The Cynic Says……

There’s a new version of Firefox in the works as we speak… Version 1.5 has been through a couple of developer previews (named “Deer Park”) a couple of betas and has now reached its first release candidate (RC1). I must say I REALLY like 1.5 better than the current 1.0.7 release for quite a few reasons. Version 1.5 now automatically checks for updates to your extensions, themes and to the browser itself. It doesn’t auto-upgrade your extensions or themes; instead it leaves you to periodically sift through your extensions manager or your theme manager and click the “update now” button next to any extensions that require an update. Browser updates are now incremental instead of having to download a whole new 5MB installer file just to update a few files. VERY nice touch if you ask me as that was always a pet peeve of mine. Granted, on 8mbps cable it’s really not so bad but it was still the annoyance of having to go through the entire installer yet again just to upgrade minor versions (eg. 1.0.6 to 1.0.7, which had very small changes). Now, you get a notification that there is a new version out, an option to download or decline to do so and should you decide to download, it’s only between 500K and 1MB (600K seems to be about the norm for the two I’ve done). RC1 also adds the ability to drag tabs to new spots on the tab bar to re-order them. Not something I use too much at the moment but a neat feature that previously required an extension to do. Other features they’ve added include more descriptive error pages (better than the ones IE offers, even… and light years ahead of the old stupid dialog box that popped up and told you pretty much nothing), better popup blocking (I’ve noticed small improvements myself), better performance of the forward/back buttons (to compete with Opera), a wizard to report broken websites (haven’t used it yet), and some unmentioned security fixes. Even though it’s only a release candidate and not the final product yet, it’s still worth the download in my personal opinion. Plus, when the final is released it will be a small upgrade from the current RC1 release so it’s not like you’ll have to go download another 5MB installer when RC2 then the final come out. Extensions for the most part have all been updated to work with the new version so that’s not an issue either. I’ve run across a few in the addons database that don’t state they’re compatible with the new version, but most of the major extensions have been updated to work. So far only the google toolbar doesn’t work with RC1 (though it worked with beta 2). All in all, it looks as though Firefox has just gotten even better than it already was. As far as I know, there won’t be any new features between RC1 and final, just bug and security fixes. I like it a lot and it most certainly will continue to be my primary browser. Give it a whirl, you’ll probably like it too.