18 Jun 2008

Here's Firefox 3

After having cribbed my guts out about the missing Firefox upgrade (see: Where's Firefox 3?), i guess i needed to type this post to balance things out.

I guess i was a bit peeved about having been promised a major upgrade plus participating in setting a world record and then simply let down. But having used the upgrade for about a day now, I think i am happy with what I've got. Here are a quick few notes on what's changed for me (both good and bad):

  • It seems to be smoother on my system resources (great!). I actually have a old machine that FFv2 was literally choking the life out of. But now it's living happily there :)
  • I find the fact that it rifles through my favorites as i type something in my address bar to be a bit distracting (not bad), but I am going to go with it for the moment. I can see how it can be useful.
  • Most of the add-ons that I felt were a must, were compatible with FF3 (great!). The only two I am really waiting to catch-up are PDF download and the bookmark duplicate detector.
  • My favorite themes (Ubuntu Human and Ubuntu Tango) are not compatible (not that bad) with the latest version. I am hoping they catch on soon
  • I am happy with most GUI improvements (good). Especially the ones to the options box, add-ons box, etc.
  • One of the worst peeves with the bookmark management in v2 was that when I right-click on a folder and choose to create a new folder. FF2 created the new folder at the same level as the one I right clicked on (why!!). I had to drag and drop the folder manually (arghh!!). FF3 seems to have sorted that (yippee!!)
  • I like the new smart-bookmarks, especially the one titled "Recently bookmarked" (good). You see, I have a very large collection of bookmarks that I've meticulously pruned over the years. One of my problems has been when I bookmark something about 5-6 levels down and I cant remember where (I know I can search bookmarks, but sometimes I just cant remember what I named it). This comes to my rescue.
  • I love the full zoom in/out feature (good). I often use it when I am sitting with someone with glasses and especially when I want to read the small print. Tip: the hot-key for resetting your zoom level is Ctrl+ 0 (that's a Zero)
  • I am particularly grateful for all the security & privacy features. It is good to know that I as well as the non-techies that I recommend this browser to are well-protected.
Here are some links i found useful: