Firefox 3.6 is available for download

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Jos

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Update: The release is now live at the official Firefox page. As always you can use the browser's "Check for Updates..." feature under Help to get the latest version or choose the appropriate OS below to download.

Download: Firefox 3.6 for Windows | Mac OS X | Other systems and languages

Mozilla has popped out the final release of Firefox 3.6 just a couple of days after its second release candidate was made public. Although an official announcement hasn't been made yet, users can already download the latest version from the company's FTP servers.

Firefox 3.6 is intended as a relatively minor update to version 3.5 which was released in the first half of 2009. Initially planned for availability in November, a variety of 'blockers' (severe bugs) forced Mozilla to postpone the launch on more than one occasion. Curiously, the timing of this release now seems perfect with all the criticism Microsoft is facing from users for IE's role in the recent attacks on Google.

Among the new features users can look forward to are a new Gecko rendering engine, updates to the Awesome Bar, quick theming with Personas, full-screen support for native videos embedded using the video HTML tag, and a 20% performance improvement on page rendering.

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Not really; when i tried to download it from the given link it said "Permission Denied" ........ I guess it may have been some sort of slip up or something? Provided the link doesn't work for others as well.
 
Try again. I just downloaded and installed it using "Check for Updates" under "Help" from within Firefox.
 
Well I've upgraded to v3.6 everything seems to work perfectly apart from one small thing .... i.e. i was using compact menu addon; and since i upgraded the menu which was set to show up in the left most corner has totally disappeared and haven't crawled back in view even when i uninstalled the addon lol.... oh well thats the fun of jumping the ship earlier :)
 
By the way i am online from my desktop now instead of my notebook and trying to find out the fix :D
 
Alright fixed that; although doing so has resulted in making me reinstall all my addons :/

Anyway, thankyou and have fun ;)
 
Updated without a problem except for having Prism disabled for being incompatible with the 3.6 until further notice..
Noticed a nice feature, or at least I thought so..I instantly put up a persona theme..browsed for a while then closed...opened again in a while to find out that Firefox opened up almost instantly!
At first I was like "Woha!, That's some Really good ( Overall responsiveness and start-up time improvement )
But then I thought that this is just too much improvement for start-up time basically because I just have many add-on's,bookmarks,cookies and such..so I opened Task Manager to find out that firefox.exe process stays there even after I close Firefox..something like Firefox preloader tool..
But when I go back to the default theme "it happens when I have a persona theme installed" and close the process just go away, by the way when I open again it loads up Firefox,the theme and no tabs..but the history stays of course "I configured mine to delete history on exit"..
I kept playing around with it until it went away..I close with a theme and the process also go away..
 
I don't have any add-ons installed so I didn't notice any change. Evidently, since this version is a fairly major revision, add-ons have to reinstalled, at least some of them.
 
@ mailpup
No, most add-ons will work with 3.6..I have like 14 or 15..and only Prism was declared not compatible..and it doesn't remove it..it stays there in case an update comes out soon.
 
Well another thing which i noted is memory footprint has gone down considerably from previous versions; thats a good start i'd say :)
 
No problems until now. Add-ons work and it's noticeably faster but i didn't install a persona (and don't plan to). Now i'm waiting for GPU acceleration.
 
Firefox 3.6 still FORCES its lengthy launch at each Windows restart

On Tue 24 Mar 2009 I reported in FF3.0.7 slower and more intrusive; must I uninstall it? a BIG flaw Mozilla had just introduced in version 3.0.7: FF now automatically launched at each Windows Start, whatever your will or settings, with no option out. On Sat 6 Jun 2009 this flaw was still unfixed, so on Sat 6 Jun 2009 I just uninstalled Firefox 3.0.10. But I continued to watch FF development, expecting a cure.

FF3.6 Betas, until the last one (FF3.6b4), were freed from the flaw I reported above: restarting Windows would NOT automatically relaunch these FF Betas. But they were incompatible with most Add-Ons (including Firebug). Oppositely, FF3.5.6 handled most Add-Ons but still had the forced launch.

I installed FF3.6 (final) the day it was out (Thu 21 Jan 2010). I could install Firebug and a couple other Add-Ons; many other Add-Ons failed though (incompatible). But I sadly discovered that FF3.6 was again infected with Mozilla's now usual deliberate offenses at customer:
  • The install process makes Firefox the default browser against your will or knowledge, by slipping in these (numerous) settings out of your view, even when (as me) you are very watchful at this. These settings put a mess in Windows because there are plenty little things that are taken care of in IE but NOT in FF.
  • Firefox 3.6, like old versions, relaunches automatically at each Windows restart
These 2 offenses are already very grave: just imagine the outcry if Microsoft were doing this! But in addition they are further aggravated by offering no option out: even looking everywhere in FF settings I could find no way to disable any of these counter-productive settings.

So I uninstalled Firefox 3.6 today.

Note. I have been a Netscape user and strong defender in 1995, until switching to Internet Explorer in ~1998. In the recent years I have been concurrently using IE6, FF, Safari (currently 4.0.4). I tested IE7 twice (in 2006 and 2007) intensively then reverted back to IE6. I tried Chrome twice (last was Chrome 3.0.195.21 on Sun 27 Sep 2009) but uninstalled it even more quickly: yes it is fast, but it adds big drawbacks from both Safari (due to WebKit) and FF.

Versailles, Sat 23 Jan 2010 16:08:00 +0100
 
I nor anyone i happen to know who use it ever had a problem where FF would launch automatically at startup .... I have no idea why you are having such issue; also i recently reinstalled everything on my notebook and I happen to remember very clearly that when I installed FF 3.5.x on it and ran it the first time around, it asked me whether i want to make it my default browser.
 
Better cure the obvious issues than denying them

Thanks Badfinger for your kind advice. I may try Opera. However I installed Chrome now that it has reached v4 (4.0.249.78, Mon 25 Jan 2010), and this time I am keeping it (The one or 2 big flaws it still has are now made for, and more, by the improvements).
(Jan 2010)
I nor anyone i happen to know who use it ever had a problem where FF would launch automatically at startup
I too had not this problem before FF3.0.7 nor with the 3.6Betas.
the first time around, it asked me whether i want to make it my default browser
It generally asked me too, but this time I didn't notice it. May be I had got too confident and trusted Mozilla for NOT trying to slip such things in against user's will or knowledge. The alternative is probably sort of hidden in a not very prominent place, so people when getting confident will too often fail to notice it.

Anyway these 2 issues are obviously 2 very unpleasant flaws in FF, and the best action from Firefox afficionados would be IMO, 1st to tell us users how to workaround them, 2nd to escalate the issues to FF dev team with enough insistence until they correct them totally, quickly, and honestly (if ever this were possible in 2010).

Versailles, Wed 03 Feb 2010 16:19:35 +0100
 
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