With the rise of the cyberspace , and the wide accessibility of “ beta ” software ( nigh everything Google releases , for illustration , is tagged “ beta ” ) , we ’ve all come to expect betas to be comparatively milled and functional ware . That typically holds true withThe Mozilla Organizationand Firefox . Betas of the popular Web web browser app are highly publicized and wide downloaded without much thinking given to the fact that the computer software may still be a body of work in progress .
Things are a little bit unlike with thepublic betaof Firefox 2.0 released by Mozilla last week . ( A final release of Firefox 2 is ask later in 2006 . ) Before starting my download , I noted this interesting admonition on Mozilla’sDevNewspage that appeared in bold text no less :
Clearly I ’m not a developer , but I was concerned in seeing what change and raw features are slated for Firefox 2 , so I decided I certified as a tester , since I ’m more than uncoerced to crash my simple machine in the by-line of knowledge . With that decision made , I downloaded the Universal Binary genus Beta , installed it , and set out to see what ’s change with my second - preferred web browser app ( behindCamino ) . While there ’s a band to like about this version and my experience has been somewhat stable so far , I would caution anyone who ’s contemplating using the Firefox 2 beta that it ’s not in any path yet urge for production auto .
Initial thoughts
To be honest , my first reaction was “ huh , did I somehow set up Firefox 1.5 or else of the 2.0 beta ? ” That ’s because the visible social organization of Firefox has n’t interchange all that much . It search like Firefox 1.5 , even as you browse through the check in the Preferences screen and the fare structure . sure enough , there are some visible changes , but you want to look somewhat intimately to distinguish them :
If you use extensions and themes , you ’ll probably find that the immense majority of those you ’ve put in in 1.5 do n’t yet turn in the 2.0 beta . In my font , only 9 of my 25 extensions , and none of my 10 themes , act in Firefox 2.0 . ( There are some themes available that work in 2.0 , such asPhoenity ModernandNASA Normal . ) But this is a stock way out with any major Firefox release — it ’s always a bit of a wait until the themes and extensions catch up . Keep in intellect this is but the first beta of 2.0 as well , so it ’s quite early in the mental process .
So if Firefox looks the same as it predecessor , and seems to have few seeable change , why rag with a version jump all the way to 2.0 ? To answer that interrogative , we must look a small deep .
Behind the scenes
This exit of Firefox is being peg as a major upgrade in the first place due to change that are n’t necessarily seeable to the the everyday drug user . That ’s another path of saying that lots of cant have been updated or instal — things like support for JavaScript 1.7,OpenSearch , and SVG’ssvg : textPathelement . In addition , there ’s better security for extensions ( as well as better localization backup ) , and academic term and relentless storage . Taken as a whole , however , these features will eventually make the user ’s Web pasture experience better . But from a drug user ’s perspective , these change are more or less inconspicuous . So what ’s in it for the user to upgrade then ?
While the Firefox 2.0 beta count nearly selfsame to its 1.5 herald , there actually are a fair routine of novel features of interest to the distinctive drug user . Here ’s a spry look at some of them , based on my testing with the 2.0 beta 1 release .
New stuff for the masses
Anti - Phishing Tool : Firefox 2.0 let in a list of knownphishingsites . The Anti - Phishing tab in the Advanced section of Firefox ’s Preferences control this feature film , and it ’s enabled by default . you may turn it off using the preferences panel , or tell it to utilise Google ( and finally , other anti - phishing web site ) to see to it the sites you chatter . If you attempt to load a Thomas Nelson Page that Firefox has categorized as a phishing site , you get a no - way - you - can - miss - it warning :
Because phishing sites change rapidly , Firefox ’s list of sites is update “ regularly , ” though at this early beta point , there ’s only a circumscribed inclination of sites . Future beta releases will admit a longer list , as well as an easy way to cover both additional phishing sites as well as false positives ( valid site that have been flagged as phishing sites ) . For now , then , the anti - phishing feature article is in the “ soon to come in ” category . But with the increasing sophistication of phishing emails , the last version of this dick will be most welcome .
Spell Check : Firefox will now write deterrent words in text fields , as you typecast . When you type a words the internet browser ca n’t place in its dictionary , it gets flagged with a dotted underscore . Control - get across on the underlined word , and the contextual menu will offer replacement words , as well as the ability to add the word to the lexicon . What ’s lacking , at least as of beta 1 , is the power to but brush aside a word , instead of being force to add together it to the dictionary if you do n’t desire to vary its spelling . While I ’d much prefer Firefox to simply use the build - in OS 10 spell checker , this solution wreak ( though it does mean you ’ll be keep up two dictionaries , one for OS tenner apps and one for Firefox ) .
hunting enhancements : There are two main advance in hunt . The first is that the search box is now customizable . Click the drop-off - down arrow next to the enlarge deoxyephedrine and choose Manage Search Engines . When you do so , a pocket-sized drop - down box appears , letting you reorder the list of existing engine , as well as add or remove other search engine . Unfortunately , you ca n’t define your own lookup railway locomotive , at least in this beta tone ending . Instead , you ’ll have to piece from a inclination of Mozilla - provided engines , which you reach via a universal resource locator link in the Manage Search Engines box . Hopefully succeeding releases will set aside gentle addition of your own search sites .
The other improvement in hunting is the Modern “ hunting trace ” feature . As soon as you start typing your search term , Firefox open a list of possible search terms , based on what you ’ve typed so far ( as seen in the image on the rightfulness ) . At the top of the list are any searches from your search history ; below that are match based on what you ’re type . In testing this feature , I found that my search term often wind up near the top of the leaning after only a few characters of typecast ( even when not retyping something that was already in history ) . This little feature could examine to be quite the typing timesaver .
school term Restore : If Firefox crashes , it will now reopen tab , resume downloads , and institute back any text you had typecast in chassis at the time of the crash . This work well when I tested it ( by force - quitting Firefox ) . However , you ’re also supposed to be capable to reopen unexpectedly - closed check or windows , and I could n’t figure out how to do that ( without resorting to History , which has always worked in most any internet browser ) . For more robust session saving , however , I still bank on theSessionSaveradd - on , which has a few more feature . ( And it ’s already updated for the 2.0 beta ) .
Bookmark microsummaries : Typically , bookmarker are salt away with either the title of the varlet they refer to , or a name the exploiter creates for that bookmark . Firefox 2.0 add a third naming method acting , microsummaries . A microsummary is a active deed for your bookmarker , fructify by the website you ’ve bookmarked . So rather of seeing Merriam Webster Dictionary Word of the twenty-four hour period for your bookmark title , you’re able to in reality see the word of the 24-hour interval — and it will change each day .
For this feature to work automatically , you must first install amicrosummary generatorfor a land site ( and the web site must , obviously , have a author available ) . Then , you bookmark it and tick a pop - up field in the bookmarker entry screen to convert the name to the micosummary .
After play with this for 30 bit or so , I still do n’t get it — why would I need the name of my bookmark to exchange regularly ? Besides , at least as of this beta , the microsummary name does n’t show in the Bookmarks menu ; only on the Bookmarks screen , or in the sidebar . Thanks , but I think I ’ll cling with the traditional method acting of naming bookmarks . Perhaps in later Beta , this feature article will become more impressive . For now , it ’s not something I plan on using .
Improved ‘ feed ’ handling : Feeds , known by various other names including RSS and content syndication , are a great way to keep up with active entanglement site . you could use a feed reader such asNetNewsWireto see an often - updated listing of stories on a given web site , make it easy to keep up without throw to reload the home page in your web browser . ( Safari can also manage provender . )
In Firefox 2 , when you gossip a situation with a provender and then click the feed icon in the URL ginmill , you ’ll get a nicely - format display of the feed ’s contents , as well as options for how to handle the feed ( use a lively bookmarker in Firefox , apply an external reader , and so on ) . This is a nice improvement over the current browser app , which only create a live bookmarker when you click the provender icon in the URL bar .
About that warning
As you ’ll call up , the Mozilla group does n’t recommend Firefox 2 beta for most users . Despite that admonition , however , I did n’t experience a single collapse during examination , and most features were functional . There are definitely some rough billet — I could n’t get Command - W to close up the last window , for instance , and the help files have yet to be update . But such things are to be expect in an early beta ; I was in reality surprised that I did n’t have more trouble with the program . For heavy users of Firefox ’s legion extensions and themes , the want of compatibility will plausibly be a show stopper . But as a prodigy of things to come in the concluding release of Firefox 2 , this first genus Beta is a good sign .
The last word
Would I recommend anyone utilize Firefox 2 beta 1 as their basal internet browser ? That would probably count on how the mortal uses their web browser . If it ’s a casual exercise , just scanning some news and tech internet site a few sentence a Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , then I ’d likely say “ go forwards , ” with the understanding that you ’d be using an incomplete Cartesian product . But if you ’re in a situation where a web browser app is a key part of your workflow , then I ’d recommend sticking with Firefox 1.5 ( or your current best-loved browser app ) , as the unexampled features probably are n’t worth the possible risks of lost productivity due to collapse . ( Imagine losing your bookmark file , for illustration , if something went atrociously wrong . )
Overall , though , I was impressed with the stableness , feature film set , and ecumenical performance of this first public beta . It will be interesting to watch out as Firefox 2.0 evolves from this first beta to a released version sometime later this twelvemonth .
[ Rob Griffiths writes the Mac OS X Hints weblog and runsmacosxhints.com . He claim a first face at Firefox 1.5 when it was released deep last year . ]
