The New Firefox – Firefox 4

Internet Explorer 9 was launched just a few days ago and the people from Mozilla didn’t wait too long before stepping back into the game. The new Firefox 4 is now available for download and you can upgrade to the next version for free by clicking on the Help button -> About and Check for updates or download it directly from here. If you don’t have this version already, the new one can be installed and it will be ready for use in just a couple of minutes. But first, let’s see what the new Firefox brings to the web browsing table.

Aspect Changes for the Firefox 4 Update

A full article about the differences between Firefox and Chrome will be added some other day, but in the meantime, you should now that this update will make the gap between these browsers much smaller. Even to the untrained eye, these browsers looked differently, but now they are practically the same. The tabs will be sent directly to the top of the window, which is not a design change that I find beneficial. Luckily, you can bring the menu bar back if you right click the area and re-check this feature. Another major change is the refresh or stop button. Luckily, you don’t just have to use the CTRL + R keys or the F5 key, you can find both of these buttons at the end of the address bar. They are much smaller than before and easier to miss, but the reload button is sill available in Firefox 4.

Speed and Functionality

It seems that the new version of Firefox is 6 times faster than before or at least that’s what they’ve told us. Even if you don’t pay attention to this type of details, you will notice that the program will start much quicker than it did before and it seems to handle more abuse without lagging. The difference is definitely noticeable and now you can easily pair it with Chrome without any problems. Once you get used to the new layout, you will be able to access your favorite web pages in no time. The security features included in this version of Firefox are of the highest quality, so you don’t have to worry about entering malicious websites or having to deal with pop-up ads.

Potential Problems

There aren’t that many problems that you can have with Firefox 4. The biggest one is downgrading to a previous version in case you don’t like the change. You will however, be allowed to go back to 3.6 without any problems. The development team also said that some people will experience lag when scrolling down in Gmail, but I didn’t notice this problem, so it must be a rare occurrence and it will be fixed in the next release.

Conclusion

If you want to enjoy the increase in speed brought by Firefox 4, you should definitely upgrade and start getting used to the change. The interface is a little bit different, but you can make some adjustments that will help ease the transition.