Firefox 3 - Impressions?

[teeitup]

Firefox has started to notify me to upgrade to Firefox 3. I'm still clicking the "Later" button.

I'm always leery of major releases. In todays software development world product is always pushed too soon.

Comments?

[ph34r]

Massive improvement in javascript speed and memory usage. I hate the new location bar w/ the way it shows URLs - they go by sites visited, not just typed in, and by title, etc. not just by URL. There are config options to undo most of that, but not completely.

I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually.

[The Coder]

I really don't like FF3 so far. It seems slow and bloated to me. I tried it on a few machines and the load up time is noticeably slower than FF2. I also don't like the way bookmarks and history is handled with FF3. I am not one of those people who hates to upgrade or try something different but I downgraded to FF2 and am much happier(don't feel good downgrading, but had to).

[bs_texas]

I agree about the so-called 'awesome bar' / 'location bar'.

'Aweful Bar' is more like it! :mad:

Way too cluttered and messed up. There should be an option to turn it off. I know there are tweaks you can do to -almost- get back to the way it was, but you shouldn't have to tweak or install 'add-ons' to get back normal, useful functionality.

When did Mozilla get assimilated?
Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. :rolleyes:
You will be added to the collective or you will be destroyed!

[trilarian]

Aside from the aforementioned location bar, I like it. Seems to actually load and run faster for me. Maybe it is because I have Preload (http://www.techthrob.com/tech/preload.php) running with enough RAM to cache it. *shrugs*

The location bar is slowly becoming less alien, so I'm sure in a few more weeks I'll forget what the original looked like.

[gamblor01]

I have found it to be pretty much the same besides the new 'awesome bar' which I hate, as well as the icon theme (it uses the default theme for your window manager). I refused to upgrade for about a month or so, until I found some good plugins. Currently this is what I'm running (just google these strings and you will see the link for the download):

- oldbar
- firefox 2 theme for firefox 3 (note that I do not use this on my Macs)
- noscript


There is also an option you can tweak in about:config to get it to NOT display bookmarks in the awesome bar. I forget the exact name of it right now, but I'm sure google knows it.

I resisted until I found the oldbar and ff2 theme. After that I upgraded all of my systems. I like the way the method for displaying a site in which firefox has validated the certificate however.

[ArgPirate]

I think it is easily worth the upgrade. Most tests i've seen have shown that firefox 3 is faster than ff2. As far as the awesome bar goes? i think its great. It's much smarter about finding the url you are looking for. it's almost like a little search engine up there. I had to use firefox 2 the other day and i found my self missing it.

[Calipso]

at first i hated the awesome bar, now I dont even notice it.
I would say its worth upgrading. 3 feels faster and the new way of letting you know that something may be wrong with the site (bad cert, or phishing scam) is rather nice.

[Syngin]

Google refused to upgrade BrowserSync to work with FF3 and are eventually going to stop supporting it fully. As a result, I'm going to wait until then to upgrade.

[cybertron]

I didn't really like the old location bar anyway. I think in 1.5 they started sorting it in the opposite order so the first sites I visited were always at the bottom. Since the first sites I visit after installing a browser are typically the ones I visit the most often that was a pain. Plus it meant that any time I copied and pasted a one-time URL it pushed them all even further down. So in that way I guess I prefer the new bar (although I still don't entirely get how it works).

As far as all the other stuff, it may be a little snappier than 2.0 was, but I've never really been that bothered by the speed of any browser. Memory usage does seem a little lower, but there again I have plenty of memory so I'm not that worried about it.:)

[panther3e]

I don't mind the awesome bar so much but like it to not bring up everything with a particular letter no matter where it is in the address.

The other thing I have been having trouble with is firefox, java, and certain web sites not playing together. Pogo.com is one that I play at a lot. I keep getting errors when loading game rooms. There are securatie issues so firefox will not connect. I have tried on several different distros like Debian, Ubuntu, Slackware, Mint, and a few other variations of those listed.

I also get many more freeze ups and crashes with firefox 3. Again it is with several different distros.

Other than those problems I do like it and if it does piss me off I just run Opera.

Kevin.

[Tjoh311]

It seems to run pretty reliably on my old XP2200+ !!!
I like the addons that Moz offers I use Downthemall, and the video download helper. I'm super cheap when it comes to computers. Basically I just scrounge stuff, and the old dilapidated hardware I come across hasn't complained yet.

Or maybe I'm just patient.:p

[deathadder]

Someone else here who was annoyed by the new bar at first...but now it's grown on me and I like it.

I've had to use FF2 once or twice since I've switched, and didn't like it, it was slower and didn't like the look 'n' feel as much.

[EDIT]
For those who want to make a few changes (including the new bar)

http://maketecheasier.com/28-coolest-firefox-aboutconfig-tricks/2008/08/21

[teeitup]

Great comments. Thanks.

I upgraded Friday night.

I think it's faster.
Can't find a decent theme yet.
I hate "off-line" mode by default. Anyone know how to disable it?
The awesome bar is annoying. The idea is fine. It's the implementation that isn't so good. It keeps the strangest stuff. It would be more helpful if it would sort, group, and list by domain name.

The 28 tips link is interesting. Thanks for that.

[teeitup]

I installed two add-ons to help with the "offline" issue.

Always Online 1.0 (experimental)
Work Offline 1.4 = places an icon in the lower left to easily know status and provides click to toggle functionality.

[wheelnut]

I am using it with windows at the moment and I will add it to my linux setup at home soon. I have to admit that I like it a lot. I really need to play with it more to get a more considered opinion, but so far, it is very good - better than anything that I could ever write...

[klackenfus]

I've seen FF3 do some weird things with spell check. If I'm typing in a form field it will underline contractions as being incorrectly spelled when they're not. I'm talking words like don't and isn't. I verified this on three different computers and the OS doesn't matter either. It could be Linux, Windows or Mac, no difference. Also, it doesn't seem consistent on every form field. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't.