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Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 beta of our next major release of our award-winning Firefox Web browser. More information about Firefox available.

These Release Notes cover what's new, download and installation instructions, known issues and frequently asked questions Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 release. Please read these notes and bug filing instructions before reporting any bugs to Bugzilla.

We want to hear your feedback about Firefox. Please join us in Firefox forums, hosted by MozillaZine.
What's New in Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 (Deer Park)

Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 preview of our award-winning Web browser. Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 available our early adopter community, Web site and Web application developers, and our Extension developers.

Here's what's new in Firefox 1.5 Beta 1:

* Automated update to streamline product upgrades. Notification of an update more prominent, and updates to Firefox may now be half megabyte or smaller. Updating extensions has also improved.
* Faster browser navigation with improvements to back and forward button performance.
* Drag and drop reordering browser tabs.
* Improvements to popup blocking.
* Clear Private Data feature provides an easy way to quickly remove personal data through menu item or keyboard shortcut.
* Answers.com added to search engine list.
* Improvements to product usability including descriptive error pages, redesigned options menu, RSS discovery, and "Safe Mode" experience.
* Better accessibility including support DHTML accessibility and assistive technologies such as Window-Eyes 5.5 beta screen reader Microsoft Windows. Screen readers read aloud all available information in applications and documents or show information on Braille display, enabling blind and visually impaired users to use equivalent software functionality as their sighted peers.
* Report broken Web site wizard to report Web sites that are not working in Firefox.
* Better support Mac OS X (10.2 and greater) including profile migration from Safari and Mac Internet Explorer.
* New support Web Standards including SVG, CSS 2 and CSS 3, and JavaScript 1.6.
* Many security enhancements.
* List of notable bug fixes since Deer Park Alpha 2

Downloading and Installing
System Requirements

Before installing, make sure your computer meets system requirements. Starting with Firefox 1.5, Mac OS X users must have Mac OS X 10.2 or greater.
Downloading Firefox 1.5 Beta

Mozilla.org provides Firefox Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X in variety of languages. To get Firefox 1.5 Beta 1, download it here or browse FTP site. To get latest version of Firefox 1.0, visit GetFirefox.com. builds other systems and languages not provided by mozilla.org, see Contributed Builds section at end of this document.
Installing Firefox

Once you have downloaded Firefox, follow these instructions to install:
Windows

Double click Firefox Setup 1.5b1.exe installer to start install.
Mac OS X

Once you have downloaded Firefox 1.5b1.dmg file, double click Firefox Disk Image to open it in Finder, and then drag Firefox application onto your hard disk. Drag icon to your Dock if you want it to appear there.
Linux/GTK2

Extract tarball and run installer like so:

tar -xzvf firefox-1.5b1.installer.tar.gz
cd firefox-installer
./firefox-installer

If you have Nautilus set up to run Executable Text Files you can just double click firefox-installer to run.
Other Platforms

Extract compressed archive and run firefox
Uninstalling Firefox

To uninstall Firefox, follow these instructions:
Windows

From Start menu, choose Control Panel. When Control Panel appears, double click Add/Remove Programs. Find "Mozilla Firefox (1.4)" in list and click Remove to uninstall.
Mac OS X

Drag Firefox application to Trash.
Others

Remove firefox folder.

These instructions leave your profile in place in case you install Firefox again in future. If you wish to remove your profile folder, remove location described below in "Profile Folder" section. Note that by doing this you are destroying all of your Bookmarks, saved passwords, settings and other information and should you decide to use Firefox again you will be starting with clean profile.

Other Information
Profile Folder

Firefox stores your user data in one of following locations:
Windows 2000, XP Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox
Windows NT WINNT\Profiles\\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox
Windows 98, ME Windows\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox
Mac OS X ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox
Linux and Unix systems ~/.mozilla/firefox

If you were using Firefox 0.8 as your default browser prior to upgrading to Firefox 1.0 or later version, data from your profile will be copied into new location. You can remove old "Phoenix" folder at your leisure.
Other Changes

* On Linux, Firefox now follows GTK's setting textbox keybindings, so pressing Ctrl+letters triggers application shortcuts instead of readline-like text-editing shortcuts. details, see this document.

Known Issues

This list covers some of known problems with Firefox 1.5 Beta 1. Please read this before reporting any new bugs, and watch it regularly (we'll update it as new bugs are found in release).
Extensions and Themes

You may run into issues with our new Extension Compatibility and Update mechanism. There are simple workarounds each of three problems we're aware of.

* If after you run Firefox 1.5 Beta installer, extension compatibility and update wizard does not appear, go to Extension Manager and manually check updates.
* If Extension Compatibility and Update wizard appears but does not complete, first try to focus some other window and return focus to wizard. If that does not correct problem, hit Cancel and go to Extension Manager and manually check updates.
* If Extension Compatibility and Update wizard downloads and installs extension updates but those updates are not applied, open Extension Manager and manually check updates.

Extensions installed under Firefox 1.0 may be incompatible and/or require updates to work with Firefox 1.5 Beta. Please report any issues to maintainer of extension. When you install Firefox 1.5 Beta all of your Extensions and Themes may be disabled until Firefox 1.5 Beta determines that either a) they are compatible with Firefox 1.5 Beta release or b) there are newer versions available that are compatible. This because Firefox changes from release to release and as such ways in which some extensions integrate changes, meaning there can be problems when running an older extension with newer version of Firefox. If you find that your favorite Extension or Theme has not been updated to be compatible with this release of Firefox, write author and encourage them to update it.
All Systems

* If you install Firefox 1.5 Beta on multi-user system in an area in which there restricted access privileges, you must run Firefox 1.5 Beta as user with access to that location upon installation so that all initial startup files are generated. If this not done, when user without write access to install location attempts to start Firefox 1.5 Beta, they will not have sufficient privileges to allow Firefox 1.5 Beta to generate initial startup files it needs to.
* Software Update will not work if Firefox 1.5 Beta installed to location that you do not have write access to, since Software Update needs to replace or create files in this location.

Windows

* When installing as restricted access user on shared machine into location that you can write to, there may still be negative side effects (default browser/other keys not being set correctly). browser should still function however. When installing as restricted access user do not attempt to install over an installaion in restricted-access/shared location as this may destroy that installation.
* Firefox 1.5 Beta may hang when closing after viewing PDF file in some older versions of Adobe Acrobat Reader plug in. If you experience this make sure you are using newest version of plug in.

Linux and Unix systems

* If Firefox 1.5 Beta installed to location with spaces in path, it may not be able to set itself as Default browser and may keep prompting at startup. work around to install into path without spaces.
* GNOME integration does not work properly with Fedora Core 3. Users of Fedora Core 3 will need to download and install linc-1.0.3-3.1.i386.rpm. After installing RPM, perform following command in directory you installed Firefox 1.5 Beta into (you will need write permission):

touch .autoreg

next time you start Firefox 1.5 Beta, GNOME integration should be functional.

Web Page Rendering

The Configuration Console (accessed by entering "about:config" in Location bar and pressing Enter) gives advanced/experienced users direct control over Firefox's preferences. This system use by people who know what they are doing only, by changing value incorrectly you may damage or destroy your Firefox installation! Look to Help sites handy preferences to tweak to customize Firefox further.
Troubleshooting

* Poorly designed or incompatible Extensions can cause problems with your browser, including make it crash, slow down page display, etc. If you encounter strange problems relating to parts of browser no longer working, browser not starting, windows with strange or distorted appearance, degraded performance, etc, you may be suffering from Extension or Theme trouble. Restart browser in Safe Mode. On Windows, start using "Safe Mode" shortcut created in your Start menu or by running firefox.exe -safe-mode. On Linux, start with ./firefox -safe-mode and on Mac OS X, run:

cd /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/
./firefox-bin -safe-mode
When started in Safe Mode all extensions are disabled and Default theme used. Disable Extension/Theme that causing trouble and then start normally.

If you uninstall an extension that installed with your user profile (i.e. you installed it from web page) and then wish to install it all user profiles using -install-global-extension command line flag, you must restart browser once to cleanse profile extensions datasource of traces of that extension before installing with switch. If you do not do this you may end up with jammed entry in Extensions list and will be unable to install extension globally.

If you encounter strange problems relating to bookmarks, downloads, window placement, toolbars, history, or other settings, it recommended that you try creating new profile and attempting to reproduce problem before filing bugs. Create new profile by running Firefox with -P command line argument, choose "Manage Profiles" button and then choose "Create Profile...". Migrate your settings files (Bookmarks, Saved Passwords, etc) over one by one, checking each time to see if problems resurface. If you do find particular profile data file causing problem, file bug and attach file.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What can I do to help?

We need all exposure we can get. Make it your mission to convert as many of your friends, family members and coworkers as possible. If you're student, get it distributed at your college. Submit story to Slashdot and other news sites about release. Make some noise on your blog. Mass distribution via Internet possible -- look at Kazaa. Spread word!
2. I use another browser because...

If you're not using Firefox, tell development team why. We read feedback at Firefox forums.
3. Why haven't you responded to mail I sent you?

Use forums. Firefox team reads them regularly. We all get lot of email and your email may get lost.
4. Where can I get themes and add-ons (extensions)?

Extensions and themes can be downloaded from Mozilla Update.
5. Who working on Firefox?

Lots of people. See Help->About Mozilla Firefox, Credits list of some of people who have contributed to Firefox.
6. Where's Firefox source code?

tarball of Firefox 1.0.7 source code available download. latest development code can be obtained by cvs. Firefox-specific source in "mozilla/browser", "mozilla/toolkit", and "mozilla/chrome". Please follow build instructions.
7. Where mail client?

Firefox works with whatever mail client default on your system. However, we recommend Mozilla Thunderbird, our next generation email client and perfect complement to Firefox.
8. How do I spell Firefox? How do I abbreviate it?

Firefox spelled F-i-r-e-f-o-x - only first letter capitalized (i.e. not FireFox, not Foxfire, FoxFire or whatever else number of folk seem to think it to be called.) preferred abbreviation "Fx" or "fx".