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Mozilla finally releases Firefox 3.5
Following several test versions and on the very last day of its self imposed deadline, Mozilla has finally released Firefox 3.5 to the world. Originally dubbed 3.1, the new version brings a private browsing mode, support for emerging HTML 5 standards, location-aware browsing, a reduced memory footprint, updated anti-malware and anti-phishing features, improved tabs and more. The most notable new feature, however, is the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine which offers substantial speed improvements over previous releases.
In fact, Mozilla claims Firefox 3.5 is twice as fast as 3.0 and more than ten times as fast as 2.0. Exaggeration or not, recent benchmarks show the browser’s JavaScript performance is indeed faster, but still behind Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari. Firefox does have some advantages of its own that will keep people from switching away to rival browsers. Namely, a wide range of add-ons to expand its functionality and enough market share to make developers test their sites for Firefox compatibility.
The latest version comes little over a year after the much-publicized release of Firefox 3.0, which broke the world record for most downloads in a single day after 8,002,530 people downloaded the software. Users can download Firefox 3.5 here (7.7 MB), or head to Mozilla’s site to read the official release notes.
In fact, Mozilla claims Firefox 3.5 is twice as fast as 3.0 and more than ten times as fast as 2.0. Exaggeration or not, recent benchmarks show the browser’s JavaScript performance is indeed faster, but still behind Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari. Firefox does have some advantages of its own that will keep people from switching away to rival browsers. Namely, a wide range of add-ons to expand its functionality and enough market share to make developers test their sites for Firefox compatibility.
The latest version comes little over a year after the much-publicized release of Firefox 3.0, which broke the world record for most downloads in a single day after 8,002,530 people downloaded the software. Users can download Firefox 3.5 here (7.7 MB), or head to Mozilla’s site to read the official release notes.
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User Comments (10)
Post a comment| Stonos on June 30, 2009 1:40 PM | Sorry for being picky, but you're still using the old Firefox logo for the article's image :P Here's the new one: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d8/Firefox_3.5_logo.png :P |
| viperpfl on June 30, 2009 6:58 PM | Downloaded Firefox 3.5 and already had my first crash  Upgraded from the previous version but it don't seem faster. I like what they done with the tabs though I am use to doing the CNTL-T
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| 9Nails on June 30, 2009 7:24 PM | I like my plug-ins in the previous version. I'll hold back on upgrading until they are all updated for this new release. That is, unless someone or some review shows me a "gotta have" feature in FF 3.5 that encourages me to update before the plug-in updates are available. |
| Guest on June 30, 2009 7:34 PM | It takes 70MB just to start up firefox and they are talking of "low memory footprint" ?!?! |
| dustin_ds3000 on July 1, 2009 1:27 AM | Guest said: its only 25MB to start on my computer and i have the ABP ad blocker plug-in too
It takes 70MB just to start up firefox and they are talking of "low memory footprint" ?!?! |
| tipstir on July 1, 2009 2:08 AM | Seems steady-Eddie to me.. |
| T77 on July 1, 2009 12:53 PM | the older version took significant time to boot up. opera is much faster in booting up(almost instantly) |
| Rick on July 1, 2009 2:37 PM | Guest said: It takes 70MB to load up firefox AND render a website, you mean... much like just about every other web browser.
It takes 70MB just to start up firefox and they are talking of "low memory footprint" ?!?! |
| Serag on July 2, 2009 11:08 AM | Guys, Is there anyway to get Awesome Bar back ? I mean being able to see 10 most visited bookmarks by pressing down on the Location bar... |
| Guest on July 2, 2009 4:10 PM | Firefox hasn't crashed for me in years. Literally. Obviously this is user error, especially considering you spell it "CNTL." Nobody spells it that way. Look at your keyboard. Notice how it's spelled "CTRL?" Yeah. Welcome to technology. |
