Firefox 3.0 Released Today!!

[Chief]

Check out the new version of the great web browser, it's online today at www.firefox.com.
I've tested it out and it's definitely an improvement from the old version and noticeably faster.

Here is a review of all the new features if you're interested in reading about it -

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,23 ... X1K0000530

[R.A.B.I.D.]

I started using this a few months back when it was still in Beta 5, and it was excellent.

Unfortunately, I has to downgrade back to v2 because of a plug-in that's critical to my duties at a site I moderate — UnPlug, which along with certain Web sites, lets you embed video whether the originating site provides embed codes or not.

Hopefully most old plug-ins will be compatible with Firefox 3 soon.

[Music Head]

Is firefox now faster then Safari? I still don't think firefox supports as many web standards.

[R.A.B.I.D.]

I'm pretty sure v3 is the fastest browser out there now, from my experience with it. I've tried pretty much every browser out there, on both Mac and PC.

I don't know about standards, but I do think Firefox has the best selection of features and plug-ins.

[Music Head]

According to wiki it doens't meet the requirements as much at Safari does on the Acid3 test http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid3 . Passes the acid2 test 100% however.

[R.A.B.I.D.]

In my opinion, it's a toss-up. Firefox 3.0 has some excellent new features and an advanced interface, plus tons of plug-ins (provided the 2.0 plug-ins roll over, which I assume they will). The current version of Safari has fewer advanced user interface features than Firefox, and a much smaller selection of plug-ins.

But apparently Safari passes the Acid3 test significantly higher than Firefox 3.0.

If, in the future, they get Firefox 3.0 to a point where it passes Acid3 100%, I think it will be the undisputed king of the hill.

[Broomie]

Firefox is horrible on my Mac. It's slow, choppy and takes a while to load. Safari is perfect and meets all my needs.

[jpnuar1]

Am I the only one then for whom the v3 browser still doesn't pass the Acid 2 test?

[Kloreep]

Firefox is horrible on my Mac. It's slow, choppy and takes a while to load. Safari is perfect and meets all my needs.

I remember reading somewhere that Safari is still king of the performance tests on Mac. Can't remember where, though.

From what I've seen, though, Firefox is the best browser on Windows.

[Music Head]

Am I the only one then for whom the v3 browser still doesn't pass the Acid 2 test?

Perhaps you have various options turned off such as javascript in the options?

I remember reading somewhere that Safari is still king of the performance tests on Mac. Can't remember where, though.

Safari litsts it as being the fastest on Windows on Mac, but information was given before Firefox 3 was released, so I don't know which is now faster, probably Firefox. There is a verison of safari available only to developers however which may be faster still.

[R.A.B.I.D.]

I have both a new-ish gaming PC (3.1 GHz / 4 GB RAM / 8800 GTX / XP SP2) and an iMac that's a couple years old (2.16 GHz / 2 GB RAM / Radeon Mobility [?] / OS X 10.4.11). Good cable Internet connection.

I've used Safari and Firefox on both, in various versions, and I've never really noticed a significant speed difference between either browser on either computer. Firefox was sort of slow-ish a couple years ago, if I recall, but that was two years ago.

Is this a dial-up thing?

[jpnuar1]

Am I the only one then for whom the v3 browser still doesn't pass the Acid 2 test?

Perhaps you have various options turned off such as javascript in the options?

Nope, I've got everything enabled... Unless it's still loading the incorrect version from when I had version 2, anyone know whether that could be the issue?

[Quest For Glory Fan]

Does anyone know what the hell is wrong with Internet Explorer? it takes about 5 minutes to check my email with while I can be opening 4 different forums on Firefox at the same time.

[Angelus3K]

I don't understand why more people don't use Opera. It fits all my needs and does everything I want it to do without searching for plug-ins.

I tried FF3 and while it was great, I had to install about 5 plug-ins just to get it to do what Opera does out of the box.

[Quest For Glory Fan]

I used Opera for a little bit on my home theatre but it just didn't run videos like safari could.

[Angelus3K]

How do you mean videos? Like YouTube and stuff? Everything works fine for me.

[Music Head]

He probably Quicktime videos/movies, being an apple technology, and Safari being Apple's web browser, the two are probably made to work hand in hand. I know for me when goig to view a quicktime movie in IE it takes quite some time to get the plugin initialized.

QFGF, the reason it might be takin so long for your email to come up is because all your pririty is going to firefox opening up the other four forum pages :P. Either that or perhaps the page your trying to open uses various plugins such as flash (ads) or run various different scripting languages, like alot of the newer email providers do (Hotmail, Gmail - AJAX) and IE takes a while to initiate the code, tho i doubt it. The execuation of javascript however varies significantly between browsers. Plug-ins are what dramtically slow IE's page loading. How long does firefox take to open your email?

[Quest For Glory Fan]

Firefox takes seconds, and to answer what You and Angelus were discussing it was usingYoutube videos on a Mac Mini hooked up to a large LCD TV Where Safari seemed to be working for me much better than Opera, I can't comment on how it fares on my PC though as I haven't tried it.

[Chief]

IE has just fallen far behind the times... it's too bad but it's why firefox and opera have become so good!

Does anyone know what the hell is wrong with Internet Explorer? it takes about 5 minutes to check my email with while I can be opening 4 different forums on Firefox at the same time.

[MusicallyInspired]

It's not too bad. I've always hated Internet Explorer. Especially since I learned how to make webpages with CSS. IE can't do CSS right at all.

[RC-Cola]

I jumped ship from I.E. in 2003 or 2004 at I think version 6 before the SP2 fixes came out, when popups and spyware were at their worst. Mozilla was a bit slower and a memory hog, but it was worth it as defense against malware. Then I tried the much slimmer Firefox and never looked back. When I use I.E. nowadays it seems a lot better than it used to be, but I've just been married to Firefox since then, as I've gotten quite comfortable with its interface and many plug-ins.

[Quest For Glory Fan]

I jumped from IE when when FF one came out but MSN still likes to use it as the default.

[Music Head]

I jumped from IE when when FF one came out but MSN still likes to use it as the default.

I managed to get WLM/MSN to use my default browser rather then IE. Stuffplug is a 3rd party add on that'll allow it, aswell as other things.

[Alliance]

Bah. I took part in Download Day.

In my eyes, FF3 is a fantastic browser. Although, Safari is a bit faster on my Hackintosh (You know...Mac OSX on a PC)

Still, I think that Konqueror, Aurora, and Epiphany are all great because they all are integrating Webkit.

Nevertheless, it's not up to me to tell people what to use.

[Solarkid]

Yeah, i joined in with download day too, apparently they had massive server overload problems. Still gained a world record though.

I must admit, i see NO difference between FF3 and FF2 apart from a slightly different download manager and a slightly different address bar.

Dave