Firefox 4.0 Feature Overview

Finally, we waited for a new version, many of your favorite browser, the 4th in a row. The official release of which is scheduled for tomorrow 03/22/11. Under the cut a full review of the innovations, carefully many pictures, letters and one video


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* Stop and refresh buttons merged into one
* Now the default tabs are on top.
* Normal tab can be turned into “App Tab” in the context menu by right-click
* The bookmark toolbar is replaced by the bookmark button by default (you can return it if you wish)
* Panorama functionality gives users a complete visual overview of all open tabs and allows them to be sorted and grouped.
* Improved add-ons manager
* You can search for already opened tabs and switch to them using the Smart Address Bar.
* Connection status messages are now displayed on a small overlay (in the lower left corner)


* HTTP header support (" DNT ") - Do Not Track



* Some rendering operations now have hardware acceleration using Direct3D 9 on Windows XP, Direct3D 10 on Windows Vista and 7, and OpenGL on Mac OS X, and Core Animation is also improved on Mac OS X
* Direct2D hardware acceleration, now default for Windows 7 users
* Full support for the WebGL standard is included on all platforms, but, like for other hardware acceleration functions, driver updates to the latest versions are required (author's note: Linux drivers were not lucky with ATI video cards, since drivers capable of reproaching 3D on their OS not yet)



* Now Firefox Sync is installed by default, its configuration interface has been improved.


* Used JägerMonkey, a new, faster, JavaScript engine
* Support for some experimental APIs to provide more efficient Javascript animation.
* A new way of presenting values ​​in JavaScript, which allows Firefox to execute heavier digital code (used for graphics and animation) more efficiently.



* Reworked algorithm for processing complex animations
* The HTML5 Forms API makes web forms easier to implement and validate.
* New APIs for add-ons and extensions manager with changes in the graphical interface
* Support for new audio data API
* Native support for HD HTML5 WebM video
* Firefox is now buffered for HTML5 video
* New HTML5 parser
* Firefox no longer automatically goes offline

* Improved typography OpenType (support for ligatures, kerning and font variations)
* Web developers can animate content using CSS
* Significant API improvements are available for JS-ctypes, an interface to third-party extension functions.
* Supports more HTML5 form controls.
* Web developers can update the URL of a field without reloading the page using a new HTML history API.

* Improved scrolling and increased responsiveness
* More responsive page rendering thanks to the lazy frame
* Redesigned code regarding bookmarks and history of visiting pages, which had a positive impact on the launch speed of Firefox and work with bookmarks
* Changed how XPCOM components are registered in order to increase startup speed and process separation
* Requests in link history made asynchronous to increase responsiveness while loading pages

* Protection against crashes of Adobe Flash plug-ins, Apple Quicktime or Microsoft Silverlight on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X
* Changes in CSS to block the ability of sites to view the browsing history
* Support for the HSTS security protocol, allows sites to insist that they are loaded only over SSL

Future of Firefox
It is worth noting that the revised policy release of new versions. Now, meaningful versions will not be so large-scale, for which they will come out more often, about once every 4 months.

In Firefox 5, you plan to add:
A new account management interface (in the picture are approximate sketches from the UI development department)

Although I would have had enough of this (can someone blind in 4 and a half months!?!)

simple interface for exchanging links with friends (F1 service integration)
implement animation effects in the user interface
prepare a 64-bit build for Windows.

In Firefox 6: the work will be focused on expanding the possibilities for running web applications ( the Open Web App project ), increasing the performance of the cache and the JavaScript engine, preparing the build for Mac OS X 10.7.

In Firefox 7: it is planned to continue work to ensure the isolated execution of various browser subsystems (user interface and content processing in different tabs, will be processed in parallel , different processes) and integrate support for XBL (XML Binding Language) .