14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla has just come to the display with yet another beta flavor of Firefox 3.6. The new variant, revision 3, comes as a rather stable release of the web browser, yet there are still some features that are expected to be changed with the final release of Firefox 3.6. However, users should know that installing the new version of the browser will not overwrite the already existing installation of Firefox, though there are chances that some of the add-ons will not work with it.
The release notes of Firefox 3.6 Beta 3 show the following changes: - (NEW) Changes to how we allow third party software to integrate with Firefox in order to prevent crashes. - (NEW) The ability to run scripts asynchronously to speed up page load times. - More than 80 bug fixes from the last beta to improve performance, stability, security and features. - This beta is available in more than 60 languages - get your local version. - Users can now change their browser's appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas. - Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe. - Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames. - Support for the WOFF font format. - Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time. - Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.
The new release of Firefox 3.6 beta shows that the developing team is moving fast towards the final release of the browser. There are still some inconveniences due to the fact that the new version might not include compatibility with all available add-ons and themes, but this is something that will certainly be addressed in the near future.
At the same time, we should also note that there are a series of known issues with the new release, including: - The default position of tabs opened using the "Open in New Tab" control has changed to be to the immediate right of the current tab (see bug 465673) - The "Enable Java" checkbox has been removed from the Content panel of Options/Preferences. Instead, users can disable Java through the Add-ons Manager, available in the Tools menu (see bug 506985) - The "Properties" item in the context menu has been removed; for image properties, a new "Image Info" item will be added (see bug 513147) - If FIPS mode is enabled and certain files have been removed from the system, the browser may crash on startup (see bug 522041)
Those who would like to download Firefox 3.6 Beta 3 for Mac OS will find it available here.