Firefox 2

[francis]

Release candidate 3 for Firefox 2 (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/2.0/releasenotes/) is available for download, and is nice.

Not sure about the PC version, but the Mac one has a nice new skin. Other new features include a close button on each tab, built-in spul chokker for form posts (although it's not picked up those 2 mistakes, it was working fine in Gmail a minute ago), anti-phishing controls and some kind of Google live search thing. Performance-wise, the Mac version is very spritely - much better than 1.5.x, which is, frankly, pony.

I believe the final version is due out, surprise, about the same time as IE7. There doesn't seem to be any rendering engine "nasties", but then the Mozilla people have been on the ball with FF, so that's hardly surprising.

[David]

I read a review of FF2 recently that said it wasn't really worthy of a whole point increment in the version and probably should have been 1.6 or maybe 1.7 - looks like the marketing people have been at work, knowing that it will be going head-to-head with IE7. The improvements do appear to be incremental rather than root-and-branch changes.

[francis]

And what's more interesting is that there's a Firefox 3 due for around May 2007! What are they - Adobe?! Oh, and Extensions are now called "Add ons". Some don't work (Tails export, Screen Grab, Search box Auto Resizer), but the good news is that Web Developer and View Source Chart both work. I'd be seriously lost without those.

[francis]

FF2 RC3 on the Mac is very nice. Really fast and no beach ball (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinning_wait_cursor) (something I'd get often with 1.5.x).

CNet have a FF2 vs. IE7 comparison article (http://reviews.cnet.com/Internet_Explorer_7/4505-3514_7-32111537.html).