Firefox 3 pledge

[Gimli]

So yes, Mozilla is attempting to set a record for the most downloads in 24h on the launch day of FF 3, which is still unknown. You can pledge to download it on day one (and get a notification by e-mail when it launches).

 

More about it here: https://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord/

[Azrael Strife]

yay

[Gimli]

By the way, Albania is in the top spot with far more pledges than USA. Somehow I think somebody is cheating...

[Azrael Strife]

What are you talking about? Albania has about 3000 pledges..

[Gimli]

Yep, someone obviously noticed it in the meantime. How wouldn't you? I wonder what happened though.

[Azrael Strife]

Don?t forget to be part of Firefox?s Download Day!

Mark your calendar, wrap a ribbon around your finger or write a little sticky yellow note. Download Day will start on June 17, 2008.

[Gimli]

Well it's here.

[Strong Bob]

I am now armed with Firefox 3.

 

Frankly, I can't say that I personally like the way the skin is. Nor the new feature that all my bookmarks are in the dropdown box whenever I type a new address (Anyone know how to turn that off? Because this would be perfect without it...)

 

However, I've been hearing complaints that Firefox 3 is causing crashes. And even worse, some people are not even able to surf the net anymore after it's installation, and must either use Microsoft Internet Explorer or downgrade back to version 2. I've not had this kind of problem, and I only see it happen with some people I know personally. Is anyone else having this kind of trouble?

 

Besides what I stated, seems to work terrific, if unremarkable. To me it's merely a case of having to get used to a new interface.

[Gimli]

Same here, and now that I got hold of a dev build of Tab Mix Plus, it's working flawlessly. Yes, the new auto complete is weird, I'll leave it on for a while and see if I get used to it before I switch. Anyway, does it seem a bit faster to anyone else?

[Azrael Strife]

So far I like it the new skin is... IDENTICAL to the previous one, I don't see any significant changes that would make anyone upset... but I'm obviously incorrect.

The quick bookmark thingy is nice

 

Edit: Well, there is an annoying bug, my stumbleupon bar decides to show up randomly, not being present at all times like it should.

[Strong Bob]

Actually, Gimli, mine seems slightly slower. But that's probably just because this more advanced build takes up a little bit more system resources than the last one.

 

I still need to get used to this new toolbar. I was so used to the "Back" and "Forward" buttons each having their own site history menu. Now it's rolled into one.

 

Until I see some definite improvement, I'm keeping my old Firefox 2 on my more frequently used machines. (For that matter, does anyone know where to download the original version 2? I have some friends that need their old firefox back, and even google searches for older versions lead straight to Firefox 3)

 

the new skin is... IDENTICAL to the previous one, I don't see any significant changes that would make anyone upset... but I'm obviously incorrect.

 

How do you get the identical skin? The one I have now is not like the previous at all, so I'm assuming I must've inadvertently changed it.

[Slaughter]

Ever heard of Opera? It will eat Firefox alive any day

[Azrael Strife]

Get out of here you heretic

 

There is something very strange with the download map, though, it's showing North Korea as with 0 downloads, while it had some few hundreds yesterday...

[Matri]

(For that matter, does anyone know where to download the original version 2? I have some friends that need their old firefox back, and even google searches for older versions lead straight to Firefox 3)

 

https://www.filecluster.com/downloads/Mozilla-Firefox.html

 

This was the first hit on c.Net Search. I still have an actual copy of the 2.0.0.14 installer, I can upload it to RapidShare but you'll have to wait until Monday when I get back to work. It's on my work PC...

 

 

How do you get the identical skin? The one I have now is not like the previous at all, so I'm assuming I must've inadvertently changed it.

 

Yeah, we got the Vista skin. They aren't even giving us the option for the XP skin.

[zaimoni]

....

 

Until I see some definite improvement, I'm keeping my old Firefox 2 on my more frequently used machines. (For that matter, does anyone know where to download the original version 2? I have some friends that need their old firefox back, and even google searches for older versions lead straight to Firefox 3)

Thanks for the warning.

 

As for where to download: Be a Developer

[Strong Bob]

Thanks a ton for the links, I actually needed it pretty badly.

 

My final verdict for Mozilla Firefox 3.0 after a couple days: I hate it.

 

Cons: 1 - Eats up resources like a mother, seriously. As a result it runs incredibly slow, and takes forever to either open or close. Once I have a program streaming properly, things are fine. But god forbid I ever close a Firefox window. I recorded the amount of time, to the second, it took to close up a single window in Firefox 3.0. I picked a light and average webpage to make sure nothing big would influence it, www.bobandgeorge.com. It took 21 minutes and 11 seconds. Quite an interesting difference. Both Firefox 2.0 and the latest version of MIE take less than a fraction of a second to do the same thing.

2 - Strange, and uncustomizable, interface. The history drop down menu was replaced with a favorites drop down. Your webpage history is crunched under a single drop down menu right next to the "Back" and "Forward" buttons. And the drop downs for both of those buttons are included in this same menu. (Which means your web page history is void when you open firefox in a new window.) This can get annoying when I want to venture to a website I've been to about an hour ago, but do not have it saved in my favorites. And possibly do not have it memorized.

3 - Personal taste in the skinning. But that's not even worth noting much.

4 - For some reason, some websites do not load the same way anymore. I ventured into Newgrounds.com, and at first none of the flash worked at all, just blank pages or pop ups asking me to install flash. I reinstalled my flash player (Macromedia, the same brand that has worked fine for me for years.) to it's newest version and now 99% of the flash I watch through Firefox 3.0 is either a white blank space or just repeats the first 30 seconds of the animation over and over.

When I played these same animations through Microsoft Internet, they worked perfect. And right now, after reinstalling Firefox 2, they work fine again.

Point 4 is, admittedly, a weird one to me. I never thought flash players had much to do with the browser in use. But the switch between Firefox 3, and both MIE and Firefox 2, was the only difference made.

 

Pros: 1 - Nothing except unseen elements behind the scenes. Such as security measures and the like. This means eventually I will need to upgrade to Firefox 3.0 once 2.0 becomes too easy to break into. So, in a way, this is actually a con too.

 

Maybe they just need to mess around with this build for a while, before it becomes more practical. But after spending a couple days struggling just to do basic things, I simply cannot say I enjoy Firefox 3 at all.

 

Maybe I should switch to Opera after all, I've heard good things about it.

[Azrael Strife]

OMG! Exaggeration galore!

 

Thanks a ton for the links, I actually needed it pretty badly.

 

My final verdict for Mozilla Firefox 3.0 after a couple days: I hate it.

 

Cons: 1 - Eats up resources like a mother, seriously. As a result it runs incredibly slow, and takes forever to either open or close. Once I have a program streaming properly, things are fine. But god forbid I ever close a Firefox window. I recorded the amount of time, to the second, it took to close up a single window in Firefox 3.0. I picked a light and average webpage to make sure nothing big would influence it, www.bobandgeorge.com. It took 21 minutes and 11 seconds. Quite an interesting difference. Both Firefox 2.0 and the latest version of MIE take less than a fraction of a second to do the same thing.

Wow wow wow, are you sure you were using FF3? I've been using it since Download Day and have not experienced anything remotely similar to that...

 

2 - Strange, and uncustomizable, interface. The history drop down menu was replaced with a favorites drop down. Your webpage history is crunched under a single drop down menu right next to the "Back" and "Forward" buttons. And the drop downs for both of those buttons are included in this same menu. (Which means your web page history is void when you open firefox in a new window.) This can get annoying when I want to venture to a website I've been to about an hour ago, but do not have it saved in my favorites. And possibly do not have it memorized.

Matter of tastes I suppose, I like the "new" interface, though I find it too similar to the old one for my taste, I like large aesthetic changes with large version changes like, from 2 to 3 and I love the single drop down history, but again, that's a matter of tastes.

You can still access the History if you've forgotten a web page... (CTRL+h)

3 - Personal taste in the skinning. But that's not even worth noting much.

Barely noticeable, IMO.

4 - For some reason, some websites do not load the same way anymore. I ventured into Newgrounds.com, and at first none of the flash worked at all, just blank pages or pop ups asking me to install flash. I reinstalled my flash player (Macromedia, the same brand that has worked fine for me for years.) to it's newest version and now 99% of the flash I watch through Firefox 3.0 is either a white blank space or just repeats the first 30 seconds of the animation over and over.

When I played these same animations through Microsoft Internet, they worked perfect. And right now, after reinstalling Firefox 2, they work fine again.

Point 4 is, admittedly, a weird one to me. I never thought flash players had much to do with the browser in use. But the switch between Firefox 3, and both MIE and Firefox 2, was the only difference made.

Again I feel you're using a different software. I have not experienced anything of the like, and FF3 hasn't been updated yet (meaning, no important bugs yet, apparently), I even went to NewGrounds just now to test what you've been saying, and all flash animations work perfectly... and I didn't even have to reinstall flash. Are you sure you were using FF?

 

I like FF3, but I really just don't see anything that different, but I just like having things updated as they should maybe we'll see more improvements in time with the adoption of the new Gecko layout engine version, who knows, I trust Mozilla

[Strong Bob]

Wow wow wow, are you sure you were using FF3? I've been using it since Download Day and have not experienced anything remotely similar to that...

 

I think my system is a little older than intended. (My test subject for this is a laptop I bought, brand new, in 2004.)

 

Also, look at how it works in the task manager. You will notice that Firefox 3.0 demands a great deal more resources than Firefox 2. (I rarely see Firefox taking 100% of my CPU power and eating up enough memory to bring up error windows, until I downloaded 3.0.) I believe more modern systems are able to handle this without a problem, but it's extremely noticeable to me. Also, as someone has brought up the skin resembling Vista earlier in this topic, I suspect that the program was built to be optimal for Vista over XP. (I use Windows XP Pro) I am also the type to run messengers alongside browsing the net, but when I timed the shutdown of Firefox 3, I did not have it open. So that isn't enough of a factor to mean anything.

 

I've heard lots of complaints for Firefox 3.0 from friends. People that can't surf the net using it, suddenly every website is a 404 through Firefox 3.0 but both 2 and MIE work perfect. (I have not run into this one personally. I could surf the net fine, except it was very slow.) All of which have noticed immense slowdown upon both opening and shutdown.

 

You can still access the History if you've forgotten a web page... (CTRL+h)

 

Maybe so. But the inability to reappropriate it to the main drop down menu was a definite minus in my eyes. I see it as a matter of taste that I do not like the style, but an overall negative that I can't change it to what it used to be.

 

I have not experienced anything of the like, and FF3 hasn't been updated yet (meaning, no important bugs yet, apparently), I even went to NewGrounds just now to test what you've been saying, and all flash animations work perfectly... and I didn't even have to reinstall flash. Are you sure you were using FF? tongue.gif

 

Like I said, it seemed really weird. I'm assuming that Firefox 3.0 did not integrate the latest flash plugin very well, or something was wrong with the plugin code. I haven't heard of anyone else with the problem, but the fact is there. Through Firefox 3, no flash worked properly, but it now works fine on everything else.

 

I'll give Firefox 3 a year to update itself up to something manageable. Then I'll give it another try. It's the same treatment I gave Windows XP and am now giving Vista.

[Azrael Strife]

Weird, weird...

For the record, I am also on Windows XP Pro SP3, and have never seen firefox taking anything as big as 100%, heck, I haven't seen it take 10%, but maybe you're right about it being targeted for newer computers, though, it's still strange.

[Matri]

Well, I believe I'm a rather unique position. I have a dual-core 4GB Vista machine at home, and a single-core 756MB XP machine at work. Since my job is pretty much web-based and the boss insists we all use Firefox, I have a good comparison.

 

(I rarely see Firefox taking 100% of my CPU power and eating up enough memory to bring up error windows, until I downloaded 3.0.)

 

This happens extremely frequently on the XP machine, most notably when memory consumption exceeds 120MB the entire program eats up three-quarters of the CPU, jumps to over 200MB and just locks up. End Process is the only way to recover. This happens much much sooner if you visit JavaScript-intensive pages. I haven't had a chance to try out 3.0 yet because I took a long weekend off.

 

On the Vista machine (a dual-core, I believe this is a relevant fact), Firefox is pretty much stable. I notice no difference in performance between FF, IE or Opera on this machine. When I upgraded to 3.0, it pretty much settled in comfortably. With the exception of the new default skin, it worked exactly like 2.0, right down to the annoying occasional "disappearing" address bar... On the first run, too!

 

No problems with Flash, but that could be because I updated both Flash and Shockwave the week before.

 

Strong Bob, one of your interface extensions must not have been compatible and was disabled, because I don't have the problem you're describing. The History drop-down is exactly where it was back in 2.0.

 

I'll be upgrading the work machine to 3.0 come Monday, time to see if either the big claims about better memory management is true, or if the FF team have just taken a page out of the Daikatana hype machine.

[zaimoni]

I think my system is a little older than intended. (My test subject for this is a laptop I bought, brand new, in 2004.)

 

Also, look at how it works in the task manager. You will notice that Firefox 3.0 demands a great deal more resources than Firefox 2. (I rarely see Firefox taking 100% of my CPU power and eating up enough memory to bring up error windows, until I downloaded 3.0.) I believe more modern systems are able to handle this without a problem, but it's extremely noticeable to me. Also, as someone has brought up the skin resembling Vista earlier in this topic, I suspect that the program was built to be optimal for Vista over XP. (I use Windows XP Pro) I am also the type to run messengers alongside browsing the net, but when I timed the shutdown of Firefox 3, I did not have it open. So that isn't enough of a factor to mean anything.

What was the hard drive loading?

 

Virtual memory is Evil, and could do exactly this. Abusing node-allocated data structures also can do this (without invoking virtual memory), but the performance swing by the proportion of memory, etc. used suggests either virtual memory, or algorithms that are reacting to a low-memory condition badly. [useful caches being flushed early?]

[Strong Bob]

No problems with Flash, but that could be because I updated both Flash and Shockwave the week before.

 

That's the thing. I had already updated to the more recent flash just a few weeks prior to downloading Firefox 3. I reinstalled it again after encountering problems in Firefox 3. It couldn't be an update problem.

 

This happens extremely frequently on the XP machine, most notably when memory consumption exceeds 120MB the entire program eats up three-quarters of the CPU, jumps to over 200MB and just locks up.

 

This actually never happened to me, except for Firefox 3. I think I maybe encountered a problem of this nature in Firefox 2 on rare occasion, but only if something foreign to firefox caused a problem. (Such as my messenger crashing, or if I'm installing something while surfing the net.) Otherwise, my browsing shouldn't eat up so much of my CPU at once, while I'm literally not running anything else besides basic background Windows programs.

 

@Zaimoni: You went a little over my head with that one. But I have doubts it has much to do with low memory on my computer. (Though I will admit, after 4 years, I'm starting to notice the memory degradation.) I am using Firefox 2 again, and I'm suffering none of the problems Firefox 3 was bringing up. As far as I'm concerned, a web browser simply shouldn't be taking so many resources for something as simple as surfing the net. The most updated version of Microsoft Internet doesn't even take that much... And that was the whole reason I switched to Firefox.

[zaimoni]

@Zaimoni: You went a little over my head with that one. But I have doubts it has much to do with low memory on my computer. (Though I will admit, after 4 years, I'm starting to notice the memory degradation.) I am using Firefox 2 again, and I'm suffering none of the problems Firefox 3 was bringing up. As far as I'm concerned, a web browser simply shouldn't be taking so many resources for something as simple as surfing the net. The most updated version of Microsoft Internet doesn't even take that much... And that was the whole reason I switched to Firefox.

Agreed. (Note that I use three different non-IE web browsers for different types of web browsing.) Unfortunately, the data structure choices I alluded to are a secondary reason why I will not be forking SeaMonkey or FireFox anytime soon.

 

I generally use FireFox 2 configured for draconian security (forget all form information on close, etc.). Perfect for online banking, not so good for forum browsing. I do not use FireFox for "zoos of tabs" browsing precisely because it behaves badly against large animated *.GIFs (it tries to pre-render all of the frames...not good when facing off against NASA asteroid orbit graphics).

[Matri]

Okay, I've finally used FF3 on a 756MB single-core XP system and I noticed two things immediately.

 

One. Page rendering is improved. I wouldn't call it "significant", but "marginally" fits. A few resizing problems were finally resolved after being present since 1.3. Overall a good thing but you can't help but wonder why it took them this long to fix.

 

Two. The memory leak is STILL there. It is just as pronounced, and just as debilitating. About the only thing they have done to fix it is to implement some sort of primitive and exceedingly ineffecient memory cleanup routine. I say primitive and ineffecient because the process only starts when you close a tab, resulting in memory consumption jumping by several orders of magnitude while the browser process locks up for several minutes. After performing some mystical, archaic cleanup the process then returns and carries on as if the past few minutes was just a figment of the user's imagination.

 

Oh, and here's an interesting tidbit: Firefox vulnerabilities could affect over 8 million PCs.

Note that the article points out the vulnerability has been present since 2.0.x

[zaimoni]

Oh, and here's an interesting tidbit: Firefox vulnerabilities could affect over 8 million PCs.

Note that the article points out the vulnerability has been present since 2.0.x

This is what prevented my initial upgrading: it was announced same-day on the NetworkWorld mailing lists. My initial plan was to wait for FireFox 3.0.0.1, on the assumption that a security patch would be both high-priority and relatively easy to implement.

 

Evidently, that isn't the case: the patch still isn't out as of time of posting.

 

Also of note: there is no Thunderbird 3.0.0.0 as of time of posting.