Firefox 3.0 Beta

[Superfly]

Hey everyone,

 

I just downloaded the beta version of Mozilla Firefox 3.0 (beta 2). It's really cool so far, this browser is going to blow minds away. =D

 

So for, I've been on TDN, TDN Forums, and my blog and there have been no coding errors - the layouts look great and nothing is out of position or anything. That is great news for website owners, when there are new browsers it usually means more mess for them. :(

 

Anyway, just wondering if anyone else was beta-testing FF 3.0 or anything. General Firefox comments and all.

 

Go.

[Lutarist Jake]

There's a firefox 3? Cool!

 

This post has been edited by a member of staff (TJ) because of a violation of the forum rules.

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[antiaircraft]

I've been testing Firefox 3 since it was still in alphas and codenamed Gran Paradiso. I must say I like the betas a lot more than the early alphas.

 

One of the things that really caught my eye with the changed rendering engine is that graphics render a lot sharper and faster than before.

[DOOM Bringer]

Well I didn't know they were beta-testing the new Firefox, but I am a FF fan, so I shall take a look at it and tell you of my opinion then...

[antiaircraft]

A Firefox fan?! :ohno: What's the world coming to these days? :P

 

I'm not so much a fan as a devout user and developer.

[Superfly]

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html

 

That is the link for anyone that would like to download beta v.2 of Firefox 3.0

[DOOM Bringer]

Thanks TJ :D

 

By fan I meant that I like it and use it over the other browsers, I don't mean it like I am fan. It's not like a have a FF poster in my room or anything lol

[Superfly]

;) Yea, understood. :P My blog has Firefox things all over it, promoting it.

 

Internet Explorer stinks, badly.

[DOOM Bringer]

I've downloaded it and I can notice some differences (like the address bar and some extra buttons), but apart from that it seems almost the same. Can anyone point out some major differences between the two versions?

 

EDIT: Is it just me or has this new version of FF stuffed up the Stock Market page (it's all stretched), can someone check to see whether it's just me?

[Superfly]

I'll post the features tomorrow ('tis 3 AM). :P

 

And the stock market page is fine here. Anyone else?

[antiaircraft]

Ah yes, I also have a messed up Stock Market page. It seems to have failed to render a script or something. I reported the problem to the development team a while back and they should probably have it fixed in the next beta (or one of the upcoming nightlies).

 

Well, the major changes in Firefox are under the hood - it's upgraded to a faster, sharper and all round better layout rendering engine (Gecko 1.9), and history/bookmarks are now managed by a database system called 'Places', which is extremely effective at not losing data (apparently developers haven't found a way to make it lose data yet) as well as allowing you to quickly search through all your bookmarks and visited sites. Although there was a bug in the earlier alphas where the Places search would hang for several minutes if there was too much data to search through.

[Hubert]

Firefox is so better than IE. I wonder witch verson I use.

[Strategos]

I can't login to anything on FF3. Is anyone else experiencing this problem, and does anybody know a workaround?

[Guest HBK]

I'm currently beta-testing Firefox 3b2 on my laptop (my desktop has 2.0.0.11 because of the Neopets Toolbar), and I'm loving it. It's so much faster than FF2, and the new features are a blast. Mark my words, when this goes final, it'll be the best browser on the Internet (it is now anyway! :P), compared to other failures like Internet Explorer.

 

Netscape is out of the running, as its last breath will be on Feb. 1st, 2008, when AOL will stop its releases permanently.

 

Opera grows better by the day, but it's poor share (< 4%) of users is something to be surprised about, as its a good browser.

 

User share is as follows:

 

Internet Explorer - 76%!

Firefox - 16%

Opera - 4%

Safari - 2.6

Netscape - 0.6%

Other browsers - 0.8%

[Mike.]

I just downloaded the Beta of it. It is quite faster with minor layout changes. (I just need to find a new theme, I hate the boring default one xD) One of the things I don't like is the history. It shows all sites with the the first letter you type in anywhere in the name. I liked it better when it only showed sites that began with that letter, because I navigated to TDN by typing 'T' and then clicking the first history link. :P

 

And can someone help me to understand the 'Applications' thing in the Options panel? =/

[Cool-Aid Man]

I don't exactly hate IE7 but it is useable. Because I have used Firefox so much when I go turn on IE7 it's sooo much faster than FF. I used to use Opera and it was WAY fast. But the layout was SUPER boring, the Themes were bad, the extensions aren't so good. This is my overall rating of each browser.(I will use "The Big Three")

 

My categories goes as(from 1-10 I rate):

 

Speed

Layout

Bugs(among other things)

Ease of Use

 

Speed

IE7: 7(or 6 if you want to argue. It depends on how much you use any other browser.)

FF: 8

Opera: 9

 

Layout(Themes)

IE7: 3

FF: 9

Opera: 3

 

Bugs

(subtract numbers in original score)

IE7: -7(or 6 -/+ if you want to argue)

FF: -2

Opera: -2

 

Ease of Use

IE7: 5

FF: 7

Opera: 8

 

Final Scores

IE7: 8

FF: 22 :)

Opera: 18

[Parshy]

Im not a fanboy or anything, but i like Firefox a llot better the IE because when i DL stuff,i get some involuntary TBs that i don't want, and they won't come on FF.

Also, when i open up My beta with the older oine running, i see all the stuff on the old one on the new onw

[antiaircraft]

I believe that the new version is supposed to install over the old one.

 

@Mikey: The applications tab is used to set what plugins/programs are used to open what files.

[DOOM Bringer]

I believe that the new version is supposed to install over the old one.

 

@Mikey: The applications tab is used to set what plugins/programs are used to open what files.

 

Nope, it hasn't installed over the old one. I can still use the older version of FF if I wish. I'll probably use it for Restocking, as this version doesn't allow Adblock and other Add-ons yet...

[antiaircraft]

It doesn't?! Adblock works perfectly to my knowledge. Most of the well-maintained add-ons should work with it (since the developers working on the add-ons should sort things out).

[Guest HBK]

Adblock Plus works with 3.0 indeed.

 

I'm going to rate 4 browsers now (from 1 to 10), based on 7 parameters that will be as follows:

 

Speed opening browser

Time taken to load pages (aka Load time)

Layout

Features

Security

Ease-of-use

Bugs

 

Speed opening browser

 

Firefox 2 - 5

Opera 9 - 7

IE 7 - 8

Netscape 9 - 4

 

No doubts here. IE in first (because it's OS integrated), which makes it so much faster. Netscape is terribly slow, and Firefox doesn't have margin for error, as it's based on the same engine. Opera gets nearly full-marks, because it's very lightweight and fast to open.

 

Speed opening pages

 

Firefox - 8

Opera - 9

IE - 4

Netscape - 9

 

Very close battle here. Netscape is faster to load pages than Firefox, and so is Opera, but IE loses completely its lead, because its really slow to load pages, especially those with a lot of content.

 

Layout

 

Firefox - 8

Opera - 6

IE - 7

Netscape - 7

 

Firefox wins here! It's simple, but easy-to-use layout makes it top category. Opera is the worst, because it has a non-attractive one that the developers haven't had the time to spice it up. Netscape has its own layout, which is greenish, and looks nice, and IE is given a good reputation for its sleek layout.

 

Features

 

Firefox - 9

Netscape - 9

Opera - 8

IE - 5

 

Netscape and Firefox tied! Well, what did you expect, when both are practically the same? Opera has a lot to offer, but the lack of the FF and Netscape ownage extensions makes it a little lower than its competitors. IE...features? Only for adware toolbars, and thats horrible.

 

Security

 

Firefox - 9

Netscape - 9

Opera - 9

IE - 6

 

Three competitors tied this time. Now, IE gets a low score because of its bad rep regarding security, which was one of my main reasons to switch to FF. All other 3 offer good malware protection against adware toolbars and the like.

 

Bugs

 

IE 7: -6

FF 2: - 5

Opera: -1

Netscape: -3

 

Ow, ow, ow! What's the deal here, you ask? Well, IE has still problems regarding security, so that's no news. But Firefox? Yep, it suffers from memory problems. No, it hasn't become senile, don't worry! It's just that its a RAM-eater. Open 5 tabs, even 2 with a lot of content, and check your RAM on FF2. See? This problem is being addressed in FF 3.0, so that's good, but for now, FF remains with -5 on its record. Opera is the most stable browser I've tried, and I hope it continues that good.

 

Ease-of-use

 

IE - 4

Netscape - 9

Firefox - 9

Opera - 10

 

Full marks for Opera, no wonder. It's the easiest browser to use, but Firefox and Netscape come really close. IE is a disaster as usual, because a common user would freak out seeing bookmarks represented by a star so tiny.

 

Final Scores

 

IE - 28/60

Firefox - 45/60

Opera - 48/60

Netscape - 44/60

 

Hmm, a very tied competition. IE falls miserably behind, but if you have paid attention to the score you'll see that it was to come. Opera wins, because it's a lightweight, easy to use browser, just the extensions factor lost it some points. Netscape falls shortly behind Firefox, but nearly both are the same, so that's no problem.

 

If I were do this review with Firefox 3, it most certainly have won the competition. However, it's still a beta, so no fretting around. Let Opera take the glory for now, and Firefox shall emerge victorious next year (or shall it)?

[antiaircraft]

It's already won for me, since the extensions feature holds a lot of sway for people who want to customise virtually every aspect of their software. But I respect that different people have different preferences.

 

If anybody wants to know, Firefox 3 Beta 3 seems to be headed for a mid-January release judging by the current bug fix rate and the number of remaining blockers (important bugs).

[Guest HBK]

That's great, I hope Beta 3 will further fix memory problems and add some other features.

[antiaircraft]

Added features seem unlikely this close to the final release - there wouldn't be time to properly test and debug them.

 

Although there might be some major rearrangements of the current features (like there was between beta 1 and beta 2), and there will definitely be bug fixes. There are still plenty of bugs to fix for that matter. *glares at stock market page*

[Guest HBK]

<br />Added features seem unlikely this close to the final release - there wouldn't be time to properly test and debug them.<br /><br />Although there might be some major rearrangements of the current features (like there was between beta 1 and beta 2), and there will definitely be bug fixes. There are still plenty of bugs to fix for that matter. *glares at stock market page*<br />

<br /><br /><br />

 

Well, isn't that a problem common to Neopets only or does that occur in other websites too? I'm glad you sent in a bug report, because developers tend to overlook these problems - but we're talking about Firefox here, so I tend to cut the slack because they're not like Microsoft that release a browser update every 5 years.