while the popularity of Firefox is due to a number of elements, including its vast array of add-ons that enable you to perform almost whatever task you can imagine, and its open source development, the predominant reason it grabbed so many people�s attention was its tabbed browsing. Ok, it wasn�t actually the first to market with tabbed browsing - that honour goes to Opera - but many people had been put off by Opera simply because you had to pay for it, even though that was no longer the case.
However, just in the nick of time the Mozilla Foundation has pulled its finger out and released beta versions of Firefox 3, with a view to officially unveiling its latest and greatest in the next few months. So, with beta version 2 now available for Mac and PC, I thought I�d take you on a trip round what in my opinion is going to be the best browser available in the foreseeable future.
I am impressed with this latest beta version of Firefox. It may be late, but I think it was worth the wait. Seems to be faster all around in loading web pages and starting up. I haven�t encountered any bugs yet, either. I actually like the idea of having a close button in each tab. Firefox�s implementation doesn�t really make sense, though. Inactive tabs do not display the close button, unless you hover over where the button should be. In that case, the invisible button suddenly becomes visible. Buttons should not catch you by surprise.
It�s not a huge change from version 1.5. In fact, firefox hasn�t really changed all that much since I first started using it back when it was still called firebird (verison 0.6 or something?). Every new version has added a few little things (like being able to move tabs around, the new spell check, the �highlight/righ-click/search web for �blah� option�, etc.) that make my browsing experience a little more enjoyable, but the basic idea is the same.
Michael is the developer of
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