The last major release Firefox 3, was launched with much hype attempting to set a Guinness World Record and successfully getting there, Firefox 3 brought around many new features, the highlights being the complete, built in Addon Manager, the improved download manager and greatly improved performance over its previous version 2.
The next major release is about to take it away and it looks like it’s another ‘major’ major release like the previous major update. A couple of days back I updated to the RC of Firefox 3.5 which is pretty much stable while it’s still not a stable release as yet. Running it first up there were three things I noticed right away.
The new Firefox 3.5 has ‘Chrome like’ speed, I really noticed the considerable difference in speed compared to version 3, Google search results appear in a flash, as opposed to the tiniest of delays in Firefox 3, and in overall all websites loaded a lot faster.
One of the little things that Chrome had that I’d liked to see in Firefox was also sitting there in Firefox 3.5. The Add Tab button next to the tabs, while this isn’t really a major feature comparatively, it greatly increases navigation and productivity, as opening new tabs are a lot faster (even though it was still pretty quick earlier as I used Gestures).
There’s a heads up if you are looking to upgrade, some Addons aren’t compatible as yet with the latest 3.5, 2 of my Addons ; Tempomail and Duplicate Tab ( I didn’t know I had that installed) weren’t compatible with 3.5. Thankfully I don’t need the addons on a daily basis.
If you are looking to upgrade to the RC, make sure any addons you use, atleast the frequently used ones are compatible with 3.5.
Other Features
Apart from what I noticed first up, the highlight of 3.5 is Private Browsing mode, while I’m not as excited about this feature, there’d be plenty of users who surf on shared or public computers concerned about their privacy (and concerned about people finding out their porn habits). While privacy can be cleared using the ‘clear private data’ feature manually, Private browsing takes it a step further by letting you start a new session which does not record ANY private data namely, history, form history, passwords, cache, downloaded items and site preferences/active logins (cookies).
The other useful feature is the ‘undo closed window’ feature, previously if you close a tab by accident you could go to History > Recently Closed Tabs and retrieve them, if you close a window of tabs though you are a goner, 3.5 lets you restore closed windows as well.
The above highlighted features should make Internet Explorer users upgrade to Firefox and of course increase its browser share further. You can read more about Firefox 3.5 covered by other websites below.
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[...] This post was Twitted by sadekhm [...]
I agree that it is much faster. The only thing I didn’t like about it is that my bookmarks got deleted
Good thing I have backups of them. A lot of my addons still work though.
.-= Marc´s last blog ..Designers Edge Heat Zone Outdoor Patio & Garage Heater – $60.00 =-.
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oh, sorry to hear that, you should use Xmarks and have it sync’ed online. safe anywhere that way!
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The speed of Chrome is what keeps me using it but I love the utility of Firefox’s add-ons. I hear Chrome is getting ready to release an Add-on toolkit soon.
Looks like it’s going to be a race between Google and Mozilla.
.-= jlbraaten´s last blog ..Choosing Content for a Usable Website =-.
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speaking about the funny little new tab button. it’s great to see that the handy addon from New Tab King (http://www.newtabking.com) is supported on FF 3.5.
–shelly
.-= shelly´s last blog ..You Voted us Kings =-.
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I’m a fan of ff.because of ff addons.thanks
.-= Mike J.´s last blog ..Fiacardservices =-.
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I don’t get it. What’s an open video format? All the videos I’ve watched look like any other videos I see online. What’s the difference?
.-= Attitude tees´s last blog ..T- shirts- most comfortable outfit =-.
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My right-click keeps not functioning in firefox 3.5. Restarting the browser won’t do me any good. It can only functioning again after I restart the whole computer. But after an hour or so using the browser, the right-click is not functioning again!
.-= ebook store´s last blog ..Hello world! =-.
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How can I force install the sage RSS feed reader add-on to Firefox 3.5 beta 4?
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[...] added by one browser would be instantly followed by the others (take private browsing for example), Firefox launched 3.5 with several new improvements, shortly (or not so shortly) afterward Chrome introduced one-click installation of [...]