24 October 2006

Firefox v2.0

Google Analytics is addictive, and gives a wealth of useful information, like 75% of the readers here use Firefox. Firefox 2.0 comes the same week as Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 has arrived. So there are two installation experiences to tell.

IE7 starts installation by unpacking the installation to a temporary directory, and then begins some enforced Windows Updates. Then it begins an unusually long installation (I am still not sure why), overall taking 10-15 minutes. Then it needs you to reboot.

I was going to wait for automatic updates to pick up Firefox 2.0, but I decided to upgrade now. The installation was a case of blink and you'll miss it. No reboot. A minor startup delay of about ten seconds due to checking the plug-ins for updates, and I was away. The new UI takes a bit of getting used to visually, but I think I will end up preferring it, and it pretty much all works the same. The tab shading is a bit unnecessary especially since the rest of the UI isn't as shaded. Check out a comprehensive review here.

Firefox 2