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Firefox 3.5 [Reviewed]

Rahul Srinivas, Jul 02, 2009 1215 hrs IST

We take the Firefox 3.5 for a spin. Find out if we are impressed

Expert Rating:

Faster, occasionally even faster than Chrome

private browsing mode could be better

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EXPERT REVIEW

Mozilla has finally taken the wraps off the latest stable iteration of Firefox - the much awaited version 3.5 - on Tuesday. Firefox 3.5, since its development, faced increasing challenges from its new found competitor Chrome. Chrome which was launched last year, pipped Firefox when it came to sheer speed. While Firefox has always been traditionally IE-centric in its development, aiming to grab the coveted numero uno position in the browser arena, others seem to have caught up from behind. That is what Mozilla is trying to change with its latest release.

It's time we take a first look at the latest version of the world's second most widely used browser. Visually, there is not much of a difference from the earlier versions, unless of course you were on some whacky theme earlier and now are finding it all alien!

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USER COMMENTS

Too good Rahul, you actually came out and justified what you wrote in your review. Not all reviewers can be credited with doing that. Cheerio. P.S - I still prefer Firefox ;)

by Grim, Bangalore, on Jul 25, 2009 12:37 AM, Report abuse Reply

Your benchmarks should probably have been mentioned along with values for other browsers. Most readers will not know what the numbers imply.

by Aditya, Mumbai, on Jul 16, 2009 12:06 AM, Report abuse Reply

Dear Author, I personally don't know what kind of PC used in this test, probably a PIII, you should throw it in the water. The scores you have posted is actually SH*T. Probably, asked by M$. Here is my score: SunSpider: 1522.8ms (lower is better and its even lower than Mozilla clams) V8 Benchmark Suite: 236 (higher is better) My config: AMD(939) 4200 with 2GB DDR400 with WinXP-SP2. Firefox with normal setup.

by Ayan Debnath, Kolkata, on Jul 04, 2009 01:28 PM, Report abuse Reply

It wasnt a P3 of course. I tried it on a Compaq Presario V3149AU running AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile TL-52 processor. Quite an old workhorse you know? Also, the decision to do this on this machine was deliberate. I did have better specced machines in my arsenal, but I chose this one because not everyone has the latest machine around. I do however agree that I should have mentioned my "test bed" there to avoid confusion. Oh and MS dint ask us to anything. We actually don't listen to them (or anyone else for that matter) much. Everyone will have different scores for the tests you have mentioned here, so I aint reading much into it -- except of course for the Acid3 test, on which FF consistently scores 93 - everywhere. Of course Acid3 is system independent.

by Rahul Srinivas, Mumbai, on Jul 04, 2009 04:20 PM, Report abuse

have you thought about enabling the tracemonkey through the registry. That makes one hell of a difference in speed.

by jason, Chennai, on Jul 02, 2009 01:45 PM, Report abuse Reply

If your add-ons are not compatible with the new version, install a firefox add-on, 'Nightly Tester Tools'. This will override the compatibility issue you have with the new version and you can enjoy your add-ons as normal.

by Hemanth Kumar R, Hyderabad, on Jul 03, 2009 04:03 PM, Report abuse

Tip - There is a plugin in Firefox which makes it even faster. Really fast. Just give it a try. plugin = fasterfox lite. -Shreshtha

by Shreshtha, Delhi, on Jul 03, 2009 12:10 PM, Report abuse Reply

Firefox 2.0 Great Bug Now again showing in Firefox 3.5. Bug - Browser crashes whenever you signoff from Gmail. Its so annoying.

by Shreshtha, Delhi, on Jul 03, 2009 12:07 PM, Report abuse Reply

Mr. Srinivas is an obvious Chrome fan. He is trying to discover faults in FF which do not exist. Reviewers are expected to be dispassionate. Therefore, the quality of this review is questionable.

by Jai, Delhi, on Jul 02, 2009 05:28 PM, Report abuse Reply

Jai, IMHO, preferring to use one browser over the other doesn't make one a fan of that browser. If that was the case, everyone is a fan of at least one browser. While it is correct that I personally prefer using Chrome, it doesn't necessarily make me a blind Chrome fan. I however do agree that multiple mentions of Chrome in this piece might have made you believe so. Therefore, I can see where you are coming from. As for discovering "faults" in FF, the only one I could find was the Private browsing mode thing I mentioned in the article. I have been using Firefox on my laptop ever since launch and I am loving it. At office, I prefer using Chrome. Yes, reviewers are meant to be dispassionate, but cant we have a choice of our own? :) Keep writing! Thanks.

by Rahul Srinivas, Mumbai, on Jul 02, 2009 08:15 PM, Report abuse

Really its works faster than ever...

by dhaval shah, Ahmedabad, on Jul 02, 2009 04:59 PM, Report abuse Reply

The update doesn't recognise any of the plug-ins or addons evident from the red exclamation marks. One needs to unistall the s/w of the plug-ins and then re-install. I could get Real Networks working onto you tube videos after reinstallation.

by Bobby, Pune, on Jul 02, 2009 02:28 PM, Report abuse Reply