- Quick specs
- Price: Free
- Operating system: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista
- Date added: December 15, 2009
- Total Downloads: 21,035,047
- Downloads last week: 84,827
- See full specifications
- CNET editors' rating: stars
- Average user rating: stars out of 11955 votes
See all user reviews
CNET editors' review
Reviewed by: Seth Rosenblatt on June 30, 2009
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.
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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.
What's new in this version:
version 3.5.6 fixed several security and stability issues.
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User reviews
- Average user rating: 4.5 stars out of 11955 votes
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
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Showing 5 of 47 user reviewsSee all 47 user reviews
This software version | All versions -
Version: Mozilla Firefox 3.5.6
"No longer the best, Maxthon is faster and better"
Pros: There weren't enough to mention
Cons: Slow, felt bulky, wouldn't load pages, sometime wouldn't load them at all
Summary: When FF first came out, I was a huge fan. Thought that FF would put an end to the browser war, but as more updated versions came out, the slower and slower it got and become bloated. I was highly disappointed and now this. FF has totally gotten away... read more >>
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1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
Version: Mozilla Firefox 3.5.6
Pros: Doesn't crash every time I close Facebook.
Cons: Had a little trouble finding little things like the 'zoom' thingy.
Summary: I like this very much since I learned how to find the zoom feature. Hey, I'm an old lady!
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Version: Mozilla Firefox 3.5.6
Pros: Nice and easy software, easy to use
Cons: Takes time to come up on the desktop
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1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
Version: Mozilla Firefox 3.5.6
"Works fine but speed is still a problem"
Pros: When my primary browser IE8 decides to go crazy on me, I can rely on Firefox to como to the rescue.
Cons: Some websites do not display correctly. I find it to be just as fast as IE
Summary: I'm hoping that the next release 3.6 will be faster.
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Version: Mozilla Firefox 3.5.6
"I'm not sufficiently competent to judge."
Pros: Happy with what I get.
Cons: Cannot get satisfaction with Thunderbird
- See all 47 user reviews Write review
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