Must Read: Sorry, but bringing back the Start menu won't help Windows 8

Topic: Browser

Mozilla plans 2 more Firefox 3 betas, ~500,000 copies of beta 1 downloaded to date

Summary: The Mozilla Foundation reports that nearly 500,000 copies of Firefox 3 beta 1 have been downloaded since its release last week and two more beta test versions will follow before its final release next year.During a brief meeting Monday, developers said Firefox 3 Beta 2 will be released by the end of the year and beta 3 will follow in early 2008.

Paula Rooney

By for Linux and Open Source |

The Mozilla Foundation reports that nearly 500,000 copies of Firefox 3 beta 1 have been downloaded since its release last week and two more beta test versions will follow before its final release next year.

During a brief meeting Monday, developers said Firefox 3 Beta 2 will be released by the end of the year and beta 3 will follow in early 2008.

The Firefox team said more than 429,000 copies have been downloaded to date and that roughly 100,000 of those are active beta testers.

The next beta test versions will incorporate the visual user interface redesigns for Windows Vista, Linux and Mac OSX, which gives the browser a more appropriate look-and-feel depending on the operating system used. Users who load beta 1 on Mactinosh are currently invited to test a protoype of the Firefox 3 theme for Mac OSX, dubbed Proto., which is also in beta testing as an add-on to Firefox.

Topic: Browser

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Talkback

13 comments
Log in or register to join the discussion

  • The Free Software Movement is Great!!

    Who said that a free software can't be reliable and continually improved? Mozilla has been doing an outstanding job on each one of their core products. They continue to get better and I find my self using Firefox, Thunderbird and Lightening more and more.

    I look forward to the general release of Firefox 3.0.
    gsk@...
    Reply Vote

  • The Free Software Movement is Great!!

    Who said that a free software can't be reliable and continually improved? Mozilla has been doing an outstanding job on each one of their core products. They continue to get better and I find my self using Firefox, Thunderbird and Lightening more and more.

    Frankly it was a their products, not GNU/Linux that inspired me to start using open source software and to start the Free Software Catalog (http://www.free-software-catalog.com/).

    Kudos to Mozilla!! I look forward to the general release of Firefox 3.0.
    gsk@...
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Mozilla plans 2 more Firefox 3 betas

    Will they fix the MEMORY LEAKS
    FROM DOWN UNDER
    Reply Vote

  • hope it becomes faster...

    I really hope they make the new version less bloated and fix all the memory issues. The current version crawls on my Athlon 1.7 GHz compared to Opera or Konqueror.
    patibulo
    Reply Vote

  • Beta 1 is pretty good

    So 2,3 and release should be excellent...

    Just need all the plugin developers to update their plugins now. In case anyone is listening, my guys need Google stuff, Zotero, Alfresco and IE Tab, please. Although the latter should be unnecessary if all the lazy MS only developers would actually test their stuff for standards compliace before putting it out there!
    putt1ck
    Reply Vote

    • firefox

      I have this program for awhie now...I like it 2......but it has problems still....i have beta 2.00.1...have found a bug...0n my XP.....won't boot ...unless I start it first.....I'm using dial-up---seems to lock up---must start it before I get on line
      star2rider1@...
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Mozilla plans 2 more Firefox 3 betas, ~500,000 copies of beta 1 downloa

    Beta 1 is nice but so far none of my plugins work. Will be nice once they do.
    ggljohnson@...
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Mozilla plans 2 more Firefox 3 betas, ~500,000 copies of beta 1 downloa

    I downloaded FF3 but when it disabled all of my add-ons, I went back to FF2. When a full functional version appears, I'll try it again.
    narmer@...
    Reply Vote

  • Warning, it's not there yet!

    Plugins can be forced enabled for Firefox 3 - but it is NOT recommended!
    Beta is the time where UI is designed and fitted to the product; if you notice any bug, report it - it will be fixed on the next release (or the next nightly build).
    After beta releases, you usually get release candidates (RC) - typically, 2 or 3 of them. Problems: bugs noticed in RC must be BIG to be fixed.
    Firefox 3 comes with a new rendering engine, a new Javascript interpreter, and a new drawing engine - not only is the code slimmer, cleaner and more standards compliant, it's faster and can make use of hardware acceleration (compositing), resulting in faster display on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.
    Last but not least, several layers of shims and compatibility tweaks have been removed (all Windows OSes prior to 2000 are no longer supported), and many unused APIs have been removed - slimming down the code quite a lot.
    I've been testing nightly builds of Firefox 3 for a while now; it's as exhilarating as Firefox 1.0 was when it came out, making IE 7 look outdated, slow, unstable and quirky.
    Mitch 74
    Reply Vote

  • 500,000 copies of FF3 beta 1 downloaded

    Count me as one of those 500,000! The previous poster is accurate about add-ons, but I did not forcibly enable them. I have noticed some video quirks; that occur when doing sideways scrolling. But then again that could be my system. I will [b]definitely[/b] load the release version when it comes out. IMHO, IE is like [b]Swiss Cheese - too many holes in it![/b]
    fatman65535
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Mozilla plans 2 more Firefox 3 betas, ~500,000 copies of beta 1 downloaded to date

    I'm actually using the new version now for all my needs but continue to bounce to IE when the site requires to do so. In older versions there is a addon called IEtab. Since this is beta (1) many addons are fully disabled. Although it's got some areas that are a bit nutty at times it's a very fast copy.
    tigger71677@...
    Reply Vote

  • Re: Mozilla plans 2 more Firefox 3 betas, ~500,000 copies of beta 1 downloa

    I been using it as well and I haven't had a single problem yet. Of course my add-ins aren't working but that is to be expected since this is a beta and all.
    Magikx21
    Reply Vote

  • Waiting for stable build

    The features of Firefox 3 sound like great improvements on a (IMO) already great browser and I am eagerly awaiting the stable build of Firefox 3. Great news that a time table has already been laid, lets hope that Mozilla is able to stick to it. Keep up the great work Mozilla! :)

    - John Musbach
    John Musbach
    Reply Vote
CNET Join | Log In | Privacy | Cookies Close