Firefox 3 Release Comparison

Mozilla Firefox is the best poised internet browser to overtake the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser that comes standard with most new machines with Microsoft Windows for the operating system. Web surfing consumers were given a viable choice in web browsers for the first time when, in 2004, Firefox 1 was released. Firefox 2 was released in 2006, and on June 17, 2008, the long-awaited Firefox 3 release is upon us.

Firefox 3 has been released in three versions for use on Windows, Mac, and Linux operating system platforms, with over 15,000 changes and upgrades to the previous release and now boasting being built on the Gecko 1.9 Web rendering backbone.

I went to the Mozilla Firefox 3 Release site this morning to see what all the hype was about. After three failed attempts to download the product, I finally managed to get it installed, and give it a whirl and compare it to Firefox 2.

The first thing I noticed were the icons and the look and feel of the product was upgraded. Being a tech man, I tend to prefer the generic and simplistic look, but I recognize most users prefer things to 'look pretty'. Firefox 1 and 2 had a more functional appearance, simplistic, clean. Firefox 3 gives the user a few more choices in appearance, some new icons and buttons, which really do absolutely nothing for performance.

So checking in on performance, I find there have been many requested security upgrades added to the Firefox 3 browser release. This is a good thing, because one of the reason Firefox was a popular browser was the increase security, because most viruses and attacks were written to target the largest market share - Internet Explorer. With Mozilla Firefox 3, you'll see stronger malware protection for sites that target simply by visiting the site, better integration with anti-virus software and stronger protection when surfer.

One the user-friendliness side, this Firefox 3 release has much better user-integration and tricks. For example, one of the things I really liked was the 'save' feature that allows you to save what you are doing on a webpage before you close the tab/window. This way, when you come back, if you were filling out a form or posting a blog, you could have the work you were doing saved for you and call the page back up again. While arguably, your cookie and cache settings, plus the site's cookies time-out settings, will make this feature not function on all sites, for those it does, it's a great bonus.

Another great roll-out in the Firefox 3 release is the new download manager, as well as the new add-on functionality. There are plenty of user-written and Mozilla approved Firefox 3 release add-ons from which to choose that will provide functionality to your browser to fully customize your browsing experiences.

The new Firefox 3 release has much improved integration with Windows Vista and the Mac OS.

But probably the best improvement of all for me is the improved performance and speed, while using fewer computer resources. The average user should experience faster load and rendering time, but unlike some browsers that reduce image quality in order to provide this, the Firefox 3 release provides higher quality graphics while still rendering faster than just about any consumer-available browser.

If you're a developer, and you are interested in learning more about Firefox 3, you can visit the page for developers here. All other users who are interested in learning more about the Mozilla Firefox's free internet browser, you can learn more by visiting Mozilla Firefox's home page here.

All in all, Firefox 3 was a much anticipated release, and so far, it hasn't failed to impress. The only problem you might have if you are making the transition from Firefox 2 to the new Firefox 3 release is that some of your toolbars from non-Mozilla sites and some of your Firefox 2 add-ons might not work. You may need to visit those sites and reinstall and updated version of their toolbars or find new add-ons written for the Firefox 3 release.