Firefox 3 beta 2 available for download

by Brad Linder Dec 19th 2007

Mozilla is continuing its march toward an official launch of Firefox 3 with the release of Firefox 3 beta 2. This update features more infrastructure improvements than major new features, but it packs all the goodies of Firefox 3 beta 1 plus a few new items including:

New location bar that shows history and bookmarks
Improved security features including anti-virus integration in the download manager and stricter SSL error pages
Better password management
Easier add-on installation
New download manager with resumable downloading
Full page zoom
One-click bookmarking
New graphics and font rendering architecture
Over 330 memory leak fixes

You can find a complete list of updates in the release notes. There are still some kinks to work out, but that's to be expected in any beta release (with the possible exception of a Google beta product). We're not quite ready to give up on Firefox 2 as our everyday browser, but Firefox 3 is tempting us a bit more with every beta release.

If you want to try out Firefox 3 beta 2 without installing it and risking data loss from your Firefox 2 profile, you might want to check out the portable version.

Tags: firefox, firefox-3, firefox-3-beta-2

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Comacozi said 4:08PM on 12-19-2007

And so at last the beast fell and the unbelievers rejoiced.
But all was not lost, for from the ash rose a great bird.
The bird gazed down upon the unbelievers and cast fire
and thunder upon them. For the beast had been
reborn with its strength renewed, and the
followers of Mammon cowered in horror.

from The Book of Mozilla, 7:15

RP said 9:23PM on 12-19-2007

> # Over 330 memory leak fixes

Thank you, Mozilla team, for working on memory leaks! This is seriously needed.

Right now my Firefox.exe is using 305 MB (and 810 MB virtual). Ouch!

At least there's "Restore session", so I can kill it, and re-start with all my tabs, and get down to 150 MB.

P.S. The new zoom is slick! (It zooms text + images)

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