- Efficient - Mozilla Firefox 3.6 is efficient and effective at what it does; browse the web.
- Well Designed - Mozilla Firefox, while not very original in its design, is practical and quite good looking too.
- Brilliant Customisability - Thousands of Add-Ons, Personas and Themes make Firefox 3.6 one of the most customisable browsers around.
The Bad:
- Lack of Originality - Firefox's Design isn't very original and, although practical, can get a bit bland without personas or themes.
Firefox 3.6 has just been released in the beta and I will be checking out the full version when it's released. Still, as I haven't checked out Firefox for a while I was planning to do a Firefox 3.5 review, however, I checked the Mozilla Blog the other day and found that the release candidate (beta) for Firefox 3.6 had been released. So, I changed a few details and here I am, typing the Firefox 3.6 review.
Features and Design:My main problem with Firefox is Originality. I like a browser that has a bit of creative flair about the layout and features, and although themes and personas make it better, Mozilla seems to have made a very basic layout and feel to Firefox and told its users "here you go, have fun" and left the user community to it. Luckily Firefox's dedicated user community is happy to oblige pouring thousands of add-ons, themes and personas into the Firefox network. That's what I like about Firefox, especially 3.6, it has done what many browsers dared not - let the user - your average Joe, take control of how his browser looks, feels and, most importantly, works. So, if you didn't get that, what I meant was I like the amount of customisability options for Firefox 3.6 but I don't like the fact that Mozilla did hardly any of the work and the fact that the layout is too Internet Explorer-ish. True to form though, Firefox doesn't fail to impress with its range of features, it seems to have everything you could possibly need (other than the kitchen sink), but again it falls at one hurdle - originality. Opera 10 had new features like Opera Link, Opera Turbo and Opera Unite - they may do boring, everyday things but at least Opera made an effort. That's my main problem with Firefox and Mozilla in general, they don't seem to put enough effort in, instead they let their overly large fan-club toil away making extras and add-ons for their browser and then claim all the credit. At the same time, although I don't like the layout of Firefox, I do like the fact that Mozilla supports open source projects, so I'm a bit of a hypocrite really...
Efficiency:Mozilla Firefox 3.6 works very well. It has no problems with security and safety (unlike Internet Explorer 8 - see this January's Newscast for more details) and it works ,well, like any browser should. Firefox is really helped buy its add-ons for this section as there are hundreds if not thousands of add-ons to do the little things that help it do everything. Firefox 3.6 is easy to use, and very effective at what it does, that is, browse the web. What more can you want?
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So, In conclusion, Firefox 3.6 is a very effective internet browser that, despite its lack of originality, seems to do everything. What more can you ask for? (other than a bit more original layout)...
