Mozilla FireFox 3 Release

[S. Thompson]

Who is snagging this today when the download goes live? I'm planning on getting it shortly afterwards though I can't say I've kept up with all the new features. I do know it's supposed to be faster than version 2.

What does everyone else think?

- Fuzmeister

[|darc|]

I've been installing the release candidates on my desktop, and they are pretty good. I don't really pay attention to browser memory use and stuff like that, but from what I hear, it's drastically improved. My favorite thing is the new address bar--if you type part of the URL or the title of a page, it starts popping up the history for it. Most browsers just pop up the URL if you type from the beginning.

Nice avatar, btw.

[butters]

Lovely both spreadfirefox.com and getfirefox.com are down, and they don't have it on mozilla.org. I want my download to count toward the download record....

[|darc|]

Lovely both spreadfirefox.com and getfirefox.com are down, and they don't have it on mozilla.org. I want my download to count toward the download record....

Just download it again later and delete it

EDIT: The site is slow, but it's loading for me now.

EDIT 2: It's still disappointing for Mac users. They tried to make it fit in with native applications, but in my opinion, fell short. I will continue to use Safari on my MacBook, but I will still use Firefox on my desktop PC.

[butters]

I eventually got it from getfirefox.com. Everyone needs to download it and get in on the Guinness record.

[Covar]

I'm running it now and it certainly feels faster.

[JKKDARK]

Firefox 3 is based on the Gecko 1.9 Web rendering platform, which has been under development for the past 34 months. This new platform includes more than 15,000 changes to improve performance, stability, rendering correctness, and code simplification and sustainability. Firefox 3 is built on top of this new platform resulting in a more secure, easier to use, more personal product with a lot more under the hood to offer website and Firefox add-on developers.

More Secure

* One-click site info: Click the site favicon in the location bar to see who owns the site and to check if your connection is protected from eavesdropping. Identity verification is prominently displayed and easier to understand. When a site uses Extended Validation (EV) SSL certificates, the site favicon button will turn green and show the name of the company you're connected to. (Try it here!)
* Malware Protection: malware protection warns users when they arrive at sites which are known to install viruses, spyware, trojans or other malware. (Try it here!)
* New Web Forgery Protection page: the content of pages suspected as web forgeries is no longer shown. (Try it here!)
* New SSL error pages: clearer and stricter error pages are used when Firefox encounters an invalid SSL certificate. (Try it here!)
* Add-ons and Plugin version check: Firefox now automatically checks add-on and plugin versions and will disable older, insecure versions.
* Secure add-on updates: to improve add-on update security, add-ons that provide updates in an insecure manner will be disabled.
* Anti-virus integration: Firefox will inform anti-virus software when downloading executables.
* Vista Parental Controls: Firefox now respects the Vista system-wide parental control setting for disabling file downloads.
* Effective top-level domain (eTLD) service better restricts cookies and other restricted content to a single domain.
* Better protection against cross-site JSON data leaks.

Easier to Use

* Easier password management: an information bar replaces the old password dialog so you can now save passwords after a successful login.
* Simplified add-on installation: the add-ons whitelist has been removed making it possible to install extensions from third-party sites in fewer clicks.
* New Download Manager: the revised download manager makes it much easier to locate downloaded files, and you can see and search on the name of the website where a file came from. Your active downloads and time remaining are always shown in the status bar as your files download.
* Resumable downloading: users can now resume downloads after restarting the browser or resetting your network connection.
* Full page zoom: from the View menu and via keyboard shortcuts, the new zooming feature lets you zoom in and out of entire pages, scaling the layout, text and images, or optionally only the text size. Your settings will be remembered whenever you return to the site.
* Podcasts and Videocasts can be associated with your media playback tools.
* Tab scrolling and quickmenu: tabs are easier to locate with the new tab scrolling and tab quickmenu.
* Save what you were doing: Firefox will prompt users to save tabs on exit.
* Optimized Open in Tabs behavior: opening a folder of bookmarks in tabs now appends the new tabs rather than overwriting.
* Location and Search bar size can now be customized with a simple resizer item.
* Text selection improvements: multiple text selections can be made with Ctrl/Cmd; double-click drag selects in "word-by-word" mode; triple-clicking selects a paragraph.
* Find toolbar: the Find toolbar now opens with the current selection.
* Plugin management: users can disable individual plugins in the Add-on Manager.
* Integration with Windows: Firefox now has improved Windows icons, and uses native user interface widgets in the browser and in web forms.
* Integration with the Mac: the new Firefox theme makes toolbars, icons, and other user interface elements look like a native OS X application. Firefox also uses OS X widgets and supports Growl for notifications of completed downloads and available updates. A combined back and forward control make it even easier to move between web pages.
* Integration with Linux: Firefox's default icons, buttons, and menu styles now use the native GTK theme.

More Personal

* Star button: quickly add bookmarks from the location bar with a single click; a second click lets you file and tag them.
* Tags: associate keywords with your bookmarks to sort them by topic.
* Smart Location Bar: type in all or part of the title, tag or address of a page to see a list of matches from your history and bookmarks; a new display makes it easier to scan through the matching results and find that page you're looking for. Results are returned according to their a combination of frequency, and recency of visits to that page, ensuring that you're seeing the most relevant matches. An adaptive learning algorithm further tunes the results to your patterns!
* Library: view, organize and search through your bookmarks, tags and browsing history using the new Library window. Create or restore full backups of this data whenever with a few clicks.
* Smart Bookmark Folders: quickly access your most visited bookmarks from the toolbar, or recently bookmarked and tagged pages from the bookmark menu. Create your own Smart Bookmark Folders by saving a search query in the Library.
* Web-based protocol handlers: web applications, such as your favorite webmail provider, can now be used instead of desktop applications for handling mailto: links from other sites. Similar support is available for other protocols (Web applications will have to first enable this by registering as handlers with Firefox).
* Download & Install Add-ons: the Add-ons Manager (Tools > Add-ons) can now be used to download and install a Firefox customization from the thousands of Add-ons available from our community add-ons website. When you first open the Add-ons Manager, a list of recommended Add-ons is shown.
* Easy to use Download Actions: a new Applications preferences pane provides a better UI for configuring handlers for various file types and protocol schemes.

Improved Platform for Developers

* New graphics and font handling: new graphics and text rendering architectures in Gecko 1.9 provides rendering improvements in CSS, SVG as well as improved display of fonts with ligatures and complex scripts.
* Color management: (set gfx.color_management.enabled on in about:config and restart the browser to enable.) Firefox can now adjust images with embedded color profiles.
* Offline support: enables web applications to provide offline functionality (website authors must add support for offline browsing to their site for this feature to be available to users).
* A more complete overview of Firefox 3 for developers is available for website and add-on developers.

Improved Performance

* Speed: improvements to our JavaScript engine as well as profile guided optimizations have resulted in continued improvements in performance. Compared to Firefox 2, web applications like Google Mail and Zoho Office run twice as fast in Firefox 3, and the popular SunSpider test from Apple shows improvements over previous releases.
* Memory usage: Several new technologies work together to reduce the amount of memory used by Firefox 3 over a web browsing session. Memory cycles are broken and collected by an automated cycle collector, a new memory allocator reduces fragmentation, hundreds of leaks have been fixed, and caching strategies have been tuned.
* Reliability: A user's bookmarks, history, cookies, and preferences are now stored in a transactionally secure database format which will prevent data loss even if their system crashes.

[not just souLLy now]

I have noticed that gmail loads waaaaay faster

[Skynet]

I'm the opposite of darc, I hate the new address bar. I think Opera 9.50 does something similar.

[S. Thompson]

Did they really name the suggesting address bar the "awesome bar?"

Worst. Name. Ever.

- Fuzmeister

[|darc|]

I'm the opposite of darc, I hate the new address bar. I think Opera 9.50 does something similar.

I despised it at first, too. It seemed to pop up completely useless suggestions and I was too used to typing the root of the webserver I expected to visit. But after you get used to it, it really is so much better. For example, if I wanted to go straight to Null, I'd just type 'neverland' and hit enter. It's pretty smart with the keywords.

Did they really name the suggesting address bar the "awesome bar?"

Worst. Name. Ever.

It's not an official name, as far as I know--just what it's being called on the blogospheres and interwebs.

[Ex-Cyber]

Did they really name the suggesting address bar the "awesome bar?"

Worst. Name. Ever.

- Fuzmeister

The image handling library is called libpr0n.

[Roofus]

I could've sworn I got 3.0 a couple weeks ago. Could've been a release candidate, but it didn't say anything.

[pixel]

It's my new browser.

[JKKDARK]

Could've been a release candidate

Yes, it was

[Luriden]

I really don't notice anything different between this and the betas, but hey, whatever.

[|darc|]

They got another cake from Microsoft, woo!

[Stormwatch]

oldbar, an extension to turn off the crapsomebar.

[Specially Cork]

oldbar, an extension to turn off the crapsomebar.

I'm not quite sure what people's problem is with the new address bar. I admit, the first time it seemed to suck, but after a couple of hours it got used to what I wanted and now I get where I want to go just by typing in, well, where I want to go.

[butters]

oldbar, an extension to turn off the crapsomebar.

I'm not quite sure what people's problem is with the new address bar. I admit, the first time it seemed to suck, but after a couple of hours it got used to what I wanted and now I get where I want to go just by typing in, well, where I want to go.

The issue is many people in this world are vehemently opposed to change. I see it all the time at work. We roll out something faster and better to replace a piece of crap old system, and people gripe and complain that the new system doesn't do x,y, or z like the old system did.