First RC for Mobile Firefox Fennec
Stuart Parmenter, responsible for Mozilla's mobile realm, has announced at the start of the new year in the Mozilla blog the first release candidate for the mobile Firefox.
According to the software developer's announcement, the Fennec text rendering has improved. Under the covers there are to be various optimizations for the Nokia N900, such as /opt for an installation directory. Since N900 support begun in October 2009 beta 4, no new features were added. The release notes for RC 1.0 ended up being a summary of the beta phase accomplishments, so that enhancements aren't individually itemized. The stable 1.0 was actually planned for 2009.
Users already having the beta version installed on the N900 should automatically get an update notice. Other users of the N900 and N810 should install the Maemo build directly from the Mozilla download page, in one of the fully localized versions. For testers, translators and add-on developers without their own Maemo smartphone, a packed and compressed Desktop Builds version for Linux (i686), Mac and Windows is available per FTP.
Among known issues, the release notes list Flash performance problems when the browser plugin is active. Performance is also an issue with the less powerful N810 and N800 tablets; the intended use of Fennec is still on the N900.
The Fennec mobile Firefox has been in planning since end of 2007, originally intended for Symbian. Because the Mozilla team has meanwhile concentrated on the Nokia N series with Maemo, the question in the pavlov blog, "Hey, when it comes to Symbian smartphones..?" remains unanswered.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Gnome Developers Consider Dropping RPM Support
In a move that might shock a lot of users, the Gnome development team has proposed the idea of going straight up Flatpak.
-
openSUSE Tumbleweed Ditches AppArmor for SELinux
If you're an openSUSE Tumbleweed user, you can expect a major change to the distribution.
-
Plasma 6.3 Now Available
Plasma desktop v6.3 has a couple of pretty nifty tricks up its sleeve.
-
LibreOffice 25.2 Has Arrived
If you've been hoping for a release that offers more UI customizations, you're in for a treat.
-
TuxCare Has a Big AlmaLinux 9 Announcement in Store
TuxCare announced it has successfully completed a Security Technical Implementation Guide for AlmaLinux OS 9.
-
First Release Candidate for Linux Kernel 6.14 Now Available
Linus Torvalds has officially released the first release candidate for kernel 6.14 and it includes over 500,000 lines of modified code, making for a small release.
-
System76 Refreshes Meerkat Mini PC
If you're looking for a small form factor PC powered by Linux, System76 has exactly what you need in the Meerkat mini PC.
-
Gnome 48 Alpha Ready for Testing
The latest Gnome desktop alpha is now available with plenty of new features and improvements.
-
Wine 10 Includes Plenty to Excite Users
With its latest release, Wine has the usual crop of bug fixes and improvements, along with some exciting new features.
-
Linux Kernel 6.13 Offers Improvements for AMD/Apple Users
The latest Linux kernel is now available, and it includes plenty of improvements, especially for those who use AMD or Apple-based systems.