Mozilla Firebird 0.6.1 released

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Mozilla Firebird, formerly known as Phoenix, is a redesign of the Mozilla browser component, similar to Galeon, K-Meleon and Camino™, but written using the XUL user interface language and designed to be cross-platform.

What's New

Fix for the auto-complete crash bug
Fix for the DOM security restriction bug that broke many bookmarklets
New application icon

Download: Firebird 0.6.1 Windows

Download: Firebird 0.6.1 Linux

View: Release Notes

News source: Firebird Website

* Customizable Toolbars and Mail 3-pane
Toolbars can be customized the way you want them. Choose View / Toolbars / Customize inside any window. Mozilla Thunderbird also supports a new vertical 3-pane configuration (Tools / Options / General), giving you even more choice in how you want to view your mail.

* Extensions
UI extensions can be added to Mozilla Thunderbird to customize your experience with specific features and enhancements that you need. Extensions allow you to add features particular to your needs such as offline mail support. A full list of available extensions can be found here.

* Contacts Manager
A contacts sidebar for mail compose makes it easy and convenient to add address book contacts to emails.

* Junk Mail Detection
In addition to automatically detecting junk mail using the same method as Mozilla Mail, Thunderbird also sanitizes HTML in mail marked as junk in order to better protect your privacy and give peace of mind when viewing a message identified as junk.

* New default theme
Mozilla Thunderbird 0.1 sports a crisp, fresh and attractive theme, based on the amazing Qute theme by Arvid Axelsson. This is the same theme used by Mozilla Firebird, giving Thunderbird a similar look and feel. Thunderbird also supports a growing number of downloadable themes which alter the appearance of the client.

* Stream-lined user interface and simplified Options UI.
* Integrated spell checker.

#1 kuroneko on 29 Jul 2003 - 06:57

It keeps getting better

#2 DOCa Cola on 29 Jul 2003 - 07:02

yay, cool, have been waiting for that

#3 tangoman444 on 29 Jul 2003 - 07:24

yay!

#4 Shannon on 29 Jul 2003 - 07:33

w00t!

(4 replies) #5 Marduk on 29 Jul 2003 - 08:02

Looks to me like they are pwning all browsers atm.
Oh ya Thunderbird 0.1 is also out today, BRILLIANT to say the least of course.

#5.1 FraZor on 29 Jul 2003 - 09:52

pwning? No my friend, Opera 7 makes for a much better browsing experience. The Gecko engine is just too slow.

#5.2 broo on 29 Jul 2003 - 11:27

opera is waaaay slower then firebird, and firebirds just a hell of a lot tidyier and faster to use.

Still, each to their own

#5.3 antareus on 29 Jul 2003 - 12:58

Everytime I see "pwning" I want to cry.

Write in English, not CS 'I'm funny because I use misspelled words'; Counterstrike is a fad that has passed.

#5.4 hoodedone on 29 Jul 2003 - 20:06

QUOTE (#5.1)

The Gecko engine is just too slow.

Gecko is incredbily fast. It's the XUL interface that slows Mozilla down, but this doesn't affect page loading times (unless you're really low on resources). Also, with Firebird you don't have to worry about every single thing displayed being draggable even if it makes no sense to drag it.

(3 replies) #6 DWZ on 29 Jul 2003 - 09:13

I installed this a few weeks back just to test how my site looked on other browsers, and I must say, I'm getting hooked on it...

#6.1 smileham on 29 Jul 2003 - 10:23

I did the same thing, the only thing that made me go back to IE was the new Google toolbar

#6.2 KenLin on 29 Jul 2003 - 11:10

have you checked out the google toolbar for firebird?

http://texturizer.net/firebird/extensions.html#Google%20Bar

#6.3 silly_walk on 29 Jul 2003 - 19:44

Put this in your user.js file:

// Change to normal Google search:
user_pref("keyword.URL", "http://google.com/search?btnG=Google+Search&q="

;

Now whatever you type in your address bar will search on Google.

(1 reply) #7 LiGhTfast on 29 Jul 2003 - 11:21

love this beats the hell outta IE

#7.1 nu-cleer on 29 Jul 2003 - 17:09

I totally agree! I didn't think that IE could be beat but since using Firebird there is no comparison.....faster and with a great selection of skins....bye bye IE

#8 JCAP on 29 Jul 2003 - 12:30

Firebird rox

#9 JLP on 29 Jul 2003 - 12:57

Awsome. This will soon replace Mozilla which is my default browser right now. Both are just excellent. The best you can get.

(1 reply) #10 Webgraph on 29 Jul 2003 - 15:21

I'll think about replacing Mozilla with Firebird and Thunderbird once Firebird is available as an executable. But as for now, Mozilla 1.5a is nice.

#10.1 semifamous on 29 Jul 2003 - 18:18

OK. It's time then. Firebird is an executeable....

http://seb.mozdev.org/firebird/
Enjoy!! =)

#11 Heathen on 29 Jul 2003 - 15:31

I was using Firebird for a couple of weeks but I've gone bck to Opera. I just prefer it personally....

#12 janderson163 on 29 Jul 2003 - 15:41

This browser is great!!! I am glad I gave this thing a try. It is fast, blocks pop-ups, and supports tabed browsing. All the goodies of Opera/Mozilla, but in half the size. I am hooked....

(3 replies) #13 nic on 29 Jul 2003 - 16:44

Love firebird! Extremely Lite. Has great extensions
1. AdBlocker
2. Tabbed Browsing Extensions
3. "Flash Click To View" <---really awesome to get rid of flash ads!
4. Image Nuke <-- Some annoying image in the way of your article...NUKE IT!

Runs fast. Renders fast. My only complaint is I wish it had a better since of MIME types by itself. (If someone has their server configured wrong, and you try to download, say, a .rar file..you're going to get geberish if you don't right-click save target as...)

I haven't tried Opera though. I wouldn't either. Who wants to pay for a web browser?

#13.1 Flyer00 on 30 Jul 2003 - 01:31

Yeah, I'm a developer and my IE is suffering from the "missing gif" bug introduced in IE6 SP1 released last fall that Microsoft STILL pretends does not exist. So I was forced to find other browsers that displayed my sites correctly. I tried Phoenix and have been with it since. Excellent browser!

One question: How do you make the flash ads "click to display" ?

#13.2 Mav Phoenix on 30 Jul 2003 - 02:21

It's an extension, Google it.

#13.3 nic on 30 Jul 2003 - 04:46

http://texturizer.net/firebird/

it should be bookmarked with the firebird install.

(2 replies) #14 Skyfrog on 29 Jul 2003 - 18:55

I really like it. I think this is finally the version that replaces IE on my system for good. I didn't care much for the new icon, but I used Resource Hacker to change it to the old Netscape "N" icon and all is good now.

#14.1 semifamous on 29 Jul 2003 - 20:31

I personally like http://iconpacks.mozdev.org/phoenix/ with a nifty xpi installer at The Official Mozilla Firebird Site

#14.2 Mav Phoenix on 30 Jul 2003 - 02:20

Yeah those icons rock, they should definitely use those instead.

#15 hoodedone on 29 Jul 2003 - 20:09

I was a little surprised at the smallness of the "what's changed" list up there, but then I realized that most of the bugfixes I was thinking of were of nightly breakages, and not from the last milestone. Still, this one's definitely worth upgrading to.

Oh, and btw, the mozilla.org/projects/firebird now lists itself as a "developer resource," while mozilla.org/products/firebird is more of a product homepage now. I'd guess this change came about with the Mozilla Foundation stuff.

(2 replies) #16 joe0307 on 29 Jul 2003 - 20:22

Still waiting to be able to change profiles from within Firebird, like I can with Mozilla. Am I doing something wrong or is it hidden somewhere??

#16.1 semifamous on 29 Jul 2003 - 20:27

either add -p to the shortcut that you use to launch Firebird, or hold down the CTRL button while you're launching it... =)

#16.2 joe0307 on 29 Jul 2003 - 23:45

In Mozilla you can select profile from tools menu.

#17 mjames on 29 Jul 2003 - 20:30

Firebird is unmatched in the browser world. Woohoo!

(2 replies) #18 ^_^ Silly Willy on 30 Jul 2003 - 05:44

They really need a freakin installer.

#18.1 DJ^TuRKiYe on 30 Jul 2003 - 06:21

Nah they don't wants so hard about extracting it to a folder and running it?

#18.2 [saint dark] on 30 Jul 2003 - 09:15

QUOTE (#18.0)

http://downloads.mozdev.org/seb/MozillaFirebird-0.6.1-setup.exe

#19 insanekiwi on 30 Jul 2003 - 10:55

opera prolly looks more beautil with its default skin, but the tabbed browing under opera is a pain in the arse.

#20 NinjaOfLove on 30 Jul 2003 - 14:49

I tried it out, not too shabby. Nothing to make me use it on a regular basis, but nice.

(1 reply) #21 malebolgia on 30 Jul 2003 - 19:20

The best new feature for me is the new icon.

#21.1 Fotix on 30 Jul 2003 - 19:26

autocomplete crash fix is bettah!!!!

#22 WishX on 01 Aug 2003 - 16:14

Every little thing that kept me from using Firebird by default has been addressed in the Extensions section. There's an add-on for everything!

Downloading and installing it now.

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