Currently viewing the tag: "Firefox"
IT seems a little strange to be writing about a new version of Firefox when the latest stable release, Version 4.0, was launched just a few weeks ago. But thanks to Mozilla’s rapid release program that aims to churn out new versions every 18 weeks, Firefox 5 Beta is now available for downloading and testing. To get it, click on the Desktop link at the bottom of the main Firefox page (http://www.mozilla.com). From there, choose Future Releases from the Desktop dropdown menu at the top of the screen.
IT felt a little strange to see folks from Mozilla coming to Manila to launch Firefox 4 last week when the Web was already abuzz with news about Firefox 5, which is set to debut just two months from now. In fact, preview versions of Firefox 5, albeit unstable, can already be downloaded for testing.
After demonstrating the new features of Firefox 4 to an enthusiastic crowd at the Asian Institute of Management over the weekend, Mozilla’s director of business development for Asia, Gen Kanai, talked about his company’s accelerated development cycle.
I LOOK forward to the day when the folks at Mozilla decide that Firefox 4 is ready to launch without the word “beta” attached to it.
Boasting significant speed improvements and an overhauled interface, Firefox 4 is a vast improvement over the current stable release, Firefox 3.6.
FOR the first time, Firefox has overtaken Microsoft’s Internet Explorer to become the number one browser in Europe, a Web site analytics and research company reported last week.
StatCounter, which collects data from more than 3 million Web sites and samples more than 15 billion page views a month, said Firefox grabbed 38.11 percent of the European market, compared to IE’s 37.52 percent in December 2010. A year earlier, IE had 44.8 percent to Firefox’s 40.8 percent.
ONE of the cool things about Firefox is that you can customize the browser with third-party add-ons to make it work better for you.
Adding an extension is easy. On Firefox 3, simply go to the Tools menu and choose Add-ons. On the Get Add-ons tab, click on the “Browse All Add-ons” link. This takes you to the Firefox Add-ons Web site, which organizes more than 5,000 extensions that are organized into categories. Find one you like and click on the “Add to Firefox” button to install it.
FIVE years ago last month, Firefox rose from the ashes of Netscape’s crushing defeat at the hands of Microsoft in the first browser wars. In that first encounter, Microsoft used its monopoly in operating systems to clobber Netscape by bundling its own browser, Internet Explorer, with every copy of Windows. This strategy made IE the default browser for most Windows users and wiped out the early lead that Netscape enjoyed. As a result, Netscape’s share of the browser market plummeted from more than 80 percent in 1996 to less than 5 percent by 2003.
DO we need a Filipino-language version of Firefox? Mozilla, maker of the world’s most downloaded browser, wants to know.
The question was put to me last week by Gen Kanai, director for Asia business development at Mozilla. He and his colleague, Seth Bindernagel, were in town to touch base with users, bloggers and Web developers to find out what Mozilla can or should do in the Philippines.
IT’S fast, it’s free—and it’s an excellent upgrade. If you still haven’t installed Firefox 3.5, do it today. The speed and new features make this browser a keeper.
