Firefox 3

[AlexJ]

Ffx 3 has reached it's second beta and isn't far from full release.

I've had Minefield (as it was called during development) as a secondary browser for a while and now with the new beta version, I find it's stable enough to take over full time from Ffx 2.

What's new? Well there's some nice additions, the download manager is much improved and supports multiple session resuming (break the connection, close the browser etc. and you can still pick up where you left off). There is the option built-in to load-up with the tabs when you closed. The address bar now searches your history as opposed to finishing off what you're typing. Takes a bit of getting used to, but is very useful when you can't remember the start of an address but can remember the page name or subdomain.

Only downside is that currently a lot of extensions don't work, although these are likely to be supported pretty soon as updates are released.

[Puni/Void]

Sounds interesting, so thanks for the news, Alex. I'm very happy with the version of Firefox I'm currently using, but it will be nice with some upgrades and new features.

[Harrison]

The improved session restoring and download manager sound useful, although I'm happy with the plugins I'm using that does these in FF2.

I probably won't upgrade straight away, until the plugin support increases and the existing coders update their plugins. Although I might install it on another system for testing.

[Buleste]

I've downloaded it and starting to give it a try. They have managed to install some of the old bugs back in like the inability to get all of the IE bookmarks but on a general usage level it's still the same old Firefox. Much needed now Netscape is dead.

[Harrison]

Is Netscape dead? I know it has dropped from the mainstream in recently years, but version 9 was only released this year and supports the use of all FF2 extensions.

[Stephen Coates]

They finally decided that they are no longer going to make it anymore, so yes, it is dead.

Apparently it is now just FireFox repackaged and so is quite pointless.

[Harrison]

I didn't know that. I was quite surprised that it lasted as long as it did, but it was also a little sad considering that Netscape used to be the standard browser everyone used in the late 90's. It just shows how times change and popularity for everything shifts.

[Stephen Coates]

Yes, and it seems to be happening again. IE is (was?) the most popular browser and more and more people are switching to Firefox.

Now it's only a matter of time before everyone switches from Firefox to Opera (but I've already done this )

[Buleste]

More than anything i think it goes to show that the first bunch of internet companies that managed to survive have lost their way now they are bit mega corporations like AOL. Their creativity has gone the way of all large corporations which is why no one uses Netscape anymore.

[Harrison]

Very true. Normally when small imaginative companies are bought up for their innovative products this happens. EA is a great example.

But contrary, although many dislike and put the company down, I actually think Microsoft are quite different. I recently watched a great video about typography. It was an hour long interview with the Microsoft typography team who design the technology used within Windows to handle type and fonts. This team was given a lot of freedom to explore type and how the human brain analysis's shape, size, colour, edges etc... And the end result is cleartype. XP gained this in SP2, but the full version of this technology in Vista is even better. Using coloured pixels to smooth text and make it look crisp and easy to read.

Best of all, the main typography guy in the video really tears into Apple's OSX type technology and shows how crap it is by comparison. That alone warmed me more to Microsoft instantly!

Watching that video showed me that the image and reputation Microsoft have gained over the years is far from the whole truth. As with any very large corporation only the headlines attached to them are ever remembered by the general public, and much that goes on behind the scenes is never widely known.