Firefox 2.0 Beta

dougiemeats

dougiemeats

Racing in the Rain
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Firefox 2.0 Beta will be released later this week (edit). However, Mozilla has released a Beta Candidate for the public to preview the beta. Windows, Mac, and Linux versions will be available. I've downloaded the OS X version.

Here are screenshots of a few features:




From left to right:
*Default Look
*Anti-Phishing Tool
*Close "X" On Each Tab
*Search Suggestions
*Spell Checker
*Beta Not Compliant

Edit: Mozilla has delayed the release of the beta. It will not be today, but later this week. The final product is expected to be released in August.

This beta will overwrite any existing themes and extensions will be unusable.
 
Just downloaded it. The spell check could come in handy.

I'm missing my extensions though, looking forward to them becoming compatible again.
 
Yeah waiting until August to download the final product is probably a good idea. I only downloaded it on my Mac to take a few screenshots, so I didn't have to mess with Firefox 1.5 on XP since that's the default browser for it.

I've read that it will save the session in case it crashes, which is a welcome feature from me. However, it never crashed in the brief time I had it so I was not able to confirm the feature. I'll get a better list of features than the short one I provided above later.
 
It hasn't crashed on me yet so I don't know about restoring the session, but what I've noticed so far has been:

Undo Close Tab - You can open the last tab you closed incase you accidentally closed a tab.
Quick Search 'Go' Button - On the Quick Search box on the top right of the browser there wasn't a 'Go' button before, but now there's a magnifying glass acting as the Go button.
Close buttons on each separate tab.
 
Thanks amp88. The "Undo Close Tab" will help me out a lot. It'll save me from searching my browser history to find a certain site.

Here's the list of new features from the release notes:

* Links default to opening in new tabs, not new windows
* Close buttons now appear on every tab, and the close behaviour is slightly different
* Inline spell checking in text boxes
* Automatic restoration of your browsing session if there is a crash
* Search suggestions now appear in the search box autocomplete for Google and Yahoo!
* New search plugin manager for removing and re-ordering search engines
* Improved support for previewing and subscribing to web feeds
* New microsummaries feature for bookmarks
* New Add-Ons manager improves the user interface for managing extensions and themes
* Updates to the extension system to provide enhanced security and to allow for easier localization of extensions
* New search service that supports Sherlock and OpenSearch engines
* Support for SVG text using svg:textPath
 
Something that's not working (for me anyway) as it should is the dictionary on the spell checker. The default and only language included with the beta is English (US), but I'd like English (UK). If you right-click in a text area and go to Languages > Add dictionaries you get a pop up saying that this feature isn't working yet and to go to the Thunderbird dictionaries page to install a dictionary. I did this but after installing it (and being told it was correctly installed) and restarting Firefox (even though it doesn't request you do so), I still can't find English (UK) in my Languages options. Has anyone else successfully installed another language other than the default?
 
amp88
Something that's not working (for me anyway) as it should is the dictionary on the spell checker. The default and only language included with the beta is English (US), but I'd like English (UK). If you right-click in a text area and go to Languages > Add dictionaries you get a pop up saying that this feature isn't working yet and to go to the Thunderbird dictionaries page to install a dictionary. I did this but after installing it (and being told it was correctly installed) and restarting Firefox (even though it doesn't request you do so), I still can't find English (UK) in my Languages options. Has anyone else successfully installed another language other than the default?
Click to expand...
I just tried this too with English (Australian), English (New Zealand) and a couple of others.It doesn't work for me either. Maybe shoot them an e-mail?

* Search suggestions now appear in the search box autocomplete for Google and Yahoo!
Click to expand...
This is really cool. I almost wet myself with excitement when I saw this. (You know you're a geek when you get excited about search boxes...)
Although it does bring up some stuff that doesn't exist to fill the box.
scren13um.jpg


The spelling checking it pretty good, I don't think it's as comprehensive as the MS Word one but it works well. With the exception of it underlining things in this post like 'IMG' 'http' 'imageshack' 'jpg' 'autocomplete' and 'Google'. It even underlines 'Firefox'! You can add these words, so it's not a drama, just a PIA.

Also. I've been trying to crash it. But I can't. So I can't test restoring the session.
 
Casio
I just tried this too with English (Australian), English (New Zealand) and a couple of others.It doesn't work for me either. Maybe shoot them an e-mail?
Click to expand...

Och, I'm sure they'll already have had a lot of irate emails about it. It's not that much of a nuisance with the US dictionary.

Casio
This is really cool. I almost wet myself with excitement when I saw this. (You know you're a geek when you get excited about search boxes...)
Although it does bring up some stuff that doesn't exist to fill the box.
Click to expand...

Yep, it is really cool. I can see me using that quite a bit.
 
icemanshooter23
I believe the current version of AdBlock is compatible with the new release.
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Yup it is.

You can run both the Beta and 1.503 individually anyway. (Well I can)

The only thing that's annoying me is that I keep going to close tabs with the non-existing button over to the right. But I guess that's just what I'm used to.
 
Power went off today while I was out. Came home. Clicked on my Firefox icon and....

ffsession1xi0.jpg

Ta-da.

Worked perfectly. Openned up all the tabs I had left open and everything.

That 'Undo Close Tab' is fantastic too. I didn't think I'd ever use it, but I've used it lots when I've accidently closed a tab, or thought I'd missed something.
 
Firefox 2 is sounding good then :) .
Where can it be downloaded from??
And also may I ask, how do you get screenshots like that?
 
benny456
Firefox 2 is sounding good then :) .
Where can it be downloaded from??
Click to expand...

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/bonecho/releases/2.0b1.html

And also may I ask, how do you get screenshots like that?
Click to expand...

On a PC, press the "Print Screen" key on your keyboard. Open MS Paint (or another image-app) and go Edit > Paste. Edit as you please then save image.

On a Mac, press command+shift+3 to take a screenshot of the whole desktop or command+shift+4 to take a screenshot of a select part of the screen. The image saves automatically to the desktop.

:)
 
While the beta doesn't really offer anything new for Mac users like me (spell checking, the "x"s on tabs, etc), I'm sure it'll be awesome for XP users. 👍
 
I'm confused. What exactly is so new about 2.0? There are extensions that do everything that this appears to make it do. For example, the Firefox version of Google toolbar does the suggested search and spell-check. Tab Mix Plus does everything that this does tabs wise. And the crash restore manager is covered by something else as well, either No Script or Session Manager.
Edit: It's Tab Mix Plus that features the "restore session" option, and it is in my opinion a better one than the one in 2.0 as it also tells you the date and time that Firefox crashed.
 
Toronado
I'm confused. What exactly is so new about 2.0? There are extensions that do everything that this appears to make it do. For example, the Firefox version of Google toolbar does the suggested search and spell-check. Tab Mix Plus does everything that this does tabs wise. And the crash restore manager is covered by something else as well, either No Script or Session Manager.
Edit: It's Tab Mix Plus that features the "restore session" option, and it is in my opinion a better one than the one in 2.0 as it also tells you the date and time that Firefox crashed.
Click to expand...
Well, it practically makes the Google Toolbar obsolete, spell checking is easier, there's anti-phishing, etc. Nothing really new, but they're big improvements, and will make IE7 seem even more inferior.
 

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