These releases fix a stability problem affecting a limited number of users. For a list of changes and more information, please review the release notes:

• Firefox 3.6.10 release notes
• Firefox 3.5.13 release notes

Note: All Firefox 3 and 3.5 users are strongly encouraged to upgrade to Firefox 3.6 by downloading it from download-firefox.net or by selecting “Check for Updates…” from the Help menu and clicking on “Get the New Version”, then checking for updates again once Firefox 3.6 is installed.

We encourage users to test this Firefox 3.6.4 beta on their favorite websites, and give us feedback by submitting their crash reports. If users find websites that repeatedly cause plugin crashes, we ask that they file a bug or fill out this feedback form. As always, we appreciate the help we get from the community in evaluating these beta releases.

Users who had installed the Firefox “Lorentz” beta release will be automatically updated to this beta release of Firefox 3.6.4, or can manually “Check for Updates” in the Help menu.

Instead, the browser-maker will continue to pour resources into Firefox Home for iPhone, its browser companion app. Mozilla said in a blog post:

“People have asked about adding more browserlike features to Firefox Home, but there are technical and logistical restrictions that make it difficult, if not impossible, to build the full Firefox browser for the iPhone. We are focused on building Firefox Home as a rich, cloud-based application and making it a valuable product that people will continue to love and use.”

In fact, Mozilla’s announcement that it will expand Firefox Home to BlackBerry and Symbian could be an indication that the company is moving away from mobile browsers entirely. As with the iPhone app, Firefox Home for these mobile platforms would tie into the Firefox Sync service to deliver the browsing history, open browser tabs, and notes that you generated on your desktop computer to your mobile phone. While there’s no hard timeline yet, Mozilla anticipated that these apps will arrive in “the coming months,” the company mentioned in a blog post.

Mozilla also says it will investigate creating a version of Firefox Home for iPad, based on users’ requests.

Although Mozilla has long been experimenting with a dedicated Firefox app, the Fennec browser is only in its early phase on Android and the first Firefox mobile browser was limited to only two Nokia devices. In addition, Mozilla halted work on a Fennec browser for Windows Mobile.

Firefox Sync, on the other hand, offers convenient cloud-based storage and is comparatively simpler to build than a standalone browser. One of the first implementations of Firefox Sync appeared as an add-on in Firefox for Nokia’s Maemo/Meego platform.  Click here to download firefox for free.

1. Web Developer: This extension offers a toolbar for web developers. It inspects the CSS within the active page and offers the present attributes, as well as the different styles that affect them.
2. SeoQuake: Optimize your web page for the major search engines. Also in the form of a toolbar, this extension offers various advantageous phrases you may employ to help your website become well known.
3. Window Resizer 1.0: Quickly and accurate resize the resolution of your window. This is essential in determining whether your website will work on any other computer, or you may wish to use it to optimize your own viewing experience.
4. FireShot: This addon allows screenshots to be made of any web page. However, it differs from the typical “Print Screen” function in that it automatically offers a brand of different annotation and manipulation tools. This can be used to create works for a portfolio.
5. Firebug: The ultimate tool for development, this extension offers a wealth of different tools, such as those which allow you debug, edit, explore and monitor your JavaScript, HTML and CSS in real time for any active web page.
6. Greasemonkey: Modify the way your websites load using little bits of JavaScript. There are literally hundreds available for download.
7. ColorZilla: This is one of the more simple and useful extensions in all of the Firefox library. If you have ever needed to know a specific color code, an eyedropper in your status bar can save you the trouble.
8. FireFTP: This streamlined extension allow users to upload their files onto their server. One major advantage it has over other FTP applications is its ability to be installed on any major platform, and it retains the same functionality as well.
9. IE Tab: This is a truly essential extension for the standard Internet user and for web developers alike. For the former, it can trick a website into allowing you to access it without closing out of Firefox. For the latter, it can enable developers to conveniently see how your coding is handled by the less popular web browser.
10. Palette Grabber: This handy tool lets users build color themes which can later be exported to any major photo manipulation, such as Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop, Fireworks, GIMP and Paint.NET. The theme can be comprised of the website you are currently in the middle of viewing.
11. Font Finder 0.5c: This addon allows you to highlight any portion of the web page and extract the information regarding its styling, but only of that highlighted block.
12. Total Validator: This extension is a validation tool that comes with many different features in one, allowing users to take screenshots, check the HTML, check the links and much, much more. Check up on your broken links, misspelled words and take a screen capture by way of various different operating systems and web browsers to get a full understanding on the way your web page will look.
13. Platypus: This is arguably the best extension available to modify any web page. It offers a “what you see is what you get” mechanic that functions well with the Greasemonkey addon. Additionally, it comes with the added convenience of remembering the edits you have made for the next time you visit the website.
14. Dummy Lipsum: This is a simple add on with a simple purpose; it generates the famous Lorem Ipsum dummy text for filler.

1. Customize Google
Customize Google is a very robust extension that lets you customize many features of the services provided by Google. Customize Google lets you block advertisements on pretty much any Google page (including Gmail). It remaps Google Images search results to point directly at the images (no longer will you need to click through the originating site). Customize Google lets you add links from other search engines directly into your search results. It can also block Google click tracking and allows you to connect to Google Calendar and Gmail securely (https). Give it a try, you won’t be sorry.

2. Gspace
Gspace is a content management extension that lets you turn your Gmail account into an online mass storage device. Gspace integrates nicely into your browser and lets you drag and drop files into Gmail for backup or storage purposes without interrupting your work flow. If you use Gspace, I recommend adding a tag in Gmail to your files so they can be filtered and accessed quickly. The following is the description of Gspace from its homepage: “Gspace turns the 2GB of your Gmail account into free online storage. With Gspace you can manage unlimited Gmail accounts to store all type of files within its simple, user friendly interface. Listen to your favorite stored music directly from your Gspace, view your collections of pictures and manage your Gdrive files as well. Download Gspace now and transfer files between your computer and Gspace at anytime, from everywhere!”

3. Flashgot/DownThemAll
The default download manager built into Firefox is very handy; however, there are many occasions that you’ll find that you need more flexibility with your downloads. This is where Flashgot or DownThemAll comes in handy. The features of Flashgot and DownThemAll have their differences; however, they generally provide finer-grained control of your downloads. My personal preference is Flashgot. I recommend trying at least one of them.

4. Greasemonkey + Stylish + Ad blocking per Gozer
Greasemonkey is an extension that lets you add scripts that alter the web pages you visit. Using Greasemonkey and Stylish and Ad blocking per Gozer together will block pretty much every advertisement from any Web site you visit.

5. Flashblock
The Flashblock extension by default blocks flash from playing when a Web page is first opened. Most (distracting) advertisements are written using flash. Flashblock is particularly useful because it replaces the flash from a Web site with a “play” button so you can watch the flash if it something useful (like a video at Youtube) and leave it blocked if it is an advertisement.

6. Download Statusbar
Download Statusbar manages your downloads in the status bar instead of the Firefox Download Manager. I find that the download manager that comes with Firefox to be very intrusive. Download manager tucks your download progress bars into the generally unused status bar of Firefox. This lets you download care-free without the Firefox Download Manager popping up and interrupting you.

7. URL Fixer
URL fixer will replace the common typos you enter when typing a Web site into the URL bar (i.e., http://www.lifehack.rog, htp://lifehack.org). The auto correct feature of URL fixer is very helpful. “[URL Fixer] will correct common misspellings of .com, .net, .org, .edu, .gov, and .mil, as well as the protocol (http:, https:). It will also correct errors in country code TLDS such as .com.XX, .net.XX, and .org.XX.”

8. Tab Mix Plus
Many of the features of Tab Mix Plus were incorporated into the release of Firefox 2. However, Tab Mix Plus allows you to add finer-grained control of your tabs. The following is a description of Tab Mix Plus: “Tab Mix Plus enhances Firefox’s tab browsing capabilities. It includes such features as duplicating tabs, controlling tab focus, tab clicking options, undo closed tabs and windows, plus much more. It also includes a full-featured session manager with crash recovery that can save and restore combinations of opened tabs and windows.”

9. Scrapbook
Scrapbook is extremely useful for researchers and students. Scrapbook saves blurbs from Web pages to your hard drive along with the URL of the originating Web site. It allows you to organize and categorize your blurbs in a format similar to your bookmarks so that when it comes to creating a bibliography or works cited, you won’t waste any time.

10. IE Tab
I find myself using this extension less and less as more Web developers code their Web sites following standards. However, occasionally you will find it necessary to open a Web site using Internet Explorer in order for it to render correctly. Rather than taking the time to launch a separate browser, just choose “View Page in IE tab” and an Internet Explorer tab opens in Firefox. This is very useful if you like to have multiple Gmail accounts open and active on one computer.

That’s my take on the extensions that will improve your productivity. Like I previously mentioned, there are tons of Firefox extensions. What extension didn’t I mention that you can’t live without? Please tell us about your favorite productivity-enhancing Firefox extension in the comments.

1. Adblock Plus  - It is one of the important firefox addon that blocks advertisements to appear on any webpage.
2. Aging Tabs – Makes unused tabs fade with age and highlights the selected tab.
3. All-in-One Sidebar  – Sidebar control with award-winning user experience.
4. Auto Copy  – Copies selected text to the clipboard automatically. Like Linux or mIrc.
5. AutoPager - AutoPager is a firefox/mozilla extension that autoloads the next page in background.
6. Better GCal  – Enhances Google Calendar with a compilation of user scripts and styles. All scripts copyright their original authors. Click on the script homepage in the Help tab for more information.
7. Better Gmail 2 – Enhances Gmail with a compilation of useful features written by Greasemonkey user script developers. All scripts copyright their original authors. Click on the script homepage in the Help tab for more information.
8. Better YouTube – A compilation of useful Greasemonkey user scripts for YouTube. All scripts copyright their original authors. Click on the script homepage in the Help tab for more information.
9. ColorZilla  – Advanced Eyedropper, ColorPicker, Page Zoomer and other colorful goodies
10. Cooliris – Cooliris (formerly PicLens) transforms your browser into a full-screen 3D Wall for searching, viewing and sharing the Web.
11. CustomizeGoogle  - Enhance Google search results and remove ads and spam.
12. Delicious Bookmarks – Access your bookmarks wherever you go and keep them organized no matter how many you have.
13. DownloadHelper - Download videos and images from many sites. It is the best tool to download videos from YouTube etc .
14. FEBE – Backup your Firefox data
15. Fire.fm  – Get your daily music fix from Last.fm.
16. Firefox Universal Uploader (fireuploader) – Provides an user friendly interface to upload files to various websites eg. Box.net, Flickr, Youtube, Picasa, Facebook
17. FireFTP – FTP Client for Mozilla Firefox.
18. FlashGot – Enables single and massive (”all” and “selection”) downloads using the most popular external download managers for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and FreeBSD.
19. FoxClocks – Displays local times around the world in the statusbar/toolbar. Supports virtually all time zones.
20. FoxyProxy - FoxyProxy – Premier proxy management for Firefox
21. FoxyTunes  - Control any media player from Firefox and more…
22. gDocsBar – Perfect companion for Google Docs.
23. Gmail Manager – Gmail accounts management and new mail notifications.
24. GmailSpace -Use your Gmail account space for file storage. Enables uploading/downloading of folders.
25. GooglePreview  - Inserts web site previews in Google and Yahoo search results.
26. Greasemonkey – A User Script Manager for Firefox
27. IE Tab – Enables you to use the embedded IE engine within Mozilla/Firefox.
28. Master Password Timeout – Locks the master security device after a predefined period of inactivity
29. NoScript - Extra protection for your Firefox: NoScript allows JavaScript, Java (and other plugins) only for trusted domains of your choice (e.g. your home-banking web site).
30. Password Exporter  – Export and import the saved passwords.
31. PC Sync 2 Synchronisation Extension – Enables PC Sync 2 synchronization support.
32. PDF Download – Allows you to choose what to do with a PDF file: download it, view it with an external viewer or view it as HTML.
33. Perspectives  – A secure way to verify encrypted websites and bypass security warnings
34. ProfileSwitcher – Adds profile name to status bar tooltip and options to launch other profiles
35. Read it Later – Save pages to read later, then bookmark.
36. ScrapBook – Helps you to save Web pages and organize the collection.
37. Screen grab! – Saves a web-page as an image.
38. ScribeFire – A full-featured blog editor that integrates with your browser and lets you easily post to your blog.
39. Twitbin – Twitbin is a tool that allows you to interact with your twitter friends and followers right from your browser sidebar.
40. Yahoo! Mail Notifier – This extension notifies you when new messages arrive in your Yahoo mailbox.
41. Flashblock - The plugin blocks flash from running. It acts on all sites by default, but lets you set ‘whitelists’ of sites that can use flash, such as youtube. For blocked sites (those not on the whitelise) you get a window of the right size on the screen, and a ‘play’ button you can click if you want to load the animation. Here is an opera version.
42. Fasterfox - A bunch of tweaks to speed up firefox simply without manually tuning the registry parameters. Can be set to exceed the RFC specs if you want. Also provides a page load timer in the bottom right which is I like. See how much of a change you get after installing flashblock
43. Autocomplete Manager – When you type into the default firefox location bar, you get ‘autocomplete’ suggestions based on the part of the URL you typed. This plugin enhances that so it automatically searches on bookmarks, and even web page titles from your history. If you keep a long enough history, it could almost render your bookmarks obsolete.
44. Firebug – Essential for anyone who does web development. Install it, then for a page you want to analyze click Tools/Firebug. Click ‘inspect’ and point your mouse at any part of a web page and it’ll show a breakdown of the HTML in that section only, and let you modify the source ‘live’ to test fixes. Great for showing how web pages are composed, and it’s a much nicer alternative to a full ‘view page source’ option. Firebug and the inspect facility can be added as icons to your toolbar, so it doesn’t clutter up your browser out of the box. There is also a YSlow plugin that you can add after installing firebug to perform performance analysis on web pages.
45. FoxEar – Essential internal tool that gives you a sidebar to interface into DogEar.
46. Fast Video Download – It downloads videos from YouTube. You get an icon in the bottom right that you click when you’re on a page with embedded video, and it lets you save it.
47. Remove It Permanently - (RIP) RIP lets you right click on any section of a web page (Such as a sidebar or advert) and specify that it’s removed from all futuring rendering of the page. By using this carefully you can reclaim a lot of your browser screen area.
48. PDF Download – helps download the PDF documents
49. Down Them All! - a download manager for resume / split into parts / etc
50. Foxsaver – A screensaver for your Firefox.

Firefox 3.6 isn’t a major release, so don’t expect to experience any huge, radical changes the way you browse the web. There are no major interface advances, and most of the tech tweaks are hidden away so you’re only likely to spot if you go looking for them. That said, it doesn’t mean that you should ignore what Firefox 3.6 has to offer.

Performance

A while ago I concluded that the page rendering and JavaScript processing performance of both Mozilla’s Firefox and Google’s Chrome browsers had evolved to a point where speed was no longer an issue. About the only valid take away from measuring the performance of Firefox and Chrome is to compare them to the still abysmal performance of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. When it comes to performance, IE8 is way behind the curve, and lagging severely behind the competition.

So how fast is Firefox 3.6? According to Mozilla, Firefox 3.6 is some three times faster tahan Firefox 3.0, and about 20% faster than 3.5. My testing shows that 3.6 is indeed over three times faster than 3.0, but when it comes to 3.6 vs 3.5, I’m seeing a performance increase nearer to 15%. Still, 15% performance increase is pretty impressive, especially considering that this is a minor release.

Is the performance boost noticeable? If you’re coming at it from 3.5, no, not really. However, I can notice a different with JavaScript heavy sites such a Google Mail between 3.6 and 3.0.

What about the memory leaks? Are they gone? To be perfectly honest, I can’t tell you. I’ve not seen signs of any issues yet, but I don’t find these things to be predictable and will need to spend more time with the browser before I can comment.

New features

Like I said earlier, don’t expect huge change in Firefox 3.6. That said, there are a few new features worthy of a mention.

Personas

One cool new feature is called Personas. This allows the user to customize the look of their browser with a single click. Sure, it’s just a method of skinning the UI with an image, but don’t underestimate the feel-good factor that this single feature can give people. It’s a low-drag way for people to make the browser feel like their own personal space.

Things change quickly in the world of computers. Just a year ago Microsoft’s Internet Explorer seemed to have an unassailable hold on the Internet browser market.

Then all of a sudden through a combination of multiple security vulnerabilities, an aging set of features and the emergence of more modern browsers, Internet Explorer has started to look vulnerable.

So vulnerable in fact that over 100 million users have already switched over to other browsers. And the browser most have switched to is Mozilla Firefox.

Firefox is a fast, lean tabbed browser produced by the Mozilla Corporation. It’s the young nimble brother of the original full-featured Mozilla Suite that itself being a spin-off from the ill fated Netscape browser.

The current version of Firefox is 2.0, the first major update since V1.0, the first official release.

Firefox is an impressive product but it’s certainly not perfect. A decision to move from Internet Explorer to Firefox is a decision involving trading one set of attributes for another. Each individual will need to weigh the pros and cons and make a decision based on their own needs.

The purpose of this guide is to help you make that choice. And if you decide to go for Firefox I hope to provide you with some tips to make the transition from Internet Explorer as smooth as possible.

Three Good Reasons to Abandon Internet Explorer

1. It’s an ongoing security risk. 

Even the most one-eyed Microsoft supporter would have to accept that IE has been plagued with security problems.

First, as the world’s most popular browser it’s a target for hackers. That’s because any vulnerability they uncover can be utilized against over  90% of all computers. That’s quite a temptation. In fact there have been more attacks against IE than any other Windows component or application and there is no reason to believe this will lesson in the future.

Second it’s a security risk because it employs Microsoft’s propriety active scripting component called ActiveX.   Now ActiveX offers users some real convenience features but those features come at a high cost. Security experts have been concerned about ActiveX right from its introduction and those concerns have proven justified as ActiveX has been at the center of multiple security vulnerabilities including many of the most serious. And it’s not only ActiveX, IE also makes use of VBScript and browser helper objects (BHOs) two other convenience technologies that has been heavily exploited by hackers.

The latest version of Internet Explorer, IE7, includes enhancements that address many of these scripting problems but the fundamental problem remains.

Third it’s a security risk because IE is too close to the core of the Windows operating system. In fact Microsoft itself argues that it’s actually not a browser but part of the operating system. Such closeness is not a good thing; it means that a hacker who breaks into IE may not only have hacked your browser but may also be able to gain access to the operating system itself.

Finally Microsoft’s record for responding to reported flaws in IE has been checkered. In several well publicized instances Microsoft have denied the existence of the flaws and instead, gone into “blame the messenger for the message” mode rather than respond. In other cases they have questioned the severity of the claimed flaws. This strange PR-driven stance has meant that patches for a number of critical flaws have been slow to arrive. Indeed even today there are over 20 publicly reported but yet unpatched critical IE flaws. And don’t expect things to change much in the future.

Firefox is not exempt from flaws and as it has becomes more popular, these flaws are emerging. Part of this is due to the fact that, unlike IE,  the Firefox source code is in the public domain and can be scrutinized for flaws by hackers. However Mozilla has shown itself to be very responsive to fixing reported flaws, often doing so within a few days. This is a far cry from Microsoft’s poor track record.

2. If you are not using Windows XP, Microsoft has abandoned you

Internet Explorer 7 is only available to those using Windows XP SP2 or later. Users of earlier versions of Windows have to IE6, a version which has proven highly vulnerable to exploitation. Worse still, the folks at Redmond have announced that any future security enhancements to IE6 offered to Windows XP SP2 users will not necessarily be made available for any Windows operating system prior to XP. The intent is evident; they want everyone to upgrade to Windows XP or the upcoming Vista. The Microsoft announcement will inevitably embolden hackers to target future attacks on IE to versions on non-XP PCs. So if you don’t use Windows XP, this alone is sufficient reason to look for an alternative to Internet Explorer.

And it’s not only security. IE6 is a dated browser that doesn’t even offer tabbed surfing. Yet another reason for users of earlier Windows versions to shift to Firefox.

3. Internet Explorer is less configurable than Firefox

Although IE7 now offers a useful collection of  add-ons that allow you to customize your browsing experience the number of such add-ons just can’t compare to the 1000+ free extensions available for Firefox.

For example I currently use eleven Firefox extensions, but only one is available for IE7. 

To many users, these free extensions are more than niceties; they are integral to the browsing experience. For example the free Adblock extension that eliminates the vast majority of web ads. At the time of writing there is no comparable free extension available for IE7.

IE6 is even less configurable than IE7 and most of the add-ons available are commercial products not free

Three Good Reasons to Stay with Internet Explorer

1. Some web sites won’t work properly with Firefox

A number of web sites utilize non-standard, proprietary Microsoft features such as ActiveX in order to provide site navigation and other features.  It’s probably not a good web design practice but that doesn’t stop people doing it.

If you visit one of these non-standard sites using Firefox you will find that some functions won’t work or work differently. This could be could be something trivial like the screen colors are wrong or an animation doesn’t work or it could be some vitally important function such as a logon box or navigation link.

Luckily there aren’t too many such sites and thankfully, their number seems to be reducing.  However there are sufficient that you will encounter one sooner or later. If it’s an important site such as your internet banking site then you are going to be frustrated.

One site that definitely doesn’t work with Firefox is Microsoft Windows Update. Hardly surprising but still an annoyance.

You can of course, simply open IE when you encounter any of these sites. Firefox even has a downloadable extension that allows you to open a page using IE from within Firefox. This significantly reduces the nuisance value but does not of course, solve the basic problem.

If you use Firefox you are going to have to accept that certain sites will be broken and will require you to fire up IE to access them. This is a simple reality.

2. Firefox loads slower than Internet Explorer and takes more memory

Firefox may load web pages faster than IE but the program itself takes longer to load. Much longer, maybe twice as long. Firefox also uses more memory than IE.

IE’s better performance here is to some degree an illusion. That’s because some of the major components of Internet Explorer are always running on your PC, they are pre-loaded when Windows starts. That means IE has less work to do when it starts so it loads quicker. It also means that IE actually takes up more memory than it appears to.

This Firefox load time inconvenience can be eliminated by always keeping Firefox loaded and simply minimizing it when not in use. In fact it doesn’t even need to take up any task bar space as there is a free Firefox extension that allows you to minimize it to the system tray.

Minimizing Firefox also releases some of its memory space so you are killing two birds with the one stone

That said it is a reality that IE loads faster and all potential Firefox users should be aware of this.

3. Firefox has had its own security problems

Firefox may be safer than IE but it has had its own share of security problems. Indeed since V1 was released there have been more than seven new versions containing security enhancements.

This may be so but Mozilla have to be commended how quickly they have released patches for newly discovered flaws, often only a day or two after the flaw was first demonstrated. This is in sharp contrast to Microsoft’s tardy response to fixing IE problems.

In fact I have never encountered a hostile website that successfully exploits flaws in the then current version of Firefox. In other words, if you keep your copy of Firefox up to date it is extremely unlikely your browser security will be penetrated. The same cannot be said of Internet Explorer, particularly IE6.

As I said earlier, a  decision to move from Internet Explorer to Firefox is a decision involving trading one set of attributes for another. Each individual will need to weigh the pros and cons and make a decision based on their own needs.

If you are not using Windows XP, I think the situation is clear cut. Microsoft has announced  that they will not upgrade your Internet Explorer to the latest version 7. Given that, you should move to another browser just on security grounds alone. And if you are going to go to another browser, then THE current browser of choice is Firefox

Windows XP users on the face of it, have a real alternative to Firefox. They can stay with IE by installing XP Service Pack 2 along with IE7. 

However experience with IE7 since its release indicates the likelihood of on-going security problems. Yes, Internet Explorer 7 is safer than IE6 but Microsoft’s track record for speedily fixing any security problems is poor and bodes ill for the future.

So what do I think?

There is no doubt that Firefox is currently less of a security risk than IE6.  In particular it is way less liable to Spyware infection. Every week I get letters from readers who have migrated to Firefox from IE because of recurrent IE6 based spyware infections. Commonly these folks tell me since changing over, they have never had a spyware infection.

This equates with my own experience. Not only have I never had a spyware infection since using Firefox but I have never even seen a circulating spyware exploit for Firefox. By contrast I encounter IE6 based spyware exploits every day.

There is no doubt that IE7 offers better security then IE6 and maybe as good as Firefox 2.  However  IE7 will remain a target for malware writers simply because of its popularity. That means that there will be more flaws discovered and more exploits released than for Firefox. Combine that with Microsoft’s slow response to releasing patches and IE7 security becomes a serious concern.

So to me, security is the bottom line here. Yes, Firefox offers faster browsing. Yes, there are hundreds of free Firefox extensions to customize and optimize your browsing experience. All that is fine and most welcome but the real clincher is that Firefox offers a safer browsing experience and that alone is sufficient warrant to drop IE and make the change right now.

As soon as the release candidate came out on January 9, I started putting it through its paces, using two Dell 530S desktop PCs. These older computers are powered by a 2.2GHz Intel Pentium E2200 dual-core processor with an 800MHz front-side bus. Each has 4GB of RAM, a 500GB SATA (Serial ATA) drive, and an Integrated Intel 3100 GMA (Graphics Media Accelerator) chipset. One was loaded with Windows XP SP3 and the other used MEPIS 8 desktop Linux.

Much improved performance
To my delight, I found that Firefox uses considerably less memory after prolonged use than its predecessor, Firefox 3.5.6. Better memory use may not strike you as the most exciting thing about a Web browser, but if you’re a serious Web user, with multiple tabs open at once for hours at a time, it’s a big deal. I, and other users, have noticed memory issues with Firefox 3.5.6 that slowed a PC’s overall performance. In my testing of 3.6, these memory problems appear to have been fixed, and that alone makes it a “must upgrade” in my book.

I also noticed that the new Firefox is much faster than the last version. Part of this speed boost comes from Firefox’s new ability to run scripts asynchronously. In the past, Firefox waited for the first script on the page to download completely before running the next script, no matter how long it took to download. Now, Firefox runs whichever script downloads first, no matter where it’s placed on the page. It’s one of those small changes that make a big practical difference on pages with multiple scripts.

In particular, Firefox 3.6 does much better with Web 2.0 sites that rely on JavaScript. With its updated JavaScript engine, TraceMonkey, I found that the browser was more than three times faster than Firefox 3.5.6 on the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark test. On the Windows XP system, Firefox 3.5.6 came in at a poky 3034.4 milliseconds, while Firefox 3.6 zipped by it at 1007.0 milliseconds.

That’s great, but it still leaves Firefox lagging behind Chrome, which easily lapped the field with a time of 553.0 milliseconds.

New features
There’s more to a browser than just fast page rendering, and Firefox 3.6 offers numerous new features that I think make it a compelling browser choice.

Users who like to tweak the look of their browser but don’t want to dig into the technicalities of Firefox’s XUL (XML User Interface Language) should enjoy playing with Firefox’s new Personas feature. This is a one-click Web-based tool that lets you change the look and feel of your browser. You can either roll your own theme or pick one of the more than 35,000 themes that are already available. Personally, I like the plain-old Firefox theme, but if you like jazzing up your browser’s looks, you’ll like Personas.

Like to customize your Web browser’s look? With Personas, Firefox 3.6 makes it easy.
A more universally useful feature is that Firefox 3.6 will now automatically check to see if your plug-ins are out of date. Since many 21st-century security problems come from outdated plug-ins, this is an important fix. For example, Adobe Flash, which most of us use for Web video, has had numerous security problems fixed in the last year. With this improvement, even users who don’t follow security news will be able to keep their plug-ins up to date and secure. This is a win/win situation as far as I’m concerned. I’d like to see all browsers implement this feature.

The new Firefox has also improved its support for HTML5. Specifically, Firefox now supports full-screen native video and will let you use local files with Web applications. As the gap between traditional desktop applications and SaaS (Software as a Service) applications continues to narrow, this last feature is likely to see a lot of use.

At the same time, though, Firefox’s developers are preventing Firefox browser extensions from loading third-party components installed in its internal components directory. This is because the programmers were finding that many Firefox crashes were actually caused by misbehaving extensions and plug-ins. To make matters worse, users couldn’t access some of these third-party components with the add-ons manager or even disable them.
The long-term gain from this change will be to make Firefox more stable. In the short run, though, Firefox’s programmers estimate that about 1 in 4 current Firefox extensions will need to be rebuilt to work with Firefox 3.6. I’m more than willing to put up with that for the sake of having a Web browser that won’t fail on me when I’m in the middle of work.

In any event, I’ve discovered that the Firefox extensions that I consider to be absolutely essentially — the Google Toolbar and Xmark’s Bookmark Sync tool — work just fine with Firefox 3.6.

Taken all in all, I’m very impressed by Firefox 3.6. While I still really like Chrome’s speed and recently introduced support for extensions, this new version of Firefox is so much better than the last iteration that I’ve decided I’m going to keep using Firefox as my main browser on Linux and start using it again on Windows.

Internet Explorer? Chrome? Look out. Firefox is back in the game again.

Several notable improvements in the latest revamp keep Firefox abreast of current browsing tech. In addition to the aforementioned improvements made to the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine so that it renders Web applications faster, there have also been other significant under-the-hood changes. These include: blocking third-party software from encroaching on Firefox’s file system turf to increase stability; support for the Web Open Font Format, which means many non-English browser users should have a faster time loading Web pages with downloadable fonts; and support for the File interface, which can help with tasks such as uploading multiple photos and is part of the draft HTML5-standard effort. HTML5 support debuted in Firefox 3.5. Another deeper change to the browser is that it is now running scripts asynchronously, which can help to load a Web page faster by putting off some work until the high-priority chores are complete. Firefox 3.6 also isolates out-of-date plug-ins so they do not become a security risk.

Unlike Firefox 3.5, which was more about keeping the browser current rather than blazing new trails, Firefox 3.6 is once again on the warpath. Upgrading is highly recommended.