Mozilla has come out with a new version of Firefox: Version 3.5.
There are several improvements in this version. I especially like two of them:
1) They finally seem to have memory management under control. Previous versions of Firefox would seem to slowly take up more and more memory, and never release it even when you closed tabs. This version seems to use much less, and you regain memory when you close a tab. It’s about time they fixed that!
2) Private Browsing. You can enter a “private browsing” mode, where nothing is kept on the computer to show where you went or what you did. Useful if you are using someone elses computer and want to do banking or private email, or just when it’s nobody’s dang business what web sites you were visiting.
The page rendering engine is supposed to be faster, but I can’t really tell a difference.
Anyway, I’ve been using it for about a week so far, and find it an improvement.
I don’t notice much difference either. Don’t remember when I installed it. I think it was also about a week ago.
Comment by Don — July 2, 2009 @ 5:21 pm
Maybe this would have helped my old computer. :]
Comment by Donna — July 3, 2009 @ 12:07 am
Is it free?
Comment by Mom — July 7, 2009 @ 5:57 pm
Of course!
I will install it on your computer for you sometime Mom, but let’s give it a few more days to be sure there are no problems.
Comment by Daryl — July 7, 2009 @ 6:40 pm
Hmm. 3.5 has been crashing on me occasionally, much more than 3.0.x ever did.
Comment by Daryl — July 7, 2009 @ 9:02 pm
I’ve had a few crashes. Not sure if more than 3.0 but a few.
Comment by Don — July 7, 2009 @ 10:02 pm
It has been rock solid on our three machines.
Comment by Richard — July 8, 2009 @ 6:06 pm
I just had another crash about an hour ago.
Comment by Don — July 10, 2009 @ 12:14 pm
And another one just a minute ago.
Comment by Don — July 14, 2009 @ 7:26 pm
Yeah, it crashes on me a couple of times a day. It could be an incompatible add-on, I guess.
3.0.x never crashed for me.
Comment by Daryl — July 14, 2009 @ 10:42 pm
Crashing on me about every 10 minutes this morning — about 10 times so far. I’ve disabled all add-ons, including Ad-Block ):
Comment by Daryl — July 16, 2009 @ 12:49 pm
Ouch! I still only get a crash every few days. Haven’t had one since the 14th.
Comment by Don — July 16, 2009 @ 3:11 pm
I still have not had one crash on any of my 3 machines. Dianna is even playing Pogo in FF now, and it is rock solid, something she could not do before.
Comment by Richard — July 17, 2009 @ 5:56 am
I just downloaded and installed version 3.5.1, supposed to fix security and stability issues. Let’s see if it works better.
I haven’t crashed since I turned off AdBlock Plus, but I’m going to try turning it back on. I hate browsing without it. I forgot what I was missing. (Ads!)
Comment by Daryl — July 18, 2009 @ 3:22 pm
When you say crashed, do you mean the whole computer restarts? I am not sure, but I believe we updated to 3.5 and this morning is the 2nd time our computer had an unexpected restart.
Any advice? Is it because of firefox or something else?
Comment by Heather — July 19, 2009 @ 6:29 am
It didn’t crash my computer, just Firefox.
If it starts happening frequently, it should be investigated. But computers crash occasionally, and as long as it isn’t regular, I wouldn’t worry about it.
Comment by Daryl — July 19, 2009 @ 10:51 am
I don’t think I’ve had any crashes with 3.5.1 but I don’t remember what day I updated. Yes Hegs, it should not crash your whole computer.
Comment by Don — July 19, 2009 @ 1:05 pm
I had still been getting several crashes a day, where Firefox simply closes with no crash report.
Then a couple of days ago I uninstalled AVG. Not a single crash since. I reinstalled AVG this evening, and will now wait and see what happens.
Since we are off on a cruise for a week, I really won’t know until after we get back, but I didn’t want to leave the computer unprotected all week, while Derek might be here using it.
Comment by Daryl — August 14, 2009 @ 9:18 pm