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Firefox

Version: 3.0.3

Downloads Count: 225,203

License Type: Free

Price: Free

Date Added: Sep 30, 2008

Operating Systems: Windows NT, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows Vista

File Size: 7333 KB

Author: Mozilla

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Avg. User Rating 4

Editor's Review of Firefox

Upgrade to Firefox 3 from version 2, and you may at first forget you even made the change. But keep using it, and you'll realize how much this browser has to offer.

Aside from a pushed-together back and forward button, the new open-source browser looks much the same as its predecessor. One of the only other visual cues, a little star in the location bar, only hints at the major changes for bookmarks it represents.

Click that star, and you'll add your currently viewed page as an unfiled bookmark. Click it again and choose a particular folder, add a description, or select tags, all of which is stored in a new, behind-the-scenes database. You can search that database, along with all of your browsing history, by typing a keyword (instead of a URL) into the location bar. The search checks page titles, tags or addresses, and while it sounds small, in practice it's a big feature. Instead of hunting through your ever-growing list of bookmarks, or trying to remember how to get to that great site you looked at last week, you can type a quick word into the location bar and find what you?re looking for.

That's not to say the new bookmarks couldn't stand some improvement. For one thing, you can't see unfiled bookmarks in the normal bookmarks drop-down list (you have to go to Organize Bookmarks to find them) . And while you likely know how useful it can be to add tags to multiple mp3 files at once with a media player, you can only add tags to one bookmark at a time.

There are a number of other interface changes as well, including an updated download manager that can resume halted downloads, a zoom menu option that can let you resize the entire page or just text, and a new password saver that lets you wait until after you've successfully logged in to decide whether to save your credentials.

On the security front, Firefox 3 will block sites known to spread malware, based on a Google blacklist, along with phishing sites. It also supports Extended Validation certificates, so if you view a site that uses one to verify the site owner's identity, it will be made clear by a large green button with the company's name on the left side of the location bar.

Mozilla says that even with these new features, the new Firefox should use less memory after memory leak clean-ups and other programming improvements. In one informal test with four open pages--Yahoo mail, CNN.com, PCWorld.com and Icanhascheezburger.com--Firefox 3 used about 85MB of memory, compared with 106MB for IE7.

Those tests didn't include add-ons, but if you use Firefox you know they make the browser. And most, though not all, of the must-have extensions--such as Foxmarks, Adblock Plus, and McAfee SiteAdvisor--work with version 3, which also sports an upgraded add-on manager.

If you already use Firefox, then no doubt about it, you'll want this upgrade. If you've resisted Firefox until now, give the new browser a try. It just might win you over.

--Erik Larkin

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Most recent User Reviews for Firefox

Reviewed by: number6

10-02-2008

Duration of ownership: 15 Months

Strengths: superior in every way

Weaknesses: none

Overall Evaluation: I used IE7 for a long time but I'll never go back.
Reviewed by: blenheimears

06-25-2008

Duration of ownership: 1 Weeks

Strengths: 64-bit (I compiled it from source), faster, better rendering, more stable.

Weaknesses: No official 64-bit version, no official version for non-X86 processors (except PPC/Mac), 64-bit version requires "nspluginwrapper" to use 32-bit Flash Player.

Overall Evaluation: I am using Firefox 3 on Linux/X86_64. Firefox 3 seems to be a stable browser. I have had it crash a few times, but it has always restored my session correctly. It renders more pages correctly than Konqueror (KDE's browser) or Firefox 1/1.5/2. I haven't installed any extensions (yet). Flash Player was a bit tricky to set up. I downloaded the 32-bit Flash Player and installed it. Since a 64 bit program can't load a 32-bit shared library (plugin), I installed a program called nspluginwrapper. This program is a "wrapper" that loads a 32-bit plugin and exposes it to a 64-bit browser. It works OK, although sometimes I get an empty gray box instead of a Flash animation. Reloading the page usually fixes this. This is a problem with nspluginwrapper, not Firefox, which is why I didn't take points off for this. I could not get Java to work in the 64-bit version, but I have installed a 32-bit version alongside it just in case I find a page with Java.
Reviewed by: UAE1

12-23-2007

Duration of ownership: 4 Years

Strengths:

Weaknesses:

Overall Evaluation:
Reviewed by: richardmitnick

10-24-2006

Duration of ownership: 1 Years

Strengths: Finally getting civilized, works on all of the corporate sites I visit.

Weaknesses: The Mozilla community still has a computer camp feel, and it comes through in implementation. Like, all extensions should be ready to go, all themes, etc.

Overall Evaluation: The first review is incorrect. Sillydog forum ahd links to the released FF 2.0 on 10.23.06. I installed it after un-installing FF 1.5.0.7. Everything came over fine, bookmarks, cookies, a bookmarklet I use, changes in about:config, all Im lost was a theme I enjoy.
Reviewed by: DubhBas

10-24-2006

Duration of ownership: 1 Years

Strengths:

Weaknesses:

Overall Evaluation: This download link take you to the version 1.5, not 2. There's only a link on the mozilla page for a preview of version 2/

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Firefox

Editor's Review of Firefox

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Most recent User Reviews for Firefox

Reviewed by: number6

Reviewed by: blenheimears

Reviewed by: UAE1

Reviewed by: richardmitnick

Reviewed by: DubhBas

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Firefox

Editor's Review of Firefox

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Most recent User Reviews for Firefox

Reviewed by: number6

Reviewed by: blenheimears

Reviewed by: UAE1

Reviewed by: richardmitnick

Reviewed by: DubhBas

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