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By Cara Garretson
Mozilla has released an upgrade of its free, open-source browser, Firefox 3.6, which boasts a 20 percent gain in performance over the previous version.
The new release, rolled out last Thursday, has been enhanced so that the performance of routine Web tasks such as checking e-mail, uploading photos, and posting to social networking sites is significantly faster, according to Mozilla. The organization has also increased the performance of under-the-cover functions, such as running JavaScript, thanks to the inclusion of the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine in this version. The organization also says that version 3.6 decreases the number of crashes caused by third-party software.
The upgrade includes a number of interface enhancements. One new feature designed to entice end users is called Personas, customizable browser themes that change the look of the browser without requiring a reboot. The new version includes more than 30,000 interface designs developed by the Mozilla community. The organization is encouraging Firefox 3.6 users to share their Personas by taking a photograph of themselves next to their computer that displays their Persona and posting it to Flickr, Twitter, and other sharing sites.
Mozilla has added to Firefox’s “Awesome Bar,” an enhanced auto-complete function so possible site matches based on browsing history pop up more quickly when a user begins typing in the bar. Users can also apply privacy settings to these results, says Mozilla.
Other end-user enhancements include the Plugin Updater, which will automatically detect out-of-date Firefox plugins to protect users against security vulnerabilities that often target older versions of plugins. In addition, Mozilla says the current library of Firefox add-ons now totals more than 6,000, giving users ways to customize their browser’s capabilities by adding tools to manage online auctions, upload digital photos, or check the weather. The Add-on Manager helps users find and install these add-ons.
The new Form Complete feature makes suggestions to help users complete fields in a Web form, based on common answers to previous forms. The updated browser also implements HTML 5 audio and video support so that video can be displayed in full screen and also works with poster frames.
For developers, Firefox 3.6 extends the range of fonts that can be used by working with the Web Open Font Format, in addition to OpenType and TrueType fonts. It also implements linear and radical CSS gradients for smoother transitions between colors, and relays the orientation of the laptop or device the browser is running on to Web pages that are accessed.
Firefox 3.6 is available for free download here and runs on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The browser is available in more than 70 languages. The new release of Firefox was created by input from the global Mozilla community that includes thousands of developers, security and localization experts, and support communities. Mozilla says there are more than 350 million Firefox users.
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