Mozzila released the final version of Firefox 3.0 today and you can download it at Mozilla.com.

Available today in approximately 50 languages, Firefox 3 is two to three times faster than its predecessor and offers more than 15,000 improvements, including the revolutionary smart location bar, malware protection, and extensive under the hood work to improve the speed and performance of the browser.

While I've been talking about Firefox 3 since late 2006, I have to admit that I haven't been into Firefox 3's development as much as I did with Firefox 2.  While there were some bumps on the way with the alphas and betas, Firefox 3.0 is definately a well polished product (I'm using it as I write in this post).  My first two impressions of Firefox 3 is that it is fast and that I don't quite get the awesome bar .

Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.14 is now available.  The update is a security and stability release and this explains why Firefox users might have been seeing more crashes than usual.

Fixes for security problems in the JavaScript engine described in MFSA 2008-15 (CVE-2008-1237) introduced a stability problem, where some users experienced crashes during JavaScript garbage collection. This is being fixed primarily to address stability concerns.

I knew something wasn't right with my favorite Web browser.  You can download the latest Firefox (and Thunderbird) at Mozilla.com.

I am saddened by continued reports that support for Mozilla's email client, Thunderbird, continues to diminish. From DesktopLinux:

The Mozilla Foundation's press release focused on the Firefox 2.12 security fixes. The Foundation also reported, though, in its MFSA (Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory), that these same bugs had been fixed in the fictitious Thunderbird 2.12...

...Still, it is upsetting that Mozilla reports that these problems have been fixed in a version of Thunderbird that doesn't exist. The latest version of Thunderbird is 2.09.

Mitchell Baker posted last September the transfer of Thunderbird from Mozilla to a yet to be seen Mailco organization. Just as DesktopLinux mentioned in their article, I've seen little information about what we can with regards to Thunderbird's future. Perhaps, I'm just not looking in the wrong places?

"Firefox continues to bite into Internet Explorer's market share. But users and analysts say that Mozilla hasn't changed its laissez-faire attitude about trying to get IT managers to formally adopt the open-source browser."

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Mozilla's Firefox 3 Beta 1 has been released. The announcment from Mozilla Developer News:

Firefox 3 Beta 1 is now available for download. This is the ninth developer milestone focused on testing the core functionality provided by many new features and changes to the platform scheduled for Firefox 3. Ongoing planning for Firefox 3 can be followed at the Firefox 3 Planning Center, as well as in mozilla.dev.planning and on irc.mozilla.org in #granparadiso.

New features and changes in this milestone that require feedback include:

• Improved security features such as: better presentation of website identity and security, malware protection, stricter SSL error pages, anti-virus integration in the download manager, and version checking for insecure plugins.
• Improved ease of use through: better password management, easier add-on installation, new download manager with resumable downloading, full page zoom, animated tab strip, and better integration with Windows Vista and Mac OS X.

As we mentioned more than a month ago, Firefox 3 is expected to sport a new look. Some of the more popular online magazines are starting to take notice and helping to fan some excitement on the new look. On a blog at Wired a Firefox 3 related post can be found, Catch a Glimpse of Firefox 3's Sleek, Sexy New Digs.

Some of the changes planned for the final release of Firefox 3 include a complete visual makeover with platform-specific skins designed to integrate the look of Firefox into your OS of choice.

Alex Faaborg, one the interface designers for Firefox, has been posting mock-ups and soliciting feedback from the community for some time (see our previous coverage) and he’s back with a series of wireframe sketches that show some of the progress in the interface redesign.

The blog post focuses on the visuals for the Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, but also directs users to an Ars Technica article for those interested in Linux. The article of interest is A first look at the Firefox 3 visual refresh for Linux.

"The result is that Mozilla is launching a new effort to improve email and internet communications. We will increase our investment and focus on our current email client -- Thunderbird -- and on innovations in the email and communications areas. We are doing so by creating a new organization with this as its sole focus and committing resources to this organization. The new organization doesn't have a name yet, so I'll call it MailCo here. MailCo will be part of the Mozilla Foundation and will serve the public benefit mission of the Mozilla Foundation. (Technically, it will be a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation, just like the Mozilla Corporation.)"

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Alex Faaborg has some mock-up images on his blog of what Firefox 3 will look like on both Microsoft's Windows Vista and Apple's Mac OS X.  I have yet to see any images for what Firefox 3 may look on a Linux box and many of those commenting are also not happy Linux was left out of the picture.

You can see the mock-ups yourself by clicking here.

The visual for Firefox 3 on Vista looks very nice but I'm not so sure about the the visual for the Mac.  The Mozilla bloggers are giving a lot of reasons for why Firefox on the Mac will look the way it does...and that worries me.  The more effort someone spends trying to convince me of something, the more evident it is to me that the idea isn't selling itself.

"Mozilla has set up a group to develop the Firefox Web browser for mobile devices, hiring new staff and elevating the priority of the work to the same level as desktop computers. Mike Schroepfer, Mozilla's vice president of engineering, announced the mobile Firefox move on his blog Tuesday evening."

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"One of the cool new features coming in Firefox 3 is support for a new animated image format. Browsers have supported animated GIFs for more than a decade, but the GIF image format has a number of limitations and is overdue for replacement. The PNG image format is now widely accepted as a superior replacement for static GIF images, but for animated GIFs there has not yet been a clear successor. The new Animated PNG format (APNG) is a simple extension to PNG, making it superior for animations too."

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