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Mozilla says Firefox 3 beta is ready for prime time, we beg to differ
Don't get us wrong, most of the time Firefox 3 beta 4 works perfectly. But as far as we here at Download Squad are concerned, there's at least one fatal flaw. It's not compatible with Blogsmith, the blogging client we use, which relies on some Flash features that aren't supported by Firefox 3 yet.
Schroepfer may be right when he says that Firefox 3 "is much more stable" than most other browsers. But if there's a web site you need to visit every day that's not supported, stability only takes you so far. What have your experiences with Firefox 3 been like? Anyone else having problems or is it just us? What other features, bug fixes would you like to see in the final version which should be out in a few months?
Comments
35
Subscribe to commentsJoe BMar 22nd 2008 10:04AM
"I don't think it's too much to ask for a new, improved web browser to support all the sites and technologies that its predecessor can handle."
And yet you cheer that the IE8 beta defaults to a standards-compliant mode and needs a special compatibility mode to properly display pages tailored for its previous versions...
Also I think it's a little backwards for you to say that a web browser hasn't implemented features of a PLUG-IN. Shouldn't it be that the problem isn't that Firefox does support Flash, it's that Flash hasn't been updating to work properly with it yet? (And on a complete tangent, why does Blogsmith need Flash anyway? Strikes me as odd.)
I've been using FF3 for the vast majority of my web browsing since beta 3 and since beta 4 have yet to encounter any issues. Various webmail, banking, and basically anything else I have thrown at it.
MastergibMar 21st 2008 1:39PM
F3 b3 worked great for me, not a single crash in the month of usage. Only problem was a few critical (for me) extensions and plug-ins wouldn't work with it (yet). The speed is just amazing though... completely blows away all the competition. When the final build is released, I'll be first in the download queue.
PhilipMar 21st 2008 2:26PM
yah same embedded videos and music players on web sites dont work...
thay cannot be seen...most likely bc of flash or so crap like that...
but the music videos from singingfool.com cannot be seen bc the active x pluin wont evian install evian with ALL the pluin securaty turned off
this wont be readdy till ALL embedid media works without any issues
CGAMar 22nd 2008 6:59AM
Most of my extensions work with this trick:
http://articles.bluishcoder.co.nz/article/disable-firefox-extension-version-checking/
DabblerMar 21st 2008 3:49PM
I've had several crashes a day, but am using a handful of extensions. Also it beta4 doesn't run Silverlight, not a big problem yet but in time MS sheer weight will force browsers to support it, since MS is deploying a lot of their stuff based on it now.
DabblerMar 21st 2008 4:18PM
@Gerald, check out the Roboform site, they have an update for Beta 4 that works fine.
cjmjcrlmMar 21st 2008 4:03PM
I had the beta installed on my laptop and desktop. I was pleased with it until the last beta release. On both systems it was tying up a lot of unnecessary CPU cycles even when idle. I went back to 2.0 on both machines. I'll wait until 3 has been out for a while before I change. The only complaint I have with 2 is memory usage but I have plenty to spare on both systems so it's not causing me any problems.
Peter KirnMar 21st 2008 4:32PM
How about *nearly* ready for prime time?
Yes, I've also had some glitches here and there. But I was spending a significant amount of time with Opera 9.5 beta and finally, despite some real innovation from the Opera camp, gave up. FF beta 4 is definitely up there as far as stability. I'm sure compatibility issues can be resolved. And yeah, plug-ins do tend to lag -- so upgrade when you're plug-ins are ready, or don't use plug-ins, that's the nature of any extensible platform.
Moreover, I'll trade a little compatibility for better memory management. That's what finally made me jump ship from FF2.
FF 3 is also far, far further along than IE8. ;)
But yeah, to Mozilla, please do continue refining and release it when it's ready.
earleMar 21st 2008 6:59PM
extensions have to be forcefully updated using nightly tester tools. does NOT work with new version Gmail [ makes contact list INVISIBLE ]. been using beta 4 since it came out. using older Gmail version,works well with new version Yahoo.
boogieMar 21st 2008 6:06PM
The most frustrating thing for me is the new UI(theme). I just hate it. The old one was much more eye-pleasing.
DamianMar 22nd 2008 10:03AM
Almost all the problems here have been fixed (bar extensions). Just all do a clean re-install with Beta 5.
I don't know what's up with blogsmith, thought about reporting it on bugzilla? You know, like beta users are supposed to...
JackMar 22nd 2008 10:40AM
Far more stable than Firefox 2 for me, but doesn't properly render Google Reader. Using Linux.
TurboFoolMar 25th 2008 11:55AM
I know this is a few days after the fact, but this article's a bit misleading. Mozilla didn't say it was ready for prime-time, they said it was solid enough for the general public to try out now instead of just the hardcore users. Huge difference.
LA26Mar 26th 2008 8:59AM
I've had various problems with the new beta.I do hope they do a bit more work on it before releasing the actual full version.
Extensions,tabs,crashes randomly,etc.
I've actually went back to Opera.Probably between that and Fedora I should be happy if Firefox does a "MicroSoft"
Vibration13Apr 27th 2008 7:54PM
Has anybody else noticed that when you click 'Back' to a page with Flash in it, sometimes the Flash has disapeared. I'm using Firefox 3 beta 5 and its happening quite alot...