Firefox 3.0: Upstart Browser Challenges The Man

New York Times:

The browser, that porthole onto the broad horizon of the Web, is about to get some fancy new window dressing.

Next month, after three years of development and six months of public testing, Mozilla, the insurgent browser developer that rose from the ashes of Netscape, will release Firefox 3.0. It will feature a few tricks that could change the way people organize and find the sites they visit most frequently.

Not to be outdone, Microsoft recently took the wraps off the first public test version of the latest edition of Internet Explorer, which is used by about 75 percent of all computer owners, according to Net Applications, a market share tracking firm. The finished version of Internet Explorer 8 could be released by the end of the year and is expected to have additional features.

Even Apple, which once politely kept its Safari browser within the confines of its own devices, is making a somewhat controversial push to get it onto the computers of people who use Windows PCs.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[MajorKong]

I'm not a knee-jerk Microsoft hater, but I've been using FireFox for a couple of years now and I think it's a better product.

[Rule Of Law]

Here's a bit of prognostication for you: When FireFox becomes a true threat to Microsoft this year, watch for the same harassing lawsuits and product liability claims and defective this and that to come crawling out of the wood work just as they do for Apple each time it makes serious inroads into any of MS's protected areas of interest.

I guarantee there will be copyright and patent infringement cases brought by companies funded by MS, and "consumer" led lawsuits claiming that FireFox fried my computer, or worse. Look for it!

[Nyk]

We've used firefox for years and love it. I only open IE when I absolutely have to. There are just some sites that I can't get to work right in firefox. I blame those sites freep.comm and real estate one) not firefox. Firefox rules! Can't wait for the new version, but will give it a while to get all the bugs out.

[urnumbersix]

I am Not computer savvy - so a lot of what you guys and gals are posting is way over my head.

I just want to say I am So Glad I bought a MAC!!!!
And I use Firefox - love it.

Why are workplaces resisting change away from Microsoft/PCs? Vista is bad. The network is bait for viruses. Its technology elsewhere is not state-of-the-art. What evil plot is holding companies hostage to Microsoft & PCs? Please explain -- thanks,

[stevietheman]

I'm a big fan of Firefox, but RC1 crashed a lot for me, and most of my extensions didn't support version 3, so I had to roll back to 2.0.0.14 quickly.

[LivingStardust]

Fight Fascism.

Use Linux and Firefox.

More stable AND more functional. Far better at handling RAID systems than XP. No virus worries. Better firewall control (often not needed by the very nature of Linux).

A good product made by good people, unlike anything made by M$.

And it's free.

Just the way non-gaming software should be.

Fascism is made possible when you buy products from offending corporations. Keep that in mind when spending your money.

No money for bad corporate actors.

No to substandard crap shoved down your throat by a corporation that monopolizes markets yet can't competently design and test a product before releasing it into the wild.

Yes to non-corporate development in every sense.

Yes to better products.

Yes to Linux and Firefox.

Why? Because M$ is as evil as an oil company or a Neocon.

And you can take that and the money you save by switching to Linux to the bank.

[vmonter]

RefControl, FlashBlock, FireGPG and TorButton

Best.Addons.Ever.

[DesertLight]

I guess I should have stated that I am using that with an HP laptop 2007 Intel Centrino Duo Core Processor which totally rocks.

[DesertLight]

I have used FireFox for a year now and I think it is a great browser. It is easy to use, keeps great tabs and is much easier and manageable than Internet Explorer. I use it over Explorer 90% of the time.

The only issue I have is it is harder to send stuff to your desktop. It keeps wanting to send another folder along with it.

[deepintheheartoftejas]

I'll wait until I have more memory. I've only got 2 gigs installed. Firefox 2 finally achieved IE-sized bloat and reliability. Its memory footprint often reaches a gig or more, if it manages to run continuously for longer than a day, which is rare. Lately, it's rare to browse longer than an hour without a crash (to be fair, it is much more stable, though just as memory-hogging, if you don't install Flash).

I also use Konqueror on occasion, mainly for reading email because it runs in such a small memory footprint and takes up little cpu time. Someone needs to start a branch off firefox like firefox (back then, firebird) did for Mozilla: write a very tight, light, and bug-free version, even if it lacks the bells and whistles.

[frantaylor]

Firefox 3 runs great on my 2002 laptop with 1 Gb RAM. It's Linux, of course. Windows is practically unusable on it.

There are already several Firefox forks that do what you say. Try Galeon.

[CrankyCurmudgeon]

"Sitting at somebody else’s computer and using their browser is going to become a very awkward experience,” said Mitchell Baker, chairwoman of the Mozilla Foundation.

This is a bit of a silly comment, as it takes very little to get to del.icio.us and have access to all of your links, as well as those of others. Besides, with the Google search window embedded within Firefox, it's a snap to find just about anything.

Don't get me wrong. I love Firefox's capabilities. I'm just wondering what planet this chairwoman is living on.

[frantaylor]

I think they are hyping the upcoming Firefox feature where your bookmarks, history, cookies, etc. are stored on a server and downloaded when you start the browser. That way the browser is yours no matter where you go. This is very interesting but a lot of work needs to be done.

[AmericanSinceFeb08]

Just installed Firefox 3.0 on my 3 computers. Had to manually installing the Flash player plug-in. no other issues, still my favorites and history from IE7. Great

Runs faster than IE7....

[MyAudacity]

I've been using Foxfire, not sure how I got it, but my computer sure seems to be running faster, I keep getting an error prior to a page loading, and am not sure how to correct it.

[ajax2]

This is all you need to know about Microsoft, "first commercial browser developer, Microsoft waited five years before releasing the sixth version of Internet Explorer in 2006. Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer group, says the company was focused on plugging security holes during that time."
Can't walk and chew at same time.

[Badbone]

Firefox is good. Opera is better. Whatever Firefox did, Opera did before them, better and faster. Don't get me wrong here- anything is better than IE. But why settle for just Ok when you can have great?

Imagine double clicking on a word or phrase in a web page, and being able to search on it. Imagine being able to customize your right-click menu. Imagine better tab navigation.

Actually, don’t imagine. Use Opera and you won’t have to. It really is that good.

[frantaylor]

Imagine a browser whose source code can be verified by independent third parties. Imagine a browser that works for blind people. Imagine a browser whose developers actually get along with other developers and don't belittle them. You're not imagining Opera.

[getoffmedz]

Firefox 3 is not yet in final release, however, v. RC-1 (almost final release) for all platforms is available here.

http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/3.0rc1/

[nanotubz]

Be careful. Read some of the tech blogs, and RC1 is buggier than the Beta, with 11 critical bugs - think blue screen of death- being worked on.

[Fathoms]

I'm running:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9b5) Gecko/2008050509 Firefox/3.0b5
In the Linux OS:
Ubuntu 8.04 (hardy)
Kernel Linux 2.6.24-17-generic
Gnome: 2.22.1
It's quite stable. I normally run Firefox with somewhere between 10 and 20 tabs open. I notice an occasional anomoly. Upon troubleshooting I find it's usually in cached files or at the providers end. What else is new? All things considered, this browser is a Rolls Royce.
I.E? I Don't Think So. Windows? No, Not That Garbage Either . . .