If you've been counting down the hours until the next release of
Firefox hits doorsteps, you can now officially reset the clock. Firefox 3.6 has dropped its beta label and shimmied out into the wide world, boasting a slew of new add-ons and features which should make even the most selective browser enthusiast jump gingerly skyward whilst clicking one's heels. Included in the latest and greatest is support for browser thumbing via "Personas," which seem to be a response to Chrome's theme functionality (allowing users to change looks with one click), improved Javascript support, and most interestingly, improved support for HTML5 video, which further opens the window for all kinds of Flash-dashing activities. We're still not seeing nearly the performance bump present in Safari or Chrome when it comes to page rendering, but if you're going for maximum compatibility, it's hard to beat Firefox. As you can probably guess, the download is free and available now, so go get it.
posted January 22nd 2010 10:01AM
they should implement H.264
@mex
IMHO :videos, audio and 3d should stay out of unstandard & incompatible & fragmented html specification.
@mex
Or the whole industry should move to open, FREE standards. Instead of only letting the browsers with big financial backers have access to the majority of video content on the web.
@Mojzu
yeah right… and all the mobile phones / media player who does not support OGG?
@mex Then add support. How many of those handsets browsers support h.264?
Super
For those of you who are speed junkies, Increasing the number of pipeline max requests makes Firefox significantly faster.
Hmmm....enough to bring me back from Chrome. I'll give it a week...
Cookie Monster persona FTW!
Gonna update my Netscape navagator now.!!!....
Just joking ! ;)
Firefox is actually faster in loading web pages for me in my tests. But maybe that's because I'm using Chrome beta. That surprised me. But chrome takes much less time to open than firefox which makes it my default browser.
@AndroidRokz
exactly. Chrome opens faster, and is just quick overall. Its my default in terms of other applications needing to use a web browser.
FF is my main browser though.
impressive!
Just some benchies, nothing more:
Sunspider: Chrome 4 is 1.95X faster
Peacekeeper: Chrome=3487, Firefox 3.6=2200.
Chrome's extensions are still a bit weak, but it has Adblock and gestures now, so I'm happy-ish.
Can't wait for Opera 10.50 though, it makes Chrome's rendering engine look like a slouch.
@Nitesh
I seriously don't understand the whole rendering benchmark craze. 99% of the time in my experience, a page is rendered as fast as it loads-- latency and bandwidth available to the server is a much bigger factor.
It'd be different if I were waiting ten seconds for the page to render every time I scrolled, but that's just not the case.
@Nitesh Indeed Chrome4 is faster, but remember that it's a growing browser. It does have good extensions, but right now everything I need is on Firefox, so I'm happy nonetheless =].
@Nitesh
If Engadget.com works, does it matter?
The FF HTML5 video does not work with YouTube. Fail
@magic6435
youtube fail, not firefox fail.
I may be in the minority by 3.5 crashed a hell of a lot in Windows 7 even without plugins. I hope this build works better but lately I can't stop using Chrome.
@Slvrgun
Odd 3.5 has never chased for me in W7. Nor 3.6 Beta or 3.7 for that matter.
@Slvrgun
Haven't had any issues at all on 7 x64 with 3.5 or 3.6 either.
Byt why all this config, true, false kinda of thing
When is IE 8 coming to Mac? I hate using firefox at work.
Sweet! No upgrade all my plugins...
i can't believe balmer signed it!
I downloaded and kicked the new FIrefox around yesterday, and even though it seems less sluggish than it's predecessor, it's still feels bloated and slow compared to using Chrome. Chrome just simply is a lighter and faster browser than all these tired products.
all good..but scroll wheel doesnt work
On Acid Test 3 it's at 94/100 on my FF 3.6 browser. It is still not 100/100 like on Chrome, but darn close and way better than IE8 which is 6/100? Really?
FYI, 3.6 breaks slacker radio
I remember a time when a GADGET blog like Engadget didn't waste our time reporting on software.
No Engadget persona yet? Shocking!!
it broke fasterfox though.
Its too bad that to use the Personas you have to use the hideous default icons. Hopefully this is something that will change.
Love Firefox. Absolute favorite for development. My only remaining gripe has been a gripe for years - it takes a damned long time to start up.
British English?
Ubuntu users, get your FF 3.6 and 3.7 nightly builds here:
https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-mozilla-daily/+archive/ppa
I Love the new personas feature. I just got my first ever firefox theme.
I had to go back to 3.5.7.
3.6 kept crashing on my Mac Mini.
Anybody else?
Add-ons that doesn't work on 3.6:
* FfChrome
* GlasserPojo
* IE Tab
Compatibality with what?