A couple of weeks ago Mozilla released the first beta of Firefox 3, the newest version of their highly succesful web browsing alternative to Internet Explorer. PCMagazine has gone over the beta release with a fine tooth comb and reported their findings.
The basic gist of it is that the new Firefox 3 beta looks pretty much identical to the previous iteration, but once you get under the hood you’ll find that it is a very different beast indeed.
One of the bigger changes is the implementation of Gecko 1.9, which brings a myriad of bug fixes, implements new web APIs and makes Firefox 3 the first Mozilla browser to pass the Acid2 test.
There is going to be more room than ever for custom add-ons and third-party extensions. Developers will also get new graphics and font-handling capabilities and color management for embedded images.
Security is also being beefed up, with the new version working with antivirus programs that use Microsoft’s Antivirus API, so as soon as you start downloading a virus your antivirus program should start kicking up a fuss.
Of course, the browser is not ready for release yet, with PCMagazine finding a number of websites that produced jumbled text or simply would not work. Also the performance of the browser was unimpressive, taking an incredible 26 seconds to load up cold after a fresh OS reboot in Windows XP. In comparison, Internet Explorer 7 only took 3 seconds to cold boot on the same OS aftera a fresh OS reboot.
Obviously the final release is not going to have these problems, so I’d stick with Firefox 2 for now and wait for the full release next year.
[via PCMag]
