On Friday, March 18th we have an unexpected Firefox 4 RC2 release and right after, on Sunday, March 20th the Firefox team made available the final build via FTP server, and today Tuesday, March 22th the waiting is over, Firefox 4 final version is officially released as promised, you can download it here. People around the world are already downloading Firefox 4 and the count is almost 400,000 and claiming…

Firefox 4 has already surpassed 3,500,000 downloads and it is not stopping. According to the Firefox 4 Download Stats page this numbers are based on total downloads from the Mozilla.com Website and when the user is being asked to upgrade to the latest version, since today March 22, 2011.

Let’s do a little recap of what is new. Firefox 4 brings a whole new browser, for starters it is fast, thanks to the new JaegerMonkey JavaScript engine that is up to six times faster than previous versions of Firefox; a more optimized start-up time and the introduction of hardware acceleration to take full advantage of the computer hardware, which this translate in better video graphics performance and interaction working with Tabs and scrolling pages. A brand new, sleek and totally redesigned user interface, the new slimmer UI is cleaner and it better utilizes the browser window frame to enable more viewable space for your favorites Websites and less attention to the file menus, big buttons or toolbars. Under the hood you will also find support for HTML5, CSS3 and WebGL standards.

In Firefox 4 there are many new features and some of them include:

  • Switch to Tab, the next time that you have many open Tabs and you try to open something new, Firefox is going to switch to the Tab with the content you need, if there is already a copy of it.
  • App Tabs allows you to pin Websites you care the most, e.g., Facebook and Twitter, to the left of the browser for faster access and always available.
  • Panorama will allow you to drag-and-drop and organize Tabs into groups.
  • Firefox Sync is a great feature which gives you the ability to sync your passwords, history, bookmarks, and even your open Tabs between devices, including mobile phones, and to enhance security, all of your information that gets synced is encrypted before leaving your computer.
  • And a new Add-ons Manager to manage all your add-ons, extensions, plugins and appearance, all in one place.
  • Take the tour and get to know in more detail Firefox 4, this page cover many more features, hardware acceleration, sync, Panorama, customize Toolbar, new privacy controls and more.

Also check out this video to learn more on what is new in Firefox 4:

  • Download Firefox 4
  • Keep track of Firefox 4 downloads around the glow! And you can also join a really nice Firefox 4 TwitterParty, which builds the Firefox logo mosaic out of all Firefox tweets. If you want to be part of the party use the Twitter hashtag #fx4.