Thankfully, my friends at Mozilla have not let me down with the new release of Firefox 3.0. I’ve been testing it, and it is certainly something to cheer about.
This is a relief, since Firefox 2.0 was more than a little disappointing. It got to the point where Arlene (my trusty assistant) and I couldn’t recommend 2.0. This left us in a bit of a quandary. Internet Explorer is a kluge.
Although I consider IE version 7 far superior to version 6, it falls short of the speedy, secure, lightweight Web browser that Firefox promised with its initial offerings.
When Firefox 2.0 was released, there was excitement in the air; however, it proved to be unstable, which has been attributed to memory leaks. Firefox, I am willing to forgive and forget, especially because you did right with version 3.0. I am happy to talk about it and recommend it.
First, this has been the fastest install I’ve ever known. In a world where software installation means downloading the software, connecting to the Internet, checking the authenticity and only then starting the install, the quick install is appreciated.
Second, you’ll notice the slickly designed user interface. Hands down, aside from not crashing, this is my favorite thing. There are things that make sense, like the back button doesn’t light up unless you have a Web page to go back to. These are small but intuitive improvements that make me happy.
Maybe I lied. My favorite aspect is the speed of Firefox 3.0. Things are loading much faster. Firefox attributes that to its new Gecko 1.9 platform and a handy memory application that monitors and cleans up unused memory.
You don’t care? Me neither. It’s fast, and that’s all I need to know.
Support for online applications is another great improvement. It’s now…