At Long Last, Firefox 3.5 Now Available for Download
At Long Last, Firefox 3.5 Now Available for Download
Posted 06/30/2009 at 8:09am
| by Paul Lilly
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After several delays, beta releases, release candidates, and even a version number change (Mozilla originally intended to call its next browser release 3.1), Firefox 3.5 is finally available for download as an official release.
Mozilla has been calling the 3.5 update the "fastest and most advanced Firefox ever," and having tested it extensively, we'd have to agree. The modern day browser war puts a big emphasis on JavaScript performance, which Firefox 3.5 tackles with its TraceMonkey JavaScript engine. According to Mozilla, the end result is that JavaScript runs twice as fast as Firefox 3 and up 10x faster than Firefox 2.
In addition to better performance, Firefox 3.5 sports a heaping handful of new features, some of which include Private Browsing mode, Open Video and HTML support with cool tricks like augmented video, location aware browsing, better add-on management, and more.
For a more in-depth look at what's new in Firefox 3.5, check out our '9 Amazing New Features of Firefox 3.5' feature.
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Cache
June 30, 2009 at 6:15pm
They... they took away my close button on a single tab. And... I think they touched me inappropriately when I wasn't looking at the screen.
ghot
June 30, 2009 at 5:58pm
.....but NOT this time! FF3.5 is faster than ....Vista thru a tin horn.....on top of that...there we're readily available updates to the addons I use....I am one happy camper with FF 3.5 and I'll beat anyone with an ugly stick who disagrees ;) I have a 20mb/s // 20mb/s connection and EVERYthing is faster.....WAY faster.
I just DL'd Open Office for a simple test and where it used to take 34seconds...its now down to 24 seconds....pages load so fast that I can't keep up, even pages from horribly congested huge websites.
5 Gold Stars to the Mozilla gang....for doing what they said they were going to do, AND doing it perfectly, first go round. It's always nice to see a peice of software, do all it claims,,,,and VERY rare too! Even with 5-10 pages open....still no speed decrease....simply amazing!
Take an OS, and edit out all the efficiency, and what you have left is a post-XP Microsoft operating system :)
bingojubes
June 30, 2009 at 5:31pm
i noticed that saving pics via click-n-drag to desktop take longer by a second. this feature isn't as snappy fast as 3.0. not sure why, though. 3.5 seems to be faster, prolly cause it disabled alot of my 3.0 customized bars/themes/add-ons.
bingojubes
June 30, 2009 at 5:31pm
i noticed that saving pics via click-n-drag to desktop take longer by a second. this feature isn't as snappy fast as 3.0. not sure why, though. 3.5 seems to be faster, prolly cause it disabled alot of my 3.0 customized bars/themes/add-ons.
bingojubes
June 30, 2009 at 5:30pm
i noticed that saving pics via click-n-drag to desktop take longer by a second. this feature isn't as snappy fast as 3.0. not sure why, though. 3.5 seems to be faster, prolly cause it disabled alot of my 3.0 customized bars/themes/add-ons.
sinbad
June 30, 2009 at 2:27pm
I uninstalled after finding that there was no compatible version of RoboForm yet. I have way too many codes set up in RoboForm to run FF 3.5 without it.
Later.
sinbad
wildbill58
July 06, 2009 at 10:52am
Sinbad, I am using RoboForm Ver 6.9.95 with the new Firefox 3.5 and it works.
SleepyCatChris
June 30, 2009 at 11:45am
Odd, I got an autoupdate from 3.5 RC2 to 3.5 on 6/23. I'm surprised it's just now being announced it is officially released.
Comic Book Guy
June 30, 2009 at 7:38pm
You were not updated to 3.5 Final, which was only released today, you got updated to RC3, however 3.5 Final & 3.5 RC3 are the same size, MD5, etc.
Comic Book Guy
Cache
June 30, 2009 at 10:44am
So... anyone know how to disable the stupid '+' in the tabs? I'll probably scour about:config when I get home to try and find it, that really irks me.
Also, I need my snaplinks extension to work! I need it!
Cache
June 30, 2009 at 2:58pm
Answering my own question here, just download the following extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10535
Sure, it's a cheat, but it's easy to back up an extension at least. Hopefully FireFox 3.5.0.1 will get rid of the damn thing.
darklightning
July 08, 2009 at 5:54pm
Firefox 3.5.1 will not take away to +. it is a new feature like in chrome (and I tihnk Safari).
lunchbox73
June 30, 2009 at 12:41pm
I was glad to see the +. It's a nice touch (ripped off from IE but still nice).
erks
June 30, 2009 at 11:41am
in your profiles folder, make a new file called userChrome.css
In vista, it should be under C:\Users\((YourNameHere))\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\74lik94b.default\chrome
In it, paste these lines:
/* remove New Tab button */
.tabs-newtab-button {display:none!important}
n0ctis
June 30, 2009 at 10:23am
I installed RC3 yesterday (lol) is there a difference between RC3 and the final release?
ceator3571
June 30, 2009 at 10:08am
Firefox is faster, the application, not so much the load of the web pages. For example when you open a new tab it opens faster then IE 8, switch between tabs, re-ativate firefox window (from another app). I did do some tests opening up pages compared to IE 8 and sometimes firefox is faster then IE 8 and sometimes slower (this is a bias test because I can't control the internet traffic). I did this test on sites with JAVA (wunderground.com, noaa.gov, etc.) and some without JAVA (this site, tweakguides.com, etc.).
I am still exploring the other features now. But so far the one thing I don't like about FF Private feature is it closes your active window, but it does restore your previous session when you restart FF and fast too.
MeTo
June 30, 2009 at 10:06am
Thankyou Fire Fox.
Linux,Dual boot/Vista,AMD Athlon+ x2 5600,3 Gig DDR2 ram,500 Gig HDD,ATI HD 4650 1 gig Video.
MeTo
June 30, 2009 at 11:24am
You know what they say about opinions everybody has one. I am done with always having to have the fastest machine money can buy and you know what this machine does everything i need it to do. When ever i have a problem and ask for help people always ask whats your system spec's. This way there always there it help's. So you can keep your opinion to your self. Thankyou.
Internet box Linux,Dual boot/Vista,AMD Athlon+ x2 5600,3 Gig DDR2 ram,500 Gig HDD,ATI HD 4650 1 gig Video.
lunchbox73
June 30, 2009 at 12:44pm
Nice excuse but I agree with him. How about you just post your specs when people ask for them?
Aren't people on the internet assholes? ;)
BobbyPhoenix
June 30, 2009 at 12:50pm
You comment about not posting specs as a opinion comment, and yet you post your opinion asking "Aren't people on the internet assholes?;)" Funny I say, real funny!
horzo
June 30, 2009 at 12:50pm
How about we just agree that adding a signature (any signature) to news comments is kind of lame.
MeTo
June 30, 2009 at 1:30pm
Hey horzo your signature is showing.
Internet box Linux,Dual boot/Vista,AMD Athlon+ x2 5600,3 Gig DDR2 ram,500 Gig HDD,ATI HD 4650 1 gig Video.
the_Troll
June 30, 2009 at 11:02am
E8600 (3.77ghz), evga 280, 4gb ddr2 (1066), Windows 7 RC, 24" Samsung LCD. Oh, 2 Raptos in Raid 0 and One Velociraptor (300gb) as my backup.
brainwins
June 30, 2009 at 9:39am
I am always clueless when people talk about browser speed. I mean, all pages load pretty much at the same speed for me, or at least there is not a noticeable difference between them. What sites do you visit that you notice such a warp speed difference between browsers? And how much is it? A second?
When I upgrade browsers it is because of the new features. Never because of speed.
DBsantos77
June 30, 2009 at 9:46am
Who knows? Maybe there's less people browsing on my DNS servers so pages load faster for me. All I know is that websites (including this one) load up faster, maybe it's not FireFox, and a mere coincidence.
As far as the features go, I haven't gotten around to them, and frankly am not in a rush.
I upgrade simply because it's a newer version.
aviaggio
June 30, 2009 at 12:17pm
I notice the speed difference much more on my laptop than desktop. My desktop is stupid fast, but my laptop not so much. Sites like Slashdot load very fast now compared to the older version.
And we're talking about improvements in javascript. Sites that use java heavily are going to see the most improvement, especially on slower machines.
DBsantos77
June 30, 2009 at 1:29pm
And we're talking about improvements in javascript.
Exactly - which proves why I said "Sites like this"
MaxPC has a buttload of JS built in.
DBsantos77
June 30, 2009 at 8:42am
Wow 3.5 is seriously faster. I was expecting a little speed gain but pages load in less then a second. NICE!
ceator3571
June 30, 2009 at 8:33am
Wow it's so much faster! I have only been using this for about 10 minutes so far and I really like the speed. Now it's time to try out all the features.
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