Firefox 3.6 Beta 1

[Sesame]

DavidR's complaints are understandable when coming to think of his connection.

It only took me a few minutes to "install" it on my PC with the same setting of my FF Portable.  There is almost no risk for me when I use it as a portable application while keeping Returnil on.  Almost all addons except All-in-One side bar seem to be functioning.  Played with a few Personas, I'm wondering if I'd keep it or not since it will disappear after I restart the PC.

In terms of security enhancement, I've found Mozilla employed the same or similar update notification method with FF itself and addons to plugins, which is very welcome.  For, the idea about update may not be so flashy but I it's very essential to keep malware away.  The function seems to be still limited to some of the plugins, though.

[DavidR]

Yes, it almost took longer to download than the 30 minutes it was installed for my testing.

So to find it totally unsuitable was a big disappointment for me:
~ lack of add-on support (even the compatibility add-on failed to work properly)
~ no themes other than the default (given the dial-up issue I didn't bother with downloading any personas.
~ culminating in no noticeable speed difference, the whole reason for trying it, a bit of a pain in the rear.

[Sesame]

Yes, it almost took longer to download than the 30 minutes it was installed for my testing.

So to find it totally unsuitable was a big disappointment for me:
~ lack of add-on support (even the compatibility add-on failed to work properly)
~ no themes other than the default (given the dial-up issue I didn't bother with downloading any personas.
~ culminating in no noticeable speed difference, the whole reason for trying it, a bit of a pain in the rear.

Wow...the list made me wonder what made you even try the beta...while you have some willing guinea pigs here. 

[Alan Baxter]

Well 3.6b1 lasted less than 30 minutes on my system whilst it is installed in a different location to your existing avast. It does as Alan Baxter mentioned use your profile and I couldn't get the workaround switches he gave to work.

Oh, please don't give up yet.  I can show you how to get the switches to work. :twisted evil:

Seriously, I can imagine your pain, David.  I haven't tried to use any extensions or themes in Namoroka.  In fact I've barely used it at all.  I only use my Namoroka Beta and Namoroka Nightly installations for checking whether any bugs in Fx 3.5 are fixed in Fx 3.6 yet.  Since I provide some support to NoScript and general Firefox users, I do all of my browsing and testing in Fx 3.5.x.  I need to be running in the same environment as the users I help.  I leave all the beta testing up to other people.

[Black3agl3]

tried it a couple of weeks ago already (as nightly)...80% of my add-ons weren't compatible...will wait for an RC or even the final before moving.

Sometimes even a final version doesn't work with my add-ons...

[DavidR]

Well 3.6b1 lasted less than 30 minutes on my system whilst it is installed in a different location to your existing avast. It does as Alan Baxter mentioned use your profile and I couldn't get the workaround switches he gave to work.

Oh, please don't give up yet.  I can show you how to get the switches to work. :twisted evil:

Seriously, I can imagine your pain, David.  I haven't tried to use any extensions or themes in Namoroka.  In fact I've barely used it at all.  I only use my Namoroka Beta and Namoroka Nightly installations for checking whether any bugs in Fx 3.5 are fixed in Fx 3.6 yet. 
<snip>

Too late unfortunately, I move fast when I have made my decision, life's too short to be fighting the software you use

So it is uninstalled and the downloaded beta setup file consigned to the bitbucket. Thanks for the offer though, but aside from the purported speed enhancement (javascript), which I was interested in testing, it really is unnoticeable, I felt the other changes cosmetic and not something I'm overly concerned with.

I haven't come across any bugs in 3.5.4, certainly none that are noticeable to me in my day to day use of firefox

[Sesame]

So it is uninstalled and the downloaded beta setup file consigned to the bitbucket. Thanks for the offer though, but aside from the purported speed enhancement (javascript), which I was interested in testing, it really is unnoticeable, I felt the other changes cosmetic and not something I'm overly concerned with.

Well, you must know what the bottleneck in your environment is here...  At least, Firefox developers seem to be aware that it is bit behind some other latest browsers in handling java and try to keep it competent in this area.

[DavidR]

They have clearly jot some work to do then as it clearly didn't work, so I guess we will have to wait for the new javascript engine and not just tweaks of the existing one. Personally I don't feel firefox is that slow in browsing.

As I have said speed is only one aspect, if you can't live with the interface (Chrome & Opera, tried them a few times and really didn't like them), or a lack of configuration of add-ons, etc. then speed is irrelevant.

I have grown very comfortable with firefox, so spending time checking out other browsers for me isn't productive as I say, life's too short

[bob3160]

Unfortunately compared to Google's Chrome, Firefox is very slow.
Having said that, there are add ons that I like in Firefox that aren't available in Chrome.

What I would really like is a browser with the speed of Chrome and the customize-ability of Firefox.

[Sesame]

As I have said speed is only one aspect, if you can't live with the interface (Chrome & Opera, tried them a few times and really didn't like them), or a lack of configuration of add-ons, etc. then speed is irrelevant.

I have grown very comfortable with firefox, so spending time checking out other browsers for me isn't productive as I say, life's too short

I'm comfortable with FF interface, too, but I've recently adopted omni bar addon thanks to Bob's introduction.  Yes, I guess I like the wide selections of  addons of FF, after all.

Unfortunately compared to Google's Chrome, Firefox is very slow.
Having said that, there are add ons that I like in Firefox that aren't available in Chrome.

What I would really like is a browser with the speed of Chrome and the customize-ability of Firefox.

Agreed.  I still use SRWare Iron with FF.  It's really surprising to see how quickly Google made an original and competent browser based on Web Kit, which is one of the reasons why I'm still looking forward to Android and Chrome OS.

[Sesame]

If you are still interested in FF 3.6 Beta, you might like to give the portable version a try.