Mozilla today released Firefox 3, a major update to its free, open source Web browser. According to Mozilla, Firefox 3 is the culmination of three years of efforts from thousands of developers, security experts, localization and support communities, and testers from around the globe.
Available today in approximately 50 languages, “Firefox 3 is two to three times faster than its predecessor and offers more than 15,000 improvements,” including the smart location bar, malware protection, and extensive under the hood work to improve the speed and performance of the browser.
“We’re really proud of Firefox 3 and it just shows what a committed, energized global community can do when they work together,” said John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla, in the press release.
What’s New in Firefox 3:
• User Experience. The new Firefox 3 smart location bar, affectionately known as the “Awesome Bar,” learns as people use it, adapting to user preferences and offering better fitting matches over time. The Firefox 3 Library archives browsing history, bookmarks, and tags, where they can be easily searched and organized. One-click bookmarking and tagging make it easy to remember, search and organize Web sites. The new full-page zoom displays any part of a Web page, up close and readable, in seconds.
• Performance. Firefox 3 is built on top of the Gecko 1.9 platform, resulting in a safer, easier to use and more personal product. Firefox 3 now uses less memory while it’s running, and its redesigned page rendering and layout engine means users see Web pages two to three times faster than Firefox 2.
• Security. Firefox 3 offers new malware and phishing protection helps protect from viruses, worms, trojans and spyware to keep people safe on the Web. Firefox 3’s one-click site ID information allows users to verify that a site is what it claims to be. Mozilla’s open source process leverages the experience of thousands of security experts around the globe.
• Customization. Everyone uses the Web differently, and Firefox 3 lets users customize their browser with more than 5,000 add-ons. Firefox Add-ons allow users to manage tasks like participating in online auctions, uploading digital photos, seeing the weather forecasts, and listening to music, all from the convenience of the browser. The new Add-ons Manager helps users to find and install add-ons directly from the browser.
More information about Mozilla Firefox 3 features here.
Mozilla Firefox 3 is available now for Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows as a free download here.
I don’t know why you guys keep saying that FF3 is fast, it seems much slower to me than Safari. I’m testing both on MDN, which as we all know is a slow loading site.
So, either you guys have drank too much Kool-Aid on the speed of FF3 or I just don’t know how to install applications anymore.
Oh and I absolutely hate the way the page scrolls in FF3 versus Safari.
The latest nightlies are 1.56X as fast on the sunspider benchmark. Granted, this not a wide release, but is only in testing, but Safari 4 will have the new squirrelfish javascript interpreter and will pass up FF3. Plus, The nightlies have been scoring 100 on the acid 3 test for months now. FF3 only scores 73, not very good for standards compliance. I would take FF3 over IE6,7, or 8 anyday. But Safari is still my browser of choice.
Firefox’s built-in updates don’t work for left-of-the-decimal-point upgrades.
Will not display .mac photo webpages using the windows version. The old version worked fine.
Example
http://web.mac.com/kaschwarz/2007_TCA_Convention_Photos/Colorado_RR_Museum_Tour.html
After 24 hours of playing with FF3, I’ve returned to Safari. Adblock Plus on FF3 works, but I found it complex to configure. Safari Adblock “just works”.
And although FF3 is fast, I haven’t found it any faster than my nightly build of WebKit, which plays nicely with Safari on my iMac.
FF3 isn’t for me.
Hacked Already, that was quick…
I dunno. In many ways Firefox 3 is technically superior to Safari, but it just feels “clunky”. Take the green button, for example. In Safari I can click this and the window will resize to the optimum width for that specfic page. In FF, it toggles between full-screen (which is idiotic on a 1280×1024 monitor) and whatever I manually set for it. In other words, it’s pretty much useless.
I’ve also gotten used to the SnapBack feature in Safari. If there is a similar function in FF, it wasn’t immediately apparent.
And I agree with the one guy who said it wasn’t any faster than Safari. I noticed no difference at all. C’mon, Safari 3 is supposed to be one of the fastest browsers on the face of the Earth, how much faster can Firefox 3 possibly be?
Firefox vs. Safari seems to typify OSS vs. Apple. Firefox: functionality and technical sophistication come first, usability second. Apple: less functionality, but more emphasis on polish and speed.
I have FF3 installed. I will use it as a secondary browser, like I did FF2.
——RM
FF3 is indeed better than past versions,
however, after trying it i came back to safari.
here are the reasons:
what safari/webkit has that FF doesn’t…
text enlarge buttons for toolbar (camino is a mozilla browser that DOES have them)
click and drag to enlarge compose boxes in emails and learn.edu and other electronic teaching programs
click and drag tabs onto desktop to open new windows with that page
Safari can open PDF’s inside the browserwindow – FF has to download them.
bookmark management is easier in Safari
in my experience FF blocks pop-ups so well that it blocks those that are part of certain websites. safari seems to be able to tell the difference more easily and consistently.
i know FF folks rave about add-ons and such, but the more you add the slower FF gets, and most people i know that use FF actually USE very few add-ons. and many of those things come standard on safari.
i’m a die-hard Safari fan (even have the tatto), but this is damn fast!
I use a number of extensions, and unfortunately, the developers haven’t upgraded many of these to be Firefox 3-compliant. Guess I’ll have to wait a while until they do.