Firefox 5 news

Today Mozilla released the Final version of Firefox 5 ahead of its scheduled date. It has been slated for official release next Tuesday June 21. If you’d like, you can get it now here:
Windows

Mac

Linux

Before installing I HIGHLY recommend backing up your complete profile. For that I use MozBackup on Windows. You can get the Windows install here

For other OS’s you can use FEBE
To install FEBE download the .zip file then rename it with a .xpi extension and open it with Firefox.

I would also recommend that you install the "Firefox Add-on Compatibility Reporter" to Firefox 1st too. Get that here.  This will keep unsupported or updated plugins/add-ins from crashing the browser and may let some of them work even if they are ‘not supported’.

So what’s new in Firefox 5?

  • Added support for CSS animations
  • The Do-Not-Track header preference has been moved to increase discoverability
  • Improved canvas, JavaScript, memory, and networking performance
  • Improved standards support for HTML5, XHR, MathML, SMIL, and canvas
  • Improved spell checking for some locales
  • Improved desktop environment integration for Linux users
  • WebGL content can no longer load cross-domain textures
  • Background tabs have setTimeout and setInterval clamped to 1000ms to improve performance
  • The Firefox development channel switcher introduced in previous Firefox Beta updates has been removed.

As with any new software be aware that some items may have changed locations and some Extensions/Add-ons may not function correctly or at all. So once again let me re-iterate – MAKE A BACK UP OF YOUR SETTINGS/PROFILE before installing!! You may also with to download the version prior to version 5 incase you have to uninstall version 5 and re-install your old version.
Windows:
http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/latest-4.0/win32/en-US/Firefox%20Setup%204.0.1.exe
Mac:
http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/latest-4.0/mac/en-US/Firefox%204.0.1.dmg
Linux:
http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/latest-4.0/linux-x86_64/en-US/firefox-4.0.1.tar.bz2
For other versions and languages go here:
http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/latest-4.0/

Here’s to hoping that it proves to be a worthwhile upgrade!

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