Yes it is marginally faster than the Firefox 2 -- perhaps not _quite_ as fast as Safari (only done anecdotal tests here). I'm using it now and it's actually quite good for a Beta (though very close to be release build).

Download it here

New features and changes in this milestone that require feedback include:

• Improved security features such as: better presentation of website identity and security including support for Extended Validation (EV) SSL certificates, malware protection, stricter SSL error pages, anti-virus integration in the download manager.
  
• Improved ease of use through: easier add-on discovery and installation, improved download manager search and progress indication in the status bar, resumable downloading, full page zoom, and better integration with Windows Vista, Mac OS X and Linux.
  
• Richer personalization through: one-click bookmarking, smart bookmark folders, location bar that uses an algorithm based on site visit recency and frequency (called “frecency”) to provide better matches against your history and bookmarks for URLs and page titles, ability to register web applications as protocol handlers, and better customization of download actions for file types.
  
• Improved platform features such as: new graphics and font rendering architecture, JavaScript 1.8, major changes to the HTML rendering engine to provide better CSS, float-, and table layout support, native web page form controls, colour profile management, and offline application support.
  
• Performance improvements such as: better data reliability for user profiles, architectural improvements to speed up page rendering, over 350 memory leak fixes, a new XPCOM cycle collector to reduce entire classes of leaks, and reductions in the memory footprint.

Review it with screen shots (props to Slashdot)

The bonus is that most of the add-ons will still work :) I'm using it and Safari to see which I liked better. So far Safari is slightly ahead in terms of slickness but I think FF3 will once again be my main browser of choice.

Check it out!

promoted forum item

will it keep all my settings from the current version of FF?

I should yeah. Well it did for me :)

"most of the addons still work" is a bit of a lie, depending what you use I guess. None of mine work except for flashgot and noscript. (Edit, Adblock Plus also works)

Non compatible ones (for me at least, only ran the update check built in to FF3b3.

firebug 1.05
spiderzilla 1.6.0
tab mix plus 0.3.6
user agent switcher 0.6.10
web dev 1.1.4


last edited by reso at 10:49:52 14/Feb/08

"most of the addons still work" is a bit of a lie, depending what you use I guess. None of mine work except for flashgot and noscript. (Edit, Adblock Plus also works)

Perhaps I should've said "most of _my_ addons still work"... sorry

One thing I'm looking forward to in FX3 is that they're meant to be building in a memory reporting tool. One thing thats so frustrating with FX is the memory leaks and although they're fixing a stack of them it'll be nice to work out exactly what extensions or tabs open are causing the most memory usage. I think there's also meant to be a far more advanced crash reporter as well.

I couldn't make the switch without Tab Mix Plus
So dreamy

Saw the nightly tester tools in the Slashdot thread about this - basically installing that gives you an option to "make all addons compatible", which (I think) just makes the addon ignore the version requirements.

As most of the core functionality between the two versions is similar it should make almost all your addons work immediately.

I've recently converted to Opera. It's the shizz...

For mac os-x users, can confirm that it is a crapload faster (firefox 2 loads slower for me on os-x than photoshop does).

For those (like me) that want to try it without messing with your current Firefox install, you can download the portableapps.com version - this will install independently of your normal install and can be run without risking any of your other stuff.

I just had a quick look; seems OK though I certainly didn't notice the speed increases that I got with the latest Safari build!

I noticed a pretty big speed increase compared to FF2. Actually seems faster than Safari. Must find out what font Safari uses now...

finding it alot fast that ff2

Looks pretty good imo but the address bar history pop up list is f***ing horrid!

Its all big and giant and takes up half the screen. They had it right in FF2... is there any way to turn it back to the old style?