Firefox 3 To Be Released on Tuesday (June 17), Attempting Record # of Downloads

[Woochifer]

The latest version of the open source Firefox browser comes out tomorrow (Tuesday, June 17). The Mozilla organization that coordinates Firefox development is attempting to set a one-day download record with Firefox 3. Firefox's market share is already approaching 20%, and this push for Firefox 3 might be enough to put it over that mark.

I use Firefox as the default browser on both my PC and my Mac. Even the current version of Firefox runs faster and is more secure than IE7. Firefox 3 will purportedly bump up the performance, while using a smaller memory footprint and improving the malware protection. For anyone who just uses IE7 because it came with your PC, it's well worth giving Firefox a try. It's fast and stable, and it doesn't use that gawdawful IE 7 interface. Here's the info on tomorrow's download event ...

http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord/firefox3
http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord/

[Rich-n-Texas]

How do I know this isn't a hoax and instead you get clobbered with a nasty virus? :smilewinkgrin:

[kexodusc]

How do I know this isn't a hoax and instead you get clobbered with a nasty virus? :smilewinkgrin:
Easy. Firefox 3 is 100% Kexo-certified! It's Kexorific. Trust the Kex-man.
For the add-ons alone, if nothing else.

[kexodusc]

This is cool. I'll have to sneak into work and put in on a few computers just to do my share of downloading.

interestingly enough, FF3 has been available on Linux for awhile now. Wonder if those downloads count?

[ForeverAutumn]

Easy. Firefox 3 is 100% Kexo-certified! It's Kexorific. Trust the Kex-man.
For the add-ons alone, if nothing else.

Well that's all the stamp of approval I need. :thumbsup:

[Woochifer]

How do I know this isn't a hoax and instead you get clobbered with a nasty virus? :smilewinkgrin:

Uh, because it's not another version of Internet Explorer? :cornut:

[basite]

I just pledged :D

will download it as soon as it's available...

Since firefox came, IE went forever on my pc :D

Keep them spinning,
Bert.

[audio amateur]

Speaking of Firefox, i need help. I currently have Version 2.0 installed. As soon as I open it, it uses at least 100 megs of RAM. The problem is, that number just keeps going up, and can reach 600 at times! (Im running XP SP3, with 768MB RAM SDRIMM). This is worse than when I'm playing Doom 3!
I do tend to open 6-10 tabs so I don't know if that has anything to do, but it gets anoying past the 768MB mark. Does it have any future on my computer or should I simply scrap it?

[kexodusc]

Speaking of Firefox, i need help. I currently have Version 2.0 installed. As soon as I open it, it uses at least 100 megs of RAM. The problem is, that number just keeps going up, and can reach 600 at times! (Im running XP SP3, with 768MB RAM SDRIMM). This is worse than when I'm playing Doom 3!
I do tend to open 6-10 tabs so I don't know if that has anything to do, but it gets anoying past the 768MB mark. Does it have any future on my computer or should I simply scrap it?
Yeah, FF doesn't have a memory leak, but the way it uses cache at times can give the impression it does (especially with Java and Flash that make that number soar).

There's easy work arounds, you just have to change a few settings and you can cap it. This page should give everything you need.

http://internetducttape.com/2006/12/02/how-to-fix-the-firefox-memory-leak-firefox-hack/

Does it actually slow the machine down? It's designed to stop gobbling RAM if other apps are using it.

[basite]

Speaking of Firefox, i need help. I currently have Version 2.0 installed. As soon as I open it, it uses at least 100 megs of RAM. The problem is, that number just keeps going up, and can reach 600 at times! (Im running XP SP3, with 768MB RAM SDRIMM). This is worse than when I'm playing Doom 3!
I do tend to open 6-10 tabs so I don't know if that has anything to do, but it gets anoying past the 768MB mark. Does it have any future on my computer or should I simply scrap it?


weird, could be a fault too (that task manager gives the wrong value...), I just opened 73tabs (I don't usually do that :p), and it took 50mb of my memory...

Keep them spinning,
Bert.

[audio amateur]

Yeah, FF doesn't have a memory leak, but the way it uses cache at times can give the impression it does (especially with Java and Flash that make that number soar).

There's easy work arounds, you just have to change a few settings and you can cap it. This page should give everything you need.

http://internetducttape.com/2006/12/02/how-to-fix-the-firefox-memory-leak-firefox-hack/

Does it actually slow the machine down? It's designed to stop gobbling RAM if other apps are using it.
Thanks. Yes it does affect the performance when total RAM usage goes past the 786 available, which does happen. I guess I'll give the version 3.0 a try if it's coming out soon.

[Woochifer]

Most of the Mozilla sites have been down all day, including the download sites (unless you link directly like I did). Everything seems back up and running. Here's the front page link just in case the SpreadFirefox website still doesn't link to the current download file.

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all.html

[emesbee]

I mostly use Firefox as my browser, but I was using Opera for a while. I can't see the point in participating in some attempt at a download record though. Why bother? The site will probably just get overloaded and crash. Better to download when all the fuss is over.

[Feanor]

Most of the Mozilla sites have been down all day, including the download sites (unless you link directly like I did). Everything seems back up and running. Here's the front page link just in case the SpreadFirefox website still doesn't link to the current download file.

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all.html

Thanks, Wooch, for the link.

I downloaded from this link yesterday, (Tues, Jun 18), at about 7:00 PM EDT with no problems. Download speed was in the normal range for the file size, ~7.5MB.

FF3 installed over FF2 with no issues on my WinXP SP3 machine.

[basite]

downloaded & installed, works perfectly :)

Keep them spinning,
Bert.

[Rich-n-Texas]

Has this service pack been officially released yet? Is it automatically pushed to my machine through the auto update function, or do I have to go somewhere and retrieve it myself? If so, can I get a linky? :cornut:

[basite]

Has this service pack been officially released yet? Is it automatically pushed to my machine through the auto update function, or do I have to go somewhere and retrieve it myself? If so, can I get a linky? :cornut:


didn't know it was out myself :)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5b33b5a8-5e76-401f-be08-1e1555d4f3d4&DisplayLang=en

that's A link, should be the right one too...

Keep them spinning,
Bert.

[Rich-n-Texas]

I don't think so Bert. On that page it says: "DO NOT CLICK DOWNLOAD IF YOU ARE UPDATING JUST ONE COMPUTER: " I think they want only IT groups to use that one.

This link: http://www.update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en-us will check your computer "for the latest available... blah blah blah". It's possible that my home PC has already been updated to SP3, so I'll check when I get home.

Okay, so as not to piss Wooch off ( :biggrin5: ), how much pain is involved in installing FF3 on an IE7 intensive PC? How smooth will the transition from one to the other be?

[Woochifer]

Has this service pack been officially released yet? Is it automatically pushed to my machine through the auto update function, or do I have to go somewhere and retrieve it myself? If so, can I get a linky? :cornut:

I installed SP3 about a month ago. I don't think the automatic Windows Update is pushing it yet, but the service pack updates usually go automatic about a month after the service pack gets released (presumably to prevent MS' servers from getting overloaded).

You could always manually run the Windows Update (I have most of MS' background services switched off, so all of my updates and PnP functions are done manually).


Okay, so as not to piss Wooch off ( ), how much pain is involved in installing FF3 on an IE7 intensive PC? How smooth will the transition from one to the other be?

Almost none. Just go to the Mozilla download site, install the program, check no when Firefox asks you if you want to change your default browser, and check yes when the installer asks you if you want to start the browser. If you like it, you can change the defaults and use Firefox as your primary browser. If you don't like it, just uninstall it -- unlike MS' IE kludge, uninstalling Firefox actually removes the application files and leaves you with a clean system (well, at least as clean as Windows gets! :D).

[ForeverAutumn]

Holy cow! I've always used IE. I just downloaded Firefox and I can't believe how much faster it is. The navigation will take a little getting used to, but the speed is great!

[Woochifer]

Initial impressions of Firefox 3 ...

Altogether, a mixed bag. Strangely enough, FF3 runs slower on my PC than FF2 and seems to gobble up more memory (although the memory consumption does not increase as fast as FF2 did -- it simply takes up a larger memory footprint at the outset). But, on my iMac, FF3 is blazing fast and takes up a noticeably smaller memory footprint.

I suspect that FF3 will bump up the performance more with newer machines and a lot of installed ram (my PC is a five-year old Dell with a 1.8 GHz P4m and 384 MB of RAM), but with older machines on more marginal specs like mine, it might actually be more of a drag on the system.

On my Mac, there's no question that FF3 is much faster than FF2, and I'd say it's at least on par with Safari even while running Firefox add-ons. Still getting used to the new functions like page zooming and instant site ID.

I'm also getting used to the new location bar, which uses keyword indexing to match up websites as you're typing. The big change is that it mixes the bookmarked sites with the recently typed sites, which I don't necessarily like. And clearing out the history no longer clears off the location bar.

But, I really like the phising and malware protection tools. Very well integrated.

And FF3 works with my two favorite add-ons -- the AdBlock add-on (which blocks most web ads and speeds up page loading) and the IE add-on, which allows you to switch rendering engines on the fly (i.e., if a site is written for IE, you can switch to an IE view within Firefox).

Still a lot of sites to try, so I'll see how it goes.

[ForeverAutumn]

I notice that the resolution isn't as good as on IE, especially for text. Is there a way to improve that?

And how do I get that Adblock add-on? Thanks.

[Woochifer]

Holy cow! I've always used IE. I just downloaded Firefox and I can't believe how much faster it is. The navigation will take a little getting used to, but the speed is great!

Ah, the joys of a web browser that just does web browsing! (as opposed to IE, which has been tasked with also enforcing the Windows monopoly) When you get around to it, you should also start perusing the add-ons. Those apps add a LOT of functionality to Firefox.

And if you really miss the IE interface, you can actually download different themes that change the look and feel of the browser (and there are a few that can make Firefox look like IE).

[bobsticks]

Assuming that the security levels are better ( and they really couldn't be worse ) and that the speed is significantly faster (again couldn't be worse, I open up more than a few windows and, BAM,shutdown) could one import ones "Favorites" list to Firefox?

[ForeverAutumn]

Assuming that the security levels are better ( and they really couldn't be worse ) and that the speed is significantly faster (again couldn't be worse, I open up more than a few windows and, BAM,shutdown) could one import ones "Favorites" list to Firefox?

When I installed it tonight, I was asked if I wanted to import my favourites, cookies, etc. to Firefox. I entered "yes" and everything was transferred over. Although, I did have to log into this site again.

[Woochifer]

I notice that the resolution isn't as good as on IE, especially for text. Is there a way to improve that?

It's a different rendering engine, so the look of the text will be somewhat different. But, I think what you're seeing is differences in the Cleartype settings. IE7 has MS' Cleartype font smoothing enabled by default, but Windows XP has it switched off for all other applications. (On Vista, Cleartype is enabled for all apps) You can follow these steps to have Cleartype enabled for all applications.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306527

In the meantime, if you find any web text unreadable, you can use FF3's zoom feature. You can zoom in on an entire webpage, or just zoom the text. Go to View>Zoom


And how do I get that Adblock add-on? Thanks.

Here's the Firefox add-on page.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/

And here's the link to the AdBlock add-on.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865

And here's the link to the IE Tab add-on that allows you to switch over to IE if you encounter a website that's unreadable with Firefox.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419

You can also browse and manage your add-ons by going to Tools>Add Ons, and clicking on the "Get Add Ons" button.

[ForeverAutumn]

Thanks Wooch. I'm pretty useless when it comes to computer stuff. And yet my Mom calls me whenever she has a problem because I installed her printer and now she thinks that I'm some kind of expert. LOL!

If I can't find time to do this tonight then I probably won't be able to check out the Ad Ons until next week sometime. We're moving this weekend and I'm going to have to dismantle my computer tomorrow. But if I have any questions when the time comes, I'll be sure to post.

Cheers!

[L.J.]

Great stuff Wooch. I had FF2 installed on my desktop for awhile and never used it. I started using it a few days ago when this thread first popped up and noticed a nice speed increase. I'll have to go in and check out the rest of those links.

[Feanor]

Great stuff Wooch. I had FF2 installed on my desktop for awhile and never used it. I started using it a few days ago when this thread first popped up and noticed a nice speed increase. I'll have to go in and check out the rest of those links.

Yep for me too. Noticably faster loading AR pages that IE7 -- although if you want real speed loading AR, try Safari.

[Woochifer]

Woo hoo! The mystery of Firefox-running-faster-on-my-Mac-but-slower-on-my-PC has been solved! Anyone who uses a Windows PC and has upgraded to Firefox 3.0 from an older version, and found it slow going might want to scroll to the bottom and follow the directions I got from Mozilla support.

As you'll recall, I noted that Firefox 3.0 was running noticeably faster than the previous version on my Mac, but was going slow on my PC. I originally suspected that my computer was just too old and slow. But, Firefox also had some random glitches with webpages that used PHP scripts (including AR). I'd wind up having to frequently reload these webpages if the browser had been open for a while. I figured there was something else going on.

I posted this question to the Mozilla support forum, and got an answer within minutes.

Turns out that I had an old ActiveX plugin still installed in the Firefox directory. This plugin allowed Firefox to view certain ActiveX multimedia sites (like ClearChannel's radio station feeds). But, these were not supported beyond Firefox 1.5, and the upgrade to Firefox 3.0 did not work at all with the plugin installed.

I followed the directions for removing the ActiveX plugin (http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/ActiveX#Uninstalling_the_ActiveX_plugin_on_Windows ), and NOW Firefox 3.0 is running nice and fast on my PC as well. Since ActiveX is not supported on Macs, this explains why my Mac was running Firefox 3.0 so much faster and more reliably.

Anyone who has been using Firefox for a while with a lot of add-ons and plugins should definitely look out for this issue. Since that ActiveX plugin is not supported for Firefox 3.0, it does absolutely no harm to remove those files. Anyone who still needs to use ActiveX apps can still access those sites by installing the IE Tab add-on (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419), which basically opens those websites using IE within Firefox.

[kexodusc]

Nice -

I recently had a problem with my wife's computer - IE7 kept crashing when trying to open a tab. Turns out the solution from Microsoft support is to remove all the Microsoft Live add-ons in IE7. Go figure!

[Rich-n-Texas]

Nice -

I recently had a problem with my wife's computer - IE7 kept crashing when trying to open a tab. Turns out the solution from Microsoft support is to remove all the Microsoft Live add-ons in IE7. Go figure!
Meh. Operator error! :p

Now is this version of Firefox still in Beta form?

[basite]

Meh. Operator error! :p

Now is this version of Firefox still in Beta form?


no, the first few hours of download day, it was a beta, but after that, the final version was released...