.1.5.0.2
  
  In that old version, I'm not having problems in pop up to that site, but after installing ver.1.5.0.2, I'm having a some pop ups even I enabling the pop up blocker of it
  
  HOW COME??????????????????????????????????????

  21.4.2006 06:02 #34