OK, after a long wait, Mozilla's Firefox 3 is out. Firefox 2 became a disappointment for some people (incuding me) because of memory management and stability issues. A lot of hope was placed in...

Mozilla Firefox 3

So, now it's out and I am NOT upgrading my production desktops and notebooks (Windows and Mac) from 2 to 3. Here's why...

1. Firefox's increased security for SSL certs is a good thing. But, it is a pain to deal with in the same way that Windows Vista's UAC is. Yes, Yahoo! Mail's SSL URL does not match its certificate. The old way of notifying me and then letting me through with a single click was fine and relatively safe. The new requirement to add it to the safe list is safer but ultimately more annoying. People who work on multiple boxes will be especially annoyed.

2. I don't use many plugins. So, the few I do use are important to me and none of them work with 3. Forecastfox, Google Toolbar, McAfee SiteAdvisor, and Zoho Notebook Helper are all gone. I'm told turning off validate plug-ins might get some working. But, urmph...

3. Some websites appear unhappy or at least unprepared for Firefox 3. One of my favorite web services, EverNote notifies me of a possible problem. Clicking ok lets me use the site. But, still... urmph... The Google Docs spreadsheet poops out after 650 rows in a 700+ row spreadsheet. And, yes, I uninstalled Google Gears a few weeks ago because of its problems with large-ish spreadsheets. So, it is not the cause of the problem. Twitter.com actually crashed the browser three times in a row on a Windows Vista box. It started working after recovering from the third crash. But, that doesn't give me the warm and fuzzies.

So, annoying security settings, plug-in incompatibilities, and web 2.0 issues are enough for me to stick with Firefox 2.0.0.14 despite its own issues. I'll wait for a Firefox 3.x point release update before considering moving from 2 to 3. How about you?