Firefox 64 bit for Windows?

Firefox 64 bit for Windows is the plan of Mozilla. It’s one of the Firefox 4 features.

Programmer Armen Zambrano Gasparnian announced the first 64-bit Firefox builds for Windows on Friday, offering an FTP site for those who want to download it. But the software isn’t for mainstream users yet.

The transition to 64-bit computing often offers a modest computing performance boost, but the main reason for the transition is getting around the 4GB memory limit of 32-bit computing.

Apple’s Safari and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer already have their 64 bit versions. Google is working on 64-bit Chrome too.

So, why use a 9-year-old browser?

The Australian Microsoft’s marketing campaign asks. Microsoft is urging those using Internet Explorer 6 to upgrade.

“You wouldn’t drink nine-year-old milk, so why use a nine-year-old browser?” asks the Web site.

“When Internet Explorer 6 was launched in 2001, it offered cutting–edge security – for the time. Since then, the Internet has evolved and the security features of Internet Explorer 6 have become outdated”, the site said.

IE6 is scorned by technophiles not just because of its security vulnerabilities but also for its nonstandard or nonexistent implementation of various Web standards. Web developers have plenty of pains supporting the diversity of browsers on the Internet, but IE6 is a particular problem given its continuing, though dwindling, widespread use.

So, if you’re still drinking this 9-year-old milk, please stop. Let’s end this nightmare. Upgrade to a newer version of IE, or try something new, better and refreshing like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox (both are safer, faster and customizable).

Which browsers do you use? What do you think about them? Leave a comment!

Chrome gets more users from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer

Microsoft‘s market share in web browsers — which used to be around 90% — has now slipped below 60%, with Net Applications recording 59.95% for April. And with IE losing 0.7 percentage points over the month, Google’s Chrome browser gained almost all of it: 0.6 percentage points. Firefox and Apple‘s Safari made negligible gains, while Opera actually lost market share.

It wouldn’t be sensible to put too much emphasis on Net Applications’ monthly numbers, which are based on logging access to lots of websites. They’re a good guide to the trends, but the details depend on which sites are monitored. However, in general, Chrome has grown rapidly while other independent alternatives have tended to plateau.

Compared with April last year, Chrome has gained 4.94 points of market share, while Firefox has only gained 0.75 points and Opera 0.26 points. Over the same period, IE has dropped 7.82 points, so Chrome has grabbed almost two-thirds of the share IE has lost.

Google has the huge advantage of advertising its browser on the front of its market-dominating search engine. And with HTML5, Internet Explorer tends to lose even more users to other browsers like Chrome itself, Firefox, Opera and Safari.

From Guardian.co.uk

Near-final Firefox 3.6 out for testing

Mozilla has released its first release candidate, RC1, for Firefox 3.6 for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

The new version includes Personas, which lets people customize the browser’s appearance; blocks third-party software from encroaching on its file system turf to increase stability; and perhaps most significantly given the competitive threat from Google Chrome, shortens start-up time and improves responsiveness and JavaScript performance.

Firefox 3.6 RC1 is also available from Mozilla’s download site.

People can notice skins and better performance, but there also are changes deeper under the hood that developers should know about. One is support for the File interface, which can help with tasks like uploading multiple photos and is part of the draft HTML5 standard effort. Another deeper change is running scripts asynchronously, which can help load a Web page faster by putting off some work until the high-priority chores are complete.

Mozilla had hoped to release the updated browser in 2009 as part of a higher-frequency release schedule, but gave itself a bit more time for Firefox 3.6 and 4.0.

From CNET.com