Firefox 38 will be released tomorrow morning. Here's what's new and what you may need to know!
Release Notes:
Firefox 38 is the base for the next Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR). Firefox ESR is a special release of Firefox which only gets bug fixes, not new features, for nine regular release cycles. This version is used mostly by large schools and enterprise style organizations who want a version of Firefox which doesn't change as often. What this means for us is that a lot of people will be seeing new features-- every feature released from Firefox 32.0 through Firefox 38.x!
Preferences now load in a tab, instead of a native pop-up. The locations of most settings are unchanged, aside from being within the tab. However, the look/feel of the tab is very different from the old pop-up. Many users are likely to be upset by this change. However, we expect this change to lead to a much better experience in the long run. (Thanks Phillipp!)
Windows Only: Firefox 38 running on Windows Vista and later will Automatically download the Adobe Primetime Content Decryption Module (CDM) for DRM playback through EME. While this is a hotly debated feature, I think we can all agree that it will be nice to see Silverlight and Flash used less! (Silverlight and Flash are how most content distributors currently implement DRM in browsers on Windows.)
Various improvements for developers.
Various performance improvements.
You probably noticed that this is a pretty sparse release. This is partially due to the more feature rich v38.0.5, which will be released on June 2nd. Firefox 38.0.5 will be released on June 2nd whether or not there anything comes in between 38.0.0 and 38.0.5. Confused yet? Join the club! I'll be sure to post again on June 1st to make sure we're all as non-confused as possible.
Firefox 38 will be released tomorrow morning. Here's what's new and what you may need to know!
'''Release Notes:'''
* Firefox 38 is the base for the next [https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/faq/ Firefox Extended Support Release] (ESR). Firefox ESR is a special release of Firefox which only gets bug fixes, not new features, for nine regular release cycles. This version is used mostly by large schools and enterprise style organizations who want a version of Firefox which doesn't change as often. What this means for us is that a lot of people will be seeing new features-- every feature released from Firefox 32.0 through Firefox 38.x!
* Preferences now load in a tab, instead of a native pop-up. The locations of most settings are unchanged, aside from being within the tab. However, the look/feel of the tab is very different from the old pop-up. Many users are likely to be upset by this change. However, we expect this change to lead to a much better experience in the long run. (Thanks Phillipp!)
* Windows Only: Firefox 38 running on Windows Vista and later will Automatically download the Adobe Primetime Content Decryption Module (CDM) for [https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-drm DRM playback through EME]. While this is a hotly debated feature, I think we can all agree that it will be nice to see Silverlight and Flash used less! (Silverlight and Flash are how most content distributors currently implement DRM in browsers on Windows.)
* Various improvements for developers.
* Various performance improvements.
You probably noticed that this is a pretty sparse release. This is partially due to the more feature rich v38.0.5, which will be released on June 2nd. Firefox 38.0.5 will be released on June 2nd whether or not there anything comes in between 38.0.0 and 38.0.5. Confused yet? Join the club! I'll be sure to post again on June 1st to make sure we're all as non-confused as possible.
the most user-facing change in firefox 38 for the moment will be the switch of preferences being displayed within a tab and with a new design.
for users who have changed browser.search.showOneOffButtons to false in order to avoid the new search bar dialog for the moment, the search panel in the new options will be broken in firefox 38, but a fix is implemented for 38.0.5 and esr: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1160076
the most user-facing change in firefox 38 for the moment will be the switch of preferences being displayed within a tab and with a new design.
for users who have changed ''browser.search.showOneOffButtons'' to ''false'' in order to avoid the new search bar dialog for the moment, the search panel in the new options will be broken in firefox 38, but a fix is implemented for 38.0.5 and esr: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1160076
Thanks, Philipp! I didn't realize the new preferences style was coming in 38. That's not in the official release notes- but it probably should be! I'll look into getting those updated.
Thanks, Philipp! I didn't realize the new preferences style was coming in 38. That's not in the official release notes- but it probably should be! I'll look into getting those updated.
Firefox 38 for Android will also be released Tuesday May 12, 2015 morning Pacific time (not many changes just like Desktop):
Reader view controls - change to read view and add more controls
Send to other devices - string change, toast appears from the bottom, you have to be logged into Firefox Account to see this option
Onboarding start pane aka Revised Welcome Screen
Tablets have a new synced tabs panel in landscape mode in about:home
Firefox 38 for Android will also be released Tuesday May 12, 2015 morning Pacific time (not many changes just like Desktop):
* Reader view controls - change to read view and add more controls
* Send to other devices - string change, toast appears from the bottom, you have to be logged into Firefox Account to see this option
* Onboarding start pane aka Revised Welcome Screen
* Tablets have a new synced tabs panel in landscape mode in about:home
As a temporary workaround for the problem with the Search panel in about:preferences, users of the "old" search box can use the "old" Manage Search Engines dialog by pasting the following in the address bar and pressing Enter/Return to load it:
chrome://browser/content/search/engineManager.xul
As a temporary workaround for the problem with the Search panel in about:preferences, users of the "old" search box can use the "old" '''Manage Search Engines''' dialog by pasting the following in the address bar and pressing Enter/Return to load it:
chrome://browser/content/search/engineManager.xul
because it came up on different occasions: updates (also through manually checking help > about firefox) are currently turned off due to the startup crash from bug 1154703.
because it came up on different occasions: updates (also through manually checking ''help > about firefox'') are currently turned off due to the startup crash from [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1154703 bug 1154703].
linux users in the forum are reporting scaling issues after the update. that's probably related to the landing of ''Bug 1081142 - [HiDPI] select an appropriate scale factor on Linux'' in firefox 38:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1061820
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1061791
All 38 releases are off (Help > about Firefox '''& from''' https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/ ) ?
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1061799#answer-727712
Here is the complete list of fixes for 38.0.1. If all goes as planned it will be released today and updates enabled again.
Driver
Bug 1154703 - startup crash in mozilla::layers::CompositorD3D11::Initialize() with nvdxgiwrap
Ride alongs
Bug 1162205 - Empty Chrome imported cookie values cause Twitter and Gmail redirect loops
Bug 1161859 - Compute the size of animated image frames correctly in the SurfaceCache
Bug 1162251 - WebRTC H264 regression in packetization
- ESR only, missed shipping in ESR 38.0 but did ship in Firefox 38.0
Mobile 38.0.1
Driver
Bug 1163841 - crash in org.mozilla.gecko.gfx.GLController$GLControllerException: No available EGL configurations Error 12289 at org.mozilla.gecko.gfx.GLController.AttemptPreallocateEGLSurfaceForCompositor(GLController.java)
Ride alongs
Bug 1164468 - Fennec 38 caused huge decrease in submitted MLS stumbling data
Bug 1161859 - Compute the size of animated image frames correctly in the SurfaceCache
Here is the complete list of fixes for 38.0.1. If all goes as planned it will be released today and updates enabled again.
'''Driver'''
Bug 1154703 - startup crash in mozilla::layers::CompositorD3D11::Initialize() with nvdxgiwrap
'''Ride alongs'''
Bug 1162205 - Empty Chrome imported cookie values cause Twitter and Gmail redirect loops
Bug 1161859 - Compute the size of animated image frames correctly in the SurfaceCache
Bug 1162251 - WebRTC H264 regression in packetization
- ESR only, missed shipping in ESR 38.0 but did ship in Firefox 38.0
'''Mobile 38.0.1'''
'''Driver'''
Bug 1163841 - crash in org.mozilla.gecko.gfx.GLController$GLControllerException: No available EGL configurations Error 12289 at org.mozilla.gecko.gfx.GLController.AttemptPreallocateEGLSurfaceForCompositor(GLController.java)
'''Ride alongs'''
Bug 1164468 - Fennec 38 caused huge decrease in submitted MLS stumbling data
Bug 1161859 - Compute the size of animated image frames correctly in the SurfaceCache
A user is reporting that using the latest versions of Trusteer Rapport and NoScript in Firefox 38.0.1 can cause Firefox to crash on any/every page load. This has been posted on the NoScript.net forum, but I'm not getting a "we'll fix it" vibe from the threads there.
A user is reporting that using the latest versions of Trusteer Rapport and NoScript in Firefox 38.0.1 can cause Firefox to crash on any/every page load. This has been posted on the NoScript.net forum, but I'm not getting a "we'll fix it" vibe from the threads there.
* https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1062141
(Crash report IDs not supplied)
Preferences now load in a tab, instead of a native pop-up. The locations of most settings are unchanged, aside from being within the tab. However, the look/feel of the tab is very different from the old pop-up. Many users are likely to be upset by this change. However, we expect this change to lead to a much better experience in the long run. (Thanks Phillipp!)
We can calm down some of them : browser.preferences.inContent toggle to false in about:config.
''Mark Schmidt [[#post-65115|said]]''
<blockquote>
.............
* Preferences now load in a tab, instead of a native pop-up. The locations of most settings are unchanged, aside from being within the tab. However, the look/feel of the tab is very different from the old pop-up. '''Many users are likely to be upset by this change'''. However, we expect this change to lead to a much better experience in the long run. (Thanks Phillipp!)
</blockquote>
We can calm down some of them : '''browser.preferences.inContent''' toggle to false in about:config.
There seems to be a bug with this set of circumstances:
(1) Tabbed browsing turned off
(2) Private window
(3) Link with target="_blank" ''(and possibly other values)''
The new window opens without chrome. Users are describing this in various terms including "no scroll bar", "no menu", "popup window", etc.
Currently known workarounds:
(1) Use tabbed browsing
(2) Shift+click links to open in a new window with normal chrome
STR: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1062578#answer-730359
jscher, that's https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1166066. can you tag those issues you come across with "bug1166066" so that we have an overview of how many users this affects and can easily get back to them once a fix lands? thanks
jscher, that's https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1166066. can you tag those issues you come across with "bug1166066" so that we have an overview of how many users this affects and can easily get back to them once a fix lands? thanks
a number of users with the generic windows vga drivers report slowdowns on firefox 38 with hardware acceleration enabled - https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1165732
Hey everyone, we are still investigating the slowness issue, and will hopefully have a fix in 38.0.5, but until then, turning off HWA seems to be an effective solution for most users. Users can also try updating their graphics driver, but that isn't always possible and we are seeing slowness reports with recent drivers as well.
Hey everyone, we are still investigating the slowness issue, and will hopefully have a fix in 38.0.5, but until then, turning off HWA seems to be an effective solution for most users. Users can also try updating their graphics driver, but that isn't always possible and we are seeing slowness reports with recent drivers as well.
we now have an article about the slowness issue as well, that we can direct affected users to (or hopefully many of them are able to find on their own): Firefox is slow after updating to Firefox 38
we now have an article about the slowness issue as well, that we can direct affected users to (or hopefully many of them are able to find on their own): [[Firefox is slow after updating to Firefox 38]]
Whether or not there are issues with open source on some Linux distros software has been obtainable outside of distros, and of most relevance here we have Mozilla builds of Firefox for Macs and Linux.
Also AIUI we do not incorporate the none open source code directly ourselves, even in Firefox Windows we use code from a partner.
I will cross post this as a separate question, and it is probably best answering there.
What is the Position with DRM on Mac & Linux
Whether or not there are issues with open source on some Linux distros software has been obtainable outside of distros, and of most relevance here we have Mozilla builds of Firefox for Macs and Linux.
Also AIUI we do not incorporate the none open source code directly ourselves, even in Firefox Windows we use code from a partner.
I will cross post this as a separate question, and it is probably best answering there.
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'''X-Link''' <u>'''[/forums/contributors/711360 DRM on Mac s & Linux. When & IF it will be introduced ?]'''</u>
