After only 24 hours of its release IE9 managed to chalk up a pretty impressive 2.35 million downloads, according to an article on Techtree by Nachiket Mhatre. But when you compare it to what Firefox 4 has just achieved its not so good, as this was downloaded a staggering 4.7 million times on its first day.

This is still a lot lower compared to the last version which managed 8 million on its first day, but this was promoted more. The latest version of Firefox has even got 3D acceleration support that users of Windows XP can utilize.

Mozilla will be looking to further enlarge its user base with Firefox 4, but it has seen Google’s Chrome which is now home to 10% of internet devices across the world. Whether Firefox can persuade users to ditch Chrome for its new version of browser remains to be seen.

But what other browsers could challenge the likes of Chrome and Firefox? Some of our readers have mentioned the often ignored Opera, or is they anything better which you use? Tell us what your favorite browser is.

After downloading which was a lot quicker than the download for IE9, I started the browser. First thing I noticed was how less cluttered the browser looked. I like the tab in the top left hand side of the screen which is an orange Firefox button, and gives you all your options via a pull down screen.

The bookmark and homepage button have switched over to the right hand side of the screen in the corner, this leaves more space on the page. Speed wise it’s no Google Chrome but is quicker than before and IE9. I had issues before with IE9 and my wireless Canon printer, but there weren’t any problems with Firefox 4.

So far I’ve not come across any issues with add-ons or plug-ins causing any problems with the browser, and after using the previous version for a long time it is like having an old friend back. When you click on the Firefox button you are given the menu options. There is also the useful feature of sorting out your open tabs into groups.

The Add-ons manager is an easy way to find extensions and themes, and you can easily find out what has been disabled or what’s running. There are a vast range of Add-ons available and you even get a rating system. This is a brilliant way of avoiding those which could cause problems or are not any good.

Conclusion

This is the best version of Firefox I have used to date, and will continue to use it. Hopefully I will not encounter any freezing or crashing as I did with its predecessor. I will not be using IE9 anymore, and will go back to IE8 so I can continue to use my printer. We have a poll running asking you what web browser you prefer between Firefox 4, Google Chrome, and IE9.

Have you tried Firefox 4 yet? What do you think of it?

Just a few hours ago we told you that Mozilla had put the full version of Firefox on their FTP servers for anyone to download, despite the fact that the browser isn’t officially released until sometime tomorrow (March 22).

Meanwhile, Microsoft went live with Internet Explorer 9 on March 14th, and followed this with an announcement saying that they had accumulated 2.35 million downloads during the first 24 hours, a figure which they were pretty pleased with. However, as proven on our IE9 problems thread, there are a lot of you who are experiencing issues with the new version, so a patch may need to be released to keep users happy.

Then onto the silent assassin, aka Google Chrome, as Google swiftly rolled out the latest version of Chrome 10 around two weeks ago. We ran a similar problem thread which you can check out here, but there doesn’t appear to be any major problems which is a credit to Google and their team.

So with that in mind, which browser are you currently using at the moment? Excluding the likes of Safari and Opera, we want to know which browser you think is the best in terms of speed and overall performance. We’re going to put our necks on the line to say that most of you won’t be choosing IE9, so we think it’s a dogfight between Chrome 10 and Firefox 4.

Vote in our poll below and we’ll be posting the results of it after your feedback.

[poll id="327"]

To get the final version of Firefox 4, head to Mozilla’s FTP server here, as reported from TechRadar. Click on your platform of choice, either Mac, Linux or Windows, and then simply click the folder that is relevant to you, which is likely to be en-GB or en-US. Inside you’ll then find the .exe file you need if you’re on Windows, and that’s the final version.

This version is pretty much the same as the RC release that became available at the end of the week. Mozilla has obviously seen no major problems with the last version, and having previously released 10 betas for Firefox 4, the full version is finally available for public use.

So to those of you who have already downloaded Firefox 4, what are your thoughts on it? Is it the most impressive version of Firefox 4 to date, or are there some areas that you’re disappointed about? We haven’t heard of any major problems with the new version yet, but if you spot anything, you can come here to report any issues and see if other readers are having the same problems.

Firefox 4 development has been taking place since February last year, therefore it has been a long time coming, some experts are suggesting that Mozilla has left its users waiting too long, therefore Firefox has lost some of its market share to Chrome, Internet Explorer and Safari.

The official Firefox 4 release date will arrive just eight days after Microsoft launched IE9, since its release IE9 has been well received, therefore it will be interesting to see how Firefox 4 fares.

In February 2010 Firefox held a 24.5% share of the web browser market (according to Net Applications), a year later Firefox’s share had dropped to just 21.7% percent and we get the impression that a lot of people have jumped ship to Google Chrome instead.

With a new tab manager, GPU acceleration, an improved user interface and faster speeds Mozilla Firefox should be a very solid browser, but is it too little too late?

The Release Candidate is the final test version of the software, which is intended for developers to demo the new build in case any bugs are found before the next version, which generally turns out to be the full version providing any major problems are not present.

Even if you’re not a developer you can still download this software if you’re interested in getting a personal preview of what’s in store for version 4.0. Confirmed new features include a resigned Chrome-like UI, HTML 5 support and updated support of certain Javascript engines, according to ZDnet.

If you’d like to try out Firefox 4.0 RC, you can download the PC version here. For Mac users, you’ll need to visit this link. Download it now and let us know your thoughts on it. If you discover any problems whilst installing or using the new version, get it touch with us below.

You may want to check out additional information on the Firefox 4 RC on the official Mozilla Wiki page here.

Raskin, who was the brain-child and designer of the ‘Tab Sets’ or ‘Tab Candy’ that made it into older and current beta builds of Firefox 4 said he intends to leave the company on January 1, 2011 in favour of a new company called Massive Health.

Commenting on his own blog yesterday, Raskin said “Each of us has a unique ability. I want to use mine – the knowledge to make products which are disruptively easier and more enjoyable to use – to change people’s lives.”

What he means by life changing does not concern the internet or email and the politics that come with it. Raskin said that he wants to make peoples lives better by “helping them get and stay healthly.”

With Raskin leaving the company, does this mean that Mozilla will sorely miss the designer and his unique design elements? Does this mean the future of Firefox will change? If you were a a designer, how would you design Firefox, or any browser for that matter?

Beta 8 was pencilled in for a release on November 30, but some in-house problems prevented that release as they prepared to fix nagging issues with the application.

Most of the problems centered around synchronization, and security issues, but now it would seem that they have most of the bases covered so you should see the release appear on the Mozilla website next week.

For those of you have tried previous Firefox beta, this one should be much more stable as crashes are far less significant.

Mozilla say that “based on the Fennec Beta 3 schedule, which is targeting Dec 7th as ship, we feel it’s best to align Beta 8 with that date.” They also state with their patch notes that “there is a pending change to the way Sync UI works for adding another client.”

How is Firefox 4 Beta treating you so far? You happy with it?

Source: ZDnet

Michael Muchmore of PCMAG is looking at what all this activity in browser betas means for internet users. It was found that some of the new browsers heading our way have a more cleaner feel to them, with IE9 in particular having a less cluttered look along the top window border. Google Chrome beats this by having just a single control button, the Gear icon.

Opera have taken the interface reduction even further by having a single menu button at the very top of the window border, and Firefox 4 has a similar style. With speed the betas were tested on a machine running Windows 7 Ultimate, with Google Chrome still being the fastest. IE9 showed much improvement over IE8.

Everyone will have their own favorite web browser be it for speed of just plain looks, but it is good to have so much choice. To read the full in depth comparison click here.

What browser do you use?

That’s not the only improvement in Firefox, there is a new feature called “Tab Set”, which allows you to group your tabs. This is certainly a great feature, but it is the hardware acceleration that is of interest to most. Most browsers have this in one shape or another, and helps to reduce the load on the CPU and allows the graphics processor to do some of the work instead.

Mozilla has managed to come up with this by using Windows’ Direct2D interface; this not only increases the display of text, but also graphics as well. Stephen Shankland from Cnet News points out that this new feature will only work on the newer versions of Microsoft Windows.

Mozilla has designed Firefox 4 to be their fastest web browser yet, something they need to keep on top off, as they are now competing with the likes of Google Chrome – the new browser that has taken the market by storm.