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Firefox 2.0 Beta 2 Arrives
An anonymous reader writes "Mozilla has released Beta 2 of its upcoming Firefox 2 browser for developer review. It is being made available for testing purposes only. The release contains a number of new features, as well as some enhancements to look and feel. DesktopLinux.com has posted a list of the changes along with a few quick screen grabs. Apparently, the download can be found on Mozilla's ftp site."
For those of you that want to test this out without installing it, consider a portable version of Firefox 2 Beta 2.
Yes. I downloaded 2.0b2 and installed it alongside 1.5.0.6 and played with it for about 10 minutes. I like that you can reopen a recently closed tab. I don't like how Adblock and Flashblock are no longer compatible with it. I uninstalled it and am back to 1.5.0.6 without any problems.
A beta was unstable and not ready for daily use? That's umpossible!
Seriously, beta 1 was unstable for me as well until I realized that it was because of a couple extensions that I had installed with the nightly tester tool that were crashing it. Since I removed those I haven't had any trouble with beta 1.
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
-Red X (Close Button)-
Some people were frustrated that Mozilla added a close button to every tab which resulted in an extension that removed those close buttons. Well, you no longer need to get an extension to remove those pesky X's, in fact there are multiple options that you can do now: display a close button on the active tab only, display close buttons on all tabs, don't display any close buttons, and display a single close button at the end of the tab strip (Firefox 1.x behavior). Here is how you can customize the placement:
1. Start Firefox.
2. In the Address Bar type "about:config" and press Enter.
3. Right-Click and select New->Integer.
4. A box requesting the Preference Name will popup and you should enter "browser.tabs.closeButtons" (without the quotes). Press OK to continue.
5. Now you need to select the type of close button you want: 0 - display a close button on the active tab only, 1 - display close buttons on all tabs, 2 - don't display any close buttons, and 3 - display a single close button at the end of the tab strip (Firefox 1.x behavior). After entering the value corresponding to your preference press OK again.
Short answer: no.
Long answer: Sure, if you make sure you use a new profile and never run Firefox 2.0 beta2 using your old profile.
If you don't understand what I just said, then stick with "no." Portable versions of Firefox 2.0beta2 may coexist as long as they don't use the standard profile directory. Unless you're absolutely sure that your existing profile won't be touched, it's best to assume not to.
In any case, if you're going to try out Firefox 2.0beta2, you should definitely make a backup of your profile.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
What about the middle button-click on the tab? (mostly using the clickable scrollbutton on your mouse)
It took a bit of adjustment, but middleclicking a link to open it in a new tab is really easy; in the case of slashdot I just load the comments I want to read, or the article while I browse on until I decide to go more in depth or reply without losing where you were.
When finished, I just middle-click the tab. It dramatically speeds up the browsing experience if you're used to using your mouse alot. (once I'm actually with both hands on my keyboard I tend to switch to keyboard shortcuts. But it's tedious to get to the right links using TAB)
I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
Shit, its shared - backup before installing people.
liqbase
We have not yet released Firefox 2 Beta 2. This story is incorrect.
- Asa
Actually, you have always been able to close a background tab; just do a middle click with your scroll wheel on the tab.
liqbase