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View Full Version : Desktop browsing news: finlal version of Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2.0 out!


Menneisyys
10-24-2006, 12:48 PM
Much as this is not strictly a Windows Mobile-related post, a lot of my readers may be interested in this, particularly because I've constantly been reporting on the protocol / W3C compliance of desktop browsers.

Recently (as far as Firefox is concerned, an hour ago) two, brand new, final major desktop browser versions have been released: that of Internet Explorer (version 7) and Firefox (version 2.0).

Note that if you (still) have the previous, 6.0 version of Internet Explorer, it won't prompt you about the new version. You must manually download and install it from HERE (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx). Neither will do the same the last, pre-2, 1.5.x version of Firefox - not even its Help / Check for Updates will notice the brand new version (this may change in the future when the new version will be more closely integrated in the Mozilla homepage, though). You'll need to manually download it HERE (http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/2.0/win32/en-US/Firefox%20Setup%202.0.exe) (if you need it in other languages, please check out this (http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/2.0/win32/)).

If you're still an IE6 user, I certainly recommend the upgrade to IE7. The new version is a major step ahead and while I still prefer Opera to thee two alternatives on my high-resolution (1600*1200) notebook (it's far better at zooming in to page contents, which is a must on such a high-resolution screen), IE7 is getting closer and closer.

As far as the new Firefox version is concerned, I've just started testing it and, therefore, still don't have much to report.

Fedorov
10-24-2006, 08:57 PM
Thanks for your brief analysis, may I add mine...

IE7 - a huge improvement over its predecessor, very fast, at last the mass of the windows population will finally get to see what TABBED browsing is all about - I personally cannot live without tabs in my browser even since my NetCaptor days many years ago before Firefox!

Opera 9.0 - I normally try each new version, it is very fast and a LOT of the features that I normally "add-on" to Firefox are already built into this browser to begin with, very nice. If I didn't like certain firefox add-ons so much this would be my browser of choice.

Firefox 2.0 - worth having for the inline spellchecker alone, especially when typing on forums so much like this. You have to see to believe the number of Add-ons for Firefox, some of which you eventually cannot live without: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/
I have been using alpha/beta/nightly builds of v2.0 for the last few months and in all honesty I've yet to see v2.0 crash ONCE on me, it is so stable and I do a LOT of surfing every day - I cannot fault it.

What you've got here now that IE7 and Firefox 2.0 are out is a choice of 3 desktop browsers that really are superb no matter which one you choose - it's all down to personal taste at the end of the day.

Fedorov.