On Friday I got my first alert that there was an upgrade to the Firefox browser. It also said it wasn’t compatible with one of the add-ons that I liked, and I thought about not upgrading to it. However, Saturday night it popped up again, and I decided okay, fine, I’ll go that route. After all, one add-on does not a perfect browser make, right?
Let me say this; you’ve got to upgrade to Firefox 3.6, and you have to do it now! Man, this sucker is fast; I mean, I haven’t found a page yet that I’d have to wait longer than a second to get to, and that’s just phenomenal. I’m not going to get into all the technical stuff, mainly because I don’t understand it all either, but the main thing they did to improve speed was to address the issue of javascript performance. I’ve written here in the dark past how javascript issues can slow down a blog. Seems they can also slow down some browsers, and they’ve overcome that issue.
They also did something where the scripts will all run asynchronously, or independently from each other, which is what slows things down often. You know how you visit some blogs and you’ll notice something hanging, which is preventing your page to fully load for awhile? That’s not supposed to happen with Firefox 3.6, and so far in my own little tests it seems to be working great.
They’ve also added something new, which will probably pretty much get rid of themes. Instead of themes, now you can add a “persona”, of which they have more than 30,000. This bad boy changes the look of your browser to whatever you want, and I have to tell you, I’ve changed mine to some pretty bright colors, and just looking at it is making me smile because it’s always been dark since I bought the new computer, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it.
Firefox 3.6 will also now tell you if your plugins are out of date, rather than waiting until you get to a site and suddenly realize you can’t access something. I like that as well, and of course you always have the option to tell it to leave you alone for awhile.
I have to say that I feel they did a great job with this new version. Everything is easier to see, and I’m not even missing the one add-on that’s not compatible anymore, the AnyColor add-on, because what they’ve done is made the print on your open tabs bigger and easier to see, and the transparency also makes it easier to read, so you know exactly what each tab is. And obviously you don’t need it with the persona’s option.
The only minor gripe I have thus far is that, for some reason, every once in awhile instead of opening up a new tab it opens up a brand new window. There was that same issue with Firefox 3.5 initially, something they called tab tearing, and they quickly came up with a bug fix for it. I’m hoping they’ll do the same with this browser.
If you’re not using Firefox, well, I’m not sure why, but trust me, you’ll love this new version of Firefox whether you use it now or not.
I have installed it and am also very happy with it.
.-= Rummuser´s last blog ..RSVP =-.
Glad you agree, Rummuser. I love the speed, and I also like how they’ve changed the notification for typos with a larger and wavy line.
Mitch I have having some problem with firefox 3.6, This version does not support seoquake, youst and nodofollow plug in. So I do not update my firefox. What you say about it?
.-= chandan´s last blog ..10 Work from Home Money Makers =-.
Chandan, I have to admit that I gave up on SEO Quake a long time ago and went with SEO 4 Firefox instead, which I like much better. With that plugin, you can also tell it to highlight nofollow links, which I’m assuming is why you used that last plugin you mentioned. I had no idea what youst was, so I went to look it up and I still don’t know what it is. lol
Truthfully, Firefox 3.6 is so fast that I’m not worried about the one plugin I lost, which it turns out I don’t need since they added the personas and I love the look of my browser now. I figure overall it’s a personal choice which browsers people like to use.
SEO 4 firefox is a new SEO plug in? I did not know about it before, I will check it out now. Well I have made one post on my blog that is http://internetjobscams.blogspot.com/2010/03/how-to-know-who-link-to-your-post.html where I have mentioned about youst tool.
.-= chandan´s last blog ..10 Work from Home Money Makers =-.
Ah, that’s interesting. I just use the dashboard that comes with WordPress to track links to me. You’re obviously doing a lot more analysis with it; I don’t have the time to worry about it as much.
Hmmm… Let me check, Yes I got the 3.6 alright! I agree with you Mitch this fox is fast.
.-= Jhong Medina´s last blog ..Microsoft Ends Support on Windows XP =-.
Glad you enjoy it, Jhong. I read your article on the end of support for XP as well; guess it had to end at some point.
That no follow plugin was a bummer for me too; I’ve found search status though and it provides EVERYTHING, lol
Over-all, a pretty cool upgrade indeed.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..UPDATED: Theme Customization Part 3 – Banner Advertising NOT for Sale! =-.
That’s the thing, Dennis, there’s usually something else that will work pretty well, if not better, if you can get used to it.
I couldn’t wait when the announcement was out. 🙂 Have always been a FireFox fan. I got it updated and now admiring its performance. I haven’t got into the Persona or the Fonts just yet, visual is less important to me now but do excited about some drag & drop functionality for certain APIs. Still have much to discover, but I’m willing to be patient with it. Yay!
Oh yes, now FireFox is taking! (responding to your post title)
@wchingya
Social/Blogging Tracker
.-= Ching Ya´s last blog ..Link Love: Have You Thanked Your Angels Lately? =-.
Hi China Ya,
The visual is always important for me, so I was glad when I could finally change up the looks of my browser, because it was always so dark before and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. But the speed is really the thing I like thus far, though I will admit that it still looks like it uses a lot of memory.
It asked me to upgrade too and I noticed it was faster. By the way, love the store.
.-= Rose´s last blog ..How to Exclude Your IP from your Google Analytics reports =-.
Thanks Rose; when I get time I’ll be expanding it. And I’m loving the new Firefox!
I’m reading this and downloading the new version as I write:) To be honest you have convinced me to give it a go because I was kinda hesitating due to some add ons that I had which are not compatible with this new version. Speed outweighs them all so thanks for the heads up. Will install it now
.-= DiTesco´s last blog ..How To Discover Your Keywords On Search Engines =-.
Good deal DiTesco. BTW, did you receive that email post from me?
i followed the notification and upgraded as well, but then once a few of my plugins failed i had to downgrade – there’s a link on firefox site to let you go back to 3.5.8 i think.
overall though while i had 3.6 running for the hour it worked great and like you seemed to be faster then earlier versions.
Glad you at least liked the speed, Jason. Actually, in 2008 when Firefox first went to 3.0, I went back because I had issues with it, and then they fixed those issues and I’ve loved it ever since. So I can understand your issue; hope they take care of it, or upgrade some of your plugins, so you can come back to speed. 🙂
It enhances the browsing speed and I like Personas, which allow users to change Firefox’s appearance.
Jim
I have to admit that I love that aspect of it also, Jim. And we can change it whenever we want to; neat!