A newer version of Mozilla Firefox is available.
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42 out of 61 people found this review helpful
3 stars
Version: Mozilla Firefox 3
"Disappointed"
Pros: I have to say there is no such thing as a perfect browser, I use a lot of browsers and all of them have pros and cons. I have seen no major improvements in this new Firefox. However, here are some minor improvements I've seen:
It has new menus for the AddOn Manager, now you can see your plugins and a small window inside for finding new extensions. Useful, however, you still have to restart Firefox for themes and other features to work and preview. Install theme, restart Firefox, hate the theme, uninstall, restart Firefox. That's a very long process, and Opera has a feature that enables you to preview their skins without restart and asks if you want to keep it or not. I'd expect better for Firefox but I was wrong.
I can only say, the only reason why I stuck with this browser was because of its addons and extensions which are purely powerful.
Cons: The new "smart bar" on the address bar is extremely annoying and pain in the back. If I wanted to see my bookmarks, I'd go to the bookmarks folder. Other than that, the stars on the end of the URL disturbs me more than anything. There is no option to disable this either.
The new interface is almost in my opinion is a big copy of IE7 and Opera. I prefer Firefox 2's original default theme because it wasn't too much. The icons on the new default theme are extremely bright (including the yellow folders), if you use Windows XP themes, you'll have a hard time seeing, if you use the Windows Classic theme, your menu titles will not highlight and you won't see the words (black text on dark blue highlight)
And if it gets even worse, the bookmark manager is very annoying also. I have no use for the history and tags, instead it was an additional feature for more hassle. Deleting and moving folders causes Firefox to "not respond" and you can't even rename the annoying "bookmarks toolbar" anymore, which I have always done. You cannot rename the entire bookmarks folder, yet it named itself to one of my subfolders and it would not change back.
Like I stated earlier, there weren't major changes except a few tweaks here and there on the theme, which doesn't even look all that great. The memory usage just to view google.com was about 50MB RAM, meanwhile Opera used 15MB and IE7 used 19MB. Memory performances? I don't see it. It doesn't seem much faster than Firefox 2 or IE7. For speed and performance, I still consider Opera to be a lot more dominant. Firefox 3 was just another disappointment other than the new Opera's bugs.
Don't get me wrong, but I was never a Firefox fan until I tried version 2 and I loved it. It was basically perfect for my web browsing experience but now it's just a bit screwed up. I hope this is fixed soon and I hope someone or even the developers make a theme of Firefox 2 and allow it to be used on Firefox 3, otherwise I'll just stick with Firefox 2.
- 9 replies to this review
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restarting to preview themes is sure frustrating but when you consider the kind of security and flexibility (with tons of add-ons) that firefox provides, it becomes clear that you can't escape from firefox. start-up time is more as compared to IE which i think is due to the differnt add ons that load along with firefox, so to get that added functionality, can't you sacrifice a little amount of your time?
but i won't deny that i don't think that smart bar is such a smart addition to ff. everything comes with it's pros and cons but here i think the pros are so much advantageous and unavoidable that you can or you should try to ignore the cons.
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Wth are you talking about? It;s funny you mention that but a picture is worth a thousand words and sometimes can tell nothing. Tried themes that look good on screenshots, came out looking bad and quite different from the screenshot in many ways. And what about that restart button? Oh that doesnt always come up unless you install a new add on (correct me if I am wrong) and plus that doesn't mean it's not a long process. Install -> Restart Firefox -> Hate the theme -> Uninstall -> Restart Firefox. Like I said, it's not like Opera where you can test it and it asks if you want to keep it or remove it. I did use Firefox themes if you didn't notice, you have some reading problems. Maybe thats why I explained the long process? Which of course, you didn't read anyway because you decided to read some parts and not the others.
Whine and complain? Isn't that what reviews and ratings are for? Why are you here whining and complaining about my review? Because we both have opinions to share. Waste my time looking up a bookmark? It's right there in the folder. "Instead of letting Firefox do it for you." Well Firefox already have bookmarks for you, why add another lazy-people feature when there's enough to say it's a good browser? You obviously don't make sense. And I don't see any contradiction in my review. You're a serious hater and a Firefox fanboy. Name me some major changes. That little star icon thing? Big change? Opera probably had that 5 years ago yet no one knew.
I have a feeling you're an American and one of the 1,000,000 idiots online making rude remarks and smart comments. No wonder this place is screwed up. Because of people like you. Why don't you and AnalProber (the other idiot claiming I'm a troll ID) both go get a life. It's amazing how you just want to help people and fill them in on a bit of info about a product before downloading, yet they give such rude comments for no reason. I'm just going to pretend I never seen your comment or your future comments. Thank goodness for me.
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So you hate the fact that you can't preview your skins without restarting the browser. Ummmm, yeah you can. What do you think the picture next to the theme is for? Sure its not a full screen view, but it gives most people an idea as to if they want that skin or not. Then you hate the new bookmark feature, yet its made so you don't have to waste time(since time is a major factor to you, seeing that you don't want to restart your browser) but you'd rather waste time looking up a bookmark instead of letting firefox find it for you. And as for your themes problem with Windows XP, get a clue and use firefox themes instead. Your a whiner, Firefox 3 has some major improvements. But go ahead, stay stuck in the past and continue to contradict yourself.
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Thats not firefoxes fault you tool its your stupid norton that you need to get rid of!.
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Even reading the Download DIspatch review, I was concerned about the Smart Bar. Your clear description of it confirmed that it would NOT be something I would want. I started using Safari when Apple snuck it onto my PC, and was greatly impressed by the speed, even though it's lacking elsewhere. Guess I'll have to try Opera. IE7 - slowest...browser...ever.
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I feel it may be too soon for me to install Firefox 3. I will stay with 2.0.14 for a while longer.
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The memory issues can all depend on how many extensions you have installed. Opera and firefox 2 require re-installing java and flash. Where firefox 3 dose not. Who whants duplecate instelations of java and flash (Takes up more hard drive space)? As for the "Smart bar" it can be turned off in the about:config section. As far as the theme goes I hate opera's and whanted somthing that felt like it belonged in windows and not feel like spyware. I am glad the firefox now has the theme write and the plug-ins correct for java and flash. While I am still waiting on opera to fix that. Plus opera takes to long to load and has to many uneeded extra's and the extra's I do whant I can't find for opera.
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Told by Norton that my Norton tool bar with Identity Safe is not compatable with Firefox 3 and I can't get Firefox 2 anymore
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