The Release Candidate for Firefox 4 has been out for a few days now and I decided to put it through the paces. Though there wouldn’t me much to write about since my Firefox 4 Beta review, there are definitely some speed tests and other things I have done to compare it with other offerings available today.
UI Changes
As I had mentioned in my Firefox 4 beta review, the user interface for Firefox 4 is completely different from earlier versions. It is similar to what other browser look like including Internet Explorer 9, Opera and Google Chrome.
This is definitely good because users will have a unified experience across multiple browsers. Firefox 4 has combined all the menu items into a single menu item. However, individual menu items are available when you press the Alt key.
Firefox 4 though hasn’t gotten rid of the search box and continues to use it for dedicated searches. However, you can still use the address bar to perform searches.
Missing Google
Mozilla has cancelled it’s contract with Google and are now have a new contract with Bing. Though that is a business decision, Google has completely been removed from Firefox 4 and users have to add it manually.
I definitely don’t like this approach and would have loved if Firefox provided me with a way to choose my default search engine. The Google Desktop you see above was automatically added because I have the software installed on my PC.
Users will have to visit the Mozilla website to add additional search engines to this list. However, don’t expect to find the Google search engine easily, it’s buried way down in their listings.
More New Features
Other than these, Firefox 4 also has a new tab manager which allows you to manage open tabs. A new add-on manager, a new feature where you can search the address bar and switch to an open tab and more Windows 7 integration. I had covered all of these in my earlier Firefox 4 review so I would not want to repeat them again.
Firefox 4 RC Benchmark – How it Stacks Up?
Coming to my favorite part in this review, I ran a couple of benchmarks on Firefox 4 RC to understand how it stacked up against the several other browsers I use. These benchmarks were run on a hot instance of all the included browsers (the browsers were already open once before running the tests).
Sadly, the tests did not backup Firefox 4 here. Firefox 4 was rated the second lowest in the Peacemaker tests after Safari of course. Way below Internet Explorer 9. By the way that Safari 4.0.4 is actually Google Chrome 12, somehow it identifies it wrong. I have made sure to make it apparent in the test results image too.
The winner of course was Opera 11.10 which is still in alpha stage and Google Chrome 12 which will be released soon. It goes to show where Mozilla’s efforts are.
Firefox 3 RC fared worse in their Acid3 tests than the beta versions. This was not unexpected, but I have hardly seen any browser go higher that this.
Of course, Firefox 4 might have higher ratings elsewhere, but this is definitely not something I would want to see Firefox 4 in the ratings. Alas, we can’t get everything we want can we?
What’s Missing?
The ability to install extensions and themes without restarting is a sore point for me right now. I really don’t want to install an extension and then be able to use it only after I close all of the 12 tabs I have open.
I would have seriously wanted to see that feature in Firefox 4, most (read all) browsers support it right now and I find it hard to devour the fact that Mozilla hasn’t done it yet. Maybe I can expect it in Firefox 6 or so.
Other than that I don’t have any real big complaints, but, that does not mean that I will switch from Google Chrome to Firefox. Why? Memory consumption is still an issue with Firefox 4 and it definitely needs to be addresses soon rather than later.
Summarizing
Firefox 4 is a huge leap for Mozilla, it makes a lot of UI changes which will be unacceptable to many users so you can expect a lot of backlash when this goes live However, it is a move in the right direction and will pay off in the end.
However, there are quite a few things which lack in Firefox 4 and were supposed to be in Firefox 3.5. Do feel free to talk about your thoughts out here, in fact I would be very appreciative if you could share your benchmarks of different browsers too.
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