Portable Firefox 1.5.0.1 and 2.0 Alpha 1 Released

John T. Haller's picture
Submitted by John T. Haller on April 6, 2006 - 4:44pm

Firefox logoPortable Firefox 1.5.0.1 has been released. New in this version is:

  • Update to Firefox 1.5.0.1
  • Ability to use local homepages (see Readme.txt)

Get it from the Portable Firefox homepage at PortableApps.com.

Also available is a test version based on the Bon Echo 2.0 Alpha 1 release. Get it from the Portable Bon Echo homepage.

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Comments

When I select About Mozilla Firefox it indicates that I am using 1.5.0.1.

I let FF update a while back (you know the failed update and then the full download version.)

Is ther any difference?

Life is about the journey not the destination!

The Kazoo Spartan

John T. Haller's picture

PFF 1.5 can successfully update after the failure. This new version adds in a few things like the ability to use local homepages if you use an INI. It also has a launcher with the right number of prongs on the USB plug in the screenshot... which some people really wanted. Smile Also an updated help file. But you're ok using PFF 1.5 updated.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

Yes! I'm one of those. I was going to hold off updating until 2.0 final was released but if it will fix the image of the USB end, huzzah! Thanks.

Thanks John.

Yeah I had the update already, I was just pointing out the failure thing as proof I did it right.

Can you launch PFF 1.5 an 2.0 at the same time?

Life is about the journey not the destination!

The Kazoo Spartan

John T. Haller's picture

Just use the INI with AllowMultipleInstances turned on. There's a sample INI and a readme that explains it in the PortableFirefoxCode directory. I was able to use them side by side without issue... but it may have unknown side effects (Bon Echo being an Alpha and all).

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

Already downloaded PFF Bon Echo and will begin copying profile over tonight.

I'm very gratefull for all of your work.

Life is about the journey not the destination!

The Kazoo Spartan

Nice. Now only PThunderbird and it would be amazing Smile

John T. Haller's picture

It's coming out this week. Along with a couple more apps. I just didn't want to overload things and release ALL of em at once. (I've had a lot ready to go but couldn't release until PortableApps.com had a new dedicated server) Plus I'm in CA until Tuesday.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

John T. Haller's picture

I'm in Mountain View at the moment.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

John T. Haller's picture

We'll see what happens on Friday during the day as blogs pick up on the releases. I'm releasing more stuff later today.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

I was waiting for an official release for version 1.5.0.1 since it came out. Thank you so much! You released so many apps in the last few days. I'm going to have lots of fun with this! Portable Firefox is awesome!

PC Hackers

John T. Haller's picture

I honestly don't know, but I don't think so... at least I didn't see a way. It's a pre-preview release (hence the non-FF branding) just for testing the new features out, so it doesn't have import/export working yet.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

Hi John
I downloaded the newly added Portable Firefox 1.5.0.1 but I realised that the size was substantially larger than the previous release (1.5)
I compared the downloaded file to my local Firefox 1.5.0.1 installation and I realised that the EXEs DLLs and JARs are *identical* to the ones used in PFF. I assumed they would be compressed to save space in our USB stick. Am I missing something? Was UPXing the files against Mozilla license and you decided to drop this procedure? Only trying to guess...
Keep up the good work!

John T. Haller's picture

1. Keeping things uncompressed allows the update system to work within Firefox

2. Altering the binaries is a violation of Mozilla's trademark distribution guidelines.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

I'm not sure whether it is the lack of extensions I have installed in Bon Echo, but PBE (Portable Bon Echo) seems to be lightning fast.

I did try to install a nightly build tester extension to get Bon Echo to use 1.5 extensions that I like.

Does not seem to want to work. I know that this is the wrong place to ask and I am not asking.

Anyboy have any luck with bookmarks yet?

I cannot use the IE trick because of work restrictions.

Life is about the journey not the destination!

The Kazoo Spartan

I used the link you gave in the earlier post in this topic. I am going to try it again today.

Life is about the journey not the destination!

The Kazoo Spartan

Thanks so much for makiing this program! FINALLY, those without computers (like me!) have an option for web-work besides the annoyingly common IE! Can't work online without it. Biggrin

-----------------------------------
To all the open-source programmers:
Thanks for all the good work, guys!

-----------------------------------
To all the open-source programmers:
Thanks for all the good work, guys!

FYI

I coppied my profile from PFF 1.5.0.1 to Bon Echo. Not a good idea.

Nearly all of the extensions I had were incompatible and the bookmarks did not show up.

I now have to try a clean copy of PBE.

Life is about the journey not the destination!

The Kazoo Spartan

PBE uses SQLLite for bookmarks, not bookmarks.html.

Personally, I never copy a profile folder from one version of PFX to another -- extensions break, some extensions modify the app folder and thus break... I just copy key3.db, passwords.txt, bookmarks.html, cookies.txt, and the other really important files.

~nm35 {blog} {personal space}

John T. Haller's picture

"Though there is no help specifically for Portable Bon Echo, much of the information at Portable Firefox Support applies:"

and

"Test Note: This is a test version of Portable Firefox based on Bon Echo Alpha 1 (the first development milestone of Firefox 2.0). It is NOT A FINAL OR PRE-RELEASE VERSION OF FIREFOX. If you don't wish to be a tester, you may wish to use the standard Portable Firefox release instead."

Basically, NOONE except techies should be using this alpha software... and you shouldn't be using it as your primary browser. You can use your PFF 1.5 profile with it... and it will work just as if you installed Bon Echo to your local machine with FF on it. Obviously, it won't use the extensions, etc. This release is for testing only and I don't think I can make it any clearer.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

I was just posting a warning in this forum for others who may have tried a traditional copy profile.

I was not upset or worried that it didn't work.

I have been trying it out as a "regular joe".

I really appreciate all you are doing for those of us who are "techies", devs, or just wanna-be-geeks(me).

Thanks again John.

Life is about the journey not the destination!

The Kazoo Spartan

How come when I set DisableSplashScreen=true in the INI it still shows the Portable Firefox splash screen. I have always had this issue with all versions of Portable Firefox. Am I doing something wrong?

Ryan McCue's picture

to the same directory as the launcher.
----
R McCue

"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."

Ryan McCue's picture

Still didn`t notice it.
----
R McCue

"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."

John T. Haller's picture

I actually meant to put a comment IN in the ini to say it's an example and not in the right directory. I'll do it for 1.5.0.2.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

John T. Haller's picture

A note to read the readme.txt has always been in there. But few people actually read it... even when told to right in the INI.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

Ryan McCue's picture

no one ever reads the instructions.
Take my dad for example. He tryed to put a cabinet together, 3 hours later he finally admitted defeat and read the instructions.
----
R McCue

"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."

My PFF 1.5.0.1 just automatically downloaded and update to 1.5.0.2. Can I let it go ahead and execute this update without messing things up, or should I wait for an official 1.5.0.2 release from you?

(P.S. Many thanks for these portable applications. I can now move effortlessly from home to work computers and back. It's especially a lifesaver since I never managed to make myself understand file synchronization...)

John T. Haller's picture

The ability to update is preserved in Portable Firefox. The only change is that it asks rather than just doing it as the update process can be a bit slow on a flash ram device (flash ram is slow and can make the update take a few minutes).

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

Another one for the FAQ.

Life is about the journey not the destination!

The Kazoo Spartan

I'm using it this very moment indeed. My only major gripe if you will is the load time but it's still alot better then using Internet Explorer! Now if only there was a portable Opera.