Loading ...Firefox 3 Beta 5 is here, and reviewed
Downloads
One of the most requested features: downloads can be paused and resumed across sessions, limited only by the server capabilities. Also, on Windows, downloaded files are automatically passed to the installed anti-virus if present and Windows Vista parental controls are honored.
As seen in previous betas, the Download Manager has received a serious face lift as an easier to track download list that you can search on file name, size and download date.
A status bar notification provides summarized status of current downloads. You can click it to open the Download Manager.
Add-ons
The Add-ons Manager has been integrated with Mozilla Add-ons, Mozilla’s official extensions and themes repository, providing recommendations, search, rating and add-ons install without leaving Firefox.
And a new Plugins page (identified with a neat Lego brick icon) allows easy plugin enabling and disabling, making the Add-ons Manager a powerful control panel for Firefox enhancements.
When installing, updating, disabling or enabling back an add-on, an information bar is displayed to remind a restart is needed for changes to apply, and a restart button.
Plus, just installed themes are automatically selected so Firefox uses it after the next restart.
Among other minor tweaks: FTP and gopher listings get a better styled and functional page where the list can be sorted by name, size and date by clicking the appropriate header, and a warning is displayed when accessing advanced preferences (about:config).
Security
In the security front, Firefox will check visited sites with a list of known malware sites -provided by stopbadware.org and served by Google- to prevent spyware, rootkits, viruses, dialers and other kinds of malware from even being offered to you.
A rewritten password manager now unobtrusively prompts to store an entered password in the information bar and after trying a logon so you know if it is the correct one or not and avoid cluttering autocomplete lists.
Identifying authentic sites and avoiding fake ones is now easier with the addition of the site button which provides details about the identity of the current web site. While the largest part of the web has no verified identity, financial institutions and similar usually do and it makes the site button in the location bar to change color and size so you can know with a glimpse.
As great as add-ons are they are also a liability and have proved they can become an attack vector. Firefox 3 requires add-ons updates to happen over an encrypted connection (to block malicious sites purporting the update site) or the add-on developer to sign it with a digital signature so updates can be verified to be from the same source. This will prevent middle-man attacks where bad guys could fake an update site address to serve malicious software.
Invalid or expired web site certificates now get an unfriendly treatment that requires adding the site to a white list. This should encourage web site owners to keep their certificates up to date so they can effectively ensure their visitors a more secure experience.
Under the hood
The list of changes for Gecko is not short either and benefit not only Firefox but all “powered by Mozilla” products including Thunderbird, Flock, SeaMonkey, Joost, Miro, Songbird and more.
Since Alpha 1, Firefox 3 passes the Acid2 test, a popular test of a browser styling standard compatibility. As of Beta 5, Firefox 3 scores 71/100 in the Acid3 test, behind Opera and WebKit (Safari engine) development releases which achieved both 100% last week. While the value of the Acid3 test was questioned recently by Mozilla’s Mike Shaver, in practice, Firefox is just too close to release to focus on Acid3 compatibility right now.
Firefox 3 supports color profiles embedded on pictures and images to better replicate the original environment conditions as light and focus, thanks to new color management.
Discontinuous selections of text and images are now possible for better control of what you copy or print from a web page.
A biggie: full page zoom can optionally magnify the complete page or just the text, as in previous versions. This is a much requested feature and a must for Mozilla plans for a Mobile Firefox.
Web developers can mark certain web page components such as images and scripts to be available while offline. In practice you could be able to compose emails or write documents though a web service while disconnected from the Internet.
For JavaScript developers, some interesting tricks: the ability to load local files for local use, native JSON support and most notably, FUEL, a library of Firefox programming interfaces that will ease the development of new extensions and ensure better practices (such as memory management) for common Firefox tasks.
Cross site AJAX (XMLHttpRequest) support has been removed in Beta 5 because the specifications changed in the process and Mozilla prefers to avoid an incompatible implementation.
Support for editable content, so a user can change portions of a web page marked by the author.
A new spell checker: The MySpell spell-checking engine has been replaced with Hunspell which does a better job handling complex languages including Asian, Hungarian, Basque, etc.
Real full screen is now available in beta 5. In the past, the full screen mode left the navigation and tab bars visible at all times. Now they are displayed for just a second before sliding under the top edge.
For Gecko 1.9, Mozilla switched to open source Cairo rendering engine for better rendering performance. The change also enables easy PDF printing capabilities but it is only possible through an extension right now though.
More beautiful animated images are possible with animated PNGs (APNG): a full 16 million color palette and partial transparency will hopefully sweep GIF images in the future. While APNG was rejected as a standard PNG extension last year, Opera has announced it will support the format in future versions.
Proprietary TalkBack, the tool for reporting crashes to Mozilla included with Firefox and Thunderbird, has been replaced with open source Breakpad (formerly Airbag).
Users can see their submitted crashes entering about:crashes in the location bar.
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April 2nd, 2008 at 2:27 pm
We would have enabled PGO for b5 if we were going to ship with it, so it’s just win32 this time round.
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April 2nd, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Firefox 3 beta 5 crashes on this site. Too funny. (posting from Safari 3.1 / Win)
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April 2nd, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Firefox 3 had me with it’s incomparably better memory behavior. I would have sacrificed anything else for that including extensions. All of them. Gladly.
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April 2nd, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Interestingly, this page is making Firefox 3 crash when Firebug is running.
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April 2nd, 2008 at 5:07 pm
I guess this beta didn’t really bring me anything… except the annoying home button.
…. but Firefox is really the program that I care about, more than any other program.. (fair enough?)
But why is everybody leaving?
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April 2nd, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Hey! You have an endless loop in Others.js, line 39. It’s causing Firebug to crash FF 3 Beta 5. Plsfxkthxbye.
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April 2nd, 2008 at 5:42 pm
@John, thanks very much for the tip. I deactivated the WordPress plugin that was using the code and now it seems to be OK.
Sorry all for the inconvenience.
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April 2nd, 2008 at 6:11 pm
I must say that I really love v3 :) I’m using it and it’s wonderful. My recommendation to everyone! Regards!
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April 2nd, 2008 at 7:44 pm
“Mac OS X users get Proto, a new Safari-like theme introduced with Beta 2.”
Oh really? I’m using FF3b5 right now and it still looks like the beta 4 version. (Yes — I’ve switched between large and small icons and restarted the browser a few time). Mind you — I kind of LIKE the Proto version as seen in beta 4(!) — big keyhole and all.
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April 2nd, 2008 at 8:31 pm
is it possible to know more concerning the decision to keep or not the home button in toolbar ?
i remember that mike beltzner is in charge of that
could we see the discussions about that ?
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April 2nd, 2008 at 9:30 pm
@Sprocket999, you could have skipped to the green text sections: new in Beta 5.
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April 3rd, 2008 at 7:53 am
Nice, informative review!
Btw, your microsummary (live title) doesn’t work any longer… :(
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April 3rd, 2008 at 9:49 am
I was annoyed the home button was GONE before though you can modify so doesn’t matter much, does it? I use it constantly.
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April 3rd, 2008 at 10:02 am
@Percy Cabello: “@Sprocket999, you could have skipped to the green text sections: new in Beta 5.”
Well, I did and all I got was this note as I previously posted — “Mac OS X users get Proto, a new Safari-like theme introduced with Beta 2.” — which indicates to me that the beta 5 Mac theming has ‘reverted back’ to the lovely theme offered in beta 2. It actually was quite a unique blend of the familiar Safari 3x squarish-buttons with the round-ended url and search bars. Perhaps you didn’t give beta 2 a try?
I’m running beta 5 and I don’t see anything like that at all. Same as beta 4.
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April 3rd, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Running happily on Win32. I’m happy that that the forward/backward icons in the drop down list are no longer blue as in Beta 4, but white so I can actually SEE them.
Hooray for polish!
Too bad PGO is only for Win32. Maybe a Firefox 3.1 in early 2009 will have it turned on for Linux and Mac OS X if it doesn’t make it for the Final Release.
Also, I’d like a special note for replacing the spellchecker. Hunspell in Fx 3 is so much better it hurts my feelings to go back to Fx 2.0.0.x because of the way I type.
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April 3rd, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Tools > Customize > Restore Default Set
This should get your home button back and possibly the proto icons for mac users. Seems to me that someone messed up with part of the code and doesn’t quite implement the beta 5 default icon placements for installs where a firefox profile already exists.
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April 3rd, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Love to see the Home page Icon back into the Navigation Toolbar. Thanks!
I loved the idea of being able to add new bookmark links to the bookmarks toolbar.
It would be very useful to open the default homepage when the a new tab (Ctrl+T) is opened.
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April 3rd, 2008 at 8:41 pm
I really like the Mac OS X look, but it still has its flaws. The jellybean button (the thing on the top right) behavior is fixed in the main window (although a gradient should still be present in the minimized header). However, it is still present in the downloads window, the about window, and the update window, and serves no purpose there, and, in both add-ons and preferences, when clicked, it doesn’t provide a divider between the header and the window contents…
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April 3rd, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Another issue: For some reason, I can’t customize the toolbar… Every time I try to drag a button on, it doesn’t work, and every time I try to drag one off, it is pushed, but not dragged…
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April 3rd, 2008 at 9:22 pm
For some reason, my FF3b5 shows two sets of “Back/Forward” buttons. Very odd.
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April 4th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Mirek2: “Another issue: For some reason, I can’t customize the toolbar… Every time I try to drag a button on, it doesn’t work, and every time I try to drag one off, it is pushed, but not dragged…”
I’ve run into that too from time to time. Never had this happen in beta 3 or 4. My workaround is to quit FF and restart. Oh yes, this is on the Mac — I can’t speak to Windows.
Personally, I hope they keep the Home button an option of being on the Toolbar OR the Bookmark Bar, as I’ve gotten quite used to having the Home button on the Bookmark Bar. Keeps the other area cleaner, IMPO.
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April 4th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Is there a way to organize files into different folders while downloading using download manager? By default it goes to one folder.
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April 4th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
The one thing about bookmarks that has persistently infuriated me, and still isn’t fixed, is the fact that there is no “Folders at the top” option when sorting bookmarks.
It’s simply ridiculous that this still doesn’t exist…
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April 5th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
One of my only issues is that there is still no “Add New Tab” button on the interface. Netscape / Mozilla Suite always had a small button to the left of the tab bar to open a new tab. This has disappeared in Firefox. IE7 has a “New Tab Button” right next to the last tab at all times. Even Netscape Navigator 9 gave you a “New Tab Button” on the toolbar. There is no such thing by default in Firefox, nor is there a way to show/hide the Sidebar easily. Those are my only two issues with this release.
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April 5th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Rajesh Pradhan: “Is there a way to organize files into different folders while downloading using download manager? By default it goes to one folder.”
On Windows, go to “Tools”, on Macs, go to “Firefox”, and select “Preferences.” Under “Main”, choose “Always ask me where to save files.”
Sprocket999: ““Mac OS X users get Proto, a new Safari-like theme introduced with Beta 2.”
Oh really? I’m using FF3b5 right now and it still looks like the beta 4 version. (Yes — I’ve switched between large and small icons and restarted the browser a few time). Mind you — I kind of LIKE the Proto version as seen in beta 4(!) — big keyhole and all.”
The theme was INTRODUCED in Beta 2. It underwent changes from then on (so what you see in Beta 4 and Beta 5 is stll Proto). This is not news for one following the FF3 process closely, but it might be for a newbie who just began to look into FF3…
Sprocket999: “I’ve run into that too from time to time. Never had this happen in beta 3 or 4. My workaround is to quit FF and restart. Oh yes, this is on the Mac — I can’t speak to Windows.”
That works. Thanks.
Sprocket999: “Personally, I hope they keep the Home button an option of being on the Toolbar OR the Bookmark Bar, as I’ve gotten quite used to having the Home button on the Bookmark Bar. Keeps the other area cleaner, IMPO.”
Me too…
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April 6th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Another bug: When you take the Acid2 test, zoom in too close, and then reset the page to its original size, the page is no longer viewed correctly. I understand that zoomed-in pages don’t pass the Acid2 test, but a page reset to its original should pass it…
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April 6th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
@ Mirek2
Works perfect for me… Anyway, acid tests aren’t meant to be taken in modified browsers. They are meant for default not modified browsers with standard configuration.
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April 7th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
I have multiple back/forward arrows across my screen / don’t see this noted anywhere. ALSO - all of a sudden - favorites are not taking - they are there but if I close out and re-open Firefox, they are then gone.
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April 9th, 2008 at 1:58 am
Rajesh Pradhan April 4, 2008 5:04 pm
Is there a way to organize files into different folders while downloading using download manager? By default it goes to one folder.
dear rajesh
its simple as email, go to the different directory of selection
ok
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April 9th, 2008 at 8:14 am
@JimP, repeat keyholes along the navigation toolbar is a bug I haven’t seen but has been already reported and fixed in recent nightlies. Should be available for RC1.
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April 9th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
In case it hasn’t been said already, thank you for marking the changes from the previous Beta. It makes finding the minor deltas much easier.
Thank you.
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April 10th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Well i dont see much diferent in the memory use for now :\
For me the best diference is “The Location Bar”, its very cool the fact that now FF go to bookmark look and showing the icons of the websites is very cool and much more easy ;)
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April 13th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
I’ve been beta testing your Firefox 3 and I love it! Every major update makes the browser even better. Keep up the great work, I look forward to the end of the testing. You guys always make great browsers.
Randy.
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April 20th, 2008 at 10:24 am
And what about the GO button??? I want the GO button Back…
I still can’t duplicate current page whit one click… :((((
Maybe middle click on the site icon could do this… it would be great… :s
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April 20th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
I hope this function will be added to firefox..
1. the Options>Application .. can be save to specific folder
like… mp3 file to save to my music.. jpg to my picture..
2. The bookmark has a shortcut..exAMple ctrl + 1 to open new layer of myspace.com..
thx
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May 19th, 2008 at 8:38 am
Is there a way to modify it to get the go button again?
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May 21st, 2008 at 2:43 am
I refuse to pay for any more M$ OS’s, Windows ver. that still use 98se until I get to know FreeBSD. I
was wondering if some time in the near future that you make FF3 available for 98?
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July 19th, 2008 at 4:27 am
Is there a way to organize files into different folders while downloading using download manager? By default it goes to one folder.
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RajeshJuly 23rd, 2008 at 3:21 pm
There is option in the browser to ask for the folder to save the file in. Not sure if thats what you are looking for.
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September 17th, 2008 at 4:19 am
I think that Many plug-in is the main reason users use Firefox.
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