Mozilla Firefox (Free Web Browser)

Firefox 3.6

v.3.6, released January 21st, 2010
Check out what’s new, the known issues and frequently asked questions about the latest version of Firefox. As always, you’re encouraged to tell us what you think, either using this feedback form or by filing a bug in Bugzilla.

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What’s New in Firefox 3.6

Firefox 3.6  is built on Mozilla’s Gecko 1.9.2 web rendering platform, which has been under development since early 2009 and contains many improvements for web developers, add-on developers, and users. This version is also faster and more responsive than previous versions and has been optimized to run on small device operating systems such as Maemo.

Notable Firefox 3.6 features include:

• Available in more than 70 languages – get your local version.
• Support for a new type of theme called Personas, which allow users to change Firefox’s appearance with a single click.
• Protection from out-of-date plugins to keep users safer as they browse.
• Open, native video can now be displayed full screen and supports poster frames.
• Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness, and startup time.
• The ability for web developers to indicate that scripts should run asynchronously to speed up page load times.
• Continued support for downloadable web fonts using the new WOFF font format.
• Support for new CSS attributes such as gradients, background sizing, and pointer events.
• Support for new DOM and HTML5 specifications including the Drag & Drop API and the File API, which allow for more interactive web pages.
• Changes to how third-party software can integrate with Firefox in order to prevent crashes.

Developers can find out about all the changes and new features at the Mozilla Developer Center.

System Requirements

Before installing, make sure your computer meets the system requirements.

Downloading

Mozilla provides Firefox 3.6 for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X in a variety of languages. You can get the latest version of Firefox 3.6 here. For builds for other systems and languages not provided by Mozilla, see the Contributed Builds section at the end of this document.

Installing

Please note that installing Firefox 3.6 will overwrite your existing installation of Firefox. You won’t lose any of your bookmarks or browsing history, but some of your extensions and other add-ons might not work until updates for them are made available. You can reinstall an older version later if you wish to downgrade.

Uninstalling

You can remove Firefox 3.6 through the Control Panel in the Start Menu on Windows, by removing the Firefox application on OS X, or by removing the firefox folder on Linux.

By default, removing Firefox 3.6 won’t remove your bookmarks, web browsing history, extensions or other add-ons. This data is stored in your profile folder, which can be found by going to the Help menu and selecting Troubleshooting Information…. The button next to the Profile Directory line in Application Basics will open your profile directory in your system’s file explorer.

Please note that if you keep your profile, any version of Firefox that you install after removing Firefox 3.6 will continue to use the bookmarks, web browsing history, add-ons, and other data from this profile folder.

Extensions and Themes

Extensions installed under Firefox 3.5 may be incompatible and/or require updates to work with Firefox 3.6. Please report any issues to the maintainer of the extension. When you install Firefox 3.6 all of your Extensions and Themes will be disabled until Firefox 3.6 determines that either a) they are compatible with the Firefox 3.6 release or b) there are newer versions available that are compatible.