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drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 1546 Location: Central FL, USA

TODAY, Firefox 3 is officially released.

I found the best place to download it At File Hippo, (HERE)

While I was there, I noticed that "Spybot S&D" had posted a new version,
likewise "AdAware 2008".

I posted this notice in "Windows Fanatics" because you have to be pretty fanatical to download as many new programs as I do.
I just downloaded the above-mentioned three programs.

"File Hippo" has replaced "Major Geeks" as my favorite download site.

Now I have to go install some new software.

Y'all have a great day now, Y'hear?
The Doctor Cool

seaeagle · Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 8:58 am Post subject:

I'll be holding off installing FF3 until the first or 2nd bug-fix is released. That's mainly due to the fact that past experience has shown that the initial major releases can be a bit buggy on Linux. Most probably due to the fact that, while there are only half a dozen or so versions of Windows it has to work with, there are well over 1,000 different versions of Linux. So while it may work fine on 90% of Linux systems, some will have slightly different library locations, and that is what the first couple of bug-fixes usually fixes.

Also, I like to wait until the majority of add-ons have caught up to the new version. There are some I would struggle to survive even a day if I didn't have them working. If I install a major upgrade immediately after it is released, I finish up a fair number of my add-ons disabled. That's usually remedied after a couple of weeks.

Please let us know your opinions on the new version of Firefox. I've heard that there are some major changes in some areas such as bookmarks. Feedback on the positives and negatives will help many of us to assess just how quickly we do move to FF3.

Cheers Smile

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 1546 Location: Central FL, USA

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Image URL: http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g90/DrWho1943/firefox-downloadday.jpg

I can sort of understand your reluctance, but....
I would have thought you were more adventuresome than that! Question

The full version 3 release is just the polished off version of 3rc2 (or was it rc3).
It passed all final testing as a release candidate (rcX).
All the add-ons that worked with any of the rc versions will work with the final cut.
I go easy on the add-ons, as installing too many can cause problems.
I use only AdBlock+ and I.E. Tab and both are working fine on ver 3.0.

I downloaded it today and installed it and saw NO difference between it and the latest rc version I've been running for weeks.

I didn't really think there would be any difference.
I just downloaded it to get into the download total for "Release Day".

I also downloaded and installed AdAware 2008. (also, from File Hippo)
I'd have to say they have finally got their Update Manager fixed.
That was the big problem that kept me from installing AdAware 2007 for my customers.
The update manager was just buggy! Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. Crying or Very sad

Spybot S&D 1.6 (beta) is not drastically different than Ver. 1.5.2 .
I saw only some very subtle additions. Nothing drastic. Wink

It looks like it will FLY! Wink

The scan seemed to actually run a bit faster than in previous versions. Now you can actually set up the way you want it to scan and for what.
I like that! Very Happy

Question:
How can you be a helper on a Windows based forum, dealing with Windows based questions, when you don't run Windows?
Just curious!

I installed AVG 8.0 FREE on a friends new computer running Vista Home yesterday and the install aborted because Vista did not have SP1 installed.
I didn't realize that Vista's SP1 was such a big deal, but apparently it is.

It took almost an hour do get the SP1 update from MS and get it all installed. The actual files downloaded were only about 65 megs.
That was on a fairly fast Broadband connection. Rolling Eyes

So I guess the best advice for Vista users is "Get the SP1 Update" ASAP, if you don't already have it. Idea

Cheers Mates!
The Doctor Cool

Stumped · Joined: Oct 09, 2007 Posts: 15

I'm not sure that 3.0 is available just yet. I downloaded from Major Geeks this morning and found that I got the RC 3 version. I went to File Hippo and downloaded the latest and it too was not the final. According to the developer it will be available today starting at 10 AM PST or 1PM eastern time. http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/06/17/firefox-3-av...able-to

seaeagle

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 1546 Location: Central FL, USA

I must admit Sad

that I was confused by all the time zone stuff. Rolling Eyes

I guess I'll wait for another hour and a half and try again. Laughing

When I look at the "About" window on my current version it says Version 3.0.

I doubt that the FINAL version will be significantly different.

But thanks for the additional info. It's always appreciated. Wink

The Doctor Cool

mommabear · Joined: Feb 20, 2003 Posts: 6319

I just downloaded it, but I don't know when I'll try it. I can wait on some of my favorite extensions to catch up. It's my Winstripe Classic theme and the way I've got my toolbars all customized that I dread losing. They're not going to update the Classic Theme for FF3. Crying or Very sad

Edit: That was a general reply/comment. I hit the wrong reply button.

Edit #2: Okay. Curiosity got the best of me. I'm now running FF3 under a new profile. The icons are a tad different in my theme/toolbars, but it definitely still has the feel of the Classic Theme. Not bad. Not bad at all. Now... it's time to get rid of the ads! lol!

seaeagle

I should change my vote as the temptation to try it was too great and I am now typing this on my new Firefox 3! It is very fast compared to FF2. That could also be due to lot of my add-ons being disabled, but I can live with that. I know that a lot of them are now incorporated into Firefox, so I will see what add-ons are updated over the next week or so, and then go through the list and get rid of the unneeded/redundant ones, and see if there alternatives for the disabled ones I do need.

I used the Linux tarball to install it. First I renamed my old Firefox installation folder, and then just extracted the tarball & copied all the new install files into the original installation folder (as root). The only manual task I really had to do was copy the flash & java plugin details from the old ff2 plugins folder to the FF3 plugins folder.

My first impressions though - EXCELLENT! Hopefully I will feel the same way in a few days time when/if any negatives have become apparent.

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 1546 Location: Central FL, USA

I must have visited a dozen sites today, trying to find one with the latest FF 3.0 version.

http://www.filehippo.com/download_firefox/

This site did it!

As for add-ons, the writers have been working on add-ons for FF 3.0 for weeks now. Everything that worked with the rc's should work just fine for the final version.

I already know that my custom Google screen came up with NO problems and adblock+ and I.E. Tab are also working.

With this version and AdBlock+, I have none of the obnoxious ad's that LG likes to put on the screen. NONE at all. Even the stuff in the right margin is totally GONE.

Ya jus gotta luv it!!!

Doc Cool

seaeagle

kenmabmcc

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 1546 Location: Central FL, USA

When Chris sold us out to the advertisers, my screen was awash in ads.
There were banners at the top, a 2" wide ad bar down the right side of the screen and highlighted words throughout the message area.
What a freakin' mess! That was a time when many people just left this forum in total disgust.

I and many others railed against it, but to no avail.
Then I found AdBlock+ and things got much better.
Now finally all the last vintages of the right hand ad-bar are GONE.

Happiness, is having my screen back again!

The Doctor Cool

mommabear · Joined: Feb 20, 2003 Posts: 6319

Good afternoon, everyone!

Well, call me a major worry-wart for nothing. I borked the plan of running FF3 separately with FF2 under the new profile. How I blew it I'm not really sure, but since I did, none of my backups would restore after removing FF3. lol! System Restore wouldn't fix it, etc and blah, blah, blah. I thought about uninstalling the now bad FF2 and reinstalling it, but I decided to go for the gusto and just install FF3, and see what happened instead.

After installing it, a whole big list of incompatible extensions came up and my heart sank. FF3 disabled them, of course. But the check for updates found seven of them automatically, taking care of about half the list.

Now, here's the good news! I was able to find updates for all but two of the remaining extensions!!!! They're not all at the Firefox Mozilla add-ons site. I found them through reading the comments at the add-ons site and/or following links to the author's sites. And Google helped me find a couple too. If you have any kind of a backup list of your extensions, like InfoLister, that also took me directly to the source for a some of them.

Only two extensions proved problematic. I couldn't find an update for a TinyURL add-on which puts a Create TinyURL in the right click. So I've had to settle for dragging the shortcut to the TinyURL site into my toolbar. When needed, I'll have to create it there.

The one I'm really going to miss and haven't found an update or substitute for is LinkVisitor. It added a right click function to mark links as visited and unvisited. Visited links already change color in FF without it. But I used this addon at forums to highlight some forum categories that I couldn't remove from the view new posts since last visit.

For example, a couple of help forums have HiJackThis Sections and only trained helpers can reply in those. The rest of us are blocked out from replying. So I would mark that section as read, and it made scrolling through my list of new posts easier. Now here's where I'll miss the "mark unvisited" option. Sometimes I will go directly to another subforum, ie "Hardware". Well, now I've got HiJackThis and Hardware changed to red. And so I'm left with no way to change Hardware back to unvisited so it's not highlighted in my view new posts list, unless I clear my History. That would probably do it, but that's not really a solution. Bummer.

I have been messing with trying to bump the extension but there's probably something in the coding specific to FF2 and so it probably won't work. I'll look into a nightly tester. I really need that extension.

But I have to say overall, I was very surprised at how relatively well it has all gone. I'm happy with the new theme. It's close enough to Classic. And FF3 picked up all my custom toolbar tweaks, etc.

Now, just one question. Does anybody know where/how I can change the font size in this reply box? (It's the same in others forums too.) FF3 kept all my settings in Font Options, except there's no selection now for display resolution-96dpi. And now the font in here is looking like a default notepad and real, I mean, real small. I'm not talking about changing the font size in here...with the board settings. I'm talking about how it used to look in reply boxes as I type.

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 1546 Location: Central FL, USA

If you have a scroll wheel on your mouse, hold down the left 'Ctrl' key while you scroll your mouse wheel up or down.
The text size on the screen should change accordingly.

It works for me here and always has.

I was working a forum the other day where the text area went clear off the right side of the screen. A little 'Ctrl + Scroll' fixed it.

Try it!

Doc Cool