http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/Mozilla_Firefox_for_Windows/1032985422/1 the actual release is tomorrow, download it here if you want it early. it has inline spell checking which is really nice.

10/23/2006 1:19:21 PM

When I came into work yesterday it automatically updated me to 2.0 when I opened firefox. I just assumed it did this for everyone, but it didn't do it at home or my laptop. Weird.

Anyways, Hardly any of my plugins worked after the upgrade. It pissed me off but I ended up getting them working. I had to download the pre-release version of tab mix plus however.

10/23/2006 1:33:30 PM

dang, it is fast as ie

10/23/2006 1:35:47 PM

yes, very smooth, about half of my extensions are already compatible. i love the embedded spell-check, and even though i ignore it here, it'll be most useful for my online class message board.

once more my faith is restored in firefox. on that note, Firefox wants to be capitalized

[Edited on October 23, 2006 at 1:58 PM. Reason : capital F]

10/23/2006 1:57:43 PM

i've been using RC3 for a week or so and it's crashed on me 3 or 4 times, which is 3 or 4 times more than 1.x ever did. i really don't see why this merits a 2.0.

10/23/2006 2:05:03 PM

i never had any problems running rc3, so i guess ymmv *shrug*

if i were to make a guess on the versions, i'd say that the firefox crew doesn't want to be stuck around a low number for long, especially since ie is up to 7 now. personally i think it's kinda wrong to accelerate the version numbers, but oh well, it's not my decision.

10/23/2006 2:10:21 PM

Wow.

I guess i never tried the speed of a browser against some other. But after browsing in 1.5 today, switching to 2.0 and coming here again, I really notice the speed up.

10/23/2006 2:37:11 PM

IE7 is still faster by a long shot for me but adblock + greasemonkey will keep with firefox

10/23/2006 2:46:31 PM

Just in case anyone's having trouble with extension compatibility, you can download an extension called MR Tech. It allows you to ignore the check for extension compatibility. Of all my extensions that didn't already have new versions out, all but one of them worked perfectly after installing MR Tech.

10/23/2006 2:58:04 PM

Quote :

"if i were to make a guess on the versions, i'd say that the firefox crew doesn't want to be stuck around a low number for long, especially since ie is up to 7 now. personally i think it's kinda wrong to accelerate the version numbers, but oh well, it's not my decision"

I doubt it. Not sure if inline searching, browser session resume, and phishing protection deserve a jump from 1.5 to 2.0 for Firefox, but by that logic I don't think including tabs deserves a jump from 6 to 7 for IE. A lot of behind the scenes changes in the code base could be the real reason.

10/23/2006 3:27:52 PM

recommended themes anyone?

10/23/2006 3:59:56 PM

Quote :

"but by that logic I don't think including tabs deserves a jump from 6 to 7 for IE."

Yes. That is the only difference whatsoever between IE6 and 7.

10/23/2006 4:02:59 PM

I can't wait until google buys firefox.

10/23/2006 4:28:55 PM

as has been said, a company deciding to go to a new point release (x.0) is basically just up to the company.
Asa Dotzler mentioned on his blog a while ago http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa

he said that 2.0 was originally supposed to have more features, like a database backend to store bookmarks and extensions and stuff, but it was pared down to stay on time. They debated if they should just go to 1.6 or 2.0, but eventually the decision was to keep going to 2.0. It's basically just a slipperly slope argument. If you keep incrementally adding on new features, when are you supposed to ever go to a new point-release? you have to get to a new point sometime, right?

So say they had 5 big features they wanted to add to FF1.5 to get to 2.0. But then they decided they only had time for 3 of the 5 features, so now they rename it FF1.6. Now when they add the 2 other features, what do they call it - FF1.7 or 2.0? People would be crying then about "you can't go from 1.7 to 2.0 - you just added 2 features!"

I don't think Mozilla is threatened by having smaller release numbers than IE. They're just upping the numbers to show they're making progress. outside the tech/geek community, nobody else cares anyway. Most people just know they are using FireFox, Internet Explorer, AOL IM, Word, whatever - often not the version number. Hell, a lot of people don't even know what version of Windows they're using!


the jump from IE6 to IE7 was well deserved. Tabs were only a small part of the changes that were made.

It could be argued that the only truly important release number is 1.0. Giving a piece of software 1.0 status is a symbol that it is ready for public consumption or sale. Any software labeled 0.x should probably not be a full public release.

Having said all that, I think apple can be a bit overzealous with making new point-releases. iTunes, in particular, has had huge spurts, jumping from 4.0 to 6.0 in a matter of months, mostly because they wanted to synchronize x.0 iTunes releases with new iPod releases which add one significant feature, like video playback.

10/23/2006 4:37:19 PM

Quote :

"Hell, a lot of people don't even know what version of Windows they're using!"

haha so tru

10/23/2006 5:31:13 PM

is there an option to make the toolbars use the older style? (pre-1.5)

10/23/2006 7:15:23 PM

^^^ i always thought that a whole new point release should be an entirely new product, albeit one that does the same thing. if it works fundamentally different, it should be a new release. if they're just updating what's already there it should be a .XX increase.

but you know everyone has an opinion on it and none of them are "wrong".

10/23/2006 7:19:39 PM

wow, it is alot faster;

and the spell check thing is AWESOME

10/23/2006 9:16:55 PM

Really, the only extensions that didn't carry over for me were the ones that 2.0 implemented, i.e. Tab Mix Pro, search plugin hack, crash recovery, etc.

Google web accelerator didn't like 2.0, so I uninstalled it.

10/23/2006 9:30:09 PM

Quote :

"recommended themes anyone?"

10/23/2006 10:17:18 PM

Quote :

"I can't wait until google buys firefox."

how exactly does one buy a FSF-compliant software product?

10/24/2006 12:24:15 AM

I am so used to having spell check in gaim that I barely notice a difference having it in Firefox........I tend to overlook the little red lines

10/24/2006 10:14:59 AM

yeah i can usually spell on my own and when i do misspell something, it's usually because i don't care to put the time into proofing it regardless of whether there's a red line under a word or not

10/24/2006 10:22:36 AM

wow, it's almost as fast as opera. it still hasn't added all the features opera has had for like 5 years though.

10/24/2006 11:52:04 AM

^with exception to the well known fact that the mozilla crew is trying to keep firefox as small and streamlined as possible, while allowing you to install one of many user-created extensions to add functionality where you see fit.

i personally like this option. but to each their own.

10/24/2006 11:56:54 AM

it does navigate faster for some reason

but ive had multiple instances of when i click to start, it will start the process but the actual window never appears

10/24/2006 12:37:55 PM

I can't seem to get it via the automatic update mechanism. I hae v 1.5.0.7 and it tells me there are no updates available.

10/24/2006 12:52:52 PM

^well, it's not 'officially' been released yet ... expect the announcement later this day, then it should be available on the update servers.

10/24/2006 12:56:50 PM

everyone who has already downloaded the "official" 2.0 has probbly got the wrong version, suckers

some of the linked versions people have download are the British English localized versions

10/24/2006 1:06:36 PM

damn, this thing is blazing

10/24/2006 1:15:38 PM

yeah, the mozilla folks are not happy with the news sites
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/preed/2006/10/the_antirelease.html

10/24/2006 1:16:39 PM

correct about the uk version, however if people were paying attention they would've realized that. it's one reason why the mozilla crew is frustrated, they don't want people to be turned off just because someone upgraded to the wrong version due to a blog posting a link to it directly.

ah well, the version everyone downloaded is still the correct one, it just might be the wrong locale. i made sure to get the us ver

10/24/2006 1:29:14 PM

So can anyone explain why my firefox already upgraded itself to 2.0 on my system? It was Sunday morning around 8am. Did someone throw the switch a little prematurely?

10/24/2006 1:44:24 PM

did you have the RC versions?

10/24/2006 2:04:34 PM

Nope. I've never done anything but install 1.0 and let it do it's automatic update whenever it wanted. And now I'm sitting at 2.0. (on 1 out of 3 of the machines I use)

10/24/2006 2:34:37 PM

tww block user plugin not compatible with 2.0

blast!

10/24/2006 3:17:10 PM

^ if I figure out how to make it compatible, I'll do it

10/24/2006 3:21:30 PM

^ ^^, get MR Tech Local Install https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/421/ , and you can set an option to ignore version compatibility, or right-click on individual add ons and make them compatible manually. of course, that's not the only thing it does, it's one of the most powerful firefox customization add on available.

10/24/2006 3:32:37 PM

I already tried to tell everyone about MR Tech.

10/24/2006 3:59:30 PM

my bad, didn't see it, but now there's a link for the lazy folks anyway...

10/24/2006 4:01:06 PM

very nice. now to see how much ram it eats

10/24/2006 4:22:15 PM

been running mine since last night sometime ... was at ~120mb then, saw it at ~130mb earlier today, and it's at ~135mb right now. i vary with the number of tabs open, right now i have a lot. used to increase at least 100mb every couple hours, so i'd say it's working right. sometimes the memory issue is the fault of an extension of course, but they've definitely cleaned up the browser's usage this time around.

10/24/2006 4:31:54 PM

while you're at it, post me a link to the actual 2.0 release that you guys have installed. thanks

10/24/2006 4:39:52 PM

no

Quote :

"yeah, the mozilla folks are not happy with the news sites http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/preed/2006/10/the_antirelease.html"

just wait for the official announcement from Mozilla, supposed to be today, maybe tomorrow.
or go get RC3 from the official site and wait for it to update automatically.
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/2.0/releasenotes/

10/24/2006 4:51:37 PM

Microsoft's funny.
http://fredericiana.com/2006/10/24/from-redmond-with-love/

10/24/2006 5:01:12 PM

ha, nice to see a little friendly competition

10/24/2006 5:14:42 PM

awesome

10/24/2006 5:17:07 PM

i'll just stick with opera.

10/24/2006 6:00:16 PM

damn this new version is a massive memory hog....again

10/24/2006 6:29:34 PM

ok, it's official now:

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

10/24/2006 7:12:42 PM