Firefox 2 rocks (it’s way faster)

Auto-session recovery after a crash is the best feature of this release for me.

The inline spell checker is good too.

I installed it this morning and went back to 1.5 10 minutes later. There still is no single window mode (open links that request being opened in new windows in tabs, not new windows), it still can not restore my tabs after I closed Firefox. And even worse: The extension I us in 1.5 to do this (Tab Mix Plus) doesn't work on 2.0. There is a dev build that's supposed to work, but it doesn't.

Plus: The new theme is ugly. ;)

Maybe will now quit trashing the IE team for copying the Firefox team. Nah, probably not.

Thomas: on the contrary, 'single window mode' is now the default mode.

It's in Options/Preferences > Tabs.

"(it has the improved tabs that IE 7 has, where the close box is on the tab itself, much nicer)."

So FireFox 2 has the improved tabs with the close box on the tab itself, which IE7 already has, which Safari had before IE 7? ;)

Close box on tab is not so good as you think.

Then you finished reading page - now instead of clicking on X in always predictable location - you have to search for active tab and move your mouse there.

As well - if you have too many tabs open - you will see X near old place there you used to click on it. So it's become possible to close wrong tab.

I understand that my opinion is personal and some other users will like it better - as it give options to close windows without activating them first.
But I wish we had an option to get close box in old location.

TAG - I agree with you there. I haven't used it yet but that is one feature that I would have liked to have stayed the same.

I know what you mean man, and that update that just came out makes it LOOK even better

"Middle-click" has always closed tabs. There is no need for the close icon. Middle click on a link opens the url in a new tabs. I imagine must people don't realize the power of the "middle click". And if you using an old Mac mouse you never will.

@Thomas
Tried this extension? It is supposed to force your extension to believe that they're compatible with your firefox
http://users.blueprintit.co.uk/~dave/web/firefo...

The new improved tab doesn't move me much, because I use keyboard shortcuts to do all the jobs.

With IE Tab installed on FF2, I have almost forgotten IE :-) very neat.

Wow. It's so much faster. It now supports SAGE, thats good.

I'll use 2.0 when it is no longer beta but is instead the latest stable version. :)

Does everyone forget Opera? They were the instigators of tabbed browsing many halfmoons ago and have always had X close on each tab :)

It does go much faster, unfortunately, the tabs don't work! I'll wait for stable release as well

You mean the close buttons copied from Safari, right? ctrl-w is so much more convenient, and I don't accidentally close the tab I want when I click too close to the X on the tab. I'm trying to figure out how any of this is real news or worth anybody's time.

RC1 had the close button on the tab, didn't it? Seems like i've been browsing that way (sans any spiffy extensions to do such behavior) for weeks now, eh? (this one looks prettier though)

Firefox is just now catching up to where Opera has already been for quit a while - Ooh, a close box on the tab itself - how innovative. And quick? Gimme a break.

@phrostypoison
Hm, then my imported profile must have killed that. For me it opened lots of new windows. Still the restore feature is missing which I use a lot.

@Matti
No, I haven't tried that, but I don't think it would help in this case. The dev build I used for Tab Mix Plus did work in the sense of it got activated, and some of the settings actually worked. But just some, e.g. the single window setting did not. So it seems to be more of a problem of how 2.0 opens windows which is different from how 1.5 did it.

@Will
If you just need the features that Opera provides I don't see a reason not to use it and switch to Firefox. I switched to Firefox because Opera was missing features (most prominently ad blocking) and does not even have the concept of extensions. Whatever you like about Opera featurewise, there is definetly an extension for Firefox providing the exact same feature in a gazillion different ways so that everybody gets what he wants. And speed is not an issue for me, I have not yet encountered a browser which felt slow. There may be objetcivly fast or slow browsers, but as long as I don't notice it I don't care.

I'm agreed with you. It’s not only faster but useful too.

Faster, yes, but then Opera's been miles down the road eons ago, but then I can't live without some FF extensions, so mull between Opera and FF. But IE is a long long distant memory and use Avant for those times when IE proves a neccessary evil.

robert,
yest you blog was not in the top blog section. guess your new job is taking much of your time.

www.irin.co.uk

The new default skin is just ugly.
Rss feeds dont't look as good as in IE7.
Visual rendering of pages is not as smooth as in IE7.

Anyway, i use FF2(RC2) because it is THE browser.

Still not as fast as OmniWeb...

@diego,

Yes IE7 and Safari had those style of tabs first, but no one is saying anything towards them. No one is saying who was first. Besides I think Opera was the first, and props to them for that.

There might have been other browser before with close buttons on tabs, but Safari introduced them in its version 1.x. Opera added them in Opera 8 (with the option to revert to the real MDI buttons like it always had had). The Firefox team is the only one that did some serious usability research some time ago, and the change in Firefox 2 is the result of this research.

Saved sessions (autorestore after crash, or always if you want) have been with Opera since Opera 4 or 5. Omniweb on Mac also has extensive session features. Firefox 2 is now getting some - and IE7 doesn't have them, nor Safari, IIANM.

Hey,Opera is faster.
Opera 9 doesn't have any banners anymore and it just rocks with the ease of use. Firefox with the 'fasterfox' extension is very good though.

I've recently converted to Firefox after years on Internet Explorer, and I'm very pleased with the browser so far. I haven't downloaded any addons yet, but I may do one day.

Can't wait for FF 2.0 to come out FF 1.0 + and above has been so good :)

should check out avant browser, actually an overlay for IE6 & is faster. almost on par. W. Firefox.

Find working in the text area (form fields) is the single most important feature in Firefox 2 for me. It really is the little things.

BlueQute is a very nice skin, much better than the default one (though that's not that hard to do).

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1789/

anyone know of a link to a screenshot?
i think they have incorporated a lot of netscape 8's tweaks which was based on firefox.

I'd like very much this beta 2 !very best tan 1.the "bon echo" was horrible

tested the beta FF 2.0. its a memory hog.. downgrades my systems performance completely! any ideas to get over this?

[...]Earlier this week I installed Firefox 2.0 RC2, basically initiated by a post that Robert Scoble made about it.[...]

Just installed. Looks really nice!
Anybody knows the final release date?

I am just trying out the new release of IE7, and find it interesting all the debate about this release versus the Firefox download. One of the most interesting aspects of the IE vs. Firefox battle is the development of the ecosystem of extensions or add-ons. It’s not just about bugs and features. Right now Firefox had a great advantage in this space but you can see Microsoft trying to catch up.
I noticed an interesting extension called Trailfire, set up as a recommended download for IE7. See link:

http://www.ieaddons.com/SearchResults.aspx?keyw...

I think the ecosystem for Firefox and IE will decide who wins this battle. What do you think?