The producer's view: Firefox 3

As a Web producer at CNET for ZDNet, I've been testing pre-release versions of Mozilla's Firefox 3 since November. I'm eager to see the final version adopted by users. Here's why.

The third incarnation of Firefox rides on the new Gecko 1.9 rendering engine. This means stability and speed. The new version of Gecko improves on Javascript 2 compatability and adds better support for XUL applications. HTML5 and CSS3 definitions are still not fully supported, but Javascript developers will be able to create more advanced plug-ins, like FireFTP and maybe even a smoother version of Flickr Uploadr inside the browser shell.

Firefox's memory leaks are not completely fixed, but Mozilla claims that they have refactored caching methods and timeouts. As of the latest release candidate, I have noticed far fewer crashes.

Under the hood, Firefox 3 reads and understands hypertext code faster than ever. It passes the Acid 2 test with flying colors, and improves greatly on Acid 3.

Firefox 2 vs. Firefox 3 in Acid 2. This is a test to see how compatible a browser is with Web standards.

Acid 3, which tests Javascript and DOM standards, is a much more grueling test on the browser. The new version of Firefox improves about 17 points, but still doesn't top Safari 3's 75/100.

Firefox will handle more complex fonts and display graphics much better than Firefox 2. You will see improved compatibility for SVG (scalable vector graphics) and better support for offline browsing. HTML5 elements are creeping into the mix, and further support for CSS3 rules has been added.

One of the other great things about Firefox, for developers, is the nightly release schedule for development versions. The need for a new version every day pushes the open-source developer community to really build a solid product. As a producer, I get to see where the action is in browser development, what's working, and what's stalling out.

Speaking of those updates, I'm looking forward to Firefox 3.1, code-named Shiretoko, which will be rolled out by the end of 2008. (You can download alpha 1 today.) This version of the browser will have more support for CSS3 and more native integration XHR (XMLHttpRequest). More support for CSS3 means that we can support newer design elements that weren't possible before; better XHR means that our Ajax applications will run more smoothly. Users may or may not notice these simple fixes at first, but the result should be faster and more reliable Web apps.

[gkneeisme]

Clear, sharply written, informative review. Looking forward to more time with Firefox 3 now.
Good work Andrew ;)

[darthweef]

Andrew - you are absolutely correct, Firefox 3 is the browser that they have been promising for years, and it is finally starting to live up to the hype.

As a fellow web producer, I really appreciate the updates, and wish it could be forced on the world. Imagine a world with no IE... ahhh..

great article, looking forward to more.

--
Stephen
[e-mail]

[kalinko26]

wow, 77 versus 278 pages. this is the result of searches on webware for opera and firefox respectively. you guys just love firefox too much, don't you? please, let me hear about opera 9.5.

[Lerianis]

I am loving Firefox 3 thus far, and have even made it my default browser on my computer, replacing IE8 (which I have found doesn't work correctly with some websites). As to the 'Acid 2' test being passed... great! As to the 'Acid 3' test....... I'd really like it if the site you ran that on told you what Firefox was failing at, so you could inform the Firefox team and get it fixed or have the things fixed that it not using correctly.

[tierneyc]

77 articles on Opera is pretty good I think...

[Stardogg]

Gone back to FF2 until I can get rid of them advertising their search engine in my address bar (didn't see any way to get rid of it in Options), and until they change a few other things like that.

[andrew.mager]

I am using Firefox 2 for development still because Firebug in Firefox 3 does not highlight block level elements when you try to inspect them. Besides that, the new Firefox browser is very impressive.

[DAKlives]

well written and more informative than most of the "OMG it's fast" reviews i have seen
thx

[oceanfrog]

Stardogg:

Click the little arrow beside the Google "G" in the search bar. At the bottom of the dropdown list that appears, choose Manage Search Engines. From there, you can delete Google's search engine option from the list. You can delete all of them, for that matter, and add your own choices.

[moucon]

Forced on the world ? You anti-microsofties kill me. We don't like IE (or whatever), so we're going to dictate what everyone uses. Right - that's the spirit of the open web.