Posted on 10/22/2006 9:29:33 AM PDT by Eagle9
Not to be outdone by Microsoft's recent release of Internet Explorer 7, Mozilla will release the second major version of its rival Firefox browser on Tuesday, October 24.
According to Mozilla Vice President of Products Christopher Beard, Firefox 2.0, which should be available on Tuesday if all goes according to schedule, includes key new usability features missing in the new IE 7.
(Read PC World's comparative review of IE 7 and Firefox 2.)
Mozilla has also enhanced the popular tabbed browsing feature in 2.0 that Firefox introduced when it emerged two years ago as the first significant rival to IE in years, Beard adds. Tabs allow users to navigate more easily between multiple Web pages when browsing the Internet, and Microsoft added tabs to IE 7 after Firefox's success with the feature.
In Firefox 2.0, Mozilla has added a "close" button on its tabs, as well as new visual features to make the tabs appear more obvious to the user, Beard says.
New usability features in Firefox 2.0 that differentiate it from IE 7 include one that will restore the browser to pages where the user was working if a sudden OS restart is required. "If your browser needs a restart or the OS asks you to reboot, losing all of those Web pages and content is pretty disruptive," Beard notes.
Firefox 2.0 is offering two options for enabling this feature. One way is that, by default, the browser will give the user an option to restore his or her browser sessions if there is an unexpected shutdown; the other is an advanced option to set the browser so that it always restores the last five pages visited before a sudden reboot.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Over 60% of our users use Microsoft Internet Explorer 6. Only 14% use Mozilla Firefox, which - on a personal note - I strongly recommend everyone use. --Chip Anderson
http://stockcharts.com/commentary/archives/cww20061021m.html
"because 7 is a higher number than two"
2 is better than 7 because it took them 5 more times to get it right, if Microsoft did, which I doubt.
Have you tried Tab Mix Plus? It has a feature where you can specify if new links are opened in new tabs or the same one. Plus I've used a million times their feature that restores a closed tab that I didn't mean to close, with a button on the toolbar.
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1122/
That sounds great! I think I'll wait to install it until after 2.0 comes out, but it looks like it's the solution to my one complaint about Firefox.
Per Majorgeeks.com, Firefox 2.0 final has been released.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Mozilla_Firefox_d2248.html
2.0 information is not yet showing up on the Mozilla/Firefox website, but the download link is working:
http://majorgeeks.com/downloadget.php?id=2248&file=1&evp=7b5b67cedfd41e9782a30d14601a0cb7
I have been using the 2.0 beta and love it, fast and clean. Tried IE 7 to compare the 2 and hated it.
It looks like they've fixed the memory leak in Firefox 2.
One of the early 1.5 versions frequently used up over 500kb of memory. Ver 2 is holding at around 61kb. Quite a significant improvement.
I just hope they've fixed the disappearing vertical slider bar when the main window is resized to less than 1/2 of the monitor screen.
I would hold up getting Firefox 2.0 until the Mozilla Foundation officially releases it. The reason is simple: these "early" releases may still be the Release Candidate 3 and/or contain a virus.
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