So you all propably already know about Firefox - in fact you're probably using it right now (and if you aren't, you should get it right now (hint hint)). It's been close to a year since they finished their first release, and since then, they've been hard at work making a new version, Firefox 1.5. If you want to test it, it's now available as Deer Park Alpha 2.

I've been using the Alpha for the past week, and here's what I've found:

First up, everything seems exactly the same. There isn't much that has changed from the public release of Firefox, in terms of the user interface. All of your buttons are in the same place as they would be on the normal release of Firefox. Most of my extensions worked straight away, with only one being disabled due to incompatability. But, after a closer look, I found some really cool new features.
The Preferences/Options menu has been completely redone, and that seems to make a lot more sense now. The new window gives you far better control over your tab browsing (such as preventing sites from opening new windows, and instead putting them into tabs), security (such as being able to instantly wipe all saved passwords and history - a lifesaver for all you porn browsers out there :P).
There's also a new software update engine which allows you to upgrade Firefox a lot more easily than the old version, and the update message is a lot bolder than it was in version 1.0.

The tabbed browsing features in Firefox 1 were lacking in features. The new version allows for much more in the way of tabs - you can now re-arrange their order in the browser window by dragging them -- you are no longer stuck with the order you opened the tabs in.

One thing I noticed, as a Linux user, was that they have greatly fixed up a lot of the user interface, and it now matches most of my applications a lot better than the previous version, however, I think most of these issues were already fixed with the Windows version.

All in all, the new version of Firefox is going to be very good - the Beta version will be available from the Mozilla Website on Friday - so, head over there and download a copy.

--Chris

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