Firefox 4.0 - released by March 22nd, 2011 - Finally!!!

Firefox 4.0 - Full Non-Beta/RC Version: released by March 22nd, 2011

So we're finally there!!! After 12 Beta and 2 RC (Release Candidate) releases the full and final version of Firefox 4.0 just came out today!!! The actual set of release notes is at:

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/4.0/releasenotes/

And this set of release notes provides the usual list of downloads, features etc., but this one is more detailed and contains an overview of ALL work done in the 4.0 version release over the course of all the various Beta's and RC's. This release notes page is actually quite good on providing the detail of changes in FF4.0. If you haven't been working your way through the Beta's and RC's and upgrading and installing as the go then this release will be a fair change in look and feel and functionality so the release notes will be useful in giving you a look at what was done.

There are also a number of useful links Ive found associated with this release. These include the following which is a cool world map showing the number of downloads that have occurred, where they are occurring and how many per minute. Cool stuff...

http://glow.mozilla.org/

Whats more you can break it down to a per city level using an ARC graph and see totals per country and city as well. Cool stuff I say again. The 'about' page for this reads as follows:

glow.mozilla.org tracks downloads for Firefox 4. When someone clicks the download button on mozilla.com or asks for an upgrade from inside Firefox, we approximate their location based on IP address and store anonymous aggregate location information in our database. Each dot that shows up on the map represents someone who just downloaded Firefox (with a few seconds of latency as we process everything on the back-end). The counter at the top shows the total downloads of Firefox since March 22, 2011, when Firefox 4 was released. The arc chart shows those downloads broken down all the way to the city level.

Whats interesting is that out of 6 million downloads Poland has 150K+ while Australia only has 100k+ and further of these only 6000 or so are from South Australia. C'mon Ozzie's download more!!! And looking closer there are 4000 for Adelaide in general but also about 10 lone entries for Modbury and I reckon I would've fallen under that category for the download I just did not long ago. Crazy I'm one of only 10 Modbury FF4.0 users.

 

For further download info there is a comparison of the Firefox 3.0 download stats (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-9983245-92.html) as compared to today's FF4.0 release (http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-20045726-12.html) with further info on Mozilla's actual Firefox blog (http://blog.mozilla.com/blog/2011/03/22/mozilla-launches-firefox-4-and-delivers-a-fast-sleek-and-customizable-browsing-experience-to-more-than-400-million-users-worldwide-2/).

 

As a side note FF4.0 has got obvious performance improvements which are summed up neatly and concisely here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/performance/, and some similar but more detailed info from a techy/developer point of view: http://hacks.mozilla.org/2011/03/firefox4-performance/. While on that techy/developer side of things this blog is also useful for all things tech in FF4.0: https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Firefox_4_for_developers

 

 

Firefox 4 - Beta's version 8 and 9: released January 20th, 2011

Firefox 4 - Beta's version 8, 9 (and now 10): released by January 20th, 2011

Okay so It's now the 20th of January. First blog post for the new year - 2011 - YAY!!!! And what have we here? Well since the last post we've got versions 8 and 9 for Firefox 4 Beta. From what I've read there will be a 10 and probably an 11 before we get an RC (most probably an RC1) followed by the real deal, a clean, no tag, Firefox 4.0 deploy .... finally!!! Crazy days!!! I've been using the Beta's at work and at home for a while now so I'm totally used to the m an din fact the 3.6.xx version or whatever it is that's the stable branch one right now seems so 'old' ... he he he. Bring it on I say. Time to get rid of the BETA tag and go full force baby!!!

Ok, so as always, here's a few release notes links... Just thinking that it'll be a pity when one day the BETA is out and we move on and these luinks will probably die. Ill have a pag3e of broken old links to release notes that dont work. Can only hope that they keep the pages up cos I'm pretty sure I wont be going back to update broken links on past pages. That just ain't ma' style baby.

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/4.0b8/releasenotes/
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/4.0b9/releasenotes/

It's interesting to view that diagram in my last blog entry and see the original RC1 ship date was going to be October last year ... and at this stage we are in late January with at least one or two more Beta's to go before we get to RC1.  Even Mozilla, the paragon of Open Source, with it's vast hordes of developer geek armies slips on timelines. Makes me feel a hell of a lot better about my slippage at work on project estimates and such forth :-).


Update (27 January 2011):
      http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/4.0b10/releasenotes/