Firefox 3, Beta 5
Posted by Vorenus via Mozilla Developer DevNews on 03 April 2008 - 09:09 · 30 comments & 15255 views
- Improvements to the user interface based on user feedback, including changes to the look and feel on Windows Vista, Windows XP, Mac OS X and Linux.
- Changes and fixes for new features such as the location bar autocomplete, bookmark backup and restore, full page zoom, and others, based on feedback from our community.
- Fixes and improvements to platform features to improve security, web compatabilty and stability.
- Continued performance improvements: changes to our javascript engine as well as profile guided optimization continues to improve performance over previous releases as measured by the popular SunSpider test from Apple, and in the speed of web applications like Google Mail and Zoho Office.
Download: Firefox Beta 5 | 7.2 MB (English)
Link: What's New in Firefox 3
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Forum name: Vorenus
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Forum name: Vorenus
Contact: via forum PM
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#1 Posted by +xan K on 03 Apr 2008 - 12:27
- one more step closer to final, and it's looking good too.
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(1 reply)
#2 Posted by jimmyb2008 on 03 Apr 2008 - 12:41
- Wow.. this is amazing!! How long before final??
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#2.1 Posted by BassKillah on 03 Apr 2008 - 15:42
- (jimmyb2008 said @ #2)Wow.. this is amazing!! How long before final??
I think I read somewhere , June 2008
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#3 Posted by ThaCrip on 03 Apr 2008 - 17:20
- nice.... i can notice mainly visual differences between beta4 and beta5
... like the 'live bookmarks' and a few icon tweaks etc.
and yes, i think it was June 2008 to as far as the final FF3... cause according to what i read this is the last beta before the RC stages.
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#4 Posted by - Kaboose - on 03 Apr 2008 - 20:00
- so far its nice and fast on ubuntu, and seeing the improvements, good job
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#5 Posted by TRC on 03 Apr 2008 - 20:23
- All of my search boxes, dialog boxes, address bar, etc. are filled in with solid gray. It looks horrible.
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#6 Posted by g0dlike on 03 Apr 2008 - 21:28
- On my system, it keeps on freezing on *most* sites. End task->Restart->Restore old session->Freeze again.
Back to beta 4, now working properly.
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#7 Posted by LinDog on 03 Apr 2008 - 21:53
- Went back to beta 4 until all my extensions are compatible. Good progress though but I can't wait until the finalized version 3
Also on acid3 beta 5 scores a little more than beta 4.
beta 4 was 67/100
beta 5 was 71/100
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(3 replies)
#8 Posted by Zip on 03 Apr 2008 - 22:35
- the UI is still terrible IMHO. Unless it becomes much prettier quickly (in vista at least) they're going to lose a serious amount of customers. Opera, IE, Safari are all beautiful. default theme in ff3? terrible... and how many average joes know how to change the theme?
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#8.1 Posted by +Dakkaroth on 03 Apr 2008 - 22:57
- Looks fine to me:
Not to mention there are actually decent themes for Firefox (though not many for FF3, granted it's still in beta though). I can't customize IE7, and Opera.. well, finding a decent theme for me was like finding a needle in a haystack honestly, but that's only my opinion and isn't the basis of why I would or wouldn't use Opera anyways. Overall functionality is what I enjoy. Opera for me only offers the performance.
[edit] - Nevermind. They totally just f**ked up the small icons with beta 5. Damn it...
[edit 2] - Whoa.. Neowin has ads... -
#8.2 Posted by ThaCrip on 03 Apr 2008 - 23:29
- me personally i think IE7's interface sucks compared to even firefox 2. (to much of a change to where stuff is located and re-learning it sucks... where as with firefox 2/3 it's where IE6's is (which everyone knows) and it's all straight forward with the back and forward buttons and it's home page icon's etc etc)
as far as your extensions i can FORCE em to work try this...
about:config (type that into firefox url and hit enter) then right click and select 'New > Boolean' (for each of em) and then add these...
"extensions.checkCompatibility" (without the " ) (set to false when it asks)
"extensions.checkUpdateSecurity" (without the " ) (set to false when it asks)
then exit the webbrowser and reload it.... that should take care of it ... i had to do this to get one of my extensions to work called 'tabscroller' (which dont have a https website and it's supposedly not compatible with FF3 (so far))
Last edited by ThaCrip on 03 Apr 2008 - 23:42 -
#8.3 Posted by RanCorX2 on 04 Apr 2008 - 16:19
- (Dakkaroth said @ #8.1)Looks fine to me:
Not to mention there are actually decent themes for Firefox (though not many for FF3, granted it's still in beta though). I can't customize IE7, and Opera.. well, finding a decent theme for me was like finding a needle in a haystack honestly, but that's only my opinion and isn't the basis of why I would or wouldn't use Opera anyways. Overall functionality is what I enjoy. Opera for me only offers the performance.
[edit] - Nevermind. They totally just f**ked up the small icons with beta 5. Damn it...
[edit 2] - Whoa.. Neowin has ads...
what visual style is that? looks good.
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(4 replies)
#9 Posted by mocax on 04 Apr 2008 - 01:37
- beta 5 has been crashes a lot, hope the people at firefox don't flag my crash reports as spam....
Looks like there's gonna be a beta 6. -
#9.1 Posted by ThaCrip on 04 Apr 2008 - 03:20
- i would try uninstalling firefox 3 beta 5 and delete your entire profile relating to the firefox stuff and reinstall it and see if it still crashes.... cause it's running perfectly fine for me... ill bet something on your pc is interfering with it or maybe you have a addon for it acting up.
just some thoughts -
#9.2 Posted by g0dlike on 04 Apr 2008 - 08:53
- Try accessing http://eurosport.yahoo.com/04042008/58/atp...erer-miami.html
This page every time crashes Firefox on my computer. -
#9.3 Posted by xiphi on 04 Apr 2008 - 10:09
- (g0dlike said @ #9.2)Try accessing http://eurosport.yahoo.com/04042008/58/atp...erer-miami.html
This page every time crashes Firefox on my computer.
It didn't crash on mine. In fact, Firefox 3 Beta 5 hasn't crashed at all. -
#9.4 Posted by +xan K on 05 Apr 2008 - 01:01
- it didn't crash for either. it loaded up well and fast. I forced all my extensions and they work perfectly including the latest Adblock Plus development build and no ads nowhere.
Firefox is faster, snappier, lighter and cooler than ever! I'm on Vista, BTW...
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#10 Posted by dodialog on 04 Apr 2008 - 10:46
- First FF3 beta I've tried, find it mature and stable, seamless straightforward install and after couple of days - crash free.
Tho I have my version 2 set up beautifully to my liking, I've hardly opened it as i'm finding FF3 irresistable despite almost none of my addons working
First few things: very nice new functionality to the address bar - including bookmarking and its "smart" powers.
Then and probably most important is THEY FIXED THE F...ING MEMORY LEAKS - i mean REALLY fixed them. I run with a lot of tabs all the time, they now open quickly with only a small memory hit and CPU usage stays really small even hours later.
There's lots more but despite a lot of apprehension this looks like a winner from here.
The Moz FF crew seems to have been pretty conservative with changes but all the changes I've seen seem beautifully implemented and very much part of "the package" giving a very solid feel to the whole thing.
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#11 Posted by j0j081 on 04 Apr 2008 - 11:38
- I haven't been impressed with ff3 so far. IE on Vista seems much better and I used to be one of the people recommending ff to everyone.
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#12 Posted by mocax on 04 Apr 2008 - 13:33
- The crashes seem to happen randomly.
Happens on a few news sites.
I can't replicate the crashes, related to rotating ads? Hit the "wrong" ad and *BAM*
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#13 Posted by rdf8585 on 04 Apr 2008 - 16:22
- Interesting tweak in beta 5
In fact most of the network connection defaults have been increased in beta 5, compared to Firefox 2. You can see them by typing �about:config� in the URL field and searching for �connect�:
network.http.max-connections = 30 (was 24)
network.http.max-connections-per-server = 15 (was 8 )
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy = 8 (was 4)
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server = 6 (was 2)
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Burnette/?p=565
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#14 Posted by hardgiant on 04 Apr 2008 - 16:26
- All you need is Stylish and you can make FF3 look like anything you want.
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(1 reply)
#15 Posted by TRC on 05 Apr 2008 - 04:45
- I've decided I don't like Firefox 3, I'll just stick with 2 until it's no longer safe to use and then maybe Opera or something.
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(3 replies)
#16 Posted by Screaming Slave on 05 Apr 2008 - 21:38
- I've tried Opera, FF, Safari and IE, and no matter how long I try to stick with the alternatives, I always end up with IE. It just _feels_ right. Well, almost. It "feels right" after I install Ad Muncher.
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#16.1 Posted by ThaCrip on 06 Apr 2008 - 08:09
- +1 with the AD-Muncher comment! .... it's a top of the line advert/ad blocking app and lite on resources and works on all browsers etc.
but to me, i been a full time Firefox user since just before the 1.0 release a while back and with FF3 making memory usage much better... i dont see ANY reason to change plus it's extensions are great which are overall unmatched... plus i think IE7's interface changed for the worse as the layout changed and you had to relearn everything vs IE6's which is like Firefox so switching to Firefox was easy and straight forward. -
#16.2 Posted by LaXu on 06 Apr 2008 - 13:38
- I think a good question is "why should anything be like IE6". By far the worst browser available and still widely used. I think the IE7 user interface is actually really good but everything else is significantly behind Opera, Firefox and Safari.
I'm generally an Opera user but on OSX I feel that Firefox works better. I really had to download a lot of extensions to get basic Opera functionality into Firefox but it works great now. I still haven't moved to FF3 beta 5 because lots of extensions are totally broken. Hopefully they'll be fixed soon. -
#16.3 Posted by ThaCrip on 08 Apr 2008 - 23:42
- (LaXu said @ #16.2)I think a good question is "why should anything be like IE6". By far the worst browser available and still widely used. I think the IE7 user interface is actually really good but everything else is significantly behind Opera, Firefox and Safari.
I'm generally an Opera user but on OSX I feel that Firefox works better. I really had to download a lot of extensions to get basic Opera functionality into Firefox but it works great now. I still haven't moved to FF3 beta 5 because lots of extensions are totally broken. Hopefully they'll be fixed soon.
dont get me wrong... i think 'overall' IE7 is better than IE6 cause of security etc etc.... i just think when speaking about interfaces alone... i prefered IE6's just cause it was easier to use since everyone knows where the options etc etc are where as with IE7 the layout changed quite a bit and you have to relearn stuff... thats why Firefox is still good cause it's basically like IE6's interface which everyone is familiar with.
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#17 Posted by nunjabusiness on 06 Apr 2008 - 13:43
- I was getting website-caused crashes up the yingyang with B4 - B5 fixes those in all cases.
However, I am getting behavior where a link opens a new tab that SHOULD be right, but there is nothing displayed. Bug reports filed.
IE gives me a rash in all the wrong areas