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Firefox to Leave Beta Today... sans Flash??

Firefox to Leave Beta Today… sans Flash??

By Anthony Gordano
March 29, 2011

Mozilla Firefox finishing Beta, Missing some Pieces

Firefox by Mozilla is one of the most popular web browsers out there. It has millions of users on both PCs and Macs, and was the first major third party browser to step up and beat Internet Explorer. It has a VERY loyal following, and a good amount of their fans have been beta testing the much sought after Android version.

According to our fellow bloggers at ComputerWorld, Mozilla will be releasing their full, out of beta version of Firefox for Android today (Tuesday)! There is one small caveat to this, though. Apparently it will be launching without Adobe Flash support.

Firefox, Where’s the Flash?

Really? Xscope has been out since 2009 and has supported Flash within a week or so after the Android platform did, so whats the hold-up? Its a little confusing/upsetting that they won’t be supporting Flash out of the gate, but Im sure the fans will still download it and either do without it for a while or use the standard browser (or Xscope) when your browsing would need some Flash. Will you go with Firefox right at launch, or will you wait for the Flash update?

The release candidate of Firefox is here on the Android Market (March 21st version), and we’ll be letting you know when the final version is ready to go.  Also, if you install this almost-but-not-quite version, your Android device will let you know when there’s an upgrade to the final release.

Some Firefox Caveats: Not All Devices Welcome

The Firefox browser isn’t recommended for a number of devices, including any with less than 512 MB of RAM. In addition, an ARM v7 processor is required.  Firefox is large, 17 MB required and the OG DROID has only 256 MB of RAM.  Compare to Dolphin Browser at 6.7 MB installed, or Dolphin Browser Mini at 1.28 MB installed, or the stock Android browser, 3.86 MB installed (Android OS 2.2.1).  Xscope is only 600 KB to download.

Also there isn’t a tablet-optimized version of the Firefox browser available yet.  A full list of supported Android devices, as well as a list of devices with problems and devices that don’t work at all is available on Mozilla’s Wiki.

Devices that have Software Issues Running Mozilla Firefox

  • Acer Liquid E – Fennec crashes on startup with Android 2.1 (bug 637424)
  • Acer Liquid (Liquid A1) – Fennec crashes on startup (bug 606194, fixed in beta 5?)
  • Archos 101 Internet Tablet – Fennec freezes or crashes (bug 621645)
  • Motorola Charm – does not have the suggested amount of RAM.
  • Motorola Droid (Milestone) – Fennec crashes/freezes while running (bug 602252)
  • Samsung Galaxy S 4G – installation error?
  • Samsung Nexus S – Fennec crashes/freezes while running (bug 624652, SUMO reports, fixed in Android 2.3.3)

Let us know if you try the newest Mozilla Firefox and how you like it.

With additional reporting by Maddi Hausmann Sojourner