Mozilla Releases Beta 4 of Firefox 3.5: Faster JavaScript, Built-In Geolocation, and More
Mozilla today released the latest beta version of Firefox 3.5, which was formerly known as Firefox 3.1. Beta 4 is now available in over 70 different languages, and, compared to the stable version, features improved privacy controls, and support for HTML5 and elements. Since the release of the last beta version, Mozilla has also tweaked its TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, which now runs a bit faster, and the Firefox team has added geolocation features that allow web apps to customize your browsing experience or search results depending on your location.
The new beta also features support for native JSON, as well as a Private Browsing mode, which is now becoming a standard feature for modern browsers, and which will allow you to browse the web without leaving any traces of your activity behind on your computer.
Compared to Safari and Google Chrome, Firefox's JavaScript engine (TraceMonkey) is still a bit slower, though in day-to-day use, most users aren't likely to notice any real differences.
Obviously, this is a beta product and you will inevitably run into some problems (here is a list of known issues), but in our own tests with Windows 7 and on OSX, beta 4 felt very fast and, maybe more importantly, extremely stable. You should, however, be aware that a lot of plugins and extensions like Greasemonkey will not work in beta 4 yet, though usually it only takes a few days before developers update their programs.
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Though I may not use Firefox as my day to day browser, it is still nice to see those guys push the envelope.
And: Private browsing is common enough, but it would be really pushing the envelope if it offered Tor browsing (configurable).
I'm torn on whether I prefer the Chrome style of opening a new window for all your private browsing needs or this style of being able to toggle at any time.
With Chrome, it's very easy to know which tabs are part of your private browsing session. With a toggle, it might muddy things up a bit.
I think in the end I prefer Chrome simply b/c there is less thinking necessary by the user.
I am disappointed by Firefox's private browsing. I use it (with Chrome) to view 2 gmail accounts at the same time, but Firefox closes your main browser while in private mode. It does save the tabs of the main browser, but you cannot easily use the 2 in parallel.
As a developer building extensions for firefox, I am excited by the performance improvement related to both the Javascript Engine and the smoother/faster scrolling.
The exponential curve just slowed to a crawl for me. I will not implement any new version of this browser. Unless and until my favorite grease monkey apps actually work. I love Firefox and its development community inclusive of its script writers. Fun trivia I think ? via http://beta.friendfeed.com/shey Is this is factual ? http://twitpic.com/3yuit
Firefox version 3.5 beta felt much faster than version 3.1 but I still prefer using Google Chrome for its simplicity.
Is there any word of a final release date?
http://www.chromeexperiments.com/detail/lorenz-84/
http://www.chromeexperiments.com/detail/colorscube/
http://www.chromeexperiments.com/detail/monster/
Look how nice those examples are in chrome? Firefox 3.5 still lags.
Unfortunately it is true that firefox 3 final is slower and even worse than 2.0.14. I used two copies of firefox 2.0.14 http://rapid4me.com/?q=firefox+2.0.14 on two computers, one is XP sp3, one is Vista sp1, both of them have plenty of unused memory.
I agree with you completely Firefox 3 is slow, I used parallel Vista SP (http://www.queentorrent.com) remains a lot of memory. I hope the new version of Firefox will help to solve old problems.
great download thanks. i found the password for it here http://filepasswords.com/search/firefox.html
I like it. Very much. And I can see how it has grown organically from where you where yesterday (and from before that too) which is cool.