Firefox 3.6 beta promises speed injection
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Mozilla pushed out a first beta version of Firefox 3.6 on Friday, ahead of a planned release by the end of the year.
The delayed release promises improved JavaScript performance and faster load-up, addressing a sluggish start problem that has become an issue with recent builds of the open source browser. Firefox 3.6 will also be easier to customise as well as introducing the ability to natively display video in a full screen display.
The browser, based on the Gecko 1.9.2 web rendering engine, supports the latest web formats (such as HTML5) and introduces support for the the WOFF font format.
With developers in mind, Firefox 3.6 beta will debut a feature that allows users to drag and drop files from a PC to the browser. The technology is designed to make it easier to update web sites.
Firefox 3.6 also features technology that will alert users about out-of-date plugins, a potential security and performance headache.
However, most add-ons are yet to be upgraded so that they are compatible with Firefox 3.6 beta. Firefox 4.0 introduces a different approach to add-ons that will make such compatibility problems less of a problem in future.
The full run-down of what comes with Firefox 3.6 can be found in a blog posting on Mozilla's Developer site here. ®
COMMENTS
Still a dog
Compared to Chrome, Firefox is still a dog where speed is concerned but with this latest addition, at least they a looking more like Chrome.
@Defiant -- Firefox is for sheep who follow blindly #
Defiant Posted Monday 2nd November 2009 12:14 GMT --- Still wont beat Opera and Internet Explorer because Firefox is optimised for Linux unlike Opera & IE which are optimised for Windows
ummm... having worked with applications programmed under native X windows, which were cross-compiled into windows libraries, I can tell you that the windows applications ran UNBELIEVABLY FAST - much faster than natively programmed windows applications.
The reason for this - X Windows is an object oriented protocol with network layer to allow for communication between the application and the display. When this is built efficiently and there is no network layer (i.e. windows api) - a snappy application in X is blindingly fast under Windows due to the removal of intermediate network layer.
Defiant's claim is patently false, devoid of reality, demonstrating a level of ignorance unsurpassed by any subsequent poster that I have read post his statement and pre this statement.
That being said, all the http network browsers that I have used fairly heavy GUI widgets, and none of them are terribly optimized for X under Linux, Unix, Solaris, AIX, HPUX, IRIX, or any other flavor of open operating system.
Gulp! "current plan is to drop the older add-on technology with Firefox 4."
uh oh “Danger, Will Robinson!”
Firefox's future features: 3.6, 3.7, and 4.0
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-10378604-264.html
Quote:
Firefox 4 will introduce a new add-on framework under development today called Jetpack that, like Chrome's, uses Web-based technologies for add-on construction. Today's Firefox uses a foundation called XUL.
Among the other perks besides compatibility, as Mozilla sees it, Jetpack extensions are easier to write and share, and they can be updated as the browser runs without a restart. Still, it will mean a big discontinuity for programmers.
"We want for developers to want to get onto Jetpack and the Jetpack application programming interface," Shaver said, and the current plan is to drop the older add-on technology with Firefox 4.
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