Firefox 3 Beta 4 RC

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.

This post was published by on March 10, 2008

About the Author: Thilak Rao works as a Social Media Expert. He is one of the first professional bloggers from India, and he loves to write, travel and click photos. Follow him on Twitter @thilak

  • http://www.spyshakers.com/wordpress/ Grant Alan Friedline

    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.

  • http://green-flamingo.com Nathaniel

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

  • http://www.lytebyte.com Joel

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

  • http://tech-buzz.net Thilak

    Joel: Yeah, we all are!

  • http://technodorm.com Fahad

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

    Also, when is the final release coming?

  • http://tech-buzz.net Thilak

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

  • http://www.rcstreet.com/blog/firefox-3-beta-4-rc/ RC cars » Blog Archive » Firefox 3 Beta 4 RC

    [...] 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 … [...]

  • http://technodorm.com/ Fahad

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

    Also, when is the final release coming?