From: PcMag
Pros
Minimalist user interface. Panorama tab group organizes sites. Excellent standards support. Cool bookmark organization with Panorama. Pinned sites for all-the-time access. Syncing for tabs, history, passwords and more. Graphics hardware acceleration. Cross-platform.
Cons
Update breaks some extensions. Still trails Chrome and IE9 on some benchmarks. Lacks client-side tracking protection like that of IE9. Lacks Chrome's built in Flash, PDF reader, and Instant page view. Trails Chrome in HTML5 support. No new-tab page helpers. Slower startup than Chrome and IE9.
Bottom Line
Firefox remains a lean, fast, customizable browser that can hold its own against any competitor, especially with its graphics hardware acceleration. The version number bump doesn't mean what it used to though, with no major user feature adds from version 5 to 6.
Firefox 6, the latest web browser version from the open-source Mozilla Foundation, brings very little that end users will notice—the big interface changes all came along in version 4. With Firefox 5, Mozilla started emulating Google's Chrome (free, 4.5 stars) Web browser in more than just JavaScript speed and minimalist interface, as competitors Internet Explorer 9 (free, 4 stars) and Opera 11 (free, 4 stars) have. The open-source organization even adopted the mammoth search company's rapid version-release pace, and Firefox 5 was the first fruits of this approach. A new Firefox version will now come out every 6–12 weeks, and only features and fixes that are ready will make the cut.
That doesn't mean Firefox 6 is an insignificant update: A look at the change log shows a whopping 1,300 bug fixes (which includes feature and developer tooling adds). Some may notice that, like Chrome, Web addresses now have the site domain name in a darker font than the rest of the extraneous parts of the address. They may notice faster startup time if they have a bunch of Panorama tabs loaded. In addition to the changes noted above, the latest version includes a new site-specific privacy settings page, which you can access by typing about:permissions. The site identity area on the left side of a Web page's address has also been slightly redesigned.
The vast majority of what's new in Firefox 6, however, will be of greatest interest to developers. Chief among these are support for the latest version of WebSockets, which allows sites to perform bidirectional communication with a server; EventSource, for server-sent data—(i.e., push); Scratchpad, an interactive JavaScript prototyping environment; and (something astute end users may see) more options in the Web Developer menu from the main Firefox button (including the Scratchpad). Version 5's foremost adds were support for HTML5 CSS transitions, and a more visible Do Not Track choice. Mozilla made the anti-tracking option more prominent in Firefox 5, and claims it's the first cross-platform browser to include such a feature. But keep in mind, all it does is set a header entry telling sites you don't wish to be tracked, so it's up to the trackers to abide by your wishes. IE9's corresponding feature, by contrast, actually blocks the tracking on your end.
Firefox can nearly match Chrome on JavaScript speed, even currently beating it in 3D graphics acceleration, holds its own when it comes to HTML5 support, and offers a trimmed down interface that gives the Web page center stage. But when you hold it side-by-side with Chrome, Firefox falls just a bit short in terms of HTML5 support and whiz-bang features like Chrome Instant, which loads pages from your history before you even finish typing their addresses or search terms in the address bar.
Install
A simple 13MB download gets you the Firefox 6 installer. When you run it you'll lose your old version of Firefox, so make sure you're ready to say goodbye to 4.0 (we hardly knew ye). The latest Firefox is available for Mac and Linux as well as for Windows 7, Vista, and XP—the last of which even Internet Explorer 9 (Free, 4 stars) can't claim. You can import bookmarks from any other installed browsers on first run, but setup is nearly as uncomplicated as it is for Chrome. Firefox also now makes it easy to choose a search provider other than Google, but surprisingly, not as easy as Chrome does.
It's more likely that you'll be updated to version 6 automatically, though, since, starting with version 4, Firefox followed Google Chrome in yet another way: by automatically checking for and downloading each new version, and installing it the next time the browser starts. This has the benefit of keeping the majority of users on the latest version.
One downside to updating, however, is that some add-ons (particularly 3rd-party extensions) won't be compatible with the new version. I ran into this with two of my installed extensions (Java and Skype), and I don't have a huge amount installed. At least Mozilla has put into place a system for automatically re-enabling your add-ons once they're updated. This phenomenon to this set of users in the form of a discussion group, the browser maker has made it clear that the vast audience of individual Web users is their priority, not corporations.
Interface
Firefox's latest interface brings it in line with the trend of "less is more"—less space taken up by the browser frame and controls and more space for Web pages. The page tabs have moved above the address bar, and, as with Opera 11 (Free, 4 stars), there's just a single menu option in the form of the orange Firefox button at top left. You can re-enable the standard menus by hitting the Alt key. The Home button has moved to the right of the search bar, and a bookmark button appears to the right of that. That bookmark button only appears when you don't want the bookmark toolbar taking up browser window space. This gives you one-click access to frequently needed Web addresses. But I wish that, like IE's star button, it also let you see recent page history. You can still call up the full bookmark manager, which lets you do things like importing bookmarks from other browsers, search, and organize.
Firefox is one of the last remaining browsers to still use separate address and search boxes, which is good for those who like to keep those two activities separate. That doesn't mean, however, that a search won't work in the address bar, aka the "awesome bar." That tool, which drops down suggestions from your history and favorites whenever you start typing, was pioneered by Firefox and copied by all other browsers. The Firefox version now adds a new twist: When one of its suggested sites is already open in a tab, you can click on a "Switch to tab" link, preventing you from unnecessarily opening more tabs unnecessarily—a useful tweak.
Panorama and Pinned Tabs
With version 4, Firefox brought a revolutionary new way to organize tabs. Dubbed "Panorama," this feature helps those who like to have lots of tabs open. Just click the Mondrian icon all the way to the top-right of the window, and you'll see rectangles containing page thumbnails. You can drag tabs between groups, and resize and move the group boxes themselves around. You can even give a name to a tab group to keep organized.
When you click on a page thumbnail in any tab group, that page will maximize in the browser window, and you'll only see tabs from its group. It takes a bit of a rethinking, as you won't see all of your pages' tabs, but a click of the group icon gets you to them. I only wish that Panorama had some automation of the group creation, similar to IE's color grouping of tabs. And unlike Opera's nifty stacked-tabs, Firefox's groups are a click away on their own page, rather than always in front of you.
Another tab-related feature seems clearly Chrome-inspired—pinned tabs. If there are sites you always want access to, just as in Chrome, you can pin their tabs to the left side of the tab bar. These pinned tabs appear narrower, showing just the site icon. The pinned sites will also load automatically when you start Firefox. But you can't create an app shortcut icon for use on your desktop or Windows 7 taskbar, as you can with IE9 and Chrome.
Firefox Sync
Chrome and Opera have had bookmark and settings syncing for a while, but Firefox does an excellent job at implementing this on-the-go convenience. Not only will Firefox sync bookmarks and settings, but it also opens tabs, history, passwords, and forms. The data is encrypted locally so that no one can intercept those passwords while they're on their way to Mozilla's servers. The setup creates a key that you need to enter into the other PCs you want to keep in sync; the process isn't arduous, but it's not as simple as Chrome's sign in. One thing you can't sync in Firefox that you can in Chrome, though—surprisingly—is extensions. Themes, are another, but Chrome can't sync History or open tabs. IE9 has yet to offer any syncing option. I'm still occasionally amazed to see the same page I was viewing at work 45 minutes ago magically waiting for me on my home copy of Firefox. Version 6 improves discoverability of Sync by adding a Learn More link to the Add Bookmark and Remember Password dialogs.
Add-ons (aka Extensions)
Since version 4, add-ons (which includes third-party extensions) have been revamped inside and out in Firefox. The Jetpack add-on system is both easier for developers to create extensions and easier for consumers to use them. JetPack makes it possible for an extension developer not to require a restart to install the add-on and to make updating less intrusive. Jetpack could save me a lot of frustration when I just want to get browsing. But I still found that even in version 6, a lot of extensions still required a restart, and the frequent browser updates increase chances for incompatible extensions whose creators haven't updated their code for every Firefox update.
Interface-wise, in another nod to Chrome, Firefox's add-ons manager now resides in what looks like a Web page. In its present form, it's a little harder to simply find the most popular extensions and their ratings, but you can still head to the Mozilla Web page for this. Firefox is still customizable in appearance, too, thanks to Personas and Themes.
Specifications
Type
Business, Personal, Enterprise, Professional
Free
Yes
OS Compatibility
Windows Vista, Windows XP, Linux, Mac OS
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