Firefox 4 Released: See The New Features

On the heels of the February release of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9, Mozilla has unleashed a near-final version of Firefox 4, the latest iteration of the free, open source web browser.

The Mozilla Firefox 4 Release Candidate is available for download in 70 languages for Windows, OSX and Linux platforms. Android users can also find the Firefox 4 RC app at the Android Market.

What's new in Firefox 4? The team at Mozilla has delivered a cleaner look, more customizations, syncing between devices, and improved security.

Mozilla claims that Firefox 4 is six times faster than previous offerings and cites noticeable differences in start-up and page-load times, as well as improved graphics rendering.

Most noticeably, Mozilla has tweaked Firefox's user interface to make tabs a priority. A "Switch to Tab" web-browsing feature prevents users from opening duplicate tabs by navigating to the one that's already open. Users can also create "App Tabs" for their most-used web applications, like mail, music and social networking sites, and can pin these apps to their tab row for quick access.

For users who work with many tabs, the "Panorama" feature helps keep track of what's open and offers drag-and-drop grouping options.

Firefox 4 also offers syncing between home, work and mobile devices, giving users constant access their browser history, passwords, bookmarks and open tabs. This data is encrypted locally to ensure the user's safety.

Mozilla's focus on security is apparent in this new release. Users can turn on a "Do Not Track" feature that allows them to "opt-out" out of behavioral tracking by advertisers. Firefox 4 also protects users' sensitive login data by ensuring secure connections with websites.

Other features found in Firefox 4 include a redesigned Add-Ons manager, lots of goodies for web developers, multi-touch support for Window 7, and more. You can learn more and download by visiting the Firefox 4 Release Candidate site.

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Panorama Tabs Manager

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Comments

[Phyllis Chamberlain]

05:55 PM on 04/09/2011

am looking for the main desktop

[Bytheo]

08:09 AM on 03/24/2011

I have not yet downloaded Firefox 4, but I'm curious about the start up time. When I was testing the beta, I loved the browser, but start up was always very slow. When I went back to 3.6, this problem was gone. Is this still the case or was this something that was more of a problem during development (or a problem on my end)?

[temenos]

02:37 AM on 03/24/2011

Frankly, I'm finding version 4 slower than version 3.

[HamburgerTime]

05:01 AM on 03/24/2011

Not slower here, but pretty much the same. A couple bookmarked pages I go to might be opening faster, but it's such a small margin that I'm not even sure. Then again, I do run NoScript, which has been the cause of minor load lag in the past.

[wonmean]

08:32 PM on 03/28/2011

Not really noticeable here.

[Grada3784]

12:23 AM on 03/24/2011

It all depends, for me, on whether Firefox will still freeze when there's a script problem. Until they find a way to do a better recovery from that sort of problem, I'll never use Firefox more than halfheartedly.

[Iwpach]

09:23 PM on 03/23/2011

If they didn't get rid of that plug-in container nonsense, it won't be worth the upgrade at all.
The Firefox memory leak is irksome enough,without that thing hogging up the RAM too.

[AcaciaJules]

12:23 AM on 03/24/2011

Ooh, that is something that really bugs me, but the benefits I get from the tab memory far outweigh using any other browser.

[Jafafa Hots]

03:38 AM on 03/24/2011

The killer for me was that they got rid of the status bar. Not even an option now.

Many people don't use it, but it's a must for the wise. Without the status bar you can't read the full URL of the link you're hovering over before you click it, for example.

[HamburgerTime]

05:02 AM on 03/24/2011

Yes you can. The URL pops up from the bottom while hovering now. Also, the status bar appears to be the "add-on bar" now, which is enabled for toggling.

[wonmean]

08:29 PM on 03/28/2011

It pops up when needed.

[onlythetruthcounts]

08:58 PM on 03/23/2011

Panorama is pretty kewl. I keep 2 dozen tabs open all the time so it's a nice improvement.

[fourthestatepost]

08:02 PM on 03/23/2011

but can it run crysis?

[dfman]

06:57 PM on 03/23/2011

Too bad so many people don't know how good the Opera browser is compared to the others.

Blazing fast. Hardly ever locks up. Full of features.

[onlythetruthcounts]

09:00 PM on 03/23/2011

Doesn't it cost money where all the other browsers are free? Is it free now? I tried it years ago and couldn't see using it when firefox safari and chrome are much nicer.

[Grada3784]

12:24 AM on 03/24/2011

Totally free now. I use it in conjunction with firefox for the more script problem prone sites.

[neveragain]

03:41 PM on 03/23/2011

Was an IE user since the beginning and had one crash too many so I switched to FF...took some getting used to but I never loved the interface, so switched to Chrome.

WOW...for all you FF lovers out there, give Chrome a spin and you'll never to back to IE or FF.

[roald]

05:24 PM on 03/23/2011

Unless you care about your privacy.

[mrmcblunt]

05:44 PM on 03/23/2011

That argument is so outdated.

[onlythetruthcounts]

09:03 PM on 03/23/2011

Firefox for work, Safari for news/info, and Chrome for pron. :>

[roald]

09:26 PM on 03/23/2011

Why do you trust Google when their business model is to collect information about you to guide advertisers?

[dekadente81]

12:14 AM on 03/24/2011

I use the 'incognito window' a lot.

[Winski]

12:09 PM on 03/23/2011

Couple of things I've noticed that are REAL bothers... ON a MBP-SL 10.6.7

1) The "Pinch / expand" funtionaloty of the mouse/trackpad does NOT work... Bring up Safari on EXACTLY the same web page - no problem... UGLY..

2) Even by setting "Home Page" both in "preferences" AND by dragging the URL to the 'Home Page" button on re-start - FF4 display - NOTHING.. Doesn't go to the home page I've specified - NADA.. THIS one REALLY sucks.!!!

Any help please???

[PenguinLinux]

11:26 AM on 03/23/2011

Faster than ever on my Windows PC at work, works even better under my home and business systems which run Linux.

[Thomas River]

08:35 AM on 03/23/2011

Downloaded the final release yesterday. I expect they'll be a flurry of updates in the coming week. While its a considerable speed improvement over 3.6, rendering is choppy, and noticeably slower than Chrome. Tab and toolbars steal slightly more space from the window And several custom mouse controls, such as pinch and expand, do not appear to work anymore.

For all its RC time, this release feels a bit premature. Probably a marketing decision to steal the spotlight from IE9 and slow the defection rate on google-based platforms. Hopefully, they'll quickly fix the issues.

[eco sys]

06:43 AM on 03/23/2011

the incremental changes that are present on Firefox are so enjoyable. I really like this browser. For example is you close Firefox and then reopen it, say after a restart of you machine, Firefox will take you to the same pages and to the same place on the very page you were reading, same line.

[lilylee86]

02:26 AM on 03/23/2011

That is very nice.
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[mxytsplyk]

01:38 AM on 03/23/2011

Anyone know if it supports Kiosk-Mode in OS X?