How to Install Firefox 7 in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat & 10.04?

The fully Open-sourced & highly secured web browser, Mozilla Firefox just got a hell lot faster!. This "was" one of the things that Firefox had for a long time, the somewhat "excessive" memory consumption when comparing with other rivals such as Google Chrome for instance.

Although that's not to say Chrome is superior than FF by a huge margin since it also uses reasonable amount of your RAM, but somehow Chrome manages to stay relatively faster while rendering web pages (it uses the WebKit for page rendering which is known for being "light-weight") and other GUI aspects. Also it's worth mentioning that Google Chrome has a pretty simplified interface which should also be helpful to stay resource friendly.

Anyhow, yesterday Mozilla announced the availability of Firefox version 7 and according to them and my first few hours of using it... it does feel faster!. It's said that it may use 20% to 50% times lesser memory while running (including startup times, multiple tab openings, etc) when compared with the predecessors, mainly due to a feature called MemShrink, developed by Mozilla foundation.

Firefox 7 in Ubuntu 11.04...

And if you use MS Windows, then the new Firefox 7 will be using the Direct2D API, assuming that you have a reasonably powerful GPU, this should also help to balance some CPU power over the GPU resulting an efficient + stable web browsing experience.

This however does not fasten-up the web page loading times but only addresses the local resource management of the web browser itself.

Main features...

*. As said before the biggest change is the enhanced memory management (20% to 50% reduce).

*. Better HTML5 rendering and hardware acceleration support.

*. Web page load speed testing support for developers.

*. Opt-in performance report sending to Mozilla to help building an even better browser in the future.

*. With the start of Firefox6, the browser started to highlight the top-level domain URL. And with the version 7.0, the 'http://' URL prefix is now hidden by default (inspired from Chrome :D).

*. Update Web-Socket protocol (the protocol that controls the communication between your PC and the Web-Site that you're trying to load), meaning enhanced security while browsing web pages.

*. Few other CSS improvements and bug fixes are few among the main features to mention (there are no major GUI changes as far as I can see).

Anyhow, if you use Ubuntu, then:

You can install Firefox 7.0 in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat and 10.04 Lucid Lynx thanks to the stable PPA channel. To do that, simply open your Terminal window and enter the below commands.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-stable

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install firefox

That should do it. Although not necessary ... but since "things" can happen, just make sure to backup your data such as Bookmars, etc. Just in case.

If you use Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, then FF7 is already in the official repositories (not sure if it's available for the 11.10 beta users at this moment though) thus you should've received the automatic updates.

But if you had disabled the automatic updates, then you won't receive "the update". In that case, put the below command into the terminal which should do the trick.

sudo apt-get install firefox

So, it's true that the Google Chrome is still quite impressive and got me a little worried about Firefox for sometime now.

But when seeing the performance jump, although it may still not be huge (since 50% decrease won't happen to all), yet Firefox 7 is one of the most secured web browsers, although not be the most fastest (yet!), but it's certainly getting there :). Enjoy!.

Firefox 6 Is Available in the Official Ubuntu 11.04 Repositories

Firefox 6 (the most secured web browser in the world, kidding, but it's pretty darn good though, right? :D) was available for Ubuntu 10.10 and 10.04 users even before it was officially available for the Natty users.

And if you haven't disabled your automated updates in Ubuntu Linux, then as soon as they release it you should have it automatically install it. But since I have manually disabled the update manager because it uses too much of your bandwidth which can result in a cluttered YouTube videos :D (kidding, again, but I do have it disabled for other reasons)...

I've also been a bit busy yesterday and until I manually check this morning I didn't know it was available to Natty users. Anyhow, to install it (in my humble opinion, I think unlike with other releases, FF6 is well worth the update because as promised by Mozilla, it loads itself pretty faster than the previous versions) , perhaps you should re-enable the update manager t OR

just fireup your Terminal window and enter the below command to install the sucker!.

sudo apt-get install firefox

If you'd prefer a more cleaner installation, then first remove your current Firefox browser completely (make sure to take back-ups of your Bookmarks and other naughty stuff), then use the below command first.

sudo apt-get purge firefox

That should do it.

How to Install Firefox 6 in Ubuntu 10.10 and 10.04?

Mozilla Firefox is a highly secure web browser which is as good as the Google Chrome (okay, Chrome is a bit faster :D). I remember the excitement that I felt in the past after seeing Mozilla releasing a new version of their browser after a "long" time in today's standards but now were seeing rapid release schedules that are rolled-out in like 3-4 months cycle which makes the whole process a bit "usual" and a bit boring too :D.

Anyhow Mozilla has finally released their next version of the web browser, Firefox 6.0 which brings few changes to the GUI + especially for GNU/Linux users, Firefox 6.0 is now faster than ever thanks to the GCC 4.5 compiler series, "aggressive optimizations" according to Mike Hommey (a Mozilla developer) who wrote a post sometime ago.

Main features...

*. Well, if you've been using the it from the Beta version, then there aren't that many changes concerning the overall GUI and windows. But as said the address bar now highlights the "Top level" domain name, not a biggie, but maybe useful to some.

*. As said loads and feels a bit faster for the GNU/Linux users where in the past Firefox Windows version was always superior to the GNU/Linux version which "was" sad since Mozilla itself was an open-source project.

*. Reduced memory consumptions (as much as by 30% in some cases!).

*. Enhanced support for HTML 5 and CSS animations.

*. A newly added feature called "Permission manager" that lets us easily configure the behavior of passwords, cookies, pop-up, etc with ease. You can access its window by using the below command in the Firefox address bar.

about:permissions 

*. Better Java-script support (thanks to the Scratchpad, developers can easily build and run Java-scripts with ease in this version of Firefox).

*. Few improvements over the Firefox Sync app ... are just a few to mention.

You can install Firefox 6.0 in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat and 10.04 Lucid Lynx by using the below commands in your Terminal window.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-stable

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

But please be aware that the 11.04 packages are not released yet but this PPA is actually for the Maverick and Meerakt users (lucky geeks!) thus for the Natty users, I think FF6 will arrive in the official repositories with in few hours . So we gotta be a little patient :/.

If you want a more "cleaner" installation, then backup your bookmarks, etc and completely remove the current firefox by using the below command.

sudo apt-get purge firefox

Then follow the installation using the above commands.

That's it. 

How to Install Firefox 5 in Ubuntu 10.04 and 10.10 ?

Unless you want to get the all new "Unity desktop" or the latest versions of the GNU/Linux Kernel and other applications easily... no one has to abandon their, now the bit "old" Ubuntu 10.04 or 10.10 versions. On the other hand if you slightly older PC/Laptop hardware (especially the GPU or the VGA card) and don't want a computer that finds its hard to keep up with the OS, yes you'll be better off with those "old" Ubuntu Linux versions.

Unlike with the OS Kernel (the part that deals with your Hardware) there are however certain type of applications that we use quite frequently and we have to rely on the latest updates from the developers since they'll help us to enhance the security + may add some speed in general, which are always more than well come :D.

The web browser is the best example, especially concerning nowadays ;-). Google Chrome web browser has a very short time-line between versions which is working quite nicely for them at the moment which was shortly followed by Mozilla foundation with their famous highly secure web browser the Firefox. Now as a result unlike in the past, we as users can have new versions (updates and interesting features) in a much more faster "cycle", which is a good thing, right?.

In that sense if you arrogantly refuse to give up the old Ubuntu version which works quite nicely for you :P but still would like to install the latest Firefox 5 which comes with few new features but less GUI changes such as ...

*. Over 1000 of bug-fixes.

*. Better HTML5 support (the new era of Internet :)).

*. CSS animations.

*. Do Not Track - A Web standard which web browser developers "sign-in" to let the users know that their web browser is highly secure concerning users privacy thus no data will be "gathered" without their approval.

*. Better web page loading (layout detection) support for the mobile version ... are just a few to mention.

In that case, you can install Firefox 5 in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat and 10.04 Lucid Lynx by using the Mozilla's official PPA channel. To do that, as usual, open your GNU/Linux Terminal and enter the below command.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Yep... that should do it. Enjoy!. 

"Canonical Might Replace Firefox with Google's Chrome in the Future"

:- Says Mark Shuttleworth in a recent interview with the networkworld. But he said that this of course won't happen anytime sooner and the decision has already been made to not to replace Firefox with the upcoming Ubuntu Linux 11.10 + they won't be able to do it with the 12.04 (in the next year) since it's the long term support OS version. So we'll be seeing some more of Firefox with Ubuntu for some time :).

I don't know why people love Chrome not Firefox more.. I'm not a GUI expert nor a computer programmer, but, other than being impressed by the clean look-n-feel of Google Chrome and slightly faster web page loading times (including the browser), okay I get the picture :D.

This "move" again raises concerns for some, since Open-Source is not GNU and little by little, now largely, Ubuntu seems to not to care much whether its open-source or GNU... as long as it meets the end without having to worry about the means.

This is also highly relative since how we perceive the world depends on the paradigm that we "choose" to believe, thus anybody with the right authority can always make paradigm "shifts" without others even realizing it. But, they will only tolerate it as long as the "shift" doesn't conflict or threaten their identity because when it comes to protecting that which matters the most, only very few has the ability to let go.

Anyhow, we also have to remember that even though some call Google Chrome "open-source" which seems to be true to large portions of the browser but it's a know fact that the entire parts of the web browser is not actually licensed around "open-source" + some untrustworthy attempts by the browser should be a concern, or is it not?.

Although we can always argue that since it's open-source (most of it), we can create something secure using the existing Chrome which is true but... as said, this might raise concerns in the future. To be honest, I'm confused. What do you think?.

How to Disable "Feedback" Button in Firefox 5?

Few days ago (yesterday actually :)), Mozilla released the latest version of their award winning, highly secure web browser, Firefox 5. Although in comparison with the version 4, id did not bring any huge improvements concerning the GUI... but because of the bug fixes, performance improvements, etc it is well worth installing nonetheless.

Anyway, by default Mozilla Firefox comes with a button called "Feedback" which shows right next to the "Google search" tab. And as most knows the purpose of this Feedback button is to get user feedback faster thus helping to create an even better, secure web browser.

Also, via this button, you can "participate" in user studies and when a user study is available, it'll give you a big notification message which is quiet annoying. So, how can we disable this "Feedback" button in Firefox 5?.

Firefox without the "button" :)...

Simple, once opened, from the menu choose: "Tools" -> "Addons".

Step 1...

Then from the window that you get, from the left choose: "Extensions" and then to the right side of the screen you'll see an extension called "Feedback 1.1.1" (the version might change according to the updates.

Step 2...

Now all you gotta do is, select that "Feedback 1.1.1" extension and click on the "disable" button. That's it!. Now we've successfully disabled that troublesome Feedback feature. Such a short post, I feel cheap :).

How to Install Firefox 5 in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal?

If you want a secure web browser then both, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome are at the top (at the moment :) ). Although it may not be the fastest + Firefox web browser had its ups and downs in the past (you know the unimpressive memory managements, etc) but few months ago they released the version 4 which was pretty impressive!.

Since the start, Google adopted the GNU/Linux way of releasing new versions within a shorter period where MS Windows has a different approach of releasing a major OS version after every few years.

Although for an operating system it could be a different case but when it comes to a Web browser, well I think having a shorter releasing time-scale does help.. as Google Chrome has proven :). This is because, people these days are working more and more with their web browser rather than the "usual" operating system.

So, having a secured browser means frequent updates + new features, which obviously should help :D.

Anyhow, Mozilla did get "inspired" by this move from Google (after seeing the success of Chrome) and decided to adapt it and announced that unlike in the past, they'll also be releasing new versions of Firefox within a shorter period of time and as a result after 3 months of the initial Firefox4 launch... they just released the Firefox version 5!.

Main/New Features...

*. Well, you won't be getting a totally rearranged GUI... and the new Firefox5 does looks almost exactly like the version4. So no, the GUI won't be able to take your breath away... but again we have to remember that it's only been 3 months ... but it ain't our fault though :/.

*. Lots of bug fixes (about 1000 of 'em, scary stuff ha ;-) ).

*. Enhanced HTML5 language support (including XHR, MathML, SMIL, and canvas).

*. Better memory management, Networking performance and JavaScript speed "gains" which are always welcome.

*. Better spell checking.

*. Do not Track - This is actually is one of the most important features of all and is certainly not new to Firefox5 since it was introduced with FF4, which is the reason that I didn't put it at the top.

Anyhow, as you can guess, Firefox is a fully open (not open-source, even better, GNU Licensed) browser thus lets you to disable any opt-out of third-party tracking which are usually used by online advertising parties + it's always more open than other competitors when it comes to privacy in general. Their web browser's mobile version (for Android) is actually the first of its kind to include this feature as far as I know.

*. Improved desktop integration for GNU/Linux users, hurray!.

*. Smoother Scrolling - Yes, like many others, if you experience bit of a slow down while scrolling, then you should see some improvements.

*. Enhanced Web page Layout support for the mobile version of the web browser.

*. Finally supports the CSS animations - If you're a web developer then you know this better than I know it... anyway for all we users who're still learning GNU/Linux and tech stuff :)... this features enables web developers to develop even better looking websites (with animations of course) which helps to make the internet more beautiful that it is now.

It's really here! :D...

These are just a few to mention. Anyhow, if you want to know how to install Firefox5 in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, then thanks to the Ubuntu PPAs (including the Debian created excellent "apt-get" package manager), we don't even have to learn GNU/Linux command line that much anymore :/.

All you gotta do is just copy the below command and enter it in your own Terminal window and the rest will be taken care of!.

sudo apt-get upgrade firefox

You can also use the below command as well but unlike with the above command this won't upgrade your Firefox related plugins (if they have updates of course). So I recommend using the first command instead.

sudo apt-get install firefox

Although this is not necessary, but if you want to perform a "fresh install", then enter the below command first to completely remove the now "old" Firefox browser from Ubuntu 11.04. Then use the first command afterwards.

sudo apt-get purge firefox

*. Note:- If you do this, first make sure to make a backup of your personal browser related things such as Bookmarks, etc.

Because of the popularity of this "package", within few hours of the official release, it's in the official Ubuntu software repositories. So I should say a big thank you for the developers who made this possible.

Enjoy the most secure web browser version of the Firefox, 5 in your Ubuntu Linux OS!.

Introducing Prerendering Technology into Google's Chrome Web Browser

Giving users a more secured web browser is not just enough. That's not to say security is not important or anything like that but even if you have the world most secured web browser still, if it loads pages dauntingly slower... well I seriously doubt that anyone would be interested.

Anyway, starting with shorter release cycles, Google is certainly throwing everything at their simplified web browser called Chrome. Personally I'm not a huge fan and it had some issues in the past concerning user privacy, etc but the developers of the original Chromium are certainly adding cutting edge features, one after the other, nonetheless.

The latest one is called web page "prerendering". The technology is not invented by Google/Chrome but has been there for a while, as far as I know.

Anyhow the idea is pretty simple. Unlike with the usual behavior for the web browser where it totally depends on the user to tell him what site to load, etc but when you use the browser after enabling prerendering, it'll use algorithms to predict your next move!. Sounds a bit risky ... let me humbly give an example.

Say that you searched for Google for the term "learn GNU/Linux fast", then while the Chrome browser display the SERP result page, it'll also be working from the background and silently be loading the web page that it thinks you'll most probably click on.

Say that it cached or saved to disk the website that stands at the first in big G for that term, and the browser was actually correct about the prediction, since you did click on the the link of the first website, then you'll see an instant webpage loading! (0.00 waiting time).


But here's the thing...

Shi* happens...

Now for to prerendering to occur, it needs reasonably faster internet connection, otherwise it can easily jeopardize the user experience by making the whole process of loading a the webpage more slower than usual. For instance, let's assume that Chrome was fetching a website called "A" and it did contain a reasonable amount of data thus requiring some bandwidth. Now this is fine as long as the user chooses to click on the link of site "A" in Google.

But what if the user actually click on the site below "A" called the site "B" which is positioned 2nd. Now we have a situation where the web browser loads two websites simultaneously, one site is totally unnecessarily loaded thus making the actual site ("B" in this instance) loading more slowly (obviously). This is the most obvious issue.

Although as soon as the web browser realizes the situation, it'll stop loading the site "A" but... there's an another one.

Here's Google's own video example about it...



Say that like me, you have an internet connection with a monthly usage limit. Then by prerendering the wrong the website means unnecessary data/bandwidth usage, which is not good at all.

Anyway, from a user point of view, this is the most hardest part, prediction. Will there be a day where the computer software be able to predict all our actions, if so, then it'll wipe out the whole possibility for "free" thinking.... :/.

So, it's actually pretty interesting to watch the advancement of this prerendering technology and its success. Well I guess we'll certainly know whether its successful or not in the near future. Oh btw, this feature is proposed for the upcoming Google Chrome web browser and is also available in the Chrome Dev channels.

But not everyone will be using the Dev channels since they're actually beta versions thus won't be giving the most secured web browser version nonetheless. So, it's best to wait.

Wanna Install Firefox 5 in Ubuntu Linux 11.04 (testing purposes only)

Mozilla in their attempt of creating a secure web browser, has released Firfox 5, almost!. The all new Firefox is in their FTP repositories but it's not officially released yet. So GNU/Linux, MS Windows and users from other operating systems can download it and install. But remember, Mozilla is known to do final "small" tweaks to the Web browser... so if you want the best possibly fixed, secure web browser, then if I were you, I'd wait just a little longer :D.

If you download the appropriate package then all you have to do is extract the archive in GNU/Linux and run the executable Firefox 5 file which should let you run the new browser. But, this unlike with the usual method of installing it through your own software manager, will not create any icons nor menus, etc... so it kinda sucks.

In that case you'll be glad to know that, the Firefox 5 is actually in the Ubuntu Linux Testing channels. This is actually a standard procedure used (well, not just Ubuntu developers) by Ubuntu OS developers, before they made the official release of the any software it first "hits" the testing channels which anyone can participate by installing and using then giving them the feedback, etc.

Anyhow, as mentioned before, if you can't wait few more hours (actually it can be more than few hours, since we don't know when Canonical will make it available via Launchpad) until it's officially released, then you can install the testing version of Mozilla Firefox 5 in Ubuntu 11.04 by using the below PPA channel.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-security/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Remember, this will only work for Ubuntu 11.04 version only. And as said before, this is for testing purposes only and if you're concerned about security and want the most secured version of the Firefox web browser then wait for few more hours (I'll update you as soon as it's available for GNU/Linux). :D.

Oh one more thing, it seems like the only available language pack is English.

How To Install Google Chrome 12 (stable) in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal?

Ever since Google got their hands on the Chromium web browser and literally rename it to Chrome (well not entirely true) it has been expanding its "empire", with some speed I might add. We gotta give some credits to Google for choosing Chromium. It's like they've foreseen the future.

I mean, personally I hate the simplicity of Chrome yet it seems that most other are definitely favoring it. Its damn fast, loads websites faster than any other web browser, stable, plays Flash videos really well, comes with a PDF reader... what else do we need!.

But unlike with the Chromium, it's not like that Google just renames it... for instance in the past there was a rumor that the big G in fact been using the Chrome browser to spy on the users :/.

Anyhow few days ago Google updated the Chrome to its 12th version (still in stable release) which is now also available for GNU/Linux too. Although I'm personally ain't much of a Unity geek my self yet if you like Unity desktop nonetheless then you'll love a certain feature that comes with the Chrome 12.

*. libappindicator support - This is actually in its beta stage but we should give some credit to Google for recognizing the Ubuntu as something "especial" :). Now you can access few main options of the Chrome web browser by using the application indicator menus in Unity desktop (such as downloads/extensions, etc).

*. 3D CSS - I've said this before so not gonna repeat it all over again. But to be short - Chrome now has the ability to use your GPU for rendering 3D CSS animations found on web sites which should enhance the efficiency + better 3D animations in general.

*. Launch apps by using their names in ominibox.

*. Google gears have been removed.

So if you use Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal then you can easily install Google Chrome 12 stable by using the below commands in your Terminal.

sudo -s
echo "deb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ stable non-free main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
wget -q -O - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | apt-key add -
apt-get update
apt-get install google-chrome-stable

That should do it... but remember it's still in its "stable" version. Use it at your own risk. Oh and the application indicator menus are disabled by default. If you want to enable them, then...

1. On the URL panel of Chrome type the below command and press enter.

about:flags

2. This should bring you a new tab window and from the scroll down until you see an option called "Experimental GNOME menu bar support". You should see an "Enable" button, click on it and you're done!. Enjoy!. 

How to Install Chromium 12 in Ubuntu (11.04, 10.04 and 10.10)?

In truth it was Chromium which is the basic foundation behind the most successful (recent that is) web browser of Google Chrome. And few hours ago Chromium developers released the 12 th stable version and the cool Ubuntu launchpad geeks have released a PPA, already!.

Although personally I don't like Chromium or Chrome that much because, I'm a bit of a freak and I certainly don't like their simplicity. Plus, beware if you use Chrome because sometime ago a certain rumor got out saying that the big G is using Chrome to collect our personal data!, my mother warned me about this :P.

Few of the main improvements in this Chromium 12th release...

*. Better security (especially concerning Flash "objects", now you can clear Flash "cache" easily from your browser as you would do with clearing the usual web cache).

*. Hardware accelerated 3D CSS -

The HTML5 3D "Sheep Experiment", Google says "no animals were harmed" :)...

This means that whenever you go into a web site with 3D CSS animations, etc now Chromium will use your GPU (VGA) to generate those 3D effects thus minimizing the CPU load + enhance the power usage as well since a GPU is especially designed to deal with graphics rather than a CPU thus they are almost always more efficient while dealing with graphics.

There is the Chrome (not Chromium) 12's little 3D adventure with few animals if you like, oh it's only for MS Vista or Mac OSX 10.6 or above users, bugger :/.

*. Better protection against Malicious files -

Now, any fool can warn you about a malicious website before you enter if they already know about it. But with Chromium 12 (Chrome 12 also have it) now the web browser has the ability to analyze certain "patters" when it comes to URLs thus having the ability to foresee "the danger". Of course this does not mean that we're 100% safe yet it's more than welcome feature to have around, don you think? :).

*. No more Google Gears support.

*. Enhanced screen-reader support added.

These are of course a very few to mention. Anyhow, if you use Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.04 or 10.10 then you can install Chromium 12 by using the official PPA channel. To do that, open your Terminal and enter the below command.

    sudo apt-add-repository ppa:chromium-daily/stable
    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install chromium-browser

That should do it for you!. Enjoy.

ScribeFire - A Blogging "Client" Addon for Your Web Browser

If you have a blog or a web site then the usual tasks would be to open your Web browser and logging into your account then click on your "post editor" and then click on "create new posts", etc before you can do anything else :). Although once you get used to it, it's not a big deal anymore but if you'd like to simply install a web browser extension that takes your directly to your Blogging service which should speedup the process, etc, then ScribeFire is an excellent option.

Again, this is a browser extension... not a blogging client for your desktop. But when setup, ScribeFire can certainly makes it easy/speedup things a bit without a doubt.

Main features...

*. Very recently they updated to the version 1.7 which brings numerous bug fixes and Addbull monetization support for Bloggers.

*. Supports a lot of Blogging services such as - Blogger, Wordpress, LiveJournal, TypePad, Windows Live Spaces, Tumblr, etc (anything that supports the MetaWeblog or MovableType APIs).

*. Edit/Delete existing posts.

*. Create new posts.

*. Upload pictures.

*. Fully featured post editor (spell check, insert links, Bold/Italic texts, etc).

*. Supports major web browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera.

Once installed, the setting up process is pretty simple as well. If you want to give it a try, then please visit this official ScribeFire website for more (including downloading links for various web browsers, etc).

How To Install Firefox5 in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal? (beta)

I don't about how you feel but personally I love the Firefox4. When comparing with the old 3.6+ this new brower... from the redesigned (well they've certainly "inspired" by Chromium) GUI, memory management (still looks great even after adding some addons), stability to enhanced security... FF4 just rocks!.

Although when it was first released few months ago, some even said that this would be the end for Firefox as we know it (ha!). But as it turned out.... it's pretty popular nonetheless. I don't know if this positive feedback from the users, among their reasons but as soon as it was released they announced that, they're working on the upcoming version 5 as well!.

Mozilla has a standard procedure for their web browser release. For instance, for Firefox5 it has to pass there stages...Mozilla-central, experimental, beta and final. It has already passed the first "2 steps" now back in Friday they released the official beta version. If I remember correctly, it's scheduled to be released in June 29th.

This is not the "typical" behavior for Mozilla, but I guess that Google's Chrome release cycle may have something to do with that as well :). They've also introduced few beta channels called Nightly, Aurora and Beta which is again very similar to what Chrome has at the moment.

According to Mozilla themselves this is what these beta channels stand for...

Nightly test builds – Includes features not tested by Mozilla QA

Firefox Beta – Broadly test the stability of new features and improvements in the next version of Firefox

Firefox Final Release – Delivers the polished and stable features in Firefox to hundreds of millions of users

New version brings bug fixes and enhanced memory management and other typical things ... but most importantly, Firefox5 beta brigs dedicated CSS support to their web browser which can be used to create more "cool" looking buttons, etc on web sites which is certainly good news for web developers without a doubt. 

As a GNU/Linux user, you certainly don't have to wait till June to "taste" FF5 to use it on your Linux Laptop/PC... in fact thanks to a launchpad PPA channel... you can easily install the beta version already.

So, if you want to install Firefox5 beta in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal then simply open your Terminal and issue the below command. But remember, this is still at its beta stage... use it at your own risk :).

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-next

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install firefox

sudo apt-get upgrade

SRWare Iron - Chromium Based Web Browser Which "Respects" Your Privacy

Now, even though Chrome is the front runner as the "Google" web browser, it's actually the Chromium which Chrome is based on. Since Google now owns Chromium, every time Chromium developers come with a new version, the big G just take that and change few things (like icons, etc) and release it as Chrome!.

From the beginning Google was criticized by the expert for its "unnecessary" behavior. Not just its web browser actually, there was an interesting article on gawker today saying that Google even spies on us using our E-mail account!.

Anyhow, as I was saying, whenever you type a URL in your Chrome browser, to "help" the user for a better search experience Chrome actually sent your URL (which will "reveal" your sites, etc to G!) to one of their official servers, without anyone knowing it!.

The "honest" Iron browser logo ...

This is actually a behavior of a malicious software (developed by lord Vader :P) known as Key-logger. What a Key-logger does is, it spies on you by running on your OS background and every time you copy, enter text, etc... it just store them in it own database then it send that information to it master!. As you can see what Chrome does is almost exactly the same.

Not just that, notorious Chrome actually even goes further. Not just URLs, say that you use Yahoo or Bing for searching, then Chrome will remember those "text phrases" and sent them to its master the big G as well. These results were first test by this Italian blog post, if you have time and really concerned about your privacy, seriously read it!.

So you basically have two main "options.

1. You can say bye bye to Chrome and go for the cool Firefox4 or...

2. If you still want all those features offered by Chrome/Chromium (it's actually pretty impressive piece of software ;) ), then you can use the Iron Browser!.

Since Chromium is an open-source project, anyone can (although may not be as freely as GNU software) take the code and create something of their own.

That's exactly what the Iron browser does. Although I haven't tested it (I really don't need Chrome... I love FF4 :P) but according to experts, Iron browser has removed all those notorious codes from the Chromium/Chrome thus when using it, you don't have to worry about those above mentioned privacy issues.

Since it's based on Chromium... it offers all the cool features that Chrome/Chrome offers as well. So basically you have an exact replica of Chrome without all those naughty features :P. It's a win win situation for all.

How can I use it in Ubuntu/Debian?

Easy actually. Just download the .deb package from here and double click on it and follow the instructions on the screen. It's also available for MS Windows and Mac OSX as well. Get them from here. Recently they update to the latest version of Chrome which is now 11. Enjoy your newly owned privacy boys and gals ;).

Install pyBrowser in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal

pyBrowser is a simple web browser that's written in Python. It's written in C++ and the interface is from GTK+, so it integrates with Gnome quite well (as with KDE thanks to the Qt-GTK+ toolkit engine). Although it may not be as advanced as Chrome or Firefox, etc since it's a bit new... but the rest assured, it loads fast and uses very little of your system resources nonetheless.

So if your old Linux Laptop or PC kinda sucks with GNU/Linux these days because it seems that GNU/Linux ask for a bit more "resources" than it used to be... then pyBrowser will come in really handy. From support for Java script to flash video, this cute little browser supports a lot of major features any other web browser has but things like web page bookmarking, etc are still under development (but you can bookmark pages nonetheless) at the moment.

Image Via: Lffl.org.

PyBrowser, according to sources is actually the only browser that supports the Ayatana Scrollbars in Natty as well. The history actually goes back few years into the past, so it's not that "new", but the original project seems to be frozen at the moment. So someone has decided to move it to launchpad. Anyhow, if you use Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, then you can install pyBrowser by entering the below command.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mefrio-g/pybrowser-daily
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pybrowser

MeasureIt (0.4.8), A Web Page Screen "Ruler" Addon For Firefox4!

While creating or working with websites, a screen ruler application is a must!. For instance say that you were browsing a web site and got interested how it's designed, etc... thought to your self, "hmm, I wonder what is the exact width of the page".

By default you can't measure it in pixels no matter what web browser you're using.

Easy to use... and excellent as well.

But if you're using Firefox version 1.0 to the latest 4.01 version, then there is an excellent addon called MeasureIt. It did not support the latest Firefox version 4 until recently but now you can use it in the version 4 nonetheless.

Installation is pretty simple. Just go to this measureIt official mozilla page and click on "Add to Firefox" button and follow instructions on your screen.

Once installed, when the web browser asked, you must restart it. Even after doing that, in my Firefox4 the MeasureIt ruler did not show-up, if this happened to you (it happened to me) then use the below method.

1. From the main menu in Firefox4, go to: "View" -> "Toolbars" -> "Add-on Bar" (just make sure it's enabled - you should see a "check mark", if not, simply click on it).

Before enabling the Add-on bar (it's disabled by default if I'm not mistaken).

After enabling add-on bar (in Red is the add-on bar and in Green is our MeasureIt icon).

Now even after enabling it still if you can't see a that Yellow MeasureIt icon, then again go to : "View" -> "Toolbars" -> "Customize" and from the toolbar window you get, scroll down till you find the "MeasureIt" icon and simply drag it and drop on the above mentioned "add-on bar" (in Red of above screenshot) section in your Firefox4 browser. That should do it!. 

If you use Safari Web browser or the Google Chrome then no worries... it's also available for those browsers as well. Get it from this official author page.

Google Chrome Canary is Finally Available for Apple's Mac Users!

What the heck is Chrome Canary?

Fair question ;-). It goes back into the history actually. Back in the day when gold miners used to carry canaries with them as a way of "measuring" poisonous gas leaks which is still one of the main risks concerning mining in general. Anyhow, for some reason if there's a poisonous gas leak, then the poor bird would die before anything happen to the humans... so the miners used the bird as a way of evaluating danger, in a way.

A "real" Canary!...

That's exactly what you get with the Google Chrome Canary version. Google or the Chrome developers use the Canary edition as a way evaluating the stability of the browser before officially releasing it. This is the first time it has been released for Mac OSX users!, and anyone who wants to download the "Canary" version should be aware of the fact that, it's actually could be unstable than the official daily developer builds as well.

Yellowish logo ....

But if you're interested in "testing" or getting the cutting-edge technologies in web browsing... and a fan of Chrome, then Mac geeks :P, this is your moment!.

But...

Again remember, these builds aren't even tested manually before releasing, although not all the time but there could be bugs or especially major security related bugs!. So before downloading it, please take those things to account.

Anyhow, unless you're going to use the Chrome Canary in Mac OSX to store your passwords or log-in information, only going to "browse the web" then those concerns may be slightly lower. Also, once installed the Chrome Canary will get automatic updates as well. So if the developers discover new bugs and fix them... then the browser will fetch them automatically.

So before giving it a try... make sure you understand the risks and good luck.

Chromium 11 Is Released, PPA (Stable) Channel is ready for Natty Narwhal!

Chromium has released the version 11 few hours ago and according to Ubuntu developer Fabien, the official packages for the recently released Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal should be available within the next few (2-3) days.

But if you can't wait for the official release for the Chromium 11 for Ubuntu... then the packages are already in this Stable Chromium PPA channel. If you subscribe to this channel, you'll receive the updates when the official channel for Chromium 11 is released automatically.

Before you're using the "Stable PPA"...

The developers advice you to completely remove the current daily added stable PPA channel (if it's something other than this PPA) and downgrade Chromium using this PPA (you can read more information from the above link).

The Chromium 11 also bring few major features such as the ability to completely remove adobe flash videos cache from your web browser easily via the usual "clear browsing data" command + many more bug fixes as well.

Install Google Chrome in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal!

Personally I don't like the Google Chrome browser that much, because you know... it's too simplified which is also the case with Gnome but with Chrome I can always use the excellent Firefox4 :D... but with Gnome... well, I"m still looking for an alternative, OK, I'm stuck :(.

Anyway, Canonical is going to release their next major OS "update" which is the version 11.04 called the Ubuntu Natty Narwhal. Now many who simply can't wait for the next few days, have already downloaded and installed the latest & final beta version 2.

So, if you already use the Ubuntu Unity beta and want to try the Google Chrome (oh it's fast!) then you can do it easily as it was with the previous version of Ubuntu as well. 

Although the desktop have changed dramatically from the Gnome to Unity... but still other major core applications such as the Kernel and application managers are the same, so installing new applications can be done using the same old methods nonetheless.

So to install Google Chrome in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, open your Terminal and enter the below command.

sudo echo "deb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ stable main non-free" | sudo tee-a / etc / apt / sources.list
sudo-s
wget-q-O - https: / / dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | apt-key add -
apt-get update

To install the stable version... enter the below command.

sudo apt-get install google-chrome-stable

For the beta version, enter this command.

sudo apt-get install google-chrome-beta

For all those dudes and dudes :) ... willing to take a bit of a risk and want to install the unstable/latest version... well use the next command instead.

sudo apt-get install google-chrome-unstable

Apples Adds "Do Not Track" Information Option to the Safari Web Browser

With their recent Safari web browser (version 5), Apple has added "do not track" feature to its browser. If you haven't heard about this feature yet, then the idea is simple actually. As can be guessed with the name, when using this "mode", the web browser will not keep track of your visited sites or preferences in the browser itself or those information will note be visible to the outsiders to be prices.

Is it so important?

Well it depends. Several major online business models heavily depend themselves by accessing certain parts of the web browsers cache which helps them to "evaluate". For instance, the Google Adsense uses these information a lot.

Say that you're coming from a web site which is about fashion related and entering a web site which is all about weight loss, then you'll see both "fashion" and "weight loss" ads in adsense ad blocks. So, from a user point of view, this is actually good thus making the user less "exposed" to others.

But from a marketing point of view, it is quite handy which is why Google haven't "introduced" it in the Chrome web browser (both Mozilla and Microsoft do offer this feature). So, even though currently Apple only controls about 6% of the current browser market... this is a pretty good move by them.

In the mean time, for Chrome users, there is an addon which disables adsense using their web browser's cache by using an addon called Keep my opt-outs... until Google decides to offer this feature in Chrome :).