Who's Afraid of Firefox 3.0 Bugs?
 

As Firefox 3.0 inches ever closer to its final release, early testers seem pleased with the new features, performance enhancements, and improved look and feel of the next-generation browser. But not everyone is thrilled with how the Mozilla developers are rolling out their latest version. According to blogger Jason Clinton, the final version of Firefox 3.0 could ship with known critical bugs, at least one of which can bring Linux systems to their knees.

If you've already taken the plunge with the beta versions of Firefox yourself, you already know that not everything is yet rosy with the new browser, particularly when it comes to third-party extensions and add-ons. But I'll argue that a few rough edges aren't reason enough to hold off on the upgrade when the final version ships.

Why's that? Well, put simply, almost no software is 100 percent perfect when it ships, whether it's an open source project like Firefox or a proprietary, commercial offering. Just look at the ongoing problems related to bugs in Windows XP Service Pack 3. Symantec is pointing the finger at Microsoft, Microsoft says that third-party developers are to blame, and customers are left in a lurch.

By comparison, the new Firefox may still have some bugs, but the fact that they're coming to light now demonstrates one of the greatest strengths of the open source development process. With closed-source code like a Windows update, there's no way for independent analysts to figure out what's really causing a reported bug, and certainly no way to help correct it. On the other hand, the fact that users like Clinton can cast the spotlight on Firefox bugs early in the release process virtually ensures that Firefox's code quality will improve.

Of course, open source isn't perfect. Longtime Firefox 2.0 users will tell you that current releases of the browser have persistent bugs of their own, including memory leaks that have a nasty tendency to gobble up RAM over time. But many of these have reportedly been fixed in the new release-- which is yet another reason to look forward to the update.

As with any software, it's only appropriate to approach a major new upgrade with caution. But my own experience with the beta version of the browser tells me that Firefox 3.0 is a worthy successor to the current version. I'd go so far as to call it a must-have update-- just as long as the leading add-ons can catch up with compatible versions of their own in a timely fashion. Google, I'm looking at you.

Read here.

A lot of the problems I had with firefox 3+ has been the stupid adobe flash plugin. Installing flashblock has stopped 99% of problems. the 1% is that firebug doesn't work in 3 yet. :)

Color me stupid if you must, but I don't quite understand your problem. If you don't want to see any flash content, then don't bother installing the flash plugin. In my own personal experience, FF3 beta 5 has been the best yet for remembering what flash content you want to see and what you don't. My only problem was speed- start-up and loading pages. But then again, it was still in beta... some issues are to be expected, and if you care to read Mozilla's release notes, most are known and are being corrected.

Cheers

I appreciate the new features, but I appreciate stability even more. Ideally I don't want any of the programs I use on a daily basis to crash - at all. I don't care who's to blame - if it's a problem with flash, but it doesn't affect the previous version, I'll stick with the previous version.

I'll try the final, but by the way it looks, I'll stick with Firefox-2 for another year or so.

course you got the problems that arise from not installing it such as not being able to see streaming videos, etc
some sites require flash, but it also opens you up to flash ads *sighs*
but as you said, could wait till the bug is patched.

well im looking forward to the 3.0 release, I haven't yet had a chance to test it out but iv always liked to wait till the full release to update

Well, I've got Ubuntu 8.04 LTS with firefox 3 beta 5 on an inspiron b120 and have seen no problems with it. I normally dont install many add-ons, except for mininova. Honestly, I love it mainly for the fact that it loads your previous page after you close the brower, which can be turned off if I wanted. Also it's fast.

Unfortunately I uninstalled it
 

I've also got Ubuntu 8.04 LTS with firefox 3 beta 5. I liked a lot of its features but one thing was awful with it. look at the Ubuntu home page capture below as an example:

http://taritom.googlepages.com/Scree...PageUbuntu.png

a lot of web pages appear this way.

I had to uninstall it and go back to ff2 and I am happy with it!

Wow! That's horrible!

I've never seen anything like that with any browser. But then again, I couldn't use FF2-- The default font on my install was unreadable, and I don't recall seeing anyone else with that issue... I can only guess that hardware/drivers still play a major role in how Linux/OSS installs and functions on any given PC.

I'd try again with the final release, though- it may have been a bug that's now fixed.

Cheers