A tester’s look at Firefox 3 Beta 3

[Added additional info on the new Doenload Manager. - Peng]

As Nanci posted last night, Firefox 3 Beta 3 came out yesterday and while some of us are happy with it while others, like me, aren’t so sure about it. There will be at least a fourth beta before Firefox 3 reaches Release Candidate status, but I wanted to give you guys (and girls) a look at how things are shaping up in Firefox 3 so far.

Remember, this version of Firefox 3 is for testing purposes only and is not for use by most people. There are certain things that people need to look out for in terms of bugs that aren’t quite fixed yet, some of which can cause you to lose data like passwords, bookmarks, etc. I’ll give you links for  getting your hands on the latest beta but you use it at your own risk. I’ll also point out some things that you need to do before firing up Firefox 3 Beta 3 for the first time.

Also, I’m running nightly builds of  the Firefox 3 betas under Linux and since they have gone for a native look in the default skin some things may look different in OSX and Windows from the screenshots I’m providing. In addition, I have customized my Firefox pretty heavily so things may be in different places than you may be used to seeing them. If a difference is because of a new feature in Firefox 3 I’ll let you know.

An opposing view on the Firefox 3 zoom issue

It’s a known issue that I hate the new zoom paradigm in Firefox 3, but someone’s posted a comment in the bug for it that brings up an interesting point. I’d comment there but I’ve done enough advocacy commenting there so I’ll post it here in hopes of getting my comment seen and generating a little discussion.

[UPDATED] Mozilla ships Firefox 3 Beta 2

Mozilla has released the second beta of Firefox 3, and it’s even better than the version I wrote about almost a month ago, but have I changed my mind about it?

Firefox 3 hits Beta, but with a couple of major issues

Tuesday Mozilla released the first beta of Firefox 3,  and while it’s got some really nice improvements this user sees more reasons not to use it than the simple fact that it’s a beta release.

[UPDATE] Will Mozilla leave Firefox 3 bugs unbusted?

(Updated to include an article I found by Mozilla’s Mike Shaver. - Peng)

There have been a number of articles floating through cyberspace claiming that that Mozilla devs will leave over 700 Firefox 3 bugs unfixed when it ships since they’re already quite behind schedule. Mozilla’s Asa Dotzler has a very plainspoken response to them.