Firefox 3

[ChrisM]

I just downloaded Firefox 3 (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.), and I have to say I'm quite impressed.

I'm not as techie-oriented as many here are.. and I was hoping to start discussion on the new features (such as multiple line selection) upgrades, plug-ins, etc. Also, upload screen-shots if you customize your Firefox look!



Also, FFox 3 seems to view embedded media players (especially at myspace) MUCH better than FFox 2... I'm guessing it had something to do with the plug-ins I use.

[ssrprotege]

Oh, that's cool. Thanks for letting me know. I am downloading it. :)

[Erika Redmark]

I was just about to start a thread on this, but saw that it was already here. XD I'm sort of confused by the new auto URL finishing thing–it doesn't seem to be determined by how many times you've visited a certain page before anymore. (On Firefox 2, if I pressed "i" and "return", it would take me here, for instance.) Oh well, I guess that's what toolbar bookmarks are for.

I also miss the Firesomething add-on…having a window titled "Mozilla Turbolobster" was pretty hilarious. But surely they'll come out with a Firefox 3 version of it…I hope…

[ssrprotege]

I was just about to start a thread on this, but saw that it was already here. XD I'm sort of confused by the new auto URL finishing thing–it doesn't seem to be determined by how many times you've visited a certain page before anymore. (On Firefox 2, if I pressed "i" and "return", it would take me here, for instance.) Oh well, I guess that's what toolbar bookmarks are for.

I also miss the Firesomething add-on…having a window titled "Mozilla Turbolobster" was pretty hilarious. But surely they'll come out with a Firefox 3 version of it…I hope…

I miss a Vista Black Theme in Firefox 2 as well...hope I get a new theme compatible with firefox 3...

[AutisticCuckoo]

Haven't downloaded it yet; I thought I'd wait until the worst hype has died down so the servers aren't as choked.

I only use Firefox for testing/verifying anyway. My primary browser is Opera, which came out in a sparkling new version (9.5) last week.

[Uberfuhrer]

I don't like the way the Firefox 3 spellchecker tries to correct apostrophized words like "doesn't" and isn't." They've always been words for as long as I've been around.

[Lestaticon]

I'm a long time user of netscape, mozilla, and now firefox. Firefox 3 was a really nice noticeable change for the better. Pages load quicker and, overall, I think the browsing experience is smoother. I also appreciate the new look of the default theme.

The addons I use include: Adblock Plus, Flashgot, Forecastfox, Gmail Manager, and ReloadEvery.

I hope the addons you miss do get updated for the new version. If not, check around for new addons which do the same thing or email the addon dev.

[ChrisM]

I use adblock plus, customize google, faviconize tab, and secure login. I think adblock in FF2 made viewing embedded players tough.

[Erika Redmark]

Funny, my spellchecker doesn't seem to be doing anything at all…

[GrimWizard]

I updated. Besides some graphical improvements, I don't see anything that is worth all this excitement. It' just an update.....

[ThaiGreenTea]

I updated. Besides some graphical improvements, I don't see anything that is worth all this excitement. It' just an update.....

Yeah, seriously, I love Firefox and all... but 2 and 3 seem essentially the same to me.

[Erika Redmark]

The little pop-up thing is bigger now…so you can see the whole XKCD mouseover on the cartoon itself, without having to go to Properties to read it. ^_^

[szaxazs]

I updated. Besides some graphical improvements, I don't see anything that is worth all this excitement. It' just an update.....
It has some cool additions. It's not just an update.

Funny, my spellchecker doesn't seem to be doing anything at all…
Have you activated it? (Caption Left Click, Check Spelling, Languages choice)

Yeah, seriously, I love Firefox and all... but 2 and 3 seem essentially the same to me.
All browsers are "essentially" the same.
In an "essential" way, Lynx is the same as Firefox, Opera, Netscape, IE or any "web browser". A browser's "essential" purpose is to just read web pages. And Lynx rocks because it is just too hardcore. There are people actually browsing the web through it. That's sick and awesome.

I am replying using Opera right now, downloaded it two days ago and it's pretty good. The previous version I had downloaded and installed was some months ago (4-5) and I used it only for testing purposes. The funky thing is that the new version (9.5) screws up some pages sometimes. The layout turns completely funky and then I just have to refresh and wait. The same thing also happened with the previous version I used though.

I used to have a lot of add-ons activated when using Firefox2 but I had to deactivate all of them but the ones which were absolutely essential, because the browser was becoming too slow because of them. My pc is not that new anyway.

Yesterday I downloaded FF3, and for me it has some new cool additions.
The most striking difference for me is the fact that now when I have to open the downloads manager to see stuff I don't have to wait for years, it processes data in a completely different way.

The library in my opinion is also a very nice addition, it's way better than the history side-view. Now you can see your history in a more serious way, at last.

I am waiting for a new Fasterfox version right now, or at least a compatibility update. Some say that Fasterfox actually hampers your connection, thus making speeds slower, but from my experience it actually helps. I have never noticed faster browsing with Fasterfox deactivated.

The true magic however lies in the add-ons.
This applies to every web browser.

[Erika Redmark]

My Firefox 2 used to check spelling as I typed…I'm kind of glad it doesn't do that anymore; I can use British spelling without an annoying red line now. ^_^

[Seppuku Savant]

Just downloaded it. I don't notice anything major yet.

[mnoelloczp]

this is how my new firefox looks like (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.)

@ChrisM (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.)
could you describe in more detail what you mean by "multiple line selection"?

i like how bookmarks can now be edited without opening their properties.

firefox 3 may not look very different, what btw i think is a good thing,
but technical it's a huge improvement.
not necessarily essential for a moderate user, that's true.
overall, i'm impressed, too.

the rendering is fast, benchmarks say it's now the fastest browser.
i can only say, it is significantly faster than opera (9.50) on my system
probably because i use a gtk based window manager.
the speed improvement is a joy, because i thought my previous
firefox version with custom config was pretty fast, now i'm satisfied.

memory usage got much better.
multiple big pictures, long time usage, or a high amount of tabs
don't bring firefox down easily anymore. firefox 2 happened
to crash on me multiple times a day.

the addons got me, let me tell you what i installed:
-no adblock plus..
i know no other adblocker which blocks so much, but i
use a filtering proxy (privoxy) now, and that works great too, and gives some benefits.
-tree style tab
instead of the tabs being in the top row, the tabs are ordered in tree style in a side bar.
you see which links you opened from which site, and parts of the tree
can be minimized. extra nice with widescreen monitors.
-personal menu
makes it easy to remove the "File Edit..etc" menu bar and
replace it with one menu button having only the options you want in it.
-full flat theme
a very minimalistic, but functional theme with nice icons. i love it,
i waited for something like that.
-snap links
draw a box around links to open them all at once.
that's how i get so much tabs open.
-scrapbook
capture whole websites or parts of sites (notices for example)
-cookie culler
select some cookies to protect, the rest gets purged
each time firefox is started.
-download helper
for downloading multiple pictures with a few clicks, or download youtube, metacafe, similar videos.

two tips i find useful:
-increased mousewheel scroll speed
go to the address "about:config", filter for "el.w",
set the row ending with "withnokey.sysnumlines" to
"false" by double clicking, and edit the
number in the row including "withnokey.numlines" to your liking.
mousewheel options with ".action" at the end can be set to:
0 (scrolling the defined number of lines)
1 (one page up\down)
2 (back\forward in site history), 3 (text zoom)

-fewer warning messages
go to the address "about:config", filter "warn_" , and
double click on the rows ending with
"entering_weak"
"viewing_mixed"
setting them to false.

if you like, here's my user.pref.
open (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.)
it usually resides in a firefox profile folder.

[Motor Jax]

i'd just stick with Firefox v2.0.0.15

its pretty good thus far anyways, and it gets the job done...

[ChrisM]

@ChrisM (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.)
could you describe in more detail what you mean by "multiple line selection"?
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

[PHS Philip]

Firefox 3's awesome. My only (minor) complaint is that the "allow cookie?" window gets bugged occasionally, so that I have to hit the button, then wait for the window to pop again asking for permission again (even if "use this selection for all cookies from this site" is checked) over and over.

[johnnyz86]

love how they incorporated the search into the address bar.

[Gabriel Hussy]

Gonna download it too...thnx:)

[ehares]

My Firefox 2 used to check spelling as I typed…I'm kind of glad it doesn't do that anymore; I can use British spelling without an annoying red line now. ^_^

Why would you not just install the en-GB version (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.) of the app or, should you not care to re-install, the en-GB spellcheck dictionary (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.)?

[ssrprotege]

Why would you not just install the en-GB version (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.) of the app or, should you not care to re-install, the en-GB spellcheck dictionary (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.)?

Thanks a lot. I forgot about that.

[Seppuku Savant]

The spell check is weird. I saw the word you considered a misspelling with the red line. Strange. Other than that, I like it.

[HumanContakt]

People keep telling me that Opera > FF3, but to me it seems that opera is in a everlasting beta state...

[AutisticCuckoo]

Care to expound on that? Opera is continuously evolving, just like every other browser. It's often in the forefront, inventing new features that are subsequently copied by the competition.

I don't know why, but Opera takes some getting used to. Once you do, however, and start discovering all the useful but unobtrusive features it has to offer, you won't look back. :)

[zibber]

I installed it at work, but I prefer the FF2 I have at home.

Maybe some tech wiz can help me with this one: in FF2, I could just type "intjforum" or "gmail" in the address bar, and it would take me to INTJforum and Gmail (the .coms). In FF3, no such luck. Any config thing I can change to make this better? I HATE typing .com all the time.

[Zirka]

I installed it at work, but I prefer the FF2 I have at home.

Maybe some tech wiz can help me with this one: in FF2, I could just type "intjforum" or "gmail" in the address bar, and it would take me to INTJforum and Gmail (the .coms). In FF3, no such luck. Any config thing I can change to make this better? I HATE typing .com all the time.

Uh I don't know it works just fine for me in FF3. I didn't even know it existed in FF2, but then again I "discovered" the first unread feature for this forum in the "You might be an N..." thread.

[mnoelloczp]

this feature is called domain guessing, and doesn't work via Proxy Servers. info page (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.)
so that should be the problem if you use a proxy.

but, you can finish entering an address with ctrl+enter, this completes the url right away
with values from entries in about:config (default To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. and .com).
browser.fixup.alternate.prefix
browser.fixup.alternate.suffix

[Fej]

I just downloaded it. It looks alright, I kinda miss Firefox 2 but its because I was used to seeing that set up all the time. The only thing about Firefox 3 that I found out I don't like was the "awesomebar" thankfully with a google search I found an article on how to disable it.

[zibber]

this feature is called domain guessing, and doesn't work via Proxy Servers. info page (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.)
so that should be the problem if you use a proxy.

but, you can finish entering an address with ctrl+enter, this completes the url right away
with values from entries in about:config (default To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. and .com).
browser.fixup.alternate.prefix
browser.fixup.alternate.suffix

Ahhhh.. it all makes sense now. I'm trying FF3 at my job, which does most likely use a proxy, while my FF2 at home is unhampered by one.

Thanks a million for the ctrl-enter trick, that's gonna save me some time.

[Tim]

From a web design standpoint, both Firefox 3 and Safari are implementing the newest CSS3 features, which is cool.

Perhaps, in about 10 years or so, Internet Explorer will start using them as well.

[AutisticCuckoo]

From a web design standpoint, both Firefox 3 and Safari are implementing the newest CSS3 features, which is cool.

So does Opera. Version 9.52 became available yesterday.

[zibber]

Perhaps, in about 10 years or so, Internet Explorer will start using them as well.

If the blinding speed with which they picked up on TABS is any indication, your guesstimate is quite modest :laugh:

[schwartzie]

urk. not so happy. now at 3.03 and *still* having what I think is called a "memory leak", where virtual memory keeps growing, interesting, especially when I am on this forum and my webmail account associated w this forum. Unless I periodically close the application and reopen, ff gets very laggy.

[zibber]

It's too bad that problem carried over from FF2.. in FF3 you can save your tabs though, right? In FF2 I have to close my window with ctrl-alt-del, then restart the previous session when prompted. It works, but it's hellish when I have a bunch of Youtube videos paused at different positions.

[schwartzie]

yes, on FF startup, I am given the option of restoring the previous session's tabs. I think I'm also experiencing what I think (if I understand your description) you described in FF2, -where, when I attempt to start FF, I receive an error message that the app can't be started because it is already running. And, when one looks at the task manager, there is indeed a FF process running, using tiny amounts of memory and virtual memory (a couple hundred K at most); I have to kill it manually and restart FF.
Memory usage is improved by installation of "minimem" extension, but that does nothing for virtual memory use, which continues to grow. :( So, anyway, my homemade diagnostic is to first try uninstalling all the extensions, and adding them back one by one... which I'm doing now. If that doesn't help, I'll try a fresh install, I guess, since FF3 was supposed to make the "memory leak" go away.

On a different note, has anyone tried the "ubiquity" extension? It is a mashup of a bunch of functionalities, and uses "natural language." 's nice.