Firefox 3 is FAST!
For no particular reason, I decided to try out the Firefox 3 Beta 2 for Mac OS X. I immediately noticed how insanely fast web pages now render. Firefox is now really, really fast. I mean shockingly, noticeably fast. You need to experience it to believe it.
According to the release notes, the speed gains have been realized thanks to the new Gecko 1.9 rendering engine. Other enhancements that I like include:
- Mac OS X love: Aqua form widgets, Growl support on downloads, native spellchecker
- Better design on URL suggestions when using the address bar
- Better Download Manager, which provides an icon to open the file
Of course, none of my favorite extensions, err… add-ons, work with the beta yet. And I noticed some significant aesthetic rendering issues. But that’s to be expected from a beta, and to be honest the speed increase completely overshadows any of the other features or shortcomings. When 3.0 gets released as stable and the add-ons become compatible with it, Firefox users will be in for a treat.
