Courtesy of Mozilla

Jun 18, 2008 13:21 GMT  ·  By

On June 17, 2008, Mozilla made available for download the final version of Firefox 3.0, applauding what it referred to as a redefining of the web experience and the "fastest, smartest, most powerful" Firefox browser ever released. Mozilla managed to gather strong support from the open source community related to the launch of Firefox 3.0, and via the Download Day initiative, it now accounts for in excess of 6.5 million downloads of the browser. Concomitantly with the first downloads, the open source browser developer also went live with the Firefox 3.0 Release Notes.

Designed to provide end users an insight into the new features, functionality and capabilities of the browser, the release notes also describe the known issues associated with Firefox 3.0 Final. Users can also check the system requirements as well as information related to common tasks such as downloading, installing and uninstalling the latest iteration of Firefox.

The documentation goes on to cover the extensions and themes for Firefox 3.0, as well as troubleshooting modalities, a mention about contributed builds, additional resources and links for the browser and even a set of frequently asked questions. "We're really proud of Firefox 3 and it just shows what a committed, energized global community can do when they work together," revealed John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla.

Based on the Gecko 1.9 rendering engine, Firefox 3.0 features over 15,000 improvements over Firefox 2.0 and offers twice the performance compared to its predecessor. Version 3.0 of the Firefox open source browser has been released in 50 languages and comes in three versions tailored specifically to Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Although it was initially planned for availability at the end of 2007, Firefox 3.0, even late to the market, still managed to precede direct rival Internet Explorer 8 which is yet to hit Beta 2 stage, and caused enough stir, judging by the volume of downloads which is heading for the 7 million milestone at fast pace.

Firefox 3.0 Final for Windows is available for download here. Firefox 3.0 Final for Linux is available for download here. Firefox 3.0 Final for Mac OS X is available for download here.