Firefox 3.6 is here

Today, Mozilla announced Firefox 3.6, the oft-delayed but very much improved version of their popular browser. For those still suffering of internet Explorer’s reign of terror, Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. A Net Applications survey put Firefox at 25% of the recorded usage share of web browsers as of November 2009, making it the second most popular browser in terms of current use worldwide after Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, and the most used browser independent of any one operating system. Firefox runs on various versions of Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and many other Unix-like operating systems. For those of you who are already familiar with the incredibly versatile and expandable browser, here are the most important new features:

Personas: New Firefox themes called “Personas” let you change the look of your Firefox with a single click. Choose anything from simple designs to colorful patterns to content from community members and partners like Harry Potter, Bob Marley or Lady Gaga. With a gallery of over 35,000 to choose from, you can change your Persona as often as you like. Go to GetPersonas.com to start browsing the galleries and check out “Themes” in the Add-Ons Manager to manage your designs.
Plugin Updater: Some Web pages require that you install small applications called Plugins to watch videos, play games or view documents. It can be hard to make sure that all of your Plugins are always up to date. Since outdated Plugins are a security risk, Firefox will let you know when you have a Plugin that’s vulnerable to attack and help you get an updated version. If you want to check your Plugins at any time, just select “Check for Updates” from the Help menu, or click on “Find Updates” in the Plugins page of the Add-ons Manager.
Stability improvements: Firefox 3.6 significantly decreased crashes caused by third party software – all without sacrificing our extensibility in any way
Form Complete: It’s like the Awesome Bar, but for forms. Now, when you’re filling out an online form like your shipping address, Firefox will suggest information for each field based on your most common answers for similar fields in other forms (rather than just showing you an alphabetical list). Instead of typing out the same answers over and over, you’ll be zipping through the forms in no time.
Performance: Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness, and startup time
Open Video and Audio: With the world’s best implementation of HTML 5 audio and video support, now video can be displayed full screen and supports poster frames

And for our fellow developers:

Support for the latest HTML5 specification, including the File API for local file handling
Font Support: In addition to OpenType and TrueType fonts, 3.6 now supports the new Web Open Font Format (WOFF)
CSS gradients: Supports linear and radial CSS gradients which allow for a smoother transition between colors
Device orientation: Firefox 3.6 exposes the orientation of the laptop or device to Web pages

Whether the new Firefox can live up to our expectations is yet to be seen. The last Thunderbird release left some users frustrated because of add-on incompatibility and flash-related problems (we even got some mail regarding these issues), but Mozilla products are usually of great quality, and I shall hit the update button without hesitation.
If you do however give it second thoughts, I’ll leave the job of convincing you to Mike Beltzner, Director of Firefox Development: