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Testing With Fire Fox 3.0.1 Mozilla/5.0 thehartcenter.com |
Mozilla Firefox 3 is a version of Mozilla Firefox, a web browser released on June 17, 2008 by the Mozilla Corporation. [1] Firefox 3 uses version 1.9 of the Gecko layout engine for displaying web pages. The new version fixes many bugs, improves standard compliance, and implements new web APIs compared to Firefox 2.0. Other new features include a redesigned download manager, a new "Places" system for storing bookmarks and history, and separate themes for different operating systems. Firefox 3 had 5.67% of the recorded usage share of web browsers by July 2008, and had over 8 million unique downloads the day it was released, setting a Guinness World Record.[2] No other web browser comes close to Firefox for the number of languages in which it is available. Current estimates of Firefox 3's global market share are generally in the range of 10-20%[3][4][5] and dropping as users migrate to Mozilla Firefox 3.5. It was codenamed Gran Paradiso during its development, which included 8 alphas, 5 betas, and 3 release candidates released over 2007 and early 2008. Development continued with a planned 3.1 version codenamed Shiretoko during the summer of 2008, which was later changed to version 3.5, to reflect the many changes made to the Gecko 1.9.1 platform, according to several news sources. [6]
[edit] DevelopmentSee also: History of Mozilla Firefox The development name for Mozilla Firefox 3.0 was Gran Paradiso.[7] "Gran Paradiso", like other Firefox development names, is the name of an actual place; in this case the seventh-highest mountain in the Graian Alps. In 2006, the development team asked users to submit feature requests that they wish to be included in Firefox 3.[8] The Mozilla Foundation released the first beta on November 19, 2007,[9] the second beta on December 18, 2007,[9] the third beta on February 12, 2008, the fourth beta on March 10, 2008, and the fifth and final beta on April 2, 2008.[10] The first release candidate was released on 16 May 2008. The second release candidate was released on June 4, 2008 followed by a third release candidate (differing from the second release candidate only in that it corrected a serious bug for Mac users) on June 11, 2008. Mozilla shipped the final release on June 17, 2008.[1][11] The final release of Firefox 3.0 featured in popular culture, mentioned on, among others, The Colbert Report on its release date.[12] [edit] Version 3.5Main article: Mozilla Firefox 3.5 Version 3.5 was released in June 2009, after extensive pre-release builds and test releases in the preceding year. This version came with a new JavaScript Engine called TraceMonkey, which allows JavaScripts to be executed between five and eight times faster than in the previous version.[13] Speed can be further increased by enabling HTTP pipelining, and shortening the delay between receiving and acting on data. [edit] Version 3.6The release following Firefox 3.1 (since changed to Firefox 3.5) was originally referred to as 3.2. Since the change, Mozilla developer Mike Shaver has indicated that the release number will be referred to as 3.6 ad interim.[14] It is codenamed Namoroka.[15] The preliminary releases of upcoming Firefox releases are codenamed "Minefield", as this is the name of the trunk builds. Firefox 3.6 is planned for release in November 2009. As of December 2, the daily development trunk has begun showcasing pre-release builds of Firefox 3.6, which is to get its own branch the week of August 10.[16] Alpha 1 was released on August 7. A new tab-switching interface previously intended for 3.5 is due to be included in 3.6. [edit] Version 3.7Firefox 3.7, based on the Mozilla 1.9.3 engine, has been named as a possible early 2010 release[17]. [edit] Changes and features[edit] Backend changesOne of the big changes in Firefox 3 is the implementation of Gecko 1.9, an updated layout engine. The new version fixes many bugs, improves standard compliance, and implements new web APIs.[18] In particular, it makes Firefox 3 the first official release of a Mozilla browser to pass the Acid2 test, a standards-compliance test for web-page rendering. It also gets a better score on the Acid3 test than Firefox 2. Some of the new features are defined in the WHATWG HTML 5 specification,[18] such as support for web-based protocol handlers, a native implementation of the A new internal memory allocator, jemalloc,[19] is used rather than the default libc one.[20][dead link] Gecko 1.9 uses Cairo as a graphics backend,[21] allowing for improved graphics performance and better consistency of look and feel on various operating systems. Because of Cairo's lack of support for Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me and Windows NT (versions 4.0 and below), and because Microsoft ended support for Windows 98 and Windows Me on July 11, 2006, Firefox 3 does not run on those operating systems. Similarly, the Mac version of Firefox 3 runs only on Mac OS X 10.4 or higher,[22] but, unlike previous versions, has a native Cocoa widget interface.[23] [edit] Frontend changes As for the frontend changes, Firefox features a redesigned download manager with built-in search and the ability to resume downloads.[24] Also, a new plug-in manager is included in the add-ons window[25] and extensions can be installed with a package manager. Microformats are supported for use by software that can understand their use in documents to store data in a machine-readable form.[26]  The password manager in Firefox 3 asks the user if they would like it to remember the password after the log on attempt rather than before. By doing this users are able to avoid storing an incorrect password in the password manager after a bad log on attempt.[27] Firefox 3 uses a "Places" system for storing bookmarks and history in an SQLite backend.[28] The new system stores more information about user's history and bookmarks, in particular letting the user tag the pages. It is also used to implement an improved algorithm for the new location bar auto-complete feature (dubbed the "Awesomebar").[29][30] The Mac version of Firefox 3 supports Growl notifications, the OS X spell checker, and Aqua-style form controls. [edit] ThemesTo give the browser a more native look and feel on different operating systems, Firefox 3 uses separate themes for Mac OS X, Linux, Windows XP, and Windows Vista. When running on GNOME, Firefox 3 displays icons from the environment; thus, when the desktop environment icon theme changes, Firefox follows suit.[31] Additional icons were also made to be used when no appropriate icon exists; these were made following the Tango Desktop Project guidelines.[32] Additionally, the GTK version has replaced the non-native tab bar that was implemented in Firefox 2.0 and instead uses the native GTK+ tab style. The default icons and icon layout for Firefox 3 also changed dramatically, taking on a keyhole shape for the forward and back buttons by default on two of the three platforms.[33] However, the keyhole shape does not take effect in Linux or in the small-icon mode. The Iconfactory created the icons for the Microsoft Windows platform. In addition, separate icons sets are displayed for Windows XP and Vista.
[edit] BreakpadBreakpad (previously called "Airbag") is an open-source crash reporter utility which replaced the proprietary Talkback. It is being developed by Google and Mozilla, and used in Firefox and Thunderbird.[35][36] This product is significant because it is the first open source multi-platform crash reporting system.[citation needed] During development Breakpad was first included May 27, 2007, in Firefox 3 trunk builds on Windows NT and Mac OS X, and, weeks later, on Linux.[37] Breakpad replaced Talkback (also known as the Quality Feedback Agent) as the crash reporter used by the Mozilla software to report crashes of its products to a centralized server for aggregation or case-by-case analysis.[38] Talkback was proprietary software licensed to the Mozilla Corporation by SupportSoft. [edit] Usage
NetApplications noted that the use of Firefox 3 beta rapidly increased to a usage share of 0.62% in May 2008. They interpreted this increase to mean that Firefox 3 betas were stable and that users were using it as their primary browser.[41] Within 24 hours after the release of Firefox 3.0, usage rose from under 1% to over 3% according to NetApplications.[42] [edit] Guinness World Record
The official date for the launch of Firefox 3 was June 17, 2008, named "Download Day 2008". Firefox was aiming to set the record for most software downloads in 24 hours. Download Day officially started at 11:16 a.m. PDT (18:16 UTC) on June 17.[43] With the announced date, the download day was June 18 for timezones greater than GMT +6, which includes half of Asia and all of Oceania. The large number of users attempting to access the Mozilla website on June 17 caused it to become unavailable for at least a few hours and attempts at upgrading to the new version resulted in server timeouts. The site was not updated for the download of Firefox 3 until 12:00 PDT (19:00 UTC), two hours later than originally scheduled.[44][45] When "Download Day" ended at 11:16 AM PDT (18:16 UTC) June 18,[46] 8,249,092 unique downloads had been recorded.[47] On July 2 Mozilla announced they had won the record, with 8,002,530 unique downloads [48] with parties in over 25 countries [49]. As of July 7, 2008, more than 31 million people had downloaded Firefox 3.[50][51] Gareth Deaves, Records Manager for Guinness World Records, complimented Mozilla, saying, "Mobilizing over 8 million internet users within 24 hours is an extremely impressive accomplishment and we would like to congratulate the Mozilla community for their hard work and dedication."[52] [edit] Critical responseWhile the new functionality of the location bar, dubbed the "Awesomebar", was overall well received,[53] there were those who did not like it due to user interface and performance changes,[54][55][56] so much that extensions were made to revert it.[57][58] Firefox 3 received CNET Editors' Choice in June 2008.[59] [edit] References
[edit] External links
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