Hacking for Mozilla

Firefox/Thunderbird Updates

Fri, 11 May 2007 16:22:15 GMT

As part of Mozilla's commitment to security and stability updates for both the Firefox and Thunderbird platforms, the next releases will update Firefox to 2.0.0.4 and Thunderbird as well to sync up the release cycles. The updates are due sometime this month.

Firefox 1.5 Support Extended to mid-May

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 10:28:19 GMT

Mozilla has announced via MDC that it is extending it's support for the Mozilla Firefox 1.5 branch with security and stability upgrades until mid-May this year and is actively encouraging users to upgrade to the Firefox 2.0 branch.

Original post here:

Mozilla Developer Center Firefox 1.5 post

Thunderbird 2 Covered on BoingBoing

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 16:17:01 GMT

Thunderbird 2.0 has had it's own coverage on Cory Doctorow's BoingBoing as well. Link available here.

ABP now Checked into Mozilla

Sat, 21 Apr 2007 02:25:59 GMT

Wladamir Palant of ABP fame has now checked in part of the content filtering code into Mozilla 1.8.1 branch (Firefox 2.0) and will be included in the future Firefox 2.0.0.4 update due out in May 2007.

Adblock Plus has also been updated to version 0.7.5 and is available via AMO.

Thunderbird 2.0 in all it's glory

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 15:40:03 GMT

With an improved visual theme like such? How could you not upgrade?

Mozilla Releases Thunderbird 2.0

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 15:08:52 GMT

The Mozilla Foundation has now officially released Thunderbird 2.0 for the Windows, Mac and Linux platforms. The release comes nearly two weeks after the 1st Release Candidate on the 6th of April and features a number of of new features including:

Tighter support for webmail integration for services like Gmail;
Gmail-style tagging of messages;
Better notification system for new E-mail;
Improved 'Add-ons' for extensions and themes

Thunderbird is available through the usual channels through the Mozilla home page and www.getthunderbird.com

Embracing the Chaos

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 15:01:53 GMT

One of the top Mozillians Mike Beltzner, is in San Fransisco this week at the Web 2.0 expo along with Alex Faaborg and Brenden Eich and from the sound of it, he's excited with it:

"What truly excites me about my job at Mozilla is that I’m not just having an effect on the web ecosystem, and on a product that helps millions of people accomplish their tasks online, but that I’m also having an effect on how software is made. Common wisdom is that software design processes are antithetical to open source methodologies. My talk on Monday was was about how over the past two years, I’ve found that open source methodologies themselves aren’t at all resistant to strong software design processes, and in fact, that those processes could learn a thing or two from the world of open source. After all, good design is all about listening to your users — the problem is that existing design methodologies don’t scale well across chaotic, noisy communities."

- Mike Beltzner, via Planet Mozilla

There are also some slides up from the talk with such quotes "Add BitTorrent support", "No-one uses the 'Go' button" and "Close buttons are better at the end of the tab strip" [I have to agree, I miss that from Firefox 1.5].

AMO Updates

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 14:47:33 GMT

AMO has been updated, most were bug fixes while other's were localisation issues and updating languages available.

"Since the site launched a couple weeks ago, the AMO crew has been working diligently to polish off some of the rough edges and fix the bugs that have been reported. We’ve pushed an update to the site tonight that:

Fixes files that couldn’t be downloaded
Updates for all 13 languages currently offered
Fixes add-on data that was being encoded improperly (And removed the excessive encoding of some data)
Added a localizer control panel
Fixes a problem with language fall back
Fixes over 80 total bugs, many from v2, including one filed from 2004."

From the AMO WebDev Blog

Link: Mozilla Add-ons

Top Five Firefox Extensions

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 17:00:45 GMT

Do a search on the Internet and you'll literally find dozens of arbitrary top ten lists of Firefox extensions, some are useful like AdBlock Plus, PDFDownload, ErrorZilla Mod and PhishTank Sitechecker (to complement Firefox 2.0's already built-in anti-phishing capabilities).

Having a look at the main Mozillian Asa Doltzer's top ten and there are definitely some useful in there such as Resizeable text areas, FireBug (if you're into that) and the WikiPedia search plug in.

Mozilla Labs: The Coop

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 16:27:42 GMT

Most will remember this when Mozilla Labs announced about the Coop, a (currently) experimental extension for the Firefox web browser which aims to bring user closer together. Users of the Mozilla Firefox-based browser Flock will also note that this will also bring users closer together using the built in tools in Flock as the 'social browser'.

CyberNetNews also posted today about the Mozilla Foundation's latest release with Gran Paradiso aka Minefield release of Firefox 3.0

It also has information on the release schedule and the new features that the open source browser will incorporate after it's final alpha release in June 2007.

Minimo 0.2 Released

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 16:26:21 GMT

Minimo the Firefox-based browser for cellphones and PDA's has been released by Doug Turner, the release comes for Windows Mobile 5.0 as and other mobile platforms.

Summer of Code Deadline

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 20:37:08 GMT

The deadline for applying to the Mozilla Summer of Code is today, the successful project will be mentored by the Mozilla Foundation and the winning student will be given $4500.

Firefox 3 Alpha 3 Released

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 23:20:43 GMT

The latest (and presumably last) alpha of Firefox 3.0 - Gran Paradiso Alpha 3 - has been been released. Alpha 3 contains support for animated PNG's or APNG's. According to MDC, there are no significant UI changes to the interface itself with most of the code changes under the hood. Release notes are available at the Mozilla release notes page

Official announcement at MDC

Firefox Community Beta Program

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 19:02:01 GMT

The Mozilla Foundation is releasing 'beta' builds available for download and testing. These are beta builds (read: not for everyday use) and used for testing the latest security and stability updates to the Gecko-based browser. More news available at Mozilla Developer Center

News Link: Firefox Community Beta Program

Mozilla Firefox Security Updates Available

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 18:53:44 GMT

(Originally posted at OSS Blog)

The latest security and stability updates are now available for the open-source Mozilla Firefox browsers 2.0.0.3 and 1.5.0.11 and are available through either auto-update or through the manual method (Help/Check for Updates).

Firefox 1.5.0.x will continue to be support until April 24th (24/04/2007) as part of the Mozilla Foundation/Corporations support update cycle.

MozBlog Now Active

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 16:33:57 GMT

Finally it's setup. Had some teething problems but nothing to be concerned about. This part of my blog will partially mirror my other OSS blog - OSS Blog

Custom List: Links

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 20:37:05 GMT

Links

Mozilla Foundation
The Home of the Mozilla projects: Firefox and Thunderbird.
BitTorrent
The open-source BitTorrent protocol.
Sun JRE
The Java Runtime Environment, sometimes needed for Java-based applications.
MozDev
Hosting for Firefox/Thunderbird extensions.
Mozilla Add-ons
Main site repository for Firefox and Thunderbird extensions.
EL Reg
Satirical IT/Media news site.

Book List: Book List

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 20:26:28 GMT

Brian King, David Boswell, Pete Collins et al.: Creating Applications with Mozilla
Serves as an introduction to the Mozilla framework and XUL which allows open-source developers to build cross-platform applications using XUL - XML User Language Interface - as well as CSS, JavaScript, Gecko and XPCOM, Mozilla's component module
Mark Pilgrim: Greasemonkey Hacks
Greasemonkey Hack's is written for those who are familer with the popular Firefox extension of the same name that allows users to write custom scripts (often JavaScript based) to fix rendering bugs, add additional functionality to web sites etc...