Nightly Firefox Win 64 bit Discussion

Discussion about official Mozilla Firefox builds
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Rodze
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Nightly Firefox Win 64 bit Discussion

Post by Rodze »

As of now, 64-bit builds of Firefox for Windows are not yet officially supported. And there is no time estimate of when it'll be officially supported. I'm just making this thread because the other is rather old.

Because of that, official Win64 builds of Aurora, Beta or Release don't exist yet. Builds only exist for the Nightly channel.


- Latest Win64 Nightly build:
-- Off-line Installer
-- On-line installer
-- Zip build (simply extract; no need to install)

- Hourly builds: here

- 64-bit plug-ins available for 64-bit Firefox:
-- Flash 11.4
-- Java 7u9
-- PDF-Xchange
-- Silveright 5
-- VLC

- Meta-bug for Win64 eventual official support: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=471090


Here you can whine about why there haven't been Nightly 64bit builds over the last days or when there officially will be the Win64 Release version of Firefox without polluting the daily build threads. You can also argue what "official support" means, even though that won't change anything at all about what Mozilla is doing.

Thanks.
Last edited by Rodze on November 20th, 2012, 4:28 pm, edited 41 times in total.
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James
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Re: Nightly Win64-bit Discussion

Post by James »

Rodze wrote:As of now, 64bit builds of Firefox are not yet officially supported. And there is no time estimate of when it'll be officially supported.

Not officially supported for Windows yet as they are supported for Mac OSX and Linux since Firefox 4.0.

It is possible to break compiling 64bit without breaking 32bit, so the 64bit nightly builds serve an additional purpose of checking to make sure that the code still successfully compiles as 64bit. Something that the only 64-bit builds (on Linux) were used for originally long before the 64-bit builds for Linux and Mac OSX were official.
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Gingerbread Man
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Re: Nightly Win64-bit Discussion

Post by Gingerbread Man »

Rodze wrote:Here you can whine about why there haven't been Nightly 64bit builds over the last days or when there officially will be the Win64 Release version of Firefox

Actually, I'd like a reason to care. I have so many bugs and shortcomings piled up at this point, that the lack of a 64-bit release doesn't even make the list anymore.

And I find nightly.mozilla.org far more readable than sifting through those FTP folders.
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ffextensionguru
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Re: Nightly Win64-bit Discussion

Post by ffextensionguru »

James wrote:
Rodze wrote:As of now, 64bit builds of Firefox are not yet officially supported. And there is no time estimate of when it'll be officially supported.

Not officially supported for Windows yet as they are supported for Mac OSX and Linux since Firefox 4.0.

It is possible to break compiling 64bit without breaking 32bit, so the 64bit nightly builds serve an additional purpose of checking to make sure that the code still successfully compiles as 64bit. Something that the only 64-bit builds (on Linux) were used for originally before the 64-bit builds for Linux and Mac OSX were official.


Also heard that the 64-Bit Windows builds can not currently use 32-Bit plugins Bug 595053 which poses a bit of set-back. ](*,)
Fabfire
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Re: Nightly Win64-bit Discussion

Post by Fabfire »

ffextensionguru wrote:Also heard that the 64-Bit Windows builds can not currently use 32-Bit plugins Bug 595053 which poses a bit of set-back. ](*,)

And why should they? They should release the official Win64 without that compatibility - 64 bit plugins, extensions and the like will appear as the Win64 Firefox get a real user base. As small as they can be on the beginning, or labeled as "power users" - those are the fellows that will make it happen.

As I see it, we already have the minimum to release a 64 bit official release with the FlashPlayer "Square" and the Java 64 bit plugins.

Let's face it - without a growing number of users, do you think Adobe and other mainstream developers will really start investing into developing and improving 64 bit plugins, extensions, and whatever?

Releasing the Win64 Firefox would bring another (not small) advantage - the competition is IE x64, which is - well, weak. Or are we going to wait the release of Chrome x64 to start worrying about it?
Rodze
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Re: Nightly Win64-bit Discussion

Post by Rodze »

James wrote:Not officially supported for Windows yet as they are supported for Mac OSX and Linux since Firefox 4.0.

It is possible to break compiling 64bit without breaking 32bit, so the 64bit nightly builds serve an additional purpose of checking to make sure that the code still successfully compiles as 64bit. Something that the only 64-bit builds (on Linux) were used for originally before the 64-bit builds for Linux and Mac OSX were official.


Windows is implied by "Win64" in the thread title, but I guess I should have written it down explicitly.

Thanks for the info on the process, anyway.

Gingerbread Man wrote:And I find nightly.mozilla.org far more readable than sifting through those FTP folders.

Indeed it is more readable. I put the FTP directly because some people like them zip builds (myself included =P).
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mikedl
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Re: Nightly Win64-bit Discussion

Post by mikedl »

Fabfire wrote:
ffextensionguru wrote:Also heard that the 64-Bit Windows builds can not currently use 32-Bit plugins Bug 595053 which poses a bit of set-back. ](*,)

And why should they? They should release the official Win64 without that compatibility - 64 bit plugins, extensions and the like will appear as the Win64 Firefox get a real user base. As small as they can be on the beginning, or labeled as "power users" - those are the fellows that will make it happen.

As I see it, we already have the minimum to release a 64 bit official release with the FlashPlayer "Square" and the Java 64 bit plugins.

Let's face it - without a growing number of users, do you think Adobe and other mainstream developers will really start investing into developing and improving 64 bit plugins, extensions, and whatever?

Releasing the Win64 Firefox would bring another (not small) advantage - the competition is IE x64, which is - well, weak. Or are we going to wait the release of Chrome x64 to start worrying about it?


+ 1,000,000

Sorry, not much else to add ... 'nuff said above.

Don't forget 64 bit PDF compatibility with PDF-Xchange.
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WonderCsabo
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Re: Nightly Win64-bit Discussion

Post by WonderCsabo »

AFAIK, we already had a Win64 thread, didn't we?
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mikedl
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Re: Nightly Win64-bit Discussion

Post by mikedl »

WonderCsabo wrote:AFAIK, we already had a Win64 thread, didn't we?


Yeah, more than a few. Kinda gives an indication of where many of us hope Mozilla goes with it. :)
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ssj12
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Re: Nightly Win64-bit Discussion

Post by ssj12 »

i wonder if enough users went into bugzilla and voted up the 64-bit related items Mozilla will pay more attention to them.

edit: anyway, any idea when the next 64-bit build will be released? they were doing well for a while on releasing nightlies but now its been three days.
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Re: Nightly Win64-bit Discussion

Post by KWierso »

No one at Mozilla cares about votes in Mozilla, from my understanding.
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James
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Re: Nightly Win64-bit Discussion

Post by James »

The Windows 64-bit builds are considered Tier 2 which means if something breaks or builds are not building in nightlies, they are not a priority to get working right away like the regular Tier 1 builds.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Supported_build_configurations
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Re: Nightly Win64-bit Discussion

Post by Bluefang »

Fabfire wrote:And why should they? They should release the official Win64 without that compatibility - 64 bit plugins, extensions and the like will appear as the Win64 Firefox get a real user base. As small as they can be on the beginning, or labeled as "power users" - those are the fellows that will make it happen.

Plugins are 3rd party software that Mozilla doesn't have control over. The browser should not fail to load a plugin that the user already has installed just because the architecture is wrong.

As I see it, we already have the minimum to release a 64 bit official release with the FlashPlayer "Square" and the Java 64 bit plugins.
Flash "Square" is obscenely out of date and has many known security flaws. Using it is highly discouraged.

Let's face it - without a growing number of users, do you think Adobe and other mainstream developers will really start investing into developing and improving 64 bit plugins, extensions, and whatever?

This goes back to the first point. Because plugin venders are reluctant to support 64bit architectures, browsers need to support 32bit plugins.

Releasing the Win64 Firefox would bring another (not small) advantage - the competition is IE x64, which is - well, weak. Or are we going to wait the release of Chrome x64 to start worrying about it?

So you want Mozilla to release a product, that isn't ready for prime-time, in order to compete with another product that is equally unready for actual use? That logic doesn't make any sense.

Mozilla should not rush to release a product before it's ready. That's akin to shooting your self in the foot. Plus, there's no rush to have a native 64bit version on Windows, as the 32bit version runs perfectly fine.

James wrote:The Windows 64-bit builds are considered Tier 2 which means if something breaks or builds are not building in nightlies, they are not a priority to get working right away like the regular Tier 1 builds.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Supported_build_configurations

Indeed, this was already covered in one of the many other 'Win64 is broken' topics.

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2182067
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ssj12
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Re: Nightly Win64-bit Discussion

Post by ssj12 »

Bluefang wrote:
Let's face it - without a growing number of users, do you think Adobe and other mainstream developers will really start investing into developing and improving 64 bit plugins, extensions, and whatever?

This goes back to the first point. Because plugin venders are reluctant to support 64bit architectures, browsers need to support 32bit plugins.



I disagree. There are many applications that are 64-bit. I have a few right now. Xfire chat, FireFox Nightly, Java, EVGA Precision, CoreTemp, Crysis, audio and video drivers, WinRAR, etc. There is no end to the number of already available applications and drivers available in 64-bit. Mozilla in general is being quite lazy since Safari has been 64bit for a while, and IE9 does have a 64bit option. Even Google has a 64bit version in the works.

The userbase is already there for 64bit, Mozilla just needs to capitalize on it, which they havent.

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/bl ... ows-7.aspx

article is a bit dated, but based on a year later I could see percentage of 64-bit systems being much higher as most laptops and desktops sold are 64-bit now.
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Grantius
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Re: Nightly Win64-bit Discussion

Post by Grantius »

ssj12 wrote:
Bluefang wrote:
Let's face it - without a growing number of users, do you think Adobe and other mainstream developers will really start investing into developing and improving 64 bit plugins, extensions, and whatever?

This goes back to the first point. Because plugin venders are reluctant to support 64bit architectures, browsers need to support 32bit plugins.



I disagree. There are many applications that are 64-bit. I have a few right now. Xfire chat, FireFox Nightly, Java, EVGA Precision, CoreTemp, Crysis, audio and video drivers, WinRAR, etc. There is no end to the number of already available applications and drivers available in 64-bit. Mozilla in general is being quite lazy since Safari has been 64bit for a while, and IE9 does have a 64bit option. Even Google has a 64bit version in the works.

The userbase is already there for 64bit, Mozilla just needs to capitalize on it, which they havent.

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/bl ... ows-7.aspx

article is a bit dated, but based on a year later I could see percentage of 64-bit systems being much higher as most laptops and desktops sold are 64-bit now.


I'm sorry - the only applications there that actually could be useful with more then 3gb per process, or extra 64bit optimisations is WinRAR and Crysis - I highly doubt that Coretemp needs to be be 64bit apart from because you are using a 64bit OS - same with the drivers you mentioned.

I personally find FF unresponsive with anything over 1GB of RAM, so what good would be letting it have more then 4GB?
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