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Firefox 3 Beta 4 Release Candidate has been added to Mozilla’s FTP servers. Most of the changes in this beta are under the hood, so don’t expect any visual changes. Actually, Beta 4 was expected at the end of February, but looks like they had some bug shooting to do before sending it to the quality assurance team.

In earlier betas, Vista users of Firefox 3 had the same look-and-feel as XP users, but Firefox 3 Beta 4 brings in a new Vista-specific theme which looks pretty quite impressive. Here’s what it looks like:

Firefox 3 Beta 4 (Vista) Screenshot

(click to enlarge)

They’ve poured some serious efforts into improving the performance of the browser’s javascript engine. Web 2.0 sites usually use JavaScript heavily, so you’ll definitely notice some nice speed improvements with Firefox 3 Beta 4. CyberNet did a SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark of different browsers, and looks like Firefox 3 is the leader of the pack.

SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark

[Firefox 3 Beta 4 RC: Windows | Linux | Mac]

Note: Release candidates are not official beta releases and not meant for public use.



7 Comments and Trackbacks (Add Your Own)

  1. I am not suprised at all to see Internet Explorer 7 rank dead last in that benchmark. Anytime I have to use IE7 I experience slower page viewing. Noticeable difference for sure.

  2. Ooh! Yay! This new and improved one for Vista is for me!

  3. WOW!!! Thats called speed!!! Waiting for final release

  4. Joel: Yeah, we all are!

  5. lol. internet explorer is not even close to the other browsers in that benchmark.

    Also, when is the final release coming?

  6. Fahad: No real idea, but I guess it should be out by somewhere around April.

  7. [...] Sue Baskerville (SuezanneCB) wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptCyberNet did a SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark of different browsers, and looks like Firefox 3 is the leader of the pack. [Firefox 3 Beta 4 RC: Windows | Linux | Mac]. Note: Release candidates are not official beta releases and not meant … [...]

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