Firefox 3 Beta
I’ve been running the new beta of Firefox 3 all day and I really like it. I could go over some of the cool new features, but it’s easier to let the more professional folks at Ars take care of the details.
I will tell you a few quick things though just to help out. You can download it here, and it will install in its own directory (it won’t override Firefox 2) so if you don’t like it you can go back, but it will use your current profile. To backup your profile, just go to C:\Documents and Settings\YourUserID\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles and copy that random number folder you see there to a different spot. Never hurts to be safe.
You will also want to install the Nightly Tester Tools for Firefox. This will allow you to enable any add-ons that are disabled by the new version change (just right-click the disabled add-on and enable it). Some of my add-ons already worked but most didn’t. So far, all of my extensions work correctly with Firefox 3 using the Nightly Tester Tools, but I have heard of a few reports of others not working. Just try them one at a time to be sure.
My first impression is that it seems snappier. Some rendering is a little odd but most of it is very nice and clean. The new Places functionality (more feature rich Bookmarks) is a nice idea but I already use Del.icio.us to keep track of most of my bookmarks. It does allow bookmark syncing though and has some interesting improvements to the standard bookmarking functionality.
This update to Firefox seems like a real improvement – much bigger than the 1.0 to 2.0 upgrade that happened previously. I also have heard that it runs better on the Mac … maybe it will pull me away from my Camino love… maybe. Check out the Ars article to get the full skinny – and I’m sure you’ll see lots more reviews from all us online geeks in the next couple weeks and months.
Update: After using this beta for over a week, I found lots of things I like about the new version. It does seem snappier than 2.x on the Mac as well. Still, if you are thinking about making the switch early I would discourage it as the amount of bugs that are still in it are enough to make it frustrating at times – unless of course you want to help with the development.
Update: Beta 2 came out recently and it seems to be a big improvement on Beta 1. It runs faster and seems to handle more items without as many issues. It is more usable than Beta 1 but it might still be best to wait until the RC versions are available. Some of the Places features are really irritating at the moment and I’m sure they’ll be fixed soon. For *nix users though, this version has the new visual refresh and may be worth checking out to see what is coming to make Firefox more visually seemless with your *nix themes.
Related posts:
