no qldp or new alt server browser working anymore though, on a related note it also broke torbutton: even the alpha which kind of works gives an insane amount of javascript related errors, sigh :C
it's good enough, still not faster than Chrome. Firefox has other strengths though (expanded functionality through an impressive collection of extensions, crossplatform, easy to migrate to other computers)
because it's an obscure legacy setting, meant to add backward compatibility from firefox 1.5 for "single close buttons," which I love and still use. of course, I rarely use the close button anyway. that's what ctrl-w or ctrl-f4 is for.
The font problem is ... horrific.
All the fonts are off and nothing works ... I have been trying every suggestion I have found via Google for the past 3 hours and the font rendering issue cannot be resolved.
Installed Chrome and uninstalled it 10 minutes later, just like 2,5 half years ago. Funny how they have not managed to fix a critical error during that time.
That's first class software development for you!
Having been tweeking FF4 for the past few hours and reading alot of review I would have to say that Firefox 4 might be the worst browser release/update I have ever come across.
Sure ... many earlier versions of which ever browsers might have been bugged as well, but FF4 has a direct impact on the default user, to someone who doesn't tweak the shit out of every little piece of software they come across.
1. The whole font fiasko
2. Complete removal of the status bar
... many other things.
It seems that they searched the browser landscape, found majority of the bugs from all other web broswers and then compiled them into this release of Firefox 4.
Redesigning the visual side and not fixing the internal problems or even adding features which hinder the usability of the product is not progress!
1) i have no idea what you guys are talking about, is this a windows issue?
2) the status bar is not completely removed, ctrl+/ to get the add-ons back, the "status" part fades in with mouseovers?
You're completely overreacting.
Go back to spyware Chrome if you like it that much (Chromium and SRWare Iron are fine though)
I hate how Chrome is a "simple" browser that doesn't let you configure shit. You can't even have a bookmark panel on the side for christ sake, which is ridiculous with widescreen monitors since there's a ton of unused screen space.
Anyway :
1) Fonts look normal on my rig, even with hardware acceleration ON. They don't look "normal" (though nothing serious) at work but disabling hardware acceleration fixes it just fine.
2) Removal of the status bar is a great thing
The few addons I use such as adblock plus and QL work perfectly on FF4 out of the box (didn't even have to reinstall QL, just installed FF4 > played QL)
If you'd read up a little you would notice, that I specifically said I have never used Chrome, because it sucks and supports the same bugs it did years ago.
"Redesigning the visual side and not fixing the internal problems or even adding features which hinder the usability of the product is not progress!"
like i said before, Firefox is more of a framework. shape it as you wish.. if you want out of the box functionality there's Chrome or Opera.
I noticed some small differences here and there in the font rendering with Fx 4, but none were as terrible as what I've seen on ESR. The post headlines look like they're in Arial Black.