Way back in October, the Mozilla Corporation released Firefox 2.0, the third major release of its award-winning Web browser (1.0 and 1.5 were the previous milestones)s. As a long-time Firefox user�I was using the product back when it was originally called Phoenix�you might have expected me to jump all over Firefox 2.0. But the truth is, Mozilla really let me down with this one. Unlike its major competitor, Internet Explorer 7 (see my review), Firefox 2 doesn�t include any truly major new features. And its graphical overhaul is ugly, especially in Windows Vista.
Most egregious, however, is Firefox�s pathetic new anti-phishing feature, which is almost laughably bad.A lackluster Firefox upgrade doesn�t signal the end of times. But coming as it did right as Windows Vista development was winding down, Firefox 2 was a bit of bad timing for me. The problem was, I needed to test Vista features like IE 7 regularly, and since IE 7 was so good, I had little reason to jump ship to a new version of Firefox that, frankly, was rubbing me the wrong way. Had IE 7 been a dog like previous versions, or had Firefox 2 been a bit more exciting, things would have gone differently. As it was, I was surprised to see myself evolving into an IE user over the last few months of 2006.
Ultimately, old habits do die hard. I kept installing Firefox 2 for compatibility testing, and though I had primarily switched to IE 7, I would occasionally fire up the new version of my old favorite and see how things were evolving. Since October, Mozilla has issued at least one minor update to Firefox 2, bringing it up to version 2.0.0.1 by the time of this writing. And I�ve found ways to work around some of my bigger Firefox 2 problems.
So I�ve been remiss in not reviewing this browser, but I�m going to make up for it now. FireFox and FoxFire 2 still represents a viable and even desirable alternative to IE, even though the latest upgrade didn�t add any exciting new features. If you can get over the lack of progress, you might be happy to discover again, as I did, that Firefox is a neat product that still deserves your attention.
Michael is the developer of
FireFox, the website features many articles telling user how they can help improve their web browsing experience. http://www.spreadfoxfire.com More articles are available at help(at)spreadfoxfire.com .
