about:mozilla - Nov 26, 2007
In this issue…
- The Book of Mozilla
- Mozilla Foundation launches Directed Giving program
- Firefox 3 Beta 1 now available
- Proto: new Mac theme in beta
- Memory leaks and Mozilla
- Extend Firefox 2 add-on contest
- Developer Calendar
- Get this newsletter by email
Welcome to the inaugural issue of about:mozilla, the Mozilla Project’s community newsletter. Every Monday we’ll be bringing you the latest news, information, and announcements from across the breadth of the project, giving you a heads-up on the coming week’s meetings and events, and helping you stay on top of what’s going on in the Mozillaverse.
We encourage community members to submit news items for about:mozilla. If there’s something you think should be included in the newsletter, send it along to mozilla-news-submissions@mozilla.org. If you have questions or comments, you can contact the editor at news-editor@mozilla.org. Your feedback is always welcome and appreciated.
Mozilla Foundation launches Directed Giving program
When you donate to the Mozilla Foundation, you now have the option of directing your donations to one of four selected projects (Bugzilla, SeaMonkey, Camino, and Mozilla accessibility for people with disabilities). You can also choose to make a traditional unrestricted donation as well. The Mozilla Foundation will take note of your choice, and keep track of how much money has been designated for each project. They will then work with the people responsible for each project and come up with some worthy project-related initiatives to fund using those designated donations.
As an extra incentive to help get the program started, the Mozilla Foundation will match 2-for-1 any donations you designate for these projects from now until the end of 2007, up to a maximum of $10,000 per project. For more information, see Frank Hecker’s blog post.
Firefox 3 Beta 1 now available
Firefox 3 Beta 1 is now available for download. This is the ninth developer milestone focused on testing the core functionality provided by many new features and changes to the platform scheduled for Firefox 3. Ongoing planning for Firefox 3 can be followed at the Firefox 3 Planning Center, as well as in mozilla.dev.planning and on irc.mozilla.org in #granparadiso.
If you’re a Mac user, when you first run the beta you’ll see an offer to get Proto, the prototype of the new Firefox 3 theme for OS X. Proto represents the first phase of the new Mac theme work, driving towards a more native look and feel on that platform. The second phase will be modifying Proto to include a cross-platform shape and control set which will differentiate Firefox from other applications. The end goal should be an OS X native feeling browser that also definitely feels like Firefox. If you install the Proto add-on, you’ll get updates as new versions of the theme are available. To leave feedback about Proto, please leave a comment in Alex Faaborg’s blog post. To report actual bugs, please add a comment to bug 397723.
Stuart Parmenter, in reaction to some slightly misguided posts about Mozilla’s “new” focus on memory work, has written a great blog post that talks about how memory work has always been a priority within the project. “Since I started working on the project in 1998 we’ve always had a focus on keeping our memory footprint small and keeping leaks to a minimum. Early in the development cycle for each release we’ve set goals for memory and performance. We always set our bar under the previous release.” It’s a great read that talks about the project, the challenges faced, and some of the strategies we’re using.
Extend Firefox 2 add-on contest
Everyone knows that one of the best things about Firefox is that you can customize it to do what you want, how you want. Add-ons are the core of this magic, and we’re having our second Extend Firefox add-on development contest.
The contest runs until December 31st, and there are three Grand Prizes and twelve Runner-up prizes this year. Submissions will be judged on user experience, innovation, and the use of open standards, so it’s time to pull out all the stops and get hacking. For more information about the contest, judges, prizes, and how to enter, see the Extend Firefox website.
Monday, Nov 26
Tuesday, Nov 27
Wednesday, Nov 28
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