FireFox Beta 2 is out
 

Just in time for Parker to use :)

http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozi...2/win32/en-US/

what's different about it?

From what I understand, very little.

I am testing it right now and it is alot faster than 1.5.

Here is what is new:

* Visual Refresh: Firefox 2's theme and user interface have been updated to improve usability without altering the familiarity of the browsing experience. For instance, toolbar buttons now glow when you hover over them. We will continue to improve the look and feel throughout the release candidate process.

* Built-in phishing protection: Phishing Protection warns users when they encounter suspected Web forgeries, and offers to return the user to their home page. Phishing Protection is turned on by default, and works by checking sites against either a local or online list of known phishing sites. This list is automatically downloaded and regularly updated when the Phishing Protection feature is enabled. Please note that at this time we are using a limited list to test the core Phishing Protection framework within the browser. Users are encouraged to wait until a future release of Firefox 2 to verify the accuracy of the list of Web forgeries.

* Enhanced search capabilities: Search term suggestions will now appear as users type in the integrated search box when using the Google, Yahoo! or Answers.com search engines. A new search engine manager makes it easier to add, remove and re-order search engines, and users will be alerted when Firefox encounters a website that offers new search engines that the user may wish to install.

* Improved tabbed browsing: By default, Firefox will open links in new tabs instead of new windows, and each tab will now have a close tab button. Power users who open more tabs than can fit in a single window will see arrows on the left and right side of the tab strip that let them scroll back and forth between their tabs. The History menu will keep a list of recently closed tabs, and a shortcut lets users quickly re-open an accidentally closed tab.

* Resuming your browsing session: The Session Restore feature restores windows, tabs, text typed in forms, and in-progress downloads from the last user session. It will be activated automatically when installing an application update or extension, and users will be asked if they want to resume their previous session after a system crash.

* Previewing and subscribing to Web feeds: Users can decide how to handle Web feeds (like this one), either subscribing to them via a Web service or in a standalone RSS reader, or adding them as Live Bookmarks. My Yahoo!, Bloglines and Google Reader come pre-loaded as Web service options, but users can add any Web service that handles RSS feeds.

* Inline spell checking: A new built-in spell checker enables users to quickly check the spelling of text entered into Web forms (like this one) without having to use a seperate application.

* Live Titles: When a website offers a microsummary (a regularly updated summary of the most important information on a Web page), users can create a bookmark with a "Live Title". Compact enough to fit in the space available to a bookmark label, they provide more useful information about pages than static page titles, and are regularly updated with the latest information. There are several websites that can be bookmarked with Live Titles, and even more add-ons to generate Live Titles for other popular websites.

* Improved Add-ons manager: The new Add-ons manager improves the user interface for managing extensions and themes, combining them both in a single tool.

* JavaScript 1.7: JavaScript 1.7 is a language update introducing several new features such as generators, iterators, array comprehensions, let expressions, and destructuring assignments. It also includes all the features of JavaScript 1.6.

* Extended search plugin format: The Firefox search engine format now supports search engine plugins written in Sherlock and OpenSearch formats and allows search engines to provide search term suggestions.

* Updates to the extension system: The extension system has been updated to provide enhanced security and to allow for easier localization of extensions.

* Client-side session and persistent storage: New support for storing structured data on the client side, to enable better handling of online transactions and improved performance when dealing with large amounts of data, such as documents and mailboxes. This is based on the WHATWG specification for client-side session and persistent storage.

* SVG text: Support for the svg:textpath specification enables SVG text to follow a curve or shape.

* New Windows installer: Based on Nullsoft Scriptable Install System, the new Windows installer resolves many long-standing issues.

Cool. I like some of those changes. I especially like the inline spell checker and some of the tabbed browsing changes (e.g. default to open in new tab instead of new window).

My comment was based on an article I read about Firefox 2.0 versus Internet Explorer 7. That article indicated that the new version of IE was going to have most of the primary features of Firefox and would probably limit the attractiveness of making a switch from IE to Firefox. The author still liked Firefox, he just didn't see any compelling changes, I guess. The articles author said he thought the new version of Firefox should have been a 1.6 instead of a 2.0.

i gotta agree. there is not to big of a difference. 1.6 would have been right.

I read that article too. I agree. Of course, even so, IE 7 < Firefox soley based on their CSS support. IE7 only supports 54% of CSS2 and that's only 2% from IE6. Yet Firefox supports 93% and counting.