IGX

If you were waiting for the first security patch before giving Firefox 3 a try, as I was, it was released last night around 6:15p Eastern. So Firefox 3.0.1 is here.

I like it. It seems a bit faster. Nothing I can definitely put my finger on, just a sense of pages loading quickly and smoothly. The upgrade process from v2 was utterly seamless. All my favorites and settings and the bookmarks toolbar etc were migrated with zero effort on my part. So far, just 12+ hrs into using it, I haven't noticed any big changes with the new version (except for the note in the next paragraph).
[Edit: and a second note at the bottom of this post.]
Just a slightly quicker, slightly cleaner ride. The much-argued-about "awesome bar" hasn't impacted me at all. I type URLs into the address bar very, very infrequently: mostly use bookmarks and links, or search on Google and click from there. So, I probably haven't yet tapped into the features & enhanced functionality that are supposed to make this release so special. But I still have the sense that it's an improvement.

One thing: they've changed the way the browser handles sites with invalid SSL certs. If you have reason to access a lot of sites with invalid certs (as I do for work), then you will be hosed if you have the add-on "Bandwidth Meter and Diagnostics" installed. From the menu navigate to Tools - Add-ons - "Bandwidth Meter and Diagnostics" and disable or uninstall it. Then you'll get the default Firefox 3 invalid cert behavior, where you have to click three or four times to finally get to the page.

Thumbs-up.

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Edit:

You might also find that embedded YouTubes (such as in FatCat's Piguazhang thread) won't play in Firefox 3. You can see the image; and if you actually go to YouTube you can play it there; but the vid won't play embedded in the page you're viewing.

Solution is to upgrade to the latest-&-greatest Flash player. This link shows you what version you have installed:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewCon ... &sliceId=1
The latest version for Windoze is 9.0.124.0:
http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download ... kwaveFlash
Installing that fixed the problem entirely.

By the way, if you're new to Firefox, one thing to understand is that there is the core application, and then there a bunch of add-ons (extensions) that provide extra functionality. Most of those are geek-fun, not useful to anyone without a pocket protector; but there's a few extensions I use every day. I highly recommend them. Listed below in alpha order. One or two of them are extra important, labeled in bold with a further comment at bottom.


Adblock: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10
or
Adblock Plus: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865

CoLT: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1812

Copy Plain Text: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/134

Image Zoom: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/139

NoScript: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722

Options Menu: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1968

ShowIP: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/590

Update Notifier: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2098


Definitely get NoScript! It's a very central add-on, important for security. Blocks Javascript execution on all pages except the ones you explicitly allow. When you open a page with Javascript, it will initially block the JS content and show you a popup, allow Javascript on this page yes or no? One of the options is to allow it temporarily, for the current browsing session only. This extension gets updated just about every other week, with extra security stuff. Don't browse the web without it.

Definitely get one of the Adblocks. Unfortunately I'm not sure which. I've been using the basic one for a couple years, but I see a bunch of comments that it fucks up Flash content in Firefox 3. I haven't used the Plus, but it gets a lot of great reviews.

To install these, after you have Firefox running, navigate to the URL and click the "Add to Firefox" button.


edit: added Adblock to list