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No longer a fledgling upstart, Firefox 3 is full-featured, lightning fast, and an able foe for both the big-dog competitor Internet Explorer and competitors nipping at its heels. Firefox's killer add-ons remain strong, and the latest update makes version 3.5 about two times faster than version 3. However, competition is strong and it can no longer be said that Firefox is the fastest browser available.
Several notable improvements in the latest revamp keep Firefox abreast of current browsing tech. Along with Mozilla's new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine that renders Web applications faster on Firefox than ever before, there have also been improvements to the layout engine Gecko for faster page rendering. The new Private Browsing brings a feature to Firefox that competitors have had for a while: the capability to turn off cookie and history logs. Users also have more granular control over cookies, history, and bookmarks in version 3.5 via the redone Clear Recent History option under Tools. Geolocation courtesy of Google has been activated by default in Firefox, so that generic searches such as "city hall" will come closer to pegging the government offices nearest you.
Web developers should be excited about expanded support for HTML5 local storage, downloadable fonts, and native support for OGG-formatted embedded video. ICC profiles, SVG transforms, CSS media queries, native JSON support, and Web worker threads also get lots of love from v3.5. There's no doubt that Firefox 3.5 is a must-have, but it's an update that's more about keeping the browser current rather than blazing new trails.
Mozilla Firefox - Surf the web and customize your browser - Download Video Previews:Publisher's Description
From Mozilla:
Mozilla Firefox is a fast, full-featured Web browser. Firefox includes pop-up blocking, tab-browsing, integrated Google search, simplified privacy controls, a streamlined browser window that shows you more of the page than any other browser and a number of additional features that work with you to help you get the most out of your time online.
Firefox 3.5 is based on the Gecko 1.9.1 rendering platform, which has been under development for the past year. Firefox 3.5 offers many changes over the previous version, supporting new web technologies, improving performance and ease of use, and adding new features for users: It is now available in more than 70 languages, includes a Private Browsing mode, better performance and stability with the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, the ability to provide Location Aware Browsing using web standards for geolocation, support for native JSON, and web worker threads, support for new web technologies such as: HTML5 < video > and < audio > elements, downloadable fonts and other new CSS properties, JavaScript query selectors, HTML5 offline data storage for applications, and SVG transforms.
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All versions:
4.3 starsout of 15,263 votes
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Current version:
3.3 starsout of 117 votes
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My rating:
Write review
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"Very buggy and slow"
Version: Mozilla Firefox 3.5
Pros
Lots of Features
Cons
None of them work.
Summary
There really needs to be something done about this. I upgraded sadly from a much smoother running version and am extremely frustrated. Don't upgrade if you're using 3.
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"MORE CRASHES THAN I HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!"
Version: Mozilla Firefox 3.5
Pros
At this point NONE
Cons
Far too many crashes. Makes surfing or working online a pain.
Summary
Ever since I updated to the latest version I have spent more time crashing than I have ever done before. Links crash to sites I've NEVER had problems with before. It is very frustrating to say the least. I don't use add ons and still I got crashes. Working online is a pain now, everytime I clink a link it crashes, I'll be in the middle of doing something and it crashes. I liked version 2 much better, it never crashed on me at all. I honestly think the latest version was released far too soon.
Anyone know where I can get an earlier version of FireFox? -
"Makes promises it doesn't keep!"
Version: Mozilla Firefox 3.5
Pros
I can't tell. It kept on crashing.
Cons
It wouldn't except add ons & the google notebook which I use every day. Two toolbars that I just finished customizing were lost & each day I spent fixing them was a waste of time because they were gone the next time I would start the browser.
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"The worst browser Mozilla has ever released"
Version: Mozilla Firefox 3.5
Pros
I like nothing about this product except that Microsoft does not make it.
Cons
The product is slow to cold start, unacceptably so. Stability and rendering issues as well.
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"A Mozilla fanboy no more"
Version: Mozilla Firefox 3.5
Pros
what pros?
Cons
I switched back to version 3.0.11 because of multiple problems with 3.5 including hangs/crashes, failure to render many pages correctly and most of all it is extremely slow to start
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"Don't even know where to begin"
Version: Mozilla Firefox 3.5
Pros
I can think of none.
Cons
It crashes often and lags the entire computer regardless of your computer specs. It starts very slowly and Mozilla tries to blame it on add-ons etc etc when the fact is that 3.5 is simply flawed, period
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"google firefox 3.5 slow"
Version: Mozilla Firefox 3.5
Pros
there are no pros
Cons
All you need to do is google "firefox 3.5 slow". You will find everything you need to know.
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"Awfully slow and buggy"
Version: Mozilla Firefox 3.5
Pros
how about no
Cons
see:
http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?locale=en-US&forumId=1&comments_parentId=381674
straight from mozilla forums -
"In a word, FAIL"
Version: Mozilla Firefox 3.5
Pros
Mozilla has finally done it. They have officially now moved clearly into the bloatware category along with AVG and Ad-Aware. Its a shame really.
Cons
Bloatware. page rendering, crash and burn, start up time all epic fail
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"Too many problems to list"
Version: Mozilla Firefox 3.5
Pros
no, ten characters, no
Cons
I have no add ons, i have done fresh installs on xp, vista 32 and 64 bit, win7 32 and 64bit all with the same results. It takes ages to startup. It renders pages incorrectly. It crashes over and over again.
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