TechJunction

Although Mozilla says Firefox 3 beta 4 still isn’t intended for the general public, its performance so far has given them the confidence to announce the final version is nearly ready to be unleashed on the world.

In an interview with Reuters, Mozilla’s Vice President of Engineering Mike Schroepfer said in an interview that Firefox 3 is ‘ready for prime time’.

Schroepfer told Reuters that: “In many ways it (Firefox 3) is much more stable than anything else out there”, with Firefox 3 beta 5 set to finalise “tuning the visual look and feel of the program” and further improving its stability.”

As Reuters have noted, Firefox is in a battle with competitors such as Microsoft, whose Internet Explorer 8 browser just reached beta 1 status, although the final version of IE8 isn’t due to arrive until next year.

Despite this announcement, the Mozilla website (where Firefox 3 beta 4 can be downloaded) still advises that the latest beta 4 is still for testing purposes only, although I’ve personally been using Firefox 3 since beta 3 (and now 4, of course) and have found it to be a stellar browser: Firefox 2 has long been uninstalled from my computer.

That said, Reuters reported that Mozilla may well be changing that warning, and while Reuters didn’t specifically note it, I’d say when Firefox 3 beta 5 lands in a few weeks time, that will be the version that Mozilla will bless as being a more general beta that anyone can try, especially given the very stable nature the developers already attribute to the existing beta.

Of course, Firefox and Internet Explorer aren’t the only other browsers out there. Apple’s own Safari has just launched in a new version 3.1 for Windows PCs and Macs, while the Opera browser, currently at version 9.26 with a beta 9.5 version in testing, is also another popular alternative for PCs, smartphones and even the Nintendo Wii games console.

Other popular web browsers include the following:

There’s Maxthon, which uses the Internet Explorer 7 engine but is a very capable browser nevertheless, offering many more features than stock standard IE7.

If you’re an IE7 user, and wish you could improve it, why not try the free IE7 Pro add on – it lets you easily open accidentally closed tabs, it remembers which sites you were browsing should IE7 crash, it can block ads and can do plenty more.

The old ‘Netscape Navigator’ is still available, now in version 9, but as it is really little more than a re-skinned version of Firefox 2, and has now been officially discontinued (despite its ongoing downloadability), it’s best just to stick with Firefox, unless you’re particularly nostalgic.

You could also try the Slim Browser, last updated in late 2007, and claiming to be the best ‘tabbed browser’.

Another browser with a very small market share is the Avant Browser, which still claims to be the fastest on earth, although Firefox and Safari would certainly beg to differ.

The final interesting browser is called Flock. Based on Firefox, it’s billed as the perfect browser for those who love social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and many others.

Mac users are really best served by either Safari or Firefox, with any other browsers out there not really rating at all, although the old (but now discontinued) Internet Explorer for Mac still gets sporadic use on some (likely older) Macs. Linux users also have a few choices too, although I’d wager (not being a big Linux user as yet) that Firefox is still one of the more popular Linux browsers.

So, there’s still plenty of choice in the world of browsers, although IE, Firefox, Safari and Opera are the main four browsers fighting it out for dominance on the world wide web! mozilla firefox 3.0 via itwire.