3 Things You Should Know Before Installing Firefox 4
Hot on the heels of Internet Explorer 9, Mozilla Firefox 4 has arrived. The long-awaited update offers some intriguing new features and the promise of much faster startup, graphics rendering, JavaScript performance, and so on.
However, there are three things you should consider before installing Firefox 4:
1. There's a learning curve. Mozilla changed many aspects of the browser's interface, like relocating the Refresh button to the right side of the address bar and the Home button to the far right edge of the window. Why? To me this smacks of change for the sake of change. Meanwhile, tabs now span the top edge of the browser, and the traditional pull-down menus are gone (having been replaced by a new Firefox button). Also gone: the status bar. It's all a bit confusing at first.
2. Some of your extensions won't work. This happens every time a new Firefox rolls out, and it sucks every time. If there are certain add-ons you absolutely can't work without, make sure they're Firefox 4-compatible before installing the update. For example, my productivity would be severely impeded without the likes of PermaTabs Mod and TinyURL Generator -- neither of which is compatible with Firefox 4. (Most developers will update their extensions, but it might be weeks -- or months -- until you've got all your favorites back again.)
3. The fonts may look blurry. This is a known issue that relates to Microsoft's ClearType. One quick fix is to venture into Firefox's settings (the Advanced tab) and disable hardware acceleration. But then you lose out on those benefits. Instead, try the Anti-Aliasing Tuner add-on. It should do the trick.
Despite these issues, I think most users will love Firefox 4, which is indeed much faster than version 3 and stocked with some fairly awesome new features (most notably App Tabs, Panorama, and Sync). Find out more in Lifehacker's What's New and Awesome in Firefox 4.
What do you think? Are you planning an immediate upgrade, or will you wait it out for a while? If you've already pulled the Firefox 4 trigger, let me know what you think of it!
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