Firefox 3 To Be Released On June 17th
Mozilla has been announcing Release Candidates for Firefox 3 consistently for the past month. In fact, Firefox 3 RC 3 was just released earlier today. One could guess that the time for an official release was right around the corner, but we wouldn't have guessed it'd be this soon. Only hours after RC3, and after 34 months of development, the company has announced that Firefox 3 will be officially released next Tuesday, June 17th.
What To Expect
If you haven't given any of the Firefox 3 RC's a shot, I can personally tell you that it's fast! Stability and performance has been consistently better than Firefox 2 with each RC. Memory usage has been down significantly over long periods of time compared to Firefox 2 where memory continued to rise with prolonged use. Features and fixes for Firefox 3 include:
- Updated address bar with integrated bookmarking functionality
- Standard themes that are consistent with the native UI of your Operating System (Windows, Mac, Linux)
- Revamped bookmark manager
- New Icons
- One-click site information
- Secure add-on updates
- Vista Parental Controls
- Revamped password management
- Full page zoom
- Scrolling Tabs
- One-click bookmarking
- Tags for bookmarks
- tons more!
Memory Usage Still a Problem
While the memory issue has improved compared to Firefox 2, browsers such as Opera and Safari are handling sites that are loaded with AJAX, videos, music, and other heavy hitters much better than Firefox 3. Josh Catone noted the following when reviewing Firefox 3 RC1:
"Unfortunately, one issue that still exists in Firefox is memory leaks. According to the release notes, developers plugged "over 300 individual memory leaks," but still after just a few minutes of browsing with just 8 or so tabs open, Firefox was using over 150mb of RAM -- and I often have 20 or 30 tabs open while writing and researching stories. Duncan Riley at TechCrunch noticed the same thing."
...and we're still noticing it. With that old ghost still plaguing the browser, does Firefox 3 have what it takes to set a world record in a single day?
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Thanks for the coverage on FF3! I'm curious about what tests you did to compare memory usage of the various browsers? You should also check out http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/software/internet/soa/Browser-faceoff-IE-vs-Firefox-vs-Opera-vs-Safari/0,139023437,339289417-5,00.htm where they compared all the current browsers.
Your quoting Duncan from his comments on Firefox 3 Beta 1, which was more than half a year ago and hundreds if not thousands of Firefox fixes ago, seems a bit odd to me -- especially when there's plenty of evidence online comparing newer versions and showing that the memory usage is solid and the performance is the best available from any shipping browser.
Just want to say that I love reading the comments of this blog. Very informative and no one hesitates to tell the authors what they think :) Ie. Anon #2 and that great iPhone post the other day!
Strong advancements regarding the memory-issue are extremely important to me: I'm already using Safari vs. Firefox at a level of 40:60 percent. If the advancements aren't sustainable, this will switch and I'll use FF for checking-purposes only in future.
The story you link to regarding memory problems was about Firefox 3 Beta 1. We made huge improvements to memory usage in Betas 4 and 5, and are now the most memory efficient web browser available. Some add-ons (notably Firebug) will result in heavier memory usage as every transaction is logged, so please make sure you're testing with a clean profile, or with heavy-weight add-ons turned to their "off" positions.
this time i find that ie8 is better then firefox.
as i see it's beta.
Opera 9.5 released!!! http://www.opera.com
I don't know, but I think FF is getting the same problem as Microsoft has with it's IE... this race did not make any good for us, users... FF was a very stable and secure tool... but that memory leak and some secure issues, are driven me crazy at my company and customers... but I hope this new version comes better then the FF2
Nice to here, you have come a long way, Firefox, I have been using it on Windows since before it was even 1.0. Keep going!
-Deepa (dooyt.com)
Can't wait for the release. I have completed switch to FireFox as my default browser mainly because of the add-ons such as FireBug. Keep going Firefox.
Most developers I speak to these days say that they primarily use FF for, well, development. In effect, using it and firebug's hand set of dev tools. Many admit that just for browsing that they now use Opera, or even flock.
As a side note, Opera 9.5 has just been released and according to the Opera website performs 50% faster on benchmark tests than Opera 9.2, which even had a reputation for speedy, light web browsing usage.
Yawn...
Even with the memory leaks which have not been plugged 100%, this is still my favourite browser on earth. FireFox Rox!
I'm very happy with the current firefox and curious to see if this new firefox is not going to be analogous to windows vista.
I am using Opera 9.5 and Minefield 3.0 RC1 now. What I can tell is Opera is the winner in memory and first loading time. But for whole day browsing, both applications still could crash occasionally.
Let's wait for Firefox 3 Final, and do the real comparison again.
Any idea why I seem to be the only person for whom version 3 runs SLOWER than the previous version.
This v 3.0 for me is horribly slow. Unless my broadband is having a particularly bad day.