Filed under: Software, Open Source, Beta Beat
Feeling lucky? Firefox 3 beta 1 now downloadable
Running beta versions of your primary browser is a little like converting your car to run on cooking oil biodiesel. It's probably going to work OK, but be prepared for a few surprises along the journey. If you're ready for the social, swing by the Mozillaplex and download your copy of Firefox 3.0 beta 1, but note the warning: "We do not recommend that anyone other than developers and testers download the Firefox 3 Beta 1 milestone release." Gotcha.The beta DMG clocks in at 17 MB and new features/improvements include (quoting):
- Improved security features such as: better presentation of website identity and security, malware protection, stricter SSL error pages, anti-virus integration in the download manager, and version checking for insecure plugins.
- Improved ease of use through: better password management, easier add-on installation, new download manager with resumable downloading, full page zoom, animated tab strip, and better integration with Windows Vista and Mac OS X.
- Richer personalization through: one-click bookmarking, smart search bookmark folders, direct typing in location bar searches your history and bookmarks for URLs and page titles, ability to register web applications as protocol handlers, and better customization of download actions for file types.
- Improved platform features such as: new graphics and font rendering architecture, major changes to the HTML rendering engine to provide better CSS, float-, and table layout support, native web page form controls, colour profile management, and offline application support.
- Performance improvements such as: better data reliability for user profiles, architectural improvements to speed up page rendering, over 300 memory leak fixes, and a new XPCOM cycle collector to reduce entire classes of leaks.
via Truemors
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
J.W. said 10:28AM on 11-20-2007
I have a problem that when I try and use bookmarks from the bookmark bar, the menus appear and disappear, making it difficult to access my bookmarks.
Reply
Leonard Nimrod said 10:03AM on 11-22-2007
To bad they are still using the Gecko engine.
Reply
Ryan said 10:51AM on 11-20-2007
@Leonard
I think you can pretty much count on them always using Gecko.
Reply
jus10 said 10:53AM on 11-20-2007
I've been running the alpha's at work (on that other OS) for months now as my primary browser. 3.0 renders a bit better/faster. I used it briefly on my Mac where FF3 is a massive improvement over 2.0 due to Cocoa widgets and a good bit of Mac-loving.
At home though I use Opera on Mac and Linux as it currently meets my needs best.
Reply
Eric said 11:03AM on 11-20-2007
I too have been running the nightly/alpha's for months because of issues with dual monitors under FF2. It has been fairly stable and a bit quicker. Be careful about extension compatibility as many are not coded for FF3.
Reply
Marky said 11:08AM on 11-20-2007
I'll stick with Opera. Even in the 9.5 beta form it's still the better browser for standards compliance and very fast!
Reply
jikespingleton said 11:15AM on 11-20-2007
two finger scrolling in FF3 (mac) windows is buggy as hell. It scrolls all the way down the page for me when i use two fingers. Also, none of my important extensions are compatible. I was hoping FF3 would adopt the sexy new leopard look... but its using the old ugly milk (like system prefs in tiger) look. Hopefully they'll sexify it for the final release.
This looks promising though. No matter what, it's going to be better than safari. I dont know how apple can even consider the miniscule and useless additions they made to safari an "upgrade". It still renders css inputs/ajax worse than any other browser. FF is def my browser of choice even though 3 is a bit of a buggy beta.
/me is downgrading to a working version of firefox in the mean time.
Reply
Ernie Smith said 11:18AM on 11-20-2007
Could this post, say, be a little less teetotaling?
Having tried the browser for the last few days, I have to say – it's incredibly stable and totally work your time. And the experience is far smoother than FF2 was. I say that as a guy who regularly runs 20+ tabs in his box on a three-year-old iBook with less than a gig of memory.
Reply
Si said 11:22AM on 11-20-2007
Bookmarks are janky.
Reply
nesmex said 11:25AM on 11-20-2007
I was looking forward to FF3, and as I understand it is a beta, I was kinda dissapointed to learn that it does not support the del.icio.us plugin nor the google's notebook plugin both of which I use a lot. I guess I'll have to wait until those are compatible...
cheers!
Reply
Jonathan said 11:40AM on 11-20-2007
bookmarks are the biggest problem for me: it reset me months, though I was able to restore that, and the bookmarksbar seems inaccesible, bookmarking pages also doesn't work. I like the new Mac look, though
Reply
Ben C said 12:05PM on 11-20-2007
It's probably worth noting that I've been running my 2003 Jetta TDi on biodiesel for years with no problems whatsoever. Clearly, that is an alternative fuel option that has gone gold.
For the record, running on SVO (straight vegetable oil) requires conversion. Biodiesel requires no alterations in most modern diesel-engine vehicles.
Oh—and uh... Firefox... beta... or something...
Reply
Alan said 12:18PM on 11-20-2007
Check out Nightly Tester Tools and disable extension version checking to get your extensions working again. Some of them still might not work, but at least then you'll know it's a programming error rather than a simple check of the version number. I'm using Greasemonkey on 3.0b1 without any problems, but I had to disable the version check to get it to install.
Reply
Greg G said 3:49PM on 11-20-2007
Lets see how it does against safari =)
Reply
Alan said 1:09PM on 11-20-2007
URL for Nightly Tester Tools: http://www.oxymoronical.com/web/firefox/nightly
Reply
dave said 1:15PM on 11-20-2007
There is nothing chancy about running veggie oil through your diesel engine. Yeah, it SOUNDS crazy, but it works. Make the proper minor adjustments, do the proper maintenance, use the proper fuel and of you go. Diesel himself ran his first engine at the worlds fair using peanut oil.
And maybe this paeon to the gods of conspicuous consumption of a blog should think about the mountains of e-waste generated before they add to the false rhetoric surrounding biofuels. Off-handed uneducated remarks like this are what keep minds closed with regards to environmentally positive progress.
Reply
nova20 said 1:22PM on 11-20-2007
Where's the keychain integration I was promised with version 3?
Bah... it's beta. Maybe it'll be in the final release.
Reply
fresh99 said 2:30PM on 11-20-2007
Try copying a picture from any web site, then pasting it into Photoshop CS3.
Yeah, that's not working. At all.
Reply
chris mccorkle said 2:03PM on 11-20-2007
First launch on Intel iMac: 43MB± RAM usage
First launch on PPC Powerbook: 894± RAM usage (?!)
Reply
Jak Logan said 2:48PM on 11-20-2007
I'm curious, can it download Flash movies like Safari's Activity Monitor window?
Reply