Mozilla 1.4 Released

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Mozilla 1.4 Release Notes

What's New and New Issues

 

Right behind you Ramona.

Thanks.

 

I don't Understand

I realize that a lot of people like mozilla. I guess I'm a little confused as to why it is promoted? Especially for the casual end user to download. It's not really designed for end user use, but developers. So why not recommend downloading those built on mozilla such as Netscape? It even says on the mozilla website itself that their relases are for development purposes only because there might be bugs and there is no end user support.

 

Hi Kevin,

You are absolutely correct, in that Mozilla isn't for end users. I have a NG posting on my web site, by Jay Garcia, Netscape Champion, which addresses that very issue:
Is Mozilla for Users?.

The Netscape 7.1, and Mozilla 1.4 Final Release, is a first, IIRC, for both browsers being release almost simultaneous, and having the same Gecko engine. Prior to these two Releases, the Mozilla Releases were a look into Netscape's future release. This was certainly an incentive for me to install Mozilla.

Speaking only for myself, and to answer your question, I don't believe that Mozilla is "promoted ", but has a rather cult like or elitist following of Netscape and Mozilla users who wish to be on the cutting edge of development. Thus the extreme degree of interest, but not necessarily the promotion of Mozilla.

Other Mozilla users may have different views, of course...

Ramona

 

I installed Mozilla 1.0x instead of Netscape 7.x because

1) the Netscape 7.x release notes said it was for Win98 and higher while Mozilla listed Win95 and up (I run Win95).

2) I didn't want the integrated AOL Instant Messenger or other Netscape Add-ons that Netscape 7.x included.

I don't consider myself cutting edge, or an elitist


I understand that 7.1 base install now only includes the Navigator browser and spellchecker (for Composer?) but I'm assuming it still integrates AOL? Even so, the release notes still specify Win98+. I've been tempted to try out 7.1 to see if it will run on Win95 but other issues, particularly the resource drain I've seen reported, have stopped me.

Additionally, somewhere between Mozilla 1.0.1 (Netscape 7.0x) and Mozilla 1.4 (Netascape 7.1) the Advanced Cache preference to modify your memory cache was removed! AND, the default memory cache is now based on your installed ram (4096 for 64mb ram, in my case)

I've had a few problems with Netscape 4.79 running out of system resources and the cure has always been to clear the memory cache. Later on I discovered that a permanent solution, for me, was to reduce my Netscape 4.79 Memory cache size. I the default for Mozilla was 4096. I don't remember what the 4.79 default was (possibly 2048?) but I did experiment and setting it too high immediately caused resource problems. Right now I have Mozilla set at 3000kb memory cache and have NO resource problems.

I understand from another posting here on Netscape 7.1 that that you can add a setting to your prefs.js (or user.js?) to reduce the memory cache but, for me, I'll pass on both Mozilla 1.4 and Netscape 7.1 and stick with Mozilla 1.0.1

 

re: mozilla for end user

If you custom install mozilla and leave out the feedback component then mozilla is an excellent browser for end users. It 's quite stable, fast, and security wise, it is very easy to configure.

 

Alice,

I suspect that Netscape only "supports" win98 and up because win95 is an unsupported OS, which has been "end-of-lifed" by Microsoft. It's likely that N7 will work on win95... of course there are no guarantees. I am certain you will see the increasing lack of "support" for your choice of OS in the coming days...

See this preference:

user_pref( "browser.cache.memory.capacity ", 4096);

(replace 4096 with your chosen memory cache size...)

HTH

tranquilo

 

Possiby, but then why would Mozilla show win95 as the minimum OS? In any case I would probably go with Mozilla instead of Netscape if I wanted to upgrade my browser. I was thinking possibly the integrated AOL Instant Messenger might require Win98+. who knows.

Tell me about it. I ran into that getting a digital camera...software required Win98's USB support so I had to hunt down a Compact Flash Card Reader that would work with Win95B's USB (found one eventually)

I had a new Dell Dimension 4550 all picked out last October, processor speed measured in Gigs, not Megs, USB 2.0, a video card with as much ram as I have on my entire system, tons of harddrive space, CD-RW, etc, etc, costing about half of what I paid for this system 5 years ago, and guess what? My husband decided he had to have an Apple Ibook notebook computer, so he could watch his football games in front of the tv while on his football chatroom. I let him have his way mainly because we didn't have the space for two desktop systems and I hated to get rid of my old faithful Win95 machine... it was my first PC and it has served me well.

Kind of fun, learning Mac OSX too - first thing I did after getting online was to install Netscape 7.0 (my husband loves AIM

Yeah, I saw Ramona's post, that you can edit your prefs.js and enter that line. Was wondering why not place it in the user.js file instead.

 

oops... forgot mention that you can place it in your user.js file, at least that's where I have it here. Though I have not watched it closely, it seems to work here with Firebird on Linux.

As far as Netscape, there may not be any technical reason as to why it cannot work on win95, just their choice not to "support" win95 any longer. Alas, the only way to know for certain is to try...

The Dell 4550 is a nice machine, though I believe they have moved on to the 4600 now.

tranquilo

 

et al

Can't you put:

pref( "browser.cache.memory.capacity ", 4096);

in the all.js file and make it global for all profiles ?

(replace 4096 with your chosen memory cache size...)

regards:

[edit] Pertains to Mozilla 1.4 Final & NS 7.1 F

 

That's where I would probably place it., since the user.js is a good way to keep track of your changes.

If I do go for Moz 1.4 or NS7.1 or later, it will be because Moz 1.0.1 is no longer doing all I want it to do. I haven't reached that point yet, considering that besides the potential resource issue, from what a friend told me, the Netscape LiveAudio plugin no longer works (since Moz 1.3?) so I would have to get a new plugin for embedded wav and midi. It just doesn't seem worth it for me, right now, but I stil might test it out sometime, when I'm feeling adventurous

I would problably stick to the user.js edit. A prefs.js edit is bad enough, but worse case you can delete the prefs.js if need be and a new one will be generated. The last thing I would try is an all.js edit.... for the very reason you give... it contains the program defaiults for all profiles. What happens if you mess up the all.js?

By the way, this is how the two lines referring to memory cache appear in my Mozilla 1.0.1 all.js. Note spacing - 9 spaces in the first line, 7 in the second line.. I substituted an underline for the spaces since they don't show up here in the post

pref( "browser.cache.memory.enable ",_________true);
pref( "browser.cache.memory.capacity ",_______4096);

 

This is interesting!

I was comparing the Mozilla 1.4 Release Notes with those for Netscape 7.0 -7.1 at http://wp.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/ns7/relnotes/7.html
and I don't see the ATI video driver issue mentioned anymore. It was an issue I remember reading about since at least Mozilla 1.3, and it's still mentioned here, in the Mozilla 1.4RC3 notes:

http://www.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla1.4rc3/#problems

PS I checked http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=101055 It's a little hard to understand but, it looks like this is no longer an issue in 1.4 final, for Windows at least.

 

Before editing ANY file, you back up the file. You thoroughly test it first. If you have multiple profiles, as some do, you would have to edit each user.js - as you would with any new profile - before the edit would take effect.If you edit user.js for multiple profiles,you would have to re-edit all user.js and prefs.js to remove it. If you edit the all.js and want to remove it - you only have to edit one....For the very reason I gave... it contains the program defaults for all profiles..... is why I edit the all.js file

regards:

 

I found the "Brief Guide to Mozilla+Netscape Preferences" at http://www.mozilla.org/catalog/end-user/customizing/briefprefs.html

It says that you can effect changes to all NEW profiles by adding a user.js file to the Mozilla or Netscape 7 Program Files\..\defaults\profile folder, as an alternative to editing the all.js. However you would still need to add a user.js file with the changes you want to make, to all existing profiles (direct editing of prefs.js is discouraged)

==============copy/paste===============

Changing defaults

A systems administrator can modify the default preferences in two ways:

1. The administrator may edit the all.js† default pref file (install_directory/defaults/prefs/all.js). This has the advantage of changing the default value for both new and existing profiles. However, note preferences set in the profile will override the default settings. Also, note due to preferences file compression, some preferences are not saved if they match the default values, causing the profile to behave differently if used in a different installation.

"  Because default pref files are loaded in reverse alphabetical order, all.js will be loaded near the end, preventing administrator values from being overridden.

2. The administrator may alternatively put a user.js file in app_dir/defaults/profile/ ; this will put a copy of the user.js in all new profiles. This method has the advantage of resetting preferences back to administrator defaults at every start-up. Note that, because a user typically has access privilege to his or her profile directory, he or she can change the default values if he or she knows how. Another disadvantage is that existing profiles will not be affected.
=================end c/p===================

So, do whatever you're comfortable with and of course, whatever route you take you should always make backups but with only a couple of existing profiles I think the user.js is the safer route for most people, besides the fact that a user.js gives you a record of your changes.