Firefox 3 beta 4 is out

Ebeneezer Scrooge · Thu 13 Mar, 2008 00.54

Yes, tab mix plus for firefox does all cdd wants and probably more! It can be set to remember the tabs open when ff was closed and even if that isn't turned on, you can open last good session within 2 clicks.

All that and you don't need to be in the dire Internet Explorer!

Dr Lobster* · Thu 13 Mar, 2008 13.15

firefox 3 b4 is actually a lot faster than version 3. it's noticeable in the way it draws the page.

i know some people don't like the default theme, but those funky shaped back/forward buttons are quirky. i like them.

cdd · Thu 13 Mar, 2008 19.14

Oh I know Firefox can be configured in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways, and if the truth be told I will probably admit it's a better browser (as it happens I used Tab Mix as well), but I like the fact IE is available wherever I go and find it "good enough". Tabbed browsing was the only reason I switched away in the first place. I also like how Home Page Tabs in IE7 can be set to load, by default, just one tab, and all of them if you click the home button again.

I also really like the look of IE7 under Vista, it's beautiful, I find Firefox under Vista hideous with that blue/grayish toolbar and those hard-coded XP-style menus. Favourites are much more Windows and they can be modified by opening up the Favourites folder and playing around rather than using the awful sorting thingy that Firefox comes with. And as a bonus the IE7 interface consumes less vertical real-estate since the tab bar shares the command bar (for me, Vertical screen space is MUCH more valuable than horizontal screen space). I find IE7's printing support to be a treat, too, if a page would "nearly fit" onto one on firefox (or IE6) or would go across the edge of the page, IE7 manages to squeeze it onto one page while keeping the intended look. I also prefer how IE opens page sources in Notepad instead of some god-awful Source Viewer which doesn't let you play around with it very easily.

Pete · Fri 14 Mar, 2008 17.51

cdd wrote:I also really like the look of IE7 under Vista, it's beautiful, I find Firefox under Vista hideous with that blue/grayish toolbar and those hard-coded XP-style menus...And as a bonus the IE7 interface consumes less vertical real-estate since the tab bar shares the command bar (for me, Vertical screen space is MUCH more valuable than horizontal screen space).

well as IE8 gobbles up a load of screen estate with an ugly blue bar, I presume you'll change to firefox 3 with its new vista style menus asap.

dosxuk · Fri 14 Mar, 2008 18.07

Turning the Links bar in IE8 off returns it to the IE7 way of sharing tabs and Favourites buttons.

Stuart* · Fri 14 Mar, 2008 20.38

As many people on here seem to be great supporters of Firefox, I decided to give it a try and download it yesterday. I have to say I wasn't that impressed. It seemed to be rather clunky and slow when loading pages. IE7 seems to be alot quicker.

lukey · Fri 14 Mar, 2008 20.40

StuartPlymouth wrote:As many people on here seem to be great supporters of Firefox, I decided to give it a try and download it yesterday. I have to say I wasn't that impressed. It seemed to be rather clunky and slow when loading pages. IE7 seems to be alot quicker.

Chances are, this is because nothing will have been cached in Firefox when you were browsing for the first time.

Dr Lobster* · Fri 21 Mar, 2008 12.21

the more i've been using ff3, the more i like it. not only does the speed increase alone make it worth using the beta, but now i've gone through and tagged all my common bookmarks - locating a bookmark is now so much quicker - not unlike search for a shortcut in the vista start menu.

Charlie Wells · Fri 21 Mar, 2008 12.35

I hope they'll add an option to change the address bar to the old style, where only the URL is displayed rather than also having the page titles. Otherwise it seems good, and developers are finally upgrading their extensions to support Firefox 3.

lukey · Fri 21 Mar, 2008 12.43

Charlie Wells wrote:I hope they'll add an option to change the address bar to the old style, where only the URL is displayed rather than also having the page titles. Otherwise it seems good, and developers are finally upgrading their extensions to support Firefox 3.

I am a wee bit undecided about the address bar myself. I love the idea of bringing together history, bookmarks etc. and full-text search, but before I knew what typing in 'tvf', down, and enter would do; 'news', down, and enter etc. whereas now I think it might be sorted by visit frequency, etc. and I end up at random forum topics, news articles etc. instead of where I'm used to. Of course, if I was fractionally less lazy this would not be an issue, but....oh wait, internal voice of reason, I have no retort. Good. Sit, Bobo, Sit. Good dog.

Pete · Fri 21 Mar, 2008 12.46

IIRC, they're thinking of adding a user:config option to allow it to simply search URLs. This said however, the more you use it the more you get used to it and indeed the more it learns your ways.