Firefox 2.0 RC2 Review

segphault writes "Ars Technica has a comprehensive review of Firefox 2.0 RC2. It includes screenshot comparisons that illuminate the user interface changes that have transpired since the second beta, and it examines the similarities between the browser tab implementation from Internet Explorer 7 and the new tab management features in RC2. From the article: 'If RC2 is any indication, Firefox 2.0 is an incremental improvement of the 1.5.x series with performance improvements and a handful of relatively useful features. Based on my own experience, I consider it stable enough for regular use, but I endorse caution for users that rely on a lot of extensions, as most extensions aren't yet compatible with Firefox 2.0.'"

Comments

Almost ready..

[Anonymous Coward]

After upgrading to V2 RC2, its working pretty good so far. Session restore is pretty handy (now I can install new extensions, restart the browser and start from whereever I had left), and tab management is pretty good too.

Though there are some bugs - esp the toolbar customization needs to be looked at. My V1.5 toolbar customization is not sitting well with RC2 - esp the Search Engine. Its hogging all the screen from left to right, and I had to move it to its own bar (previously, it was sitting with Google Toolbar).

And of course, better memory management was a welcome change.

All extensions except on worked fine (had to disable extension compatibility check for Greasemonkey, and it worked perfectly fine).

"most extensions"? FYI !

[arielCo]

Well, I use a lot of invasive extensions, and I only lost Session Manager, which is unsurprising since Fx now includes a similar feature and they would probably step on each others' toes. Survivors:

• Adblock Plus
• Video Downloader
• Inspect this
• IE Tab
• IE View Lite
• JS View
• EditCSS
• GMarks
• Google Notebook
• Sage RSS Reader

All in all, I agree that this is mostly an incremental upgrade, and it is somewhat faster, but I'm not sure it deserves the new major version. Several tiny UI bugs didn't get fixed.

spellcheck

[vivek7006]

I jst upgreaded to RC2 and I musht say that the neu spellchek feeture works lik a charm

Re:Is the big fat memory leak fixed?

[Kelson]

Yes and no.

Because there is no big fat memory leak. There are a whole bunch of little ones that add up. They've fixed a lot of them. They fixed a bunch of 'em in the 1.5.0.x series, and a bunch more in 2.0.

I doubt they've got everything, but 2.0 should have less of a memory problem than 1.5.

Re:extensions and themes

[J053]

To make your 1.5 extensions and themes work:

1. Download the .xpi file
2. Unpack it (it's a ZIP file, really) into a directory
3. Edit the install.rdf file - find the line with "maxVersion:" and change it to (for example) "3.*"
4. Replace the install.rdf in the .xpi ZIPfile with your modified one
5. Install the extension/theme: in Firefox, browse to "file:///wherever-you-put-it/whatever.xpi"
                                                                in Thunderbird, use the Installer

I have yet to see an extension for 1.5.x that didn't work with 2.x after doing this

Re:What big fat memory leak?

[Anonymous Coward]

Probably their myspace page.

Re:Tab changes suck!

[MacJedi]

What about one global close widget?

You can do it. The parent poster had an incomplete list:

0 - only the active tab has the close widget
1 - the usual look (close widgets on each tab)
2 - no close widgets.
3 - global close widget (at far right)

Re:pun intended

[Dachannien]

One could almost say that they've been "keeping tabs" on the competition.

That pun stunk so bad I had to open a new window.

Re:Extensions

[Firehed]

Well some people might not want those fifteen tabs of porn to reopen after hurredly closing the browser, since the person next opening the browser might be the one for whom it was just hurredly closed. I hope there's an override key.