Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 Available For Download

so how do you get extension.checkCompatibility false to work with this build?

Zach Malloch

"Better performance and stability with the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine."

Tracemonkey is a lot better - it's running everything on the www.chromeexperiments.com much more smoothly for me now (that's on the Linux build). Canvas is nice, it'll be good when IE does it properly.

@Zach Malloch:
I use nightly testers tool, find it better than to disable compatibility checking all together.

H.B.Z

It seems faster than Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 on sites like Digg and Lifehacker. All my extensions are working (through a forced install).

@Chappel101 I'm not noticing any slowdowns as of yet. Did you notice speed gains on any Ajax sites like gmail?

Memory is currently at 91k, not too bad.

Erik Pasco

I didn't really find it noticeably quicker than 3.0.10 even with 2 of my add-ons disabled, In fact it loaded some sites slower :-(
Hopefully it will eliminate my CPU randomly spiking for about 20secs or until I change a few tabs as this is my deal breaker with Firefox and what sent me to Chrome.
To note Chrome 2.0.176 is miles faster than Firefox 3.5 beta4 on my system, good thing it doesn't have add-ons yet or I would never use the Fox again!

@rogerh72: It seems as though Foxmarks still has a lot of entries in the about:config, but it doesn't have the little icon on the lower right, and it won't let me install any new extensions. mildly frustrating...

Zach Malloch

@Zach Malloch: I upgraded from the previous beta where I had compatibility checking disabled. A window popped up to tell me that some of the extensions would be disabled but they are all still active with the new beta running.

rogerh72

Addons confirmed working with no hacks post update: Adblock Plus AnyColor DownloadHelper NoScript Ubiquity Veoh Finder WOT. Over half are not though.

LyleElipticate

+1 for Tim Ferriss

ShrigeetaValentin

Working well with all addons for me and I also noticed that there is now a new working Google Toolbar Beta out that is working with FF3.5, v20090324 or such.. I wasn't using the betas previously b/c GT wasn't working with it. Happy to be able to use it now.

@[addons.mozilla.org]

aj_robins

@LyleElipticate:

ALso Google Preview, Personas. FavoIcon Picker Menu Editor, CustomizeGoogle and also dictionaries seems to work fine.

Love the new one :D

Jango17

@LyleElipticate:
True, but ALL of my extensions work when I turn off compatibility checking. It's hardly Mozilla's fault that some extension developers have currently set 3.1b3 as the maximum version. It'll take a little while for them to catch up - in the meantime, try turning off checking.

DWHarrison

@H.B.Z: Perfect!!! Thanks very much!

Zach Malloch

Still does the crappy collapsing of bookmark toolbar elements when added to the addressbar >_< So you have to go through and customize every damn time you open the browser. I love bugs that resurface from years ago. ::rolleyes::

ShadowBottle

@fjpoblam: Use the Nightly Tester Tools Addon

JellyDoodle91

on a cold start, it takes 5 to 10 seconds, I would say. Then I leave it running permanently. Memory consumption is between 200MB and 500 MB. And I have an "old" celeron with 1MB RAM.

klint

@klint: You have 90 add-ons really? How long does Firefox take on a cold start for you, and how much additional RAM is that munching away at?

And I thought I was bad with just my 5 and 4 disabled that I just turn on as and when I know I would need their functionility!

@libertao: You mean, minefield?

Will test it when all 90 addons I have are ok. for the moment, it totally screws up my buttons bar and hangs sporadically; must be linked to addons though.
Haven't notice any really perceptible change in speed.
But again, can't really use Firefox without addons anymore, so I'll have to wait.

klint

@DWHarrison: How did you turn off compatibility checking? I don't find the extensions.compatibility item in about:config in mine!

@Erik Pasco: I still get the CPU hanging for some reason, I need to look into this further as its really annoying every 20 mins or so!

Goggle Maps felt quite snappy so Ajax may be a bit faster but its still no Chrome!

What I was impressed with though is the Ram usage being down 23mb with the same 7 tabs opened in 3.5 Beta4 v's 3.0.10.

Just install Nightly Tester Build extension to turn off compatibility checking -- most extensions should still work.

libertao

Why on Earth have they not done something about Firefox's RAM/CPU hogging? Every release is about faster rendering, but speed of page display has almost never been an issue for me. CPU hogging (and therefore on my old dustbox, fan cycling) has been.

How do I get my old "New tab" button back? You know, the one sitting to the left of the Backward/Forward button in the left upper corner.

I know that there is a new "+" button to the right on the tab bar, but I don't like it :\

When does the final release come out?

Shashank Agarwal

All my extensions works (force install) except RoboForm

ZalmanGautham

@H.B.Z: Had a hard time finding that booger, but I did. Thanks VERY much!

@ritchie82: That's just your cookies. If you Clear Private Data and you clear your cookies or if you use something like CCleaner, then your cookies are deleted. It's not FireFox's problem.

I'm waiting for the portable version...anyone know where to find it?

adjohnson916

have they fixed firefox so u are auto logged in to sites and it properly remembers you?? so annoying!

ritchie82

@[support.mozilla.com] = winner!

ritchie82

What's the scoop on 64 bit?

gpzbc

@WikzoDk: Should be able to just right click on that bar, choose customize.. and drag the new tab button from the palette to wherever you want it on the bar.

Lost half my bookmarks but not all of them wired.

SimonCachilyo

@mahimahi42: This may clear up a mystery for me. Been having trouble with losing supposedly "saved" passwords, and logins/logons just generally acting weird. Nothing really annoying, just odd behavior.

paintbox

@klint: 1MB of RAM. Good god.

@badger500: That's my problem with Firefox, on my Intel laptop it plays silly buggers hogging the CPU for 20 sec's doing nothing, other times it spikes the CPU till I change a couple of tabs, yet on my AMD64 PC its fine.

I have found its RAM usage is much improved since V3 and is even better with V3.5, also it is better with RAM than most other browsers I have used over the long term!

Try Chrome 2.0.176 as that works fine on my old lappy!

@klint: I'm guessing that's a typo but wow I rarely exceed 200MB even with 15 Tabs open. And if I know I'm going to I would probably just turn Firefox Ultimate Optimiser on even with 4GB RAM, as it is for Photoshop not web research and unfortunately distractions.

@adjohnson916: I'd like to try the beta too side-by-side with the current 3.0.10.

Anyone know if there is a portable version or if 3.5b4 can be installed SxS?

Cheers.

Armbie

@fjpoblam:

You have to create a new boolean variable manually - extensions.checkCompatibility and set it to false.

nitrous9200

@Armbie: i think if you just install the beta, it will not disturb your stable install. it will have its own seperate program files folder.

perryizgr8

@ShrigeetaValentin: Get out of here. :( Lifehacker, could you please ban this (person) and whoever else does this me-first crap? Thanks.

paintbox

downloaded ff 3.5b4 /windows and now when I click a link to download an .exe, the resulting window that pops up is not sized properly, so the "save" button is obscured. Downloading other types of files is OK (zip, rar, etc). Anyone else?