Firefox fixes over 300 memory leaks

By: Bill Waters
Staff Writer
Published: Nov 21, 2007

Mozilla released the first beta of Firefox 3.0 that claims to pack innovative features and improved security tools.

Firefox 3.0 has been released but Mozilla's interface designer, Mike Beltzner, warns that they do not recommend anyone except developers and testers to download and install the Firefox Beta 1 milestone release.

Beltzner also said that he's been running the developer preview for at least three months, and has never looked back.

But while Mozilla seems to have left it to users to decide whether or not they want to download the new beta, there are some improvements in Firefox 3.0 that need mention.

These include: several back-end platform enhancements, redesigned bookmarking and browser history, and new security tools.

New security features include: one-click site information displaying site ownership; integration with anti-virus software and Windows Vista parental control settings; fixes for vulnerabilities in plug-in updating; malware check and a sort of phishing filter that warns users trying to reach a blacklisted URL.

This apart, Mozilla claims it has fixed over 300 individual memory leaks, and added a new cycle collector to do away with other memory issues.

Users can download Firefox 3.0 Beta 1 for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux operating systems, in 21 language versions.

Mozilla has not said when the official and final version of Firefox 3 will be released.