Mozilla says Firefox 3.0 for Mac two to three times faster

[AppleInsider]

Mozilla on Tuesday released Firefox 3, a major update to its popular open source Web browser that's being billed as 'two to three times faster' than its predecessor.

Available immediately as a free download, the browser comes in approximately 50 languages and culminates a three-year effort on the part of thousands of developers, security experts, and testers from around the world.

"We're really proud of Firefox 3 and it just shows what a committed, energized global community can do when they work together," said Mozilla chief executive John Lilly.

Among the browsers 15,000 improvements are a new full-page zoom function that displays a portion of a Web page up close in seconds, and a smart location bar that learns as people use it, adapting to user preferences and offering better fitting matches over time.

Mozilla is also looking to raise the bar for security with new malware and phishing protection tools that offer protection from viruses, worms, trojans and spyware. One of these tools, called Instant Web Site ID, allows users to easily verify that a web property is what it claims to be, rather than a rogue website aimed at copping their personal information.

Firefox 3 was built on top of the redesigned Gecko 1.9 layout engine, which enables the browser to render Web pages two to three times faster than Firefox 2 all while using less memory, according to Mozilla. It also sports a new Add-ons Manager with support for more than 5,000 add-ons, allowing users to manage tasks like participating in online auctions, uploading digital photos, seeing the weather forecasts, and listening to music, all from within the browser.

With the release Firefox 3, Mozilla has also kicked off "Download Day," a community-wide grassroots campaign to set a brand new Guinness World Record for the greatest number of software downloads in 24 hours.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[PeHaDe]

Just a first impression, but Firefox 3 is much faster than the previous version on my Macbook!

[DimMok]

Same here, seems as fast as Safari on my machina....

[rnaoncfixd]

Hopefully this won't crash my iMac as often.

[bluedalmatian]

Its much more reliable than Safari and if it does crash it automatically re-opens all the pages you'd had open - a feature Safari could do with if they cant make it more solid.

[Elixir]

so, what does everyone think? is it running faster than safari? i think i might switch, safari gives me problems a lot recently.

[dreyfus2]

Originally Posted by bluedalmatian

Its much more reliable than Safari and if it does crash it automatically re-opens all the pages you'd had open - a feature Safari could do with if they cant make it more solid.

No offense, but something must be wrong with your installation... I did not have a single Safari crash for at least three years and it is running at least 14 hours a day. Still, a re-open last session option would be great - it can be added using the Stand plug-in though and works pretty well.

[solipsism]

The Smart Location bar—or as the apparent throngs of 12yo FF testers like to call it "the Awesome bar"—is nice. I hope Apple includes similar functionality, though not as ugly, with Safari 4.

Originally Posted by DimMok

Same here, seems as fast as Safari on my machine....

Do a test with SunSpider to compare the JavaScripting speed. It's definitely an improvement over FF2.

• http://webkit.org/perf/sunspider-0.9/sunspider.html

Originally Posted by bluedalmatian

Its much more reliable than Safari and if it does crash it automatically re-opens all the pages you'd had open - a feature Safari could do with if they cant make it more solid.

Stable or not, that is a feature Safari should have already had. It's not like it would be hard to code.

[dreyfus2]

Originally Posted by Elixir

so, what does everyone think? is it running faster than safari? i think i might switch, safari gives me problems a lot recently.

I would say with Internet access there is almost no difference at all. With files on the local machine or on the local network (gig ethernet) you can clearly see that Safari is handling complex JavaScript a bit faster.

[YakkoW]

Originally Posted by bluedalmatian

Its much more reliable than Safari and if it does crash it automatically re-opens all the pages you'd had open - a feature Safari could do with if they cant make it more solid.

Safari 3 does have a "Reopen All Windows From Last Session" command in the History menu. I use it all the time. (Mine has a tendency to crash as well, though it's gotten much better recently.)

[Fotek2001]

Originally Posted by solipsism

Stable or not, that is a feature Safari should have already had. It's not like it would be hard to code.

Safari already has a 'restore session' option and it's been there since 3.0

Menu Bar > history > Reopen All Windows From Last Session

[dreyfus2]

There are more hits than misses, but the misses (and Safari's Web inspector and "save as web archive" features) will keep me with Safari.

Form rendition and speed are greatly improved, the interface is more Mac-like, at least somewhat. It is less cluttered than before, but it still draws more attention to itself and away from the Web pages than Safari.

Would be nice if you could drag tabs to a new window, I use this a lot in Safari. The location bar is ugly and clunky - the drop-down list is not easy to read, the differing dimensions of the back/forward buttons is odd and not intuitive at all (why does the forward button have a drop-down button, but both buttons display a pop-up menu when holding the mouse over them - such a design would have never left Apple). I strongly dislike the "Most Visited" and "Smart Bookmarks" menus that are created automatically - I do not want others to mess up my interface with things I do not want. The bookmark button within the location bar is counter-intuitive. Showing the favicons on the tabs is a good idea though. The Preferences pane is a lot better than before. Well, a mixed bag, really.

[Elixir]

Originally Posted by dreyfus2

I would say with Internet access there is almost no difference at all. With files on the local machine or on the local network (gig ethernet) you can clearly see that Safari is handling complex JavaScript a bit faster.

really? i dunno, this firefox has been running a little better or at least it seems to be. lately, my safari has been crashing, hiccuping and all other kinds of none sense.

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by Elixir

so, what does everyone think? is it running faster than safari? i think i might switch, safari gives me problems a lot recently.

I have used Firefox as my primary browser for the last 3 years and really like.
I don't really care about speed so it was not a factor in my decision.

I use Firefox because:
1. I want my bookmarks in a left-hand menu. I can do that with Safari, but I need an add-on such as Concierge.
2. I want to block all 3rd-party adverts. AdBlock Plus for Firefox is great. SafariBlock is OK, but not as easy to use.
3. I love the Developers Toolbar add-on. Perfect for someone who creates websites.
4. It works with 1Password as does Safari. Opera does not.

[icibaqu]

Firefox 3 is MUCH MUCH faster. before it was simply unusable (and kept around only for random sites that did not support Safari).

This is a welcome improvement.

I downloaded on both G4 ibook and G5 iMac

[nevenmrgan]

SunSpider JavaScript benchmark scores (smaller is better):

Safari 3.1 - 3136 ms
Firefox 3 - 3005 ms
-BUT-
nightly WebKit - 1864 ms

This version of WebKit, featuring the SquirrelFish interpreter, will soon get rolled into Safari. Note that the WebKit team says this is a very early implementation, and there's still a lot of performance gain to be arrived at through optimization. The Gecko crew will have their work cut out for them.

On the subjective front, I find the Firefox 3 UI really unpleasant. The Prefs UI is from a parallel (and crummier) universe. The new address bar is feature-rich, but also cluttered and hard to read. Font rendering is still lousy. Safari's error console is much better. Extensions and skins aren't worth it.

[Elixir]

Originally Posted by solipsism

Do a test with SunSpider to compare the JavaScripting speed. It's definitely an improvement over FF2.

• http://webkit.org/perf/sunspider-0.9/sunspider.html

.

can you tell me what the hell i'm looking at.

[Virgil-TB2]

Originally Posted by bluedalmatian

Its much more reliable than Safari and if it does crash it automatically re-opens all the pages you'd had open - a feature Safari could do with if they cant make it more solid.

On the face of it this is a ridiculous statement, almost an oxymoron.

Safari rarely crashes. I maintain hundreds of Macs and I know for a fact over a wide spectrum of users and needs that it crashes perhaps once a month on average for each user. If fireFox is "much more reliable" than Safari, then it shouldn't be crashing at all. If on the other hand it's crashed enough times for you to appreciate, nay relish, the "restore pages" feature, then it simply cannot be as reliable as you claim.

Need I also point out, that this is especially true if you are talking about FireFox 3 since it's only been out for hours and therefore a *single* crash would destroy your argument completely? And that if, on the other hand, you are talking about FireFox 2.0, then your entire post is basically a troll, since that's not what the article or the comments are supposed to be about.

Why not go download FireFox 3.0, try it out and then come back and make an *intelligent* (non-trolling), post that's actually on topic?

[paxman]

Originally Posted by Elixir

so, what does everyone think? is it running faster than safari? i think i might switch, safari gives me problems a lot recently.

There are always claims as to the speed of a browser. I can never tell the difference. What I really need is a fiber optic cable that plugs straight into the back of my iMac. That I would probably notice.

But importantly, FF3 launches quickly and all menus are very snappy. It has a nice feel. I stopped using FF because it was slow to launch. Now there is no significant difference between FF and Safari in terms of performance. FF has add ons such as ForcastFox, MeasureIt and WebDeveloper, so yeah, I'm back baby!

[miamitranceman]

Originally Posted by paxman

There are always claims as to the speed of a browser. I can never tell the difference. What I really need is a fiber optic cable that plugs straight into the back of my iMac. That I would probably notice.

But importantly, FF3 launches quickly and all menus are very snappy. It has a nice feel. I stopped using FF because it was slow to launch. Now there is no significant difference between FF and Safari in terms of performance. FF has add ons such as ForcastFox, MeasureIt and WebDeveloper, so yeah, I'm back baby!

How does it stack up against Camino. I havent found anything faster.

[NOFEER]

those websites cause safari 3 to freez most often don't know why, but on firefox 2 it doesn't so looking forward to FF3

[Wonderkid]

I have had Macs since 1991, and my 10.5.3 equipped 2GB RAM MacBook suffers a Safari crash several times a day - and it uses up masses of processor cycles as evidenced by Activity Monitor. Firefox 3.0 also crashes a few times a day. From a usability angle, Safari wins hands down.

Originally Posted by dreyfus2

No offense, but something must be wrong with your installation... I did not have a single Safari crash for at least three years and it is running at least 14 hours a day. Still, a re-open last session option would be great - it can be added using the Stand plug-in though and works pretty well.

[user23]

works great!

Soooo much faster than previous FF versions.

Gotta' love FF using the free and very robust Ad Block Plus along with the theme GrApple Delicious (graphite) 1.0 for FF 3.0. This theme actually looks better than ever with its subtle shading - fits right into OS X's current look.

Good job FF folks!

[webhead]

Originally Posted by bluedalmatian

Its much more reliable than Safari and if it does crash it automatically re-opens all the pages you'd had open - a feature Safari could do with if they cant make it more solid.

How do you know it's more reliable than Safari? It just came out today? Give it some time and people will be all over the forums saying it crashes their machines. I will give it a try but I hope it has a nicer looking interface, older versions of firefox were UGLY and clunky! Safari has always run great for me so.

[webhead]

Originally Posted by bluedalmatian

Its much more reliable than Safari and if it does crash it automatically re-opens all the pages you'd had open - a feature Safari could do with if they cant make it more solid.

If its so reliable why would it need this feature? This feature tells us that there are probably reliability issues.

[shamino]

Originally Posted by dreyfus2

No offense, but something must be wrong with your installation... I did not have a single Safari crash for at least three years and it is running at least 14 hours a day. Still, a re-open last session option would be great - it can be added using the Stand plug-in though and works pretty well.

I've found that it is much less stable if you run it through a proxy server (e.g. from behind a corporate firewall.) Some pages (especially those with Flash, it seems) make Safari unstable, resulting in hangs and crashes when using a proxy (especially with a large proxy auto-config script), even though the same computer has no problem on those pages when I'm at home, and not using any proxies.

WRT automatically re-opening sessions, hopefully it will ask you if you want to do this. If a bad page is causing a crash, you probably don't want to auto-reopen that page.

[gloss]

My early impressions are that it's slightly faster than Safari and, thus far, at least as stable. I'm going to give it an extended switchover and see how things go. Really excellent thus far.

[gloss]

Originally Posted by webhead

If its so reliable why would it need this feature? This feature tells us that there are probably reliability issues.

It also works for if you quit out of the program, not just crash out of it.

[andyapple]

Yes, Firefox 3 crashes three times as fast as the previous version! And then the automatic Crash Report crashes too! Won't launch successfully at all, hooray!

I'll stick with Safari.

[webhead]

Originally Posted by dreyfus2

There are more hits than misses, but the misses (and Safari's Web inspector and "save as web archive" features) will keep me with Safari.

Form rendition and speed are greatly improved, the interface is more Mac-like, at least somewhat. It is less cluttered than before, but it still draws more attention to itself and away from the Web pages than Safari.

Would be nice if you could drag tabs to a new window, I use this a lot in Safari. The location bar is ugly and clunky - the drop-down list is not easy to read, the differing dimensions of the back/forward buttons is odd and not intuitive at all (why does the forward button have a drop-down button, but both buttons display a pop-up menu when holding the mouse over them - such a design would have never left Apple). I strongly dislike the "Most Visited" and "Smart Bookmarks" menus that are created automatically - I do not want others to mess up my interface with things I do not want. The bookmark button within the location bar is counter-intuitive. Showing the favicons on the tabs is a good idea though. The Preferences pane is a lot better than before. Well, a mixed bag, really.

Very nice review, so much of software comes down to user interface for me, and firefox has always fallen short in that catagory, doesn't sound like it has gotten any better. But on the other hand it's good to know that after an hour of use it can be declared more reliable and it's so comforting to know that when my super reliable program that never crashes will have an open all pages feature for all those times it crashes, thus saving me hours of surfing every week. Does it not have a history menu??

[icibaqu]

Originally Posted by nevenmrgan

SunSpider JavaScript benchmark scores (smaller is better):

Safari 3.1 - 3136 ms
Firefox 3 - 3005 ms
-BUT-
nightly WebKit - 1864 ms

This version of WebKit, featuring the SquirrelFish interpreter, will soon get rolled into Safari. Note that the WebKit team says this is a very early implementation, and there's still a lot of performance gain to be arrived at through optimization. The Gecko crew will have their work cut out for them.

On the subjective front, I find the Firefox 3 UI really unpleasant. The Prefs UI is from a parallel (and crummier) universe. The new address bar is feature-rich, but also cluttered and hard to read. Font rendering is still lousy. Safari's error console is much better. Extensions and skins aren't worth it.

i would take a look at this, which gives you some tweaking tips: http://lifehacker.com/396312/power-u...e-to-firefox-3

[webhead]

Does safari have a zoom tool? That would be a nice feature, I'll check out firefox just for that feature alone.

[iVlad]

Its def. faster but I still like the simplicity of Safari. The download system and bookmarks are the best on Safari. I mean for me. I like Firefox for having all the add-ons and themes but it makes your computer looking like a circus.
That's my opinion.

Anything but Internet ExplOder.

[iVlad]

Originally Posted by webhead

Does safari have a zoom tool? That would be a nice feature, I'll check out firefox just for that feature alone.

Yes your whole computer (if you're on a mac) has a zoom feature not just Safari. Hold Command Key and scroll up or down. )

[minderbinder]

Originally Posted by Wonderkid

I have had Macs since 1991, and my 10.5.3 equipped 2GB RAM MacBook suffers a Safari crash several times a day - and it uses up masses of processor cycles as evidenced by Activity Monitor. Firefox 3.0 also crashes a few times a day. From a usability angle, Safari wins hands down.

That's not safari's fault, that's a problem with your machine. I have been using safari heavily for years over many versions and looking at my crash log, I see seven crashes in 2006, five in 2007, and only one so far this year. I can live with that.

And really, firefox crashing a few times a DAY is supposed do be a good thing???? I can't imagine anyone living with that kind of constant misery. Just troubleshoot your machine already, any web browser should be very very stable. Assuming your machine is OK, maybe it's an unstable browser plugin.

If you find a page that consistently crashes any browser, you really should report that page to the browser team so they can fix whatever the problem is.

[rychencop]

it's fast..2or3 times faster? i'm not sure, but i love firefox.

[Habu]

now if i can just get PDFs to view in FireFox and not download and launch Preview or Acrobat. Wish PDF Browser Plugin from schubert-it.com would have been updated to run on Intel.

[rychencop]

Originally Posted by Habu

now if i can just get PDFs to view in FireFox and not download and launch Preview or Acrobat. Wish PDF Browser Plugin from schubert-it.com would have been updated to run on Intel.

ya...that aggravates the crap out of me.

[webhead]

Originally Posted by iVlad

Yes your whole computer (if you're on a mac) has a zoom feature not just Safari. Hold Command Key and scroll up or down. )

No way, I never knew that worked on Safari. Thanks

[hypoluxa]

So far so good for me. FF is handy browser when there are still many non-Safari friendly sites out there in the ether.