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Firefox 2 Beta 1

Davis D. Janowski
 & Davis D. Janowski davis_janowski@ziffdavis.com

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They made me do it . . . write this preview of the latest Firefox beta, that is, and I suppose they ("they" being my editors) are right. Millions of people have left IE over the last few years in a great browser exodus. The alternatives garnering the most buzz tend to be Firefox and Opera—for good reason. Both have provided plenty of innovative ways to view and use the Internet. My reluctance to write about Beta 1 of Firefox 2.0 exists out of fear that, because we've spent some electrons writing about it, readers will head right over to Mozilla's site to get it. Don't! Heed this advice from the Firefox developers: "We do not recommend that anyone other than developers and testers download the Firefox 2.0 Beta 1 milestone release. It is intended for testing purposes only." Since it's definitely not intended for mass consumption, we're not giving this release a rating, either.

Firefox 2.0: Download
Firefox 2.0: Have PC (or Mac, or Distro), Will Run
Firefox 2.0: No Tower of Babel
Firefox 2.0: Incompatible Add-ons
Session Restore
Spell Check
Firefox 2.0: Atom and RSS
VIEW ALL PHOTOS IN GALLERY
If this hasn't persuaded you, keep in mind that none of your extensions are likely to be compatible with this version—and if you're a regular Firefox user like me, you're probably running a decent number from the thousand-plus that are available. All this aside, there are many minor tweaks to Firefox 2.0 that we'll all eventually come to appreciate—that will probably completely escape our attention.

One of my personal favorites among the more noticeable additions, improvements, and new features is

Firefox 2.0: Download

Nothing unusual here. In the scheme of things it doesn’t really matter these days, but note that at 5.6MB, Firefox 2.0 is a little over a third the size of IE7. Note also that you can, under the other systems and languages link, find out more about versions of Firefox 2.0 for Linux and Mac, as well as the other 39 languages 2.0 is available in. There’s plenty of useful info under the Release Notes link as well.

Firefox 2.0: Have PC (or Mac, or Distro), Will Run

Yep, like its forebears, 2.0 will run on most any PC from the last three years (or Mac, or Linux box). Even the recommended system requirements aren’t all that demanding.

Firefox 2.0: No Tower of Babel

Here’s but a sampling of the 40 languages and multiple operating systems 2.0 is currently available in/for.

Firefox 2.0: Incompatible Add-ons

It can be a bummer leaving version 1.5 for 2.0 if your favorite extensions aren’t yet available for the new browser; but if the developer community remains as on fire with 2.0 as with previous editions, you shouldn’t have to wait long, especially for the most popular add-ons and extensions. This screenshot is the result of Firefox 2.0 auto-scanning for previous extensions and add-ons (there weren’t a lot already loaded on this old test PC, so longtime 1.5 users, prepare yourself for possibly quite a few more).

firefox 2: restore

If your browser session hangs and you have to kill it or it simply closes fear not; when you restart, Firefox 2 will ask if you want to open all the pages you were browsing at the time of the crash. It’s a pretty helpful feature when you have a bunch of half-read blog and Web pages open and the browser crashes or freezes (it queries you before re-opening too, just in case you're pretty sure you'd gone to a site that gave you some bad-tasting malicious content).

firefox 2: spell check

The built-in spelling checker is there to help with most any online text query, be it within a Web mail client, blog post, or online form.

Firefox 2.0: Atom and RSS

There’s a good bit of flexibility when it comes to Atom and RSS feeds when using Firefox 2.0. You can use the built-in (and pretty rudimentary) Live Bookmarks feed reader (shown here as it is set by default) to subscribe to both Atom and RSS feeds, or you can choose between Bloglines, Google, or Yahoo!, or point to some other reader application you might have installed.

firefox 2: autosuggest

Whether you choose to do a search using Google, Yahoo!, or Answers.com (among others), the predictive text feature will give you similar suggestions and history. This is due to built in adherence to the OpenSearch and Sherlock search specifications employed by the major search providers.

firefox 2: manage

You’ll now find a Manage Search Engines button under the default search box in the upper left of the browser.

firefox 2: manager

This window, with its Get more search engines link, appears when you click on the search manager’s Manage Search Engines button.

firefox 2: engines

You've got quite a few choices among existent search engines available that can be added to your own iteration of the browser.

About Our Expert

Davis D. Janowski

Davis D. Janowski

davis_janowski@ziffdavis.com

Davis D. Janowski is Lead Analyst for Web Applications and Software, charged with covering the likes of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and millions of other Internet and Web companies. Prior to this, he served as Section Editor for Consumer Networking, GPS Products, Phones & PDAs (Mobile and VoIP); Associate Editor for Networking Infrastructure; and Associate Editor for Internet Infrastructure. Before joining PC Magazine, Janowski worked as a medical editor, covering epidemiology and infectious diseases, receiving training at the Centers for Disease Control. At one point, he acted as guide for a CDC team, collecting ticks for a study on the origins of human ehrlichiosis in the Florida bush. Before that he made a very modest living as a freelance writer and photographer, covering scuba diving and nautical archaeology.

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