Version 2.0 of the alternative web browser Firefox, has now been launched. The latest browser has many of the features of version 7 of that other browser, including a pop-up blocker, safer surfing, virus protection, tabbed browsing, and better handling of newsfeeds. One thing it will hopefully lack is the never-ending release of security patches that other browser seems to need on a regular basis.
I’m loathe to say that Sciencebase is optimised for Firefox. It’s not. In fact, it’s not optimised for any specific browser at all. It’s set up to hopefully adhere to the general W3C web standards rather than favouring any particular browser, so that it is compatible with them all. That said, I personally tend to use Firefox as my day to day browser and drop out to MSIE only to check formating of this site and others with which I work. Even if you have IE only sites you visit, there’s a plugin for Firefox that runs IE in a Firefox browser tab so you don’t even need to switch programs. Unless you’re smitten with Mr Gates’ turtleneck sweaters, I’d go for something bushier.
You can download version 2 officially from the Mozilla site from Tuesday October 24, although if you view the cache of this post you will see a set of pre-release links.