Firefox 3.6: It's Good, But Don't Get Too Excited

The first thing I picked up about Firefox 3.6, the latest Web browser release by Mozilla, is that it scored 94 out of 100 on the Acid3 Test for Web standards. (A score of 100 is considered "passing.") That's not a deal-breaker, but for a community that has at times lashed out at the likes of Microsoft for providing browsers that don't perfectly conform to Web standards, it's worth noting.

Mozilla has been able to grow market share of Firefox over the past two years, from 16.5 percent to 25 percent, according to Net Applications, despite an onslaught of competition from Microsoft, Google, Opera, and Apple with Safari. It's done it by allowing third-party developers to add value through "add-ons" and plug ins, and by giving users what they want. It's also been fairly stable and, in recent years, developers have fixed memory leak issues that for the longest time led to instability and performance issues. Those days are past.

Firefox 3.6 builds on the performance and speed gains offered in Firefox 3.5. It's good, and it's got nice, incremental improvements to improve the browsing experience. It stops short of adding any new game-changing features or functions.

Eye candy: Firefox 3.6 combines with an extensive directory of skins or, as Mozilla calls them, "Personas." Everything from nature themes to Lady Gaga themes are available to jazz up the browser.

Stability: Mozilla has locked down third-party application access to its component directory -- meaning other software that wants to interact with Firefox and kludge up its code won't be able to do that any more. That should reduce browser crashes. In 24 hours of use on three separate machines, Firefox 3.6 hasn't crashed.

Downsides: Toolbar add-ons from third parties including AOL and MapQuest don't work with Firefox 3.6; some animated GIFs won't work right; and "If you have the 'reading pane' option set in Hotmail, the scroll arrows will not work properly," Mozilla says. (But, hey, if you use Hotmail to begin with you have only yourself to blame.)

Bottom line: It's nice. IT managers may want the heads-up that some racy "Personas" could cause some agita in workplace settings, but for the most part they're tame. It's a faster, more stable browser and, really, more of the same from Mozilla.