The Next Web

Firefox 3.6 Alpha available. New features and improvements.

By Zee
August 8, 2009
• Tweet This
• Tip Techmeme
• Submit to Hackernews

Share


Comments

Firefox 3.6 Alpha available. New features and improvements.Boy, Mozilla don’t take a breather. Today sees the release of the first Alpha version of Firefox 3.6, code-named Namoroka.

The release includes a number of improvements and new features, including:

  • Tab previews when you hit Ctrl + Tab
  • Faster JavaScript engine
  • Improved startup speed and overall responsiveness
  • Better session restore features

This is still an early release, so except bugs and many fixes to come, but I’ve been using it for the last 3 hours and its working swimmingly so far.

The most interesting new feature is tab previews, which oddly enough doesn’t seem to be enabled by default. To do so, you’ll need to type “about:config” into the location bar (without quotes) and then search for browser.ctrlTab.previews and set the value to true.

Despite others feeling Firefox 3.5 brought crashes galore, I think 3.5 is the best version of the browser yet. It remains fast, doesn’t crash (on me at least) and remains the most feature rich browser a web geek could wish for.

Firefox 3.6 Alpha available. New features and improvements.via Download Squad via Mozilla Links


  • That preview feature will be a nice addon (and I assume a resource hog), but I have been to many pages that had many interesting links on them. By previewing them, I can see which catch my eye and even which I have seen before before I actually go to the page. This is in no doubt credit to a firefox addon that allowed you to see the previews on search engines.

    Looking forward to this new release.
  • NMN
    Amazing. It isnt a mystery why mozilla is the best browser in this neck of the web. http://AppUseful.com
  • The biggest problem with upgrading to 3.6 is that my addons will not be compatibel. Like a handy popup blocker / webdeveloper toolbar / firebug / localeswitcher / modify headers / Fireshot / cacheview / afbeelding draaien / IE tab / Link diagnosis / live pagerank / Megaupload time attack / twitterfox / PC sync 2

    I use all of them very often..
  • Bob
    Does anyone know if the sidebar bookmark addons and such will work on this version. I am using the MacOS and I cannot fine an addon to display my bookmarks that work with 3.5.3
  • It’s interesting you mention the crashes. I usually wait till a browser has had several revisions before I upgrade, and Firefox 3.5 was no exception (I waited till 3.5.5). I’ve 3.5.5 on an XP machine and it crashes once to twice daily, compared with a pretty smooth user experience with 3.0.15. On a second XP machine, it has been faultless. A third machine runs 3.0.16 on Vista without any problems.
blog comments powered by Disqus
 


TwitterCounter