Topic: Firefox 3.1 may become Firefox 3.5

[Clive]

Mozilla could change the name of Firefox 3.1 to Firefox 3.5, the company has said.

The sheer amount of work that has gone into Firefox 3.1 and the number of new features added make it seem "much more than a small, incremental improvement over Firefox 3", Mozilla said.

The forthcoming third beta version of Firefox 3.1 would still be known as Firefox 3.1b3, though the next beta would be Firefox 3.5b4, if Mozilla decides to make the change.

Some of the new features in Firefox 3.1 include TraceMonkey, a Javascript engine that enables much faster performance, as well as improvements to privacy controls.

Mozilla also announced Firefox 3.0.7, an updated version of Firefox 3, earlier this week.

[Simon]

Sounds good. 

[GillE]

I wonder how long it will take for Windows 7 to become Windows 7.5.

[Rik]

Five heartbeats of the marketing department.

[Camstop]

The truth is Google Chrome and Opera 10 are kicking Firefox butt badly and they really have to up their game if they want to keep up.

Like it or not that is the reality and i don't think there is any security risk with Chrome now if there ever was.

Like IE they will keep a lot of the fanboy base they have but it doesn't mean they are still up there as the best.   

[Simon]

Yeah well, the reason there's 'no security risk' (apart from Google knowing everywhere you visit on the web), with Chrome, is because it's still a minority browser, so the hackers can't be bothered to target it. 

[Camstop]

Same with any browser Si and the fact Firefox was too small for the hackers to bother about was one of the big attractions about Firefox which isn't the case now.

It's a moving market and may well be for some time yet.

[Simon]

True.  I guess it comes down to how many of the security holes have actually been maliciously exploited, and while I don't have that data, I would guess it's relatively few.

[chorleydave]

They can call it what they want but it won't change the fact that it is unstable.  I got rid of Firefox 3.1x after suffering constant crashes and used Opera (which was already installed on my system) for several days with no problems at all until I had time to remove Firefox 3.1x completely from my system and install an earlier version.  I now have Firefox 2.0.0.20 and have had no crashes at all since I installed it about six weeks ago.

[Reno]

That's strange. I've used Firefox 3.0.x since download day, and haven't had the slightest problem. I disabled the stupid "awesome bar" and hit the ground running.

I'm sorry, but I wouldn't use chrome if it was the last browser on the net. To me it's worse then IE. At least with IE you don't have microsoft playing corporate big brother.

[Rik]

I've had no problems with FF3 either.

[Camstop]

If i fell out with Chrome i'd try Opera10 next and if Firefox 3.5 can vacuum, wash the dishes and browse a bit quicker i'd maybe give that a go again 

[Reno]

I haven't run across a browser yet that provided it's flexibility. The addons were always FF's biggest draw. The security can be augmented. Having just adblockplus and noscript installed give FF a huge step up. Then there is the little convenience addons. I use one called research word, that'll lookup a word on several different sites from the rightclick menu. I use one as a TTS engine, one to define words and even a scheduler to backup my bookmarks.