Just more than 10 years ago, Mozilla threw its open-source code into the public domain. Today, its browser -- Firefox -- is preparing to launch its third major release in hopes of continuing to eat away at Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

Firefox already has more than 18 percent of the global market, according to Net Applications. With the release of Firefox 3, Mozilla could see a boost in downloads and market share. Microsoft's next version of Internet Explorer won't come to market until later this year.

On June 17, Mozilla will release Firefox 3. After more than 34 months of active development and the contributions of thousands of people, Firefox 3 will be downloadable free from the Mozilla Web site. Mozilla is promising this is the best browser -- period.

"Firefox 3 is a very nice browser. It's still going to have to go up against Internet Explorer {Windows] and Safari [Mac], which have the home court advantage on their operating systems," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at JupiterResearch. "It shows that the browser market is anything but stagnant."

A Focus on Security

Firefox 3 is based on the Gecko 1.9 Web rendering platform. Building on the previous release, Gecko 1.9 has more than 15,000 updates, including some major re-architecting for improved performance, stability, rendering correctness, and code simplification and sustainability. The result, Mozilla said, is a more secure, easier to use, more personal product with a lot more under the hood to offer Web-site and Firefox add-on developers.

Mozilla begins with a focus on security. Users can click a Web site's favicon [icon] in the location bar to see who owns the site and to check if the connection is secure. Identity verification is prominently displayed and easier to understand, Mozilla said. When a site uses Extended Validation (EV) SSL certificates, the site's favicon will turn green and show the name of the company.

Firefox 3 also has malware protection to warn users when they arrive at sites known to install viruses, spyware, trojans or the like. And a new Web Forgery Protection service blocks the content of pages suspected as Web forgeries. New SSL error pages, Mozilla said, are clearer and stricter, and Firefox automatically disables old and insecure add-on and plug-in versions.

Add-ons that provide updates in an insecure manner will also be disabled. Firefox will inform antivirus software when downloading executables and the browser respects the Vista parental control setting for disabling file downloads.

Easier, More Personal

Mozilla also concentrated on making Firefox easier to use and more personalized. In terms of password management, that means an information bar replaces the old password dialog so users can save passwords after a successful login. The add-on whitelist has been removed, making it possible to install extensions from third-party sites in fewer clicks. And a new download manager aims to makes it much easier to locate downloaded files. Users can also see and search the Web site where a file came from.

Firefox 3 allows users to add bookmarks from the location bar with a single click and associate keywords with bookmarks to sort them. Web applications, such as a favorite Webmail provider, can now be used instead of desktop applications to handle Web-site mail links. The Add-ons Manager can be used to download and install a Firefox customization from the thousands of add-ons available from Mozilla's Web site.

Gartenberg expects the competition to dominate browsing will continue. Even now, Microsoft is working on the release of IE 8 and Apple is seeding Safari 4. "Clearly, Web browsers are still very important, as important as they were 10 years ago, but just in a different way," he said. "The bottom line is no one is actually paying for a browser any more. A browser is free. It's something you give away in order to make money elsewhere."

Color management is what I'm excited about.

Hopefully they also the problem of my bookmarks deleting themselves every so often :bomb:

Maybe I shouldn't jinx myself, but I have never had that happen. I hope it stops "Creating Errors" and shutting down.

Ranger... Have you ever tried using the Opera browser? If you haven't, I highly suggest you at least check it out... they beat Mozilla out of the gate and just released v9.5, which is a big improvement over its previous release. I believe it's only 6-7MBs for the Windows version - so it shouldn't take *all* that long for you to download.

But I really think you should give it a try... I realize you're accustomed to Firefox, but you just might really like Opera - but more importantly, it may solve some of your error woes.

I downloaded a trail version of firefox 3 directly from mozilla. Its pretty cool so far :thumbsup:

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-rc.html

No I haven't tried Opera and yes, I am accustomed to Firefox and am pretty happy with it. I don't get the errors too often. Just don't know what causes them. I suspect it might be something on this site. I'll probably wait a while and see what the reviews are. Hopefully others will chime in. Gurl seems to like it so far. What's a "trial version"?

I used Opera for a few months, then gladly switched back to Firefox. I don't like the way Opera handles tabs.

The "trial version" basically means it's towards the end of its beta testing cycle, ie - not an entirely finished product.

And as far as the whole Opera thing goes... the only reason I brought it up was because I know you've had problems with FF before, so there's that and that fact the for all intents and purposes - a browser is a browser.. Especially since I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you probably don't rely on keyboard commands or any application specific things like that.

One of the joys of modern computing is that one can try different programs and decide which one they like the best. Granted, it's slightly more cumbersome on dialup, but it's still there. FF works well for a lot of people, but certainly not for everyone... me included - I've just never liked it. I've gone through so many different browsers over the years and I still don't rely on just one... I use three different ones on a regular basis depending on what I need to do.

All I'm saying is give it a shot... especially since it's such a small download.

I've been using beta 3. It looks a little different but I haven't come to appreciate any of the improvements, they are too far removed to notice. I still depend on my hardware firewall and ZoneAlarm security suite for protection.

http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.0b5/releasenotes/

So much for releasing on June 17th they still show 2.0.0.14 on the site.

Ok I am using it now and it does seem to function better. I would think you would be alright installing it if it's a release canadate.

Opera 9.5 is just fine but FF3 seems very attractive and assertive too lol

I like it I put it on my work pc I am sure our techs would love me lol. I put it on because it has tabbed browsing and is more productive than IE 6. I plan to put it on my pc when I get home though as well.

Opera's rendering engine is arguably the best. The UI is weird.

Just downloaded it, looks great. The extra screen space rocks.

Firefox did update the site and version 3 final release is now available.

Ie7 Ftw

....

Mitchell Gant and Firefox FTW!!!!

nXaS2EQrX7Q

Who needs a browser when you have Thought-Controlled Weapons Systems?

Opera is a "love it or hate it" browser... I keep it around as a backup, although I can say that the new v9.5 is a big improvement. The whole tab thing doesn't bother me simply because I've never liked to use tabbed browsing - for whatever reason, I've always liked all of my pages opened in their own window.

For my daily surfing... I just use good ol' Safari v3.0.4 - it's quick to load and it renders quickly as well. My only beef with Safari is its poor page caching... if you leave it open and running for too long without quitting (around a week or so), it tends to bog down while eating a good chunk of system memory. It's all easily fixed by a quick quit and relaunch or by executing the Empty Cache command... but it still gets annoying sometimes.

My main #2 browser is SeaMonkey, which is actually a continuation of the old Mozilla Suite... it was actually my main browser for a while and I still really like it. I also keep a copy of Opera and Firefox as backup browsers. Opera is a little quirky (hence why people either love it or hate it), but it's a good little browser and is fairly unique in the world of browsers in that it's one of the very few that uses its own proprietary rendering engine (and as Jesda said... it's arguably the best out there). Firefox is okay... I know a lot of people live by it (which I always think is because it was in most cases, the browser that opened people's eyes to browsers outside of IE)... I think it's okay, definitely good to keep around. I've just never been able to get into it... I've given each major revision a fighting chance... From the original Firebird browser to each major update of FF and I'll give v3.0 a chance as well. I've just never liked the overall "feel" of the browser, nor do I particularly like the Gecko engine...

Then of course... I do always keep a copy of IE either in emulation or virtualization as an absolute last resort.

As an aside on Firefox.... I find it all thoroughly amusing. For those who don't know the history of Mozilla, the "Mozilla Organization" was originally started and funded by Netscape. Back in the early days of the net, Netscape had huge market share but eventually lost out to IE in the first "browser war." Now it's ironic that Firefox, the browser that can trace its lineage back to Netscape's dollars, is now clawing more and more market share (along with other browsers - Safari usage has hit over 6% now) away from IE.

Opera ?? OPERA ?? The trouble with opera is that it is the way it used to be........:sneaky:

In my opinion opera does not measure up to this new firefox.

Well I downloaded it last night. I like it, but in listening to AM talk I realize that I don't know enough about these things to form an opinion or know the intricacies of each. Maybe that's a good thing.

http://lifehacker.com/396312/power-users-guide-to-firefox-3

check that article out for a lot if info about ffx3
there are a lot of embedded links in the article that might come in handy as well

there's a lot of features in the new ffx that aren't getting a lot of attention in the press

Well I downloaded it last night. I like it, but in listening to AM talk I realize that I don't know enough about these things to form an opinion or know the intricacies of each. Maybe that's a good thing.

Ranger... Did you download Opera or the FF3 beta? If you did go ahead and give Opera a try, I had a feeling that you would like it. As has been mentioned by Jesda and myself, Opera's rendering engine is just about the best out there... and it's quick, which helps even on dialup.

As I said... for most people, a browser is a browser... they're all fundamentally the same when all you want/need to do is look at webpages. They only begin to differ when you get into more advanced features.

But if you did go ahead and give Opera a try, I'd suggest you stick with it a while... the more you use it, the more you'll like it - that's how most people get hooked on it. I have a feeling it will also solve the majority of your web-woes!

Keep us updated on what you think!

FF3 is the release version now it was released yesterday. I think Ranger downloaded the FF3 not opera. FF3 has the same features and functionality of Opera now anyway.

Yeah, I loaded FF3. Maybe I'll give Opera a try one of these days when I get a chance.

I just downloaded FF3. Are the add-ons not yet compatible? I try to find some add-ons and I can't find many. I did download the ebay toolbar...

I'm running the Daily Dilbert, Forecast and NoScript add-ons and they all work fine in FF3

Well, FF3 was infitetly slower than FF2 so I dowloaded Opera. What a difference. I guess I am going to have to stay with Opera. Gonna take some getting used to. I have already noticed that I miss the personal tool bar and the spell check.

Well, I figured out how to add the personal tool bar. Now if dis ting wud just chek mt speling.

I'm happy for you Ranger

Well, you know you can use "AMSOIL" SOFTWARE to optimize the performance of your computer


:hide:

:tisk: :)

Is the spell check any better in FF3? It's f-ing retarded in FF2....

Mozilla must have engineered the new firefox to run best on broadband connections. I am very happy with the new one. The only thing I use opera on is my Wii.

Yeah, for me on my Sprint wireless card, FF3 runs just as fast as FF2 did...

I was quite happy with the built in spell check on FF2 & 3. I can't quite figure out how to add it to Opera yet. I am just amazed at the difference in speed from FF2 to FF3 and the difference between FF3 and Opera. I do have to admit that I like FF better, but for the speed difference I will likely have to stay with Opera.

Ranger... Opera does have a spell checker... just not and inline (as you type) checker. From what I've read... there are some plug-ins for an inline spell checker... I'll check them out for you and let you know what I find. Other than they spell check... I had a feeling that you would like Opera - especially the SPEEEED!

I really like the new full-screen mode. Soooo much screen space, great for browsing forums.

Ranger... Opera does have a spell checker... just not and inline (as you type) checker. From what I've read... there are some plug-ins for an inline spell checker... I'll check them out for you and let you know what I find. Other than they spell check... I had a feeling that you would like Opera - especially the SPEEEED!

THAT is what I really liked about FF, the "In line" checker. Let me know what you find. I really appreciate it.

Hey Ranger,
You can still have spell checker in any browser ,all you have to is to download google toolbar :)

Is that an "in line" checker and how do I do that?

Here's the link for you Ranger

http://toolbar.google.com/T4/index.html?utm_campaign=tr&utm_source=tr-ha-emea-tr-google&utm_medium=ha&utm_term=google%20toolbar&tbbrand=GZAZ

After the download completes , restart your browser . Once it opens you should see the new toolbar . How to use the spell checker ?
All you have to do is to press ABC Check button , it also fixes most words automatically
:)

I loaded a google toolbar from Opera widgets, but it has a bunch of goofy symbols and no explanations. No idea what they hell they are. Damn I miss that spell checker. Why in the world would Opera not include it?

I forgot Internet Explorer even existed. :)

In other spell checking news, the other day I found an about:config 'hack' for firefox (2 or 3) that turns on spell checking for single line text inputs (such as subject lines for forum and blog posts).

go to about:config in your url/address bar

filter for the string: spell (there should be 3 entries in result)

the middle one: layout.spellcheckDefault is set to 1 but if you change it to 2 firefox will spell check all text boxes, even single line text boxes.

firefox will need to be restarted for this change to take effect.

-chris

Ranger... I managed to find a couple of possibilities for adding in-line spell checking... I should have a chance this weekend to check them all out.

But... Since you've already found Opera's widgets page... do a search for spell checkers and try downloading some... especially if "Orangoo" comes up and let me know what you come up with.

As far as Opera not having such built-in, I know... it is pretty weird, especially seeing as how many different features they already have built in. It's strange how some companies will just miss such simple things altogether!

Anyway... the inline spellchecking aside, how are you liking the rest of the browser so far??

I type Orangoo and my FF3 in line spell checker suggests: Oran goo, Orange, Orangutan and Rangoon. I don't see a problem with the FF3 dictionary :hmm:

Ranger... I managed to find a couple of possibilities for adding in-line spell checking... I should have a chance this weekend to check them all out.

But... Since you've already found Opera's widgets page... do a search for spell checkers and try downloading some... especially if "Orangoo" comes up and let me know what you come up with.

As far as Opera not having such built-in, I know... it is pretty weird, especially seeing as how many different features they already have built in. It's strange how some companies will just miss such simple things altogether!

Anyway... the inline spellchecking aside, how are you liking the rest of the browser so far??
I have done some searching and have seen Orangoo. may have to look into it later. Still like FF better if it was faster.

An observation.

Opera seemed to have lowed down a bit. I went back to FF3 again. In both cases I have noticed that the slow down seems to occure when the Avast ball stops spinning. While it is spinning, things seem to load as fast as can be expected on dial up, and I can live with that. Those of you using Avast will know what I am talking about. I have a suspicion that Avast is causing the slow downs (still not as bad as AVG). Anyone have any constructive ideas or thoughts?

Ranger, have you looked into shutting down/disabling some of the services that are running under windows (that don't really need to be)

when i'm trying to speed up an older machine with a less than optimal amount of RAM i usually start there, then go into the startup area and start cutting back there as well

i figure you've already done these kinds of things, and if you have, well it sux to say, but there's only so much you can do with old hardware (and dialup)

No I haven't. Not sure I know what doesn't need to be running or how to do that. Not much on computers. I have used FF3 this morning to send my last post and it was faster than Opera today. It does seem to be related to that Avast ball. When it is spinning, FF3 seems to be fine, but when it stops, everything seems to stop and wait for it. Likewise on Opera.

HMM not so sure abou avast... i've always used AVG free

for the background services: start > run > services.msc

that opens up the services control panel you can get an idea for what's currently running (in the status column)
you can also get an idea for what auto loads with windows (in the next column 'startup type')

a lot of times bad spyware and adware gets installed as a service and disabling it here is a good first step to removing it

there's many guides online for choosing which services you really need running
here's a couple

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm (this is for xp with service pack 3, but if you poke around he's got all the other flavors of windows with their service packs... he basically does different guides for the service packs because some change the default behavior and add/remove some services)

http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm (this one is much more informative in ways of screenshots and explanations in my opinion)

-good luck

If you recall, I was using AVG, but their new version caused me to run even slower and I had to dump it. That's when I went to Avast. I am afraid to disable anything because I have no idea what most of that stuff is and am afrain I'll REALLY screw something up and have to call Jimmy back over here to bail me out.

If Jimmy is close I would call him he will get you set up right.

He is not far away. He came over once when I was crashing all the time. I don't want to become a PITA. I'll save him for when I really need him. It seems to be running a bit better know. Still seems to slow down occasionally, but like I said, I suspect Avast is checking something or updating. If FF3 gets to slow I switch to Opera and vice versa, but I prefer FF3 for this site because of the spell check.

I have not downloaded it yet but I will tonight to see if it's a big difference.

I have not downloaded it yet but I will tonight to see if it's a big difference.

It is like Mcdonald's I'm lovin it. :thepan:

Another observation. I have found that when it locks up I can jog it back to life by going to the top tool bar and clicking on one of the buttons like the help button. Then just move to the right and click it off. That seems to unlock everything. The problem is that I have to do this sometimes 2 or 3 times to get this page to load. Wish I could figure out what is locking it up. Doesn't seem to be Avast as I have tried turning it off (I think) to no avail. Damned computers. :banghead:

Another observation. I have found that when it locks up I can jog it back to life by going to the top tool bar and clicking on one of the buttons like the help button. Then just move to the right and click it off. That seems to unlock everything. The problem is that I have to do this sometimes 2 or 3 times to get this page to load. Wish I could figure out what is locking it up. Doesn't seem to be Avast as I have tried turning it off (I think) to no avail. Damned computers. :banghead:

Jimmy checked in today. You might want to give him a page.:alchi:

Today it seems to be running really fast (for dial up) and not locking up. I just don't get it.

Hey Ranger,
If you restart your computer it may make difference . I just notice the very same thing as well. After a few days runnin up her and give her a restart she just flies lol

you should restart at least once a day.

I let the 'book stand by only then restart lol

It crashes with the "blue screen of death" often enough that I do frequent restarts, but thanks for the tip. I'll try that next time is slows down.