Firefox 23 released

I guess I'm not seeing the issues with options being "removed" that some of you are upset about. With some of the stuff you're complaining about, I can't see how having to go into about:config is bothering you. You realize the majority of users don't and shouldn't muck about with most of this stuff, right? The removal of an easy way to disable Javascript isn't an issue in my eyes either. Javascript being a completely on or completely off affair solves 0 percent of the problems with Javascript. If a user is concerned about Javascript safety, privacy and page loading, NoScript is the only real answer, pain to use it might be.

As far as staying on an old version just to avoid change, do yourself a favor and just leave FF or whatever browser that does the same thing *coughChromecough*. You'll save yourself some ranting and stay safer.

 

Please don't ask me to surmise anything about how you configure your software. I made a suggestion that I thought might help solve your problem, but since you have already solved it by disabling auto update what difficulty remains?

To adjust settings that are unavailable in the GUI you have to use "about:config". This is more complicated than the standard "Options", but with a little care not a problem. Even if Mozilla removes an entry from the about:config list entries can be created manually. It only truly becomes a problem if Mozilla removes support for a feature that you consider important, so that adding a configuration setting would have no effect. So far that's not the case AFAICT.

 

I thought that what was happening was that they had already removed support for the settings mentioned in about:config and that adding them back in would have no effect. I may have assumed incorrectly as I have not had a chance to check it myself.

 

Bookmark it and you don't even have to type it

(That also works for about:addons, chrome://browser/content/places/places.xul etc.)

 

I updated to the latest FF version (while in Returnil's virtual mode, so as not to keep the changes) and as expected the new FF version removes my preference to only have the tab bar displayed when I have more than one tab opened. I went into about:config and added an entry for browser.tabs.autohide and set it to true, as I had it set in my previous FF version. It had no effect. Apparently they have removed support for at least some of the options removed from the GUI and they cannot be used even through about:config.

 

Yes, if the particular one is only a workaround, unsafe at that.

Anyone else encountered/ fought the issue?

 

i guess you missed the part where i stated that the tab bar control has been removed the GUI and from about:config?

 

Why is toggling a supported option an unsafe workaround?

 

I have upgraded to Firefox 23 on all of my PC's. Firefox 23 seems to be functioning well.

 

You're correct that browser.tabs.autohide no longer works ( and you've made your point about Mozilla removing options too ). If you don't mind using an extension here is a very simple one:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/hide-tab-bar-with-one-tab/

I haven't tried it personally, but people are reporting it works for FF23. There is also Tab Mix Plus but it's overkill if you only want the "hide tab bar with only one tab" feature.

 

well I have tabmixplus and noscript. I am going to make a backup of my FF folder and then update it and see if any of the reset to defaults visibly annoys me.

They have changed configuration before in other versions but I think this is the first time they added to changelog.

ok so the javascript blocking on noscript still works.

visibly my current config thankfully seems intact.

of to check now my tls settings.

 

the tls tunables appear to do nothing.

its annoying firefox doesnt show the protocol version and seems no addons that enable viewing it either.

so I experimented setting min and max to 0, then 1, then 2, then 3, then 4.

3 and 4 shouldnt work on firefox 23.

whatever I set to the encrypted page loads and the reported encryption level remains the same which for this page is camellia 256bits.

 

The Calomel SSL Validation plugin may provide useful information. I'm not sure how the TLS version relates to the resulting encryption levels/standards for specific site pages.

 

yeah I was going to add that plugin but then see it has a load of tweaks on it as well that may mess with my configuration, and the screenshots seem to not show ssl/tls version either.

I tested on https://www.mikestoolbox.org/ which shows they are working. So I guess my own site uses the same ciphers on ssl3 and tls1. Maybe my httpd logs will verify it used both.

confirmed works on my site also I had to configure ssl protocol logging on my http daemon. I think really the ff browser needs to show this basic info.

 

Re the Calomel plugin the only problem I had was with the anonymize user agent feature which caused Firefox to be improperly detected on update sites such as Adobe flash. I'm not sure what, if any, relationship there is between the security standard, eg SSL/TLS, used to negotiate the connection and the resulting encryption used on the page.

There's another plugin called Cipher Fox which adds info to the drop down window (along with VeriSign info) you get when clicking on the URL of sites that support SSL.

 

Why does Firefox now not recognise the wmp.dll file any more? I reinstalled an older version of Fx & it was fine. But Fx 23 won't run the video on many BBC News pages now even making a plugins folder for it.

SeaMonkey will, once a plugins folder is made on the C-Drive. Maxthon & Opera 15 both run videos on BBC pages with no problems & IE 10 will when the plugin is downloaded.

A sheep named Dolly is cloned by scientists in Edinburgh, Scotland. BBC News Player

Thank heavens for Maxthon & SeaMonkey!

 

OK, thanks. That might do it.

 

I changed plugins.load_appdir_plugins in about:config to 'True' & it works now. Thanks.

 

No problem. I have an addendum though, this worked on my Vista (x86) laptop. It did not work when I tried this on my Win 7 x64 PC. In both cases I am using the standard 32 bit Firefox. With the Windows 7 computer I had to move the plugins folder into the browser directory as well.

'Important: Mozilla/Firefox 21 no longer scans the <installation directory>/plugins folder by default. If you have installed the new WMP plugin and it is not detected, either set the preference plugins.load_appdir_plugins to true in about:config or else move the "plugins" folder into the "browser" folder, located inside the installation directory. (bugs 844553 and 872325). [4] [5] [6]' ~ op cit

 

I did this a few days ago and noticed today that graphics were missing in emails such as those sent out by Newegg. After toggling that setting back to default the emails in my Yahoo account now display properly again. Looks like I'll have to leave it at the default setting for now.

 

I don't think Mozilla can do much about that(Except perhaps adding an option to exclude domains.) The images are loaded from Newegg's server and if they don't enable HTTPS it will be insecure.
BTW, I also noticed if you use Youtube via HTTPS, video's won't load, -1 for Youtube

 

So, this might seem like a bit of a silly question, but what's with all these changes in Firefox? They don't seem to be for the better to me & would deter those who can't fix these problems. I know Mozilla must have a rationale for this but I really don't know what's happening. I've been using Fx for over five years & at one time it was the only alternative on my notebook (IE 7 was beyond a joke) & I thought it was better than sliced toast. It's interesting that I'm typing this in SeaMonkey.