Firefox 3.5 released

Robert Hallock 30 Jun, 2009 at 10:55am ET Article published in Tech

The Mozilla Foundation has announced today that the next major iteration of Firefox, version 3.5, has publicly launched.

Firefox 3.5 has grown from the humble 3.1 update, codenamed Shiretoko, into the vastly more ambitious project released today. Though Shiretoko was compelling for its time, the subsequent introduction of Google’s Chrome and development in other browsers prompted a deadline setback and heightened aspirations.

The new version of the increasingly popular browser carries a clearinghouse of features, some 5,000 in all according to Mozilla. Headlining for the raft of changes includes: HTML5 streaming video, vastly improved JavaScript speed, IP geolocation for location-sensitive websites (think restaurant searches), a knockoff of IE8’s InPrivate browsing mode, and a dupe of Chrome’s webpages-as-apps feature.

Users interested in getting their hands on Mozilla’s newest kits can grab a copy right now.

Comments

30 Jun 2009 ~ 11:24am Kwitko First!

I'm kicking the tires right now. Was able to use the latest dev build of TabMixPlus, had to download a new mouse gestures add-on, but the other ones that don't work I'm not too concerned about. TMP and mouse gestures are the most important. Load time seems quicker, memory usage with 4 tabs open (Mibbit, Pandora, Icrontic x2) seems about on-par with 3.0.11, but seems more responsive at the same time. Going to try the Acid Test and HTML5 rendering if I can find some.
30 Jun 2009 ~ 11:36am kryyst Couple pluggins didn't work, but they were pluggins I never really use anyway so no biggy there. Does seem to be snappier and more responsive. Overall, it's a step forward.
30 Jun 2009 ~ 11:45am Linc Doin' it!
30 Jun 2009 ~ 11:51am Linc All my plugins came along nicely (WebDev, Firebug, Colorzilla, Xmarks). Upgrade process in Firefox never fails to impress. A+ usability.
30 Jun 2009 ~ 11:57am Linc Looking at the "what's new" list (https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Firefox_3.5_for_developers) is really impressive. I'm excited that they're pushing the envelope on CSS and HTML5 support.

Thrax, where's this "page-as-app" ability you speak of?
30 Jun 2009 ~ 1:19pm Thrax That's a good question, as it was in several dev builds, and the RC.

/me scratches his head and goes to investigate.

As far as the upgrade go: I had to reset all of my homepages, none of my addons work (expected), and it crashed the first time I tried to launch it.

Lolerz.
30 Jun 2009 ~ 2:01pm kryyst I must say I never thought I'd care, but the ability to drag tabs off to turn into a new browser session and then back into an existing session is rather handy.
30 Jun 2009 ~ 2:18pm Snarkasm Yes. Boner.

All of my extensions are still working - thank you, Greasemonkey!
30 Jun 2009 ~ 5:59pm airbornflght

kryyst wrote:

I must say I never thought I'd care, but the ability to drag tabs off to turn into a new browser session and then back into an existing session is rather handy.

That is a feature that always seemed like a no-brainer to me. I figured it would never happen as I seemed to be in a minority who would want it. Did they implement a feature to drag tabs between windows also?
30 Jun 2009 ~ 11:04pm ardichoke

airbornflght wrote:

That is a feature that always seemed like a no-brainer to me. I figured it would never happen as I seemed to be in a minority who would want it. Did they implement a feature to drag tabs between windows also?

Between windows always worked for me... it was just the "detaching" and taking a window and adding it as a tab to an existing window that it was lacking. Unless I'm horribly mistaken anyway.... maybe it was one of my plugins allowing me to do that
1 Jul 2009 ~ 8:30am Kwitko Extra-cool features in Twitter for us FF3.5 users.
1 Jul 2009 ~ 8:32am Snarkasm Such as?
1 Jul 2009 ~ 8:59am Kwitko Nevermind. They're new features for everyone. Probably a good idea to check it out in other browsers as well, mirite?
2 Jul 2009 ~ 1:52pm chrisWhite I'm really liking it so far, all my extensions work and I've actually dropped Tab Mix Plus because they've got tabs feeling right ot me out of the box. The only thing that's driving me nuts is that I condense all of my toolbar buttons into one toolbar, including the location bar and the favorite bar and now Firefox keeps minimizing the favorites into a single menu button even though the location bar has far more room then it needs.

Otherwise I'm loving it and I'm so glad I switched back from Safari 4 on the Mac and Chrome on Windows
2 Jul 2009 ~ 1:58pm mirage It is very rare nowadays to install a new software version which runs faster and uses less resources on the same hardware. Firefox 3.0 was faster and used less memory than 2.0, 3.5 is even faster than 3.0.
5 Jul 2009 ~ 3:58am ardichoke I'm really digging 3.5 as well... Now if only Ubuntu would push it out through the repos.... Hahaha, fat chance. Guess I'll have to do a manual install of it.