Mozilla 1.4 Beta & 1.3.1 Released, XPI Features Restored

The Mozilla Organization has released versions 1.4 Beta and 1.3.1 of its Web browser suite. Version 1.3.1 is the latest stable release, while 1.4 Beta is a more cutting-edge milestone. Mozilla 1.3.1 for Mac OS X is again able to use XPI, a system to easily add extra components, such as themes, to the browser suite. This ability was broken in version 1.3. From the Mozilla 1.3.1 release notes:

Mozilla 1.3.1 was released to restore XPI functionality for Mac OS X users. Mac users who need XPI functionality and cannot upgrade to Mozilla 1.4beta or wait for the final release of Mozilla 1.4 are encouraged to upgrade to this release.

Mozilla 1.4bis improvements include separate behavior settings for the first window, new windows, and new tabs. In other words, one could have a specific page load when the browser first launches, another when subsequent new windows are opened, and yet another different page in new tabs. From the Mozilla 1.4b release notes:

  • Mozilla on Windows now has support for NTLM authentication. This enables Mozilla to talk to MS web and proxy servers that are configured to use "windows integrated security".
  • Users can now specify "blank page," "home page," or "last page visited" for each of first window, new window and new tab.
  • Users can now specify default font, size and color for HTML mail compose.
  • Image blocking/disabling is now more flexible and users can "view image" to see blocked or not loaded images.
  • Mozilla Mail now has CRAM-MD5 and DIGEST-MD5 AUTH support.
  • "Launch file" after downloading has been enabled for .exe files.
  • As of Mozilla 1.4b, it is possible to build Mozilla for Win32 using GCC. See the win32 build instructions for details.
  • Proxy auto-config (PAC) failover has been implemented.

Both versions can be downloaded at the Mozilla releases page.