Thread: Firefox 4 Beta 8 Now Live

Mozilla has released a new beta of Firefox 4 this morning. Originally intended as a quick update for the feature-complete Beta 7 release, the new Beta includes 1415 bugfixes, a fine-tuned add-ons manager, and improved WebGL support.

Firefox 4 Beta 8 was not able to break out of Mozilla’s delayed release schedule and we now know that Mozilla will have to issue at least one more revised release schedule for Firefox 4 as the beta phase will bring at least two more betas (Beta 9 is already available as nightly build), which cannot be squeezed into 2010 anymore.

However, Beta 8 is a much more thorough update than originally intended, and comes with 1415 bugfixes and updates. The vast majority relates to fine-tuning of the core functionality as well as fixing stability problems. According to the release notes, Firefox Sync is now simplified and easier to set up. You will still need an email address and password, and a backup copy of a provided encryption key. To sync browser data with another computer you will use three codes that are provided by a new Firefox device and that need to be entered on a Firefox device that is already synced. It’s still somewhat complicated, but we expect this service now to work on smartphones as well – where Google’s sync service is not available yet. Mozilla said that the sync feature will not be working immediately, but will need some time to sync browser data.

Other updates include a much sleeker add-ons manager as well as expanded accelerated WebGL support that highlights future game and animation capability within the browser.

You can download the latest Firefox 4 Beta (Windows) here. The Mac OS X version can be found here. When the official download link goes live later today, Firefox will be available in 57 languages.

As a side note, Mozilla is now taking more aggressive steps in marketing the beta software as the recent update for Firefox 3.6 (3.6.13) features a start page that explicitly asks users to try Firefox 4 Beta.

UPDATE 3:43pm EDT: Mozilla’s Melissa Shapiro just informed us that the page we are linking to is a “staged” download page. She noted that the link currently points to unreleased builds. Typically, Mozilla does not enable this particular download page until the final version of a new Firefox 4 Beta is available and we noticed that this Beta installs just as other Betas did. However, if you want to be certain that you download the final Beta 8, we advise our readers to wait until the final build is made available.

details about the updates to the beta 8 of firefox







full list of bug fixes here



Check out what’s new
download and release notes here.

Nice one, thanks for this. I had quite a lot of issues with beta 7, hopefully these will be fixed.

Best browser ever:) thanks for the info mate

Thank you for this info..

My Favorite browser..
I had very bad experience in the firefox beta version in the past. I wait for the RC version, it is better though.

Using FF 4.0b now! =)

Definately worth it if you are using beta 7 right now... If you use the tab groups ive noticed it to be quite a bit quicker compared to before. Still seems to use a lot of RAM though(but I do have a ton of tabs open, so YMMV)

I've tried the past few betas; the feature improvements are nice, but it still seems sluggish overall compared to 3.6.x... hopefully the RC will be better though. The new interface is quite nice, but I must admit I haven't got around to using tab groups just yet.

nice topic ... for me it is my best browser ...