Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 Released (and it gives Beta a bad name)

Tiny URL: http://tinyurl.com/6povo7
October 19th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under

Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 is now available for download. The release is intended for testing the core functionality of many new features scheduled for Firefox 3.1 release.  New features in this release include usability improvements, Web standard improvements in Gecko layout engine, added support for CSS2.1 and CSS3 properties.

However, my experience with this version of Firefox has been mixed and number of crashes, blank screens and sometimes even broken keystroke, clicks should have stopped this version from calling itself a “Beta”.

Major Changes:

  • TraceMonkey - Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 includes new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine optimization that provides 20-40 times performance improvement over SpiderMonkey JavaScript engine in Firefox 3. The TraceMonkey is not enabled by default. If you do want to turn it on, go to about:config, set javascript.options.jit.content to True, restart your browser and try it out.This should alert Google Chrome users who are also using newly optimized JavaScript version V8.
  • Tab Preview Bar - Press Ctrl-Tab and watch your opened tabs show a thumbnail of your open tabs similar to that of your applications on Windows or Mac.
Tab Preview Bar
  • Geolocation - Geolocation is a JavaScript API that lets a webpage query the browser for its geographical location. An iPhone user with location sensitive applications are already familiar with what sort of applications this could create. (For example, a web based yellow pages could query your browser location and show your businesses around you without asking you to enter your zip code). Geolocation obviously asks user’s approval if the webpage is requesting browser’s location. (See it in action here).
GeoLocation Firefox 3.1
  • Awesome Bar Improvements - Your searches in AwesomeBar (aka Address Bar of Firefox 3.1) can be customized now with geeky character entries. 
    • To search only history, start your string with ^ 
    • To search only in bookmarks, start with * 
    • To search only in tagged pages, start with + 
    • To search only in URLs visited, start with @ 
    • To search only in page titles and the tags, start with #
AwesomeBar Search
Problems with Firefox 3.1 Beta 1:
Even though Mozilla claims this version of Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 to be a beta quality software, the number of crashes, hangs, blank screens and other problems with it is way too high and way to easy. I had to stop using it after 2 days and come back to 3.0. I could produce following screens on my FF3.1 Beta 1 without much trouble. Another huge problem was the browser would stop taking keyboard input for no reason. The only solution was to restart the application.
Firefox Error
FF Error 2
and numerous crashes. So happy features aside, I hope Mozilla can work on quality a bit more, even for Beta!

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  • krumby
    I tried the beta 1 with the TraceMonkey javascript engine. It's like the firefox I know in the past but on steroids! Awsome. Speed improvements. Way to go. It's beta. Just give it time. I think it's going to rock.
  • StephenD
    Looks like you have plugins which are enabled. Have you tried turning them off? I'm on the Mac as well and my FF 3.1 install has been flawless so far, no issues at all.
  • supa
    It is improved after disabling everything but it is pain to live life like that :-( Hope Mozilla could release Beta 2 soon.
  • berrylover
    Frankly 3.0 has been a bit disappointing for me as well. There are times the browser just stops talking to the network. However, I think I am still going to keep using it. Better than IE ( I have had a computer become unusable with the tons of malwre that come thru IE ), Chrome ( Never quite understood why it was needed. no ad block ), opera ( don't like the clunky interface , though like the speed ). Maybe time to give safari a spin.
  • supa
    Safari is great if you don't rely on shortcuts via plugins. However, it is about time they put a major upgrade. Incidentally, Safari 4 is going to have SquirrelFish JavaScript interpret and ability to save webpages as applications. That must make it competitive with speed of FF3.1 and Chrome. Where is IE?
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