Mozilla has released yet another beta version of the next generation Firefox web browser. Firefox 3 beta 5 doesn't have a ton of new features, but it fixes a lot of bugs and packs a bunch of under the hood tweaks that make the browser easier to use and more attractive.Firefox 3 beta 5 features tighter integration with the Windows, Mac, and Linux operating system. That means you have native icons and interface widgets. The OS X version supports Growl notifications, and the Linux version uses the native GTK theme.
The Places organizer has been updated, making it easier to organize, search, tag, and browse through your bookmarks and browsing history.
And the JavaScript engine has been updated, meaning web applications like Gmail and Zoho Office run much faster in Firefox 3 beta 5 than in Firefox 2.
Keep in mind that this is still a beta, and you may experience problems. Extensions and add-ons that work in prior versions of Firefox might not be compatible with Firefox 3 beta 5. And for those of you who are tired of hearing Download Squad bloggers complain that Firefox 3 beta doesn't work well with the version of Flash used by Blogsmith, our blogging client, you're in luck. That problem has disappeared with this build, so we'll finally shut up about it!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
4-02-2008 @ 2:43PM
Victor Agreda, Jr. said...
huzzah! I'm still a little skeered to dive in because, while I only use a couple of add-ons, I'm afraid my toothpicks-and-rubber-bands setup will break. I can't afford to rebuild!
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4-02-2008 @ 2:56PM
dave said...
adblock plus dont work in this build
im still waiting for deskcut to work
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4-02-2008 @ 6:33PM
monoape said...
Works for me.
4-02-2008 @ 6:37PM
monoape said...
Both work fine.
4-02-2008 @ 3:07PM
Joshua Clayton said...
i've gotten used to it, but i'm still confused why the back/forward buttons have been excluded from the mac version of FF3 since like b3 was out...
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4-02-2008 @ 3:43PM
Damian said...
Right click on the nav bar, click customise and click "restore default set"
There was a bug that made the back/forware button disappear when switching between Fx2 and Fx3.
4-02-2008 @ 3:26PM
shadekh said...
@joshua: hmm, the back/forward buttons have always been there in all the betas, even on a mac. Their look has changed into the keyhole one, though
What mystifies me more is that I am unable to type my mixed case passwords correctly directly into the password fields for both of my gmail and yahoo accounts, despite repeated, slow tries. I cut/paste the password, and it worked perfectly. I wonder if its a new bug in b5..or something else is screwed up. Using b5 on a leo mac btw.
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4-08-2008 @ 11:42AM
Jenny said...
I've been having this same problem (I'm using a leo mac on a hotmail account). It's just sooooo slow and I've got a really fast internet connection so it shouldn't be. Also mourning the loss of my beautiful adblock - bring us the updates please!!!
4-02-2008 @ 3:35PM
Andrew Pollack said...
Until FireBug supports it, I can't give it any real time. Oh well.
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4-02-2008 @ 6:38PM
monoape said...
Appears to be working perfectly.
4-02-2008 @ 4:05PM
musicphreke said...
New beta doesn't support Adblock yet as said previously. Actually it doesn't support much of anything right now.
All I've got that works right now that I use is PDF Download, IE Tab, Hide Menubar, User Agent Switch, Download Statusbar, & ChromEdit Plus.
Kind of odd seeing ads on the page w/out my trusty Adblock!
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4-02-2008 @ 4:51PM
Jeff said...
That's the great thing about Ad Muncher, it blocks all ads over http no matter what browser or program you use (even blocks ads in messenger programs). Of course it's not free though, so that's a minor drawback.
6-23-2008 @ 9:44PM
Jim said...
Too bad ad muncher also breaks various other things like the new FF3 final release. Pages now require forced refreshes various times due to ad muncher screwing up the image retrieval.
4-02-2008 @ 5:06PM
subpixel said...
Just installed this today. Looks decent but doesn't support a lot of my current addons. The worst part was the fonts. For some reason it doesn't follow the system preference for subpixel rendering. (Which basically means the fonts look absolutely horrid) I dealt with that for a couple of hours, but it was unbearable. Back to 2.0.0.13 for me.
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4-03-2008 @ 4:29PM
RP said...
To get my extensions to work, I installed the "Nightly Tester Tools" add-on. It adds a "Make all compatible" button to the add-on window. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6543
4-02-2008 @ 5:13PM
Jeff said...
Eww, why are all the search boxes gray now? Like the address and search bar, google search box, etc. I hate that, hope there is a way to change it back.
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4-02-2008 @ 6:53PM
monoape said...
I don't know why so many people are struggling with extensions working. Adblock Plus, deskCut, Firebug - all work perfectly.
In fact, I currently have 30 extensions and they all work. Some are dev versions from the dev website, but most are straight from moz addons.
Some on the comments here need to spend more time getting friendly with Google and less time posting "it doesn't work" IMHO.
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4-02-2008 @ 8:33PM
Andrew Pollack said...
Here's the extent of debugging I've done on extensions for firefox:
Install new version. Existing extensions claim they're not compatible and are disabled. Deal with not using them.
I've never even looked up how to fool or force them into running. I use firebug to do debugging. I don't want to have to debug it.
4-10-2008 @ 2:27PM
anonymous said...
Just because it works for you doesn't mean it works for everyone.
e.g.
http://code.google.com/p/fbug/issues/detail?id=576&q=beta%205
http://code.google.com/p/fbug/issues/detail?id=519&q=beta%205
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=425499
4-02-2008 @ 7:20PM
Rich said...
Can't seem to embed videos or view videos from youtube in the comments on Myspace...Anyone else seeing this problem? The embed works if I do it from the IEtab
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