Mozilla Firefox 3.5 is a version of the Mozilla Firefox web browser released in June 2009, adding a variety of new features to Firefox. Version 3.5 was touted as being twice as fast as 3.0 (due its TraceMonkey JavaScript engine and rendering improvements). It includes private browsing, has tear-off tabs, and uses the Gecko 1.9.1 engine. It was codenamed Shiretoko during development,[4] and was initially numbered Firefox 3.1 before Mozilla developers decided to change the version to 3.5, in order to reflect the significantly greater scope of changes than were originally planned.[5] Current estimates of Firefox 3.5's global market share are around 15-20% [6][7][8] and rising rapidly as users migrate from Mozilla Firefox 3. Also, as of mid-December 2009, Firefox 3.5 is the most popular browser (when counting individual browser versions) passing Internet Explorer 7.[9]
[edit] Development
Even before the release of Firefox 3.0 on June 17, 2008, Firefox 3.1 was in development under the codename "Shiretoko". It was planned to include new interface features such as tab previews, tag auto-completion, HTML 5 <video> tag support, and CSS text shadows.[10]
The first Alpha was released on July 28, 2008.[11] A new tab switching behavior was implemented, that switches to the most recently used tab instead of the adjacent one. When switching thumbnails are displayed so the user can preview the tabs before switching to them. The awesome bar was also improved to have filtering by Bookmarks and history. The Gecko engine was updated to include CSS3 features and includes the HTML Canvas text API.[12] The Alpha release showed an 18% improvement in the Acid3 test over Firefox 3.0, scoring 84/100.[13]
Version 3.1 Alpha 2 was launched on September 5, 2008, implementing the HTML 5 video element support and preliminary support for web worker thread, enhancing the speed of some JavaScript computations.[14]
[edit] Beta and release
On October 14, 2008, the first beta of Firefox 3.1 was released.[15] It included a new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, which isn't enabled by default, and the implementation of the W3C Geolocation API.[16] Beta 2 was released on December 8, 2008 and included a new private browsing feature.[17] The new tab switching behavior and interface was dropped at this beta, since the developer found needed more work.[18] Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 was released on March 12, 2009,[19][20] followed by Beta 4, the first to be labeled as version 3.5, on April 27, 2009.[21][22] On June 8, 2009, Mozilla released Firefox 3.5 Preview (labeled 3.5b99) in order to receive additional testing before it became the release candidate.[23]
Release Candidate 1 was released as an update to Firefox 3.5 Preview users on June 17, 2009.[24] Released Candidate 2 was made more widely available on June 19, 2009,[25] followed by a third RC on June 24, 2009. Firefox 3.5 was officially released on June 30, 2009.[26][27]
[edit] Features
Firefox market share overview
According to Net Applications data — November 2009[28] |
| Browser | % of Fx | % of Total |
| Firefox 1 | 0.16% | 0.04% |
| Firefox 1.5 | 0.49% | 0.12% |
| Firefox 2 | 4.25% | 1.05% |
| Firefox 3 | 32.89% | 8.13% |
| Firefox 3.5 | 61.33% | 15.16% |
| Firefox 3.6 beta | 0.69% | 0.17% |
| Other | 0.20% | 0.05% |
| All variants[29] | 100% | 24.72% |
| |
The results of the
Acid3 test on Firefox 3.5
Firefox 3.5 uses the Gecko 1.9.1 engine, which adds features that were not included in the 3.0 release. These include support for the <video> and <audio> elements defined in the HTML 5 draft specification, including native support for Ogg Theora encoded video and Vorbis encoded audio.[30][31] The goal is to offer video and audio playback without being encumbered by patent issues associated with most plugin and codec technologies.[32] Other features new in Firefox 3.5 include a private browsing mode, native support for JSON and web worker threads, and many other new web technologies.[33] Multi-touch support was also added to the release, including gesture support like pinching for zooming and swiping for back and forward.[34] Firefox 3.5 also features an updated logo from the previous releases.[35]
A minor change for Version 3.5 is the default search engine in Russian language builds, which uses the search engine Yandex rather than Google, after a survey of Russian Firefox users indicated they preferred Yandex.[36]
The first update, 3.5.1, was released on July 16, 2009. It solved some vulnerabilities detected after the final release. Another update, 3.5.2, was released on August 3, 2009, followed by version 3.5.3 on September 9, 2009, version 3.5.4 on October 27, 2009, version 3.5.5 on November 5, 2009, and version 3.5.6 on December 15, 2009.
Starting July 14, 2009, the upgrade to 3.5 was offered to users of Firefox 3.0 through the automatic internal "push" update mechanism.
[edit] References
- ^ Firefox's addons are written in JavaScript.
- ^ Firefox uses an "html.css" stylesheet for default rendering styles.
- ^ The Firefox addon, Stylish takes advantage of Firefox's CSS rendering to change the appearance of Firefox.
- ^ "Firefox 3.1 "Shiretoko"". 2008-06-12. https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox3.1. Retrieved 2008-06-12.
- ^ Mike Shaver (March 6th, 2009). "Shiretoko (Firefox 3.1) being renamed to Firefox 3.5". mozilla.dev.planning. (Google Groups).
- ^ "Browser Version Market Share". Net Applications. November 2009. http://marketshare.hitslink.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=2. Retrieved 2009-12-05.
- ^ "Global Web Stats". W3Counter. November 2009. http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php. Retrieved 2009-12-05.
- ^ "StatCounter Global Stats". StatCounter. November 2009. http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-ww-monthly-200911-200911-bar. Retrieved 2009-12-05.
- ^ Firefox 3.5 is world's most popular browser, StatCounter says, Nick Eaton. seattlepi blogs. 2009-12-21. Retrieved 2009-12-22.
- ^ Paul, Ryan (June 15, 2008). "Mozilla prepares for Firefox 3 release and plans for 3.1". Ars Technica. http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2008/06/mozilla-prepares-for-firefox-3-release-and-plans-for-3-1.ars. Retrieved 2009-09-29.
- ^ "Firefox 3.1 Alpha 1 now available for download". Developer News. Mozilla. July 28th, 2008. https://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/07/28/firefox-31-alpha-1-now-available-for-download/. Retrieved 2009-09-29.
- ^ Paul, Ryan (July 30, 2008). "First look: Ars reviews Firefox 3.1 alpha 1". Ars Technica. http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2008/07/first-look-ars-reviews-firefox-3-1-alpha-1.ars. Retrieved 16 December 2009.
- ^ Percy Cabello (2008-07-29), First step to Firefox 3.1: Alpha 1 is here, Mozilla Links, http://mozillalinks.org/wp/2008/07/first-step-to-firefox-31-alpha-1-is-here/, retrieved 2008-07-29
- ^ Paul, Ryan (September 5, 2008). "First look: Firefox 3.1 alpha 2 officially released". Ars Technica. http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2008/09/first-look-firefox-3-1-alpha-2-officially-released.ars. Retrieved 16 December 2009.
- ^ Firefox 3.1 beta 1 now available for download, https://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/10/14/firefox-31-beta-1-now-available-for-download/, retrieved 2009-11-11
- ^ Paul, Ryan (October 14, 2008). "First look: Firefox 3.1 beta 1 officially released". Ars Technica. http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2008/10/first-look-firefox-3-1-beta-1-officially-released.ars. Retrieved 16 December 2009.
- ^ Don't leave a trace: Private Browsing in Firefox, http://ehsanakhgari.org/blog/2008-11-04/dont-leave-trace-private-browsing-firefox, retrieved 2008-12-25
- ^ Paul, Ryan (December 8, 2008). "First look: Firefox 3.1 beta 2, now with private browsing". Ars Technica. http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2008/12/first-look-firefox-3-1-beta-2-now-with-private-browsing.ars. Retrieved 16 December 2009.
- ^ Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 now available for download
- ^ New beta paves way for Firefox 3.5 | Webware - CNET
- ^ Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 now available for download
- ^ Mozilla releases Firefox 3.5 beta | Webware - CNET
- ^ Firefox 3.5 Preview
- ^ Firefox 3.5 beta users will receive update to early release candidate
- ^ Firefox 3.5 release candidate now available for download
- ^ Firefox 3.5 is now available for download
- ^ Shankland, Stephen (June 30, 2009). "Mozilla releases Firefox 3.5". Webware. CNET. http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10275863-2.html?tag=mncol;posts. Retrieved 2009-07-03.
- ^ "Browser Version Market Share". NetApplications.com. November 2009. http://marketshare.hitslink.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=2&qpmr=40&qpdt=1&qpct=3&qpcal=1&qptimeframe=M&qpsp=130. Retrieved 2009-12-01.
- ^ "1-in-4 now use Firefox to surf the Web". Computerworld. 2009-11-13. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9140819/1_in_4_now_use_Firefox_to_surf_the_Web. Retrieved 2009-11-16.
- ^ Eric Shepherd (2009-05-28), Media formats supported by the audio and video elements, Mozilla developer center, https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Media_formats_supported_by_the_audio_and_video_elements, retrieved 2009-10-11
- ^ MozillaWiki (2009-03-18), Firefox3.5/Features, MozillaWiki, https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox3.5/Features, retrieved 2009-10-11
- ^ Dan Warne (2007-05-07). "Firefox to go head-to-head with Flash and Silverlight". APC Magazine. ACP Magazines Ltd. http://apcmag.com/firefox_to_go_headtohead_with_flash_and_silverlight.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-18.
- ^ Firefox 3.5 Release Notes
- ^ Kim, Arnold (2008-12-10). "Latest Firefox 3.1 Beta Adds Multi-Touch Support". Macrumors.com. http://www.macrumors.com/2008/12/10/latest-firefox-3-1-beta-adds-multi-touch-support/. Retrieved 2009-01-17.
- ^ Alex Faaborg (2009-05-15). "Creative Brief for the New Firefox Icon". http://blog.mozilla.com/faaborg/2009/05/15/creative-brief-for-the-new-firefox-icon/. Retrieved 2009-05-30.
- ^ Shankland, Stephen (January 9th, 2009). "Firefox in Russia dumps Google for Yandex". CNET News. http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10138969-2.html. Retrieved 2009-01-10.
[edit] External links
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