Firefox 4 vs. Firefox 3 — Visible Differences

Posted in Applications | 32 comments
Tags: chrome, firefox, linux, mozilla, software, ubuntu

There is rather lively buzz around Mozilla Firefox 4 future release that should happen soon and of course meet all the expectations of the community and millions of Firefox users. But what do they all expect to see in the latest version and why its long-awaited final release should be a great deal? Let’s take a look at visible differences between future Firefox 4 and usual Firefox 3 to understand if Mozilla is going to beat upcoming Internet Explorer 9 finally by ease of use and functionality or still stay at the second stage of web browsers Olympus.

Addons Manager

The first what will be surely noticed after upgrading from Firefox 3 to fresh Firefox 4 is Addons Manager. This is not only due to the fact it was reworked dramatically in Firefox 4 but also because most of the addons you may have for Firefox 3 still doesn’t have versions for Firefox 4. It’s clear that addons for 3th and 4th versions of Firefox are not compatible between each other. Anyway that is common practice for Mozilla and new versions will appear soon so let’s move forward and see the difference:

Firefox 3.6	Firefox 4

Firefox Tabs

When early version of Google Chrome have been released about two years ago I enjoyed that Google moved tabs bar to the top of Chrome’s window and thus freed more space for web pages at my 1280×800 wide screen. Now we can see that I’m not the only who appreciated that as Firefox 4 comes with tabs on top by default for Windows and OS X users (Linux users will get it little bit later).

Firefox 3.6	Firefox 4

Firefox Tabs Manager (Panorama)

Newly implemented feature Firefox Panorama is to help users to cope with tabs mess. This is something new and comes by default in Firefox 4 making it possible to manage opened tabs into groups, organize them and in general make tabbed browsing more comfortable. As far as I know there is no addon for Firefox 3 to arrange something like Firefox Panorama in 3.x version so the visual difference looks like like as follows.

Firefox 3.6	Firefox 4
none

Firefox Sync

This is other long awaited feature that unlike previous one was available for Firefox 3 as an addon and become a natural part of Firefox 4 to synchronize bookmarks, tabs, history, preferences and even passwords between different computers of particular user. As u can see below I use it also with Firefox 4 Beta 4 installed on my Ubuntu Lucid Lynx.

Firefox 3.6	Firefox 4
Sync Addon

Firefox 4 App Tab

Newly implemented feature makes it possible to convert any opened tab into “App Tab” so it will take less space that is allocated for list of tabs. Here is how it looks like in action. I would like to take this opportunity and recommend you to follow me on Twitter

Firefox 3.6	Firefox 4
none

These are all major visible differences between Firefox 3 and Firefox 4 but that doesn’t mean there is nothing more to compare between these versions of Firefox — according to Release Notes Mozilla improved Firefox 4 dramatically including speed performance, crash protection, support of WebGL and HD HTML5 WebM video format, translation into 39 languages and many-many more (full list of Firefox 4 Beta 4 release notes that is the latets for today is here).

Comments

Hessiess

Posted on September 1, 2010 at 6:44 pm

Interesting to see the differences, although there is nothing that major as far as I can see.

Its good to see that Firefox has finally reduced its UI so that its not wasting half of the screen displaying useless junk.

I consider the inclusion of built in synchronisation to be completely useless. It assumes that you are only using Firefox and will not sync with other browsers. The 3rd party add-ons which are available, such as LastPass and Foxmarks work across all the common browsers so do not create vendor lock in.

SilverWave

Posted on September 1, 2010 at 10:46 pm

Firefox Sync is the first such service that I have felt comfortable using TBH.

Security is first rate and the service “Just Works”, if you have multiple desktops its a must.

enri1968

Posted on October 11, 2010 at 3:25 pm

Thanks for your post and I found only this post about the differences

UNixThis!

Posted on January 10, 2011 at 2:16 am

still not impressed.

My Name

Posted on February 1, 2011 at 4:49 pm

The interface visual re-organization for people who don't know how to use computers (e.g. tabs above the address bar, which technically speaking doesn't make any sense) seem to be the developers main concern… it's even the first and foremost "feature" revealed in the official Mozilla homepage.

I'm far more interested in what performance improvements, if any, does Firefox 4 bring. After all, the principal purpose brought by Firefox 1.0 over the mainstream IE was its speed and reliability, and ever since it only became heavier, slower and more bloated… maybe Firefox has, itself, become too mainstream for its own good.

There's the usual innocuous tests such as pretty webspider graph bars promoting 500x the speed etc as per the market norm, but let's wait and see how it goes in the real world. If they can actually make the browser any more performant than the previous version, I'll be happy because it'll be one step further instead of the usual two steps backwards which seem to have become the norm in the current "next version" software development mentality.

Tensai

Posted on February 1, 2011 at 7:25 pm

done before on opera…

hasbi

Posted on February 14, 2011 at 5:37 pm

soe like google chrome but firefox more powerfull

xen-uno

Posted on February 25, 2011 at 1:45 pm

Tabs above up in the title bar? That’s an improvement? The present 3.6 layout is ideal. Works well with Address Bar, Bookmarks Tab, and Googlebar displayed. I sure hope the new layout is optional. Mozilla should be concentrating on improving speed (tho 3.6 is very fast), not cloning a look from other browsers.

wolfie

Posted on April 18, 2011 at 3:14 pm

Having read about 4, I’ll be sticking with 3.6.16

Don’t like the tabs being moved, the home keys being moved, the fact that many add-ons won’t work.

To heck with it, I’m staying put!

saloom

Posted on April 28, 2011 at 3:25 pm

i think firefox 3 is faster…more reliable and powerful ..

Gary

Posted on May 10, 2011 at 7:16 pm

Is 3 still better then 4?

Mike

Posted on May 13, 2011 at 9:58 am

I'm too married to my add-ons to upgrade until they too are upgraded. Add-ons are, after all, the main reason to use Firefox for many people.

Popoloco

Posted on May 14, 2011 at 12:57 pm

i'm agree with mike.. i still use FF3, most of my addons are not supported on 4 so… i'll keep hanged to my FF3 until they jump to the next lvl.
Sometimes i'm not sure that upgrade upgrade upgrade.. is the way to get better apps.. Check XP

Pain

Posted on May 18, 2011 at 4:13 am

I recommend still to use FF3 because of wide range of addons compatibility and more speedy than 4,,,,

Paula

Posted on May 20, 2011 at 11:31 am

Does anyone know how I can downgrade from firefox 4 to 3. I recently upgraded; pages keep hanging, and it is basically just so much slower than firefox 3. Someone please help…

Andrew

Posted on July 14, 2011 at 11:13 pm

im gonna downgrade, AGAIN, due to 4 and 5's slowness. Most of Mozilla's apps are too slow and bulky.