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Popular theory goes today is "street" for Firefox 2.0. Though I'm sure there's some leeway in whether this actually comes to pass, I'm posting this anyway. I doubt there'll be any significant change in feature sets between "RC3" and the final version. My comments here will refer to the RC3 version, just to make sure all those sticklers for detail are satisfied.

I have made mention in a previous blog my preference for Firefox as my primary browser. It might then surprise you to know that I only recently sampled the release candidates for version 2.0. My first flirtation came with RC2, when everything was pretty much "baked". It's been a bug hunt ever since, presumably. That and "polish." Man, do developers love to talk about "polish" before something is released. It's hard to read a pre-release article, especially in the gaming industry, where the word polish isn't thrown around. It's like they're distributing the code on wing-tip loafers instead of CDs.

When I started looking at the feature improvements for 2.0, I wasn't really all that excited. Nothing really grabbed me as an improvement that would significantly impact my personal user experience. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the update, I simply haven't found myself in drooling anticipation for it. I ended up installing the RC2 version at home in order to get a feel for it. Ironically, I do far less browsing at home than I do at the office, so it was a less "mission critical" environment in which to perform a test drive.

One of the reasons that keeps me weary of an office upgrade is that nagging fear all my precious extensions aren't going to function with the "new" 2.0 version. Again, as I mentioned before, I have heavily panderered my Firefox. Wow, there's that word again. Honestly, never thought I'd use it ever again. In any case, with so many wonderful toys I've come to rely on, I don't really care for the idea that I'll have to do without for some indeterminate amount of time until some unpaid developer gets off his butt and does an update. An unpaid developer whom I loved right up until he didn't fix his extension for the latest release. Fickle, I admit.

Mozilla needs some kind of preinstall extension compatibility checker. The current compatibility check happens after you install 2.0 (like all previous updates), informing you of your results in the compatibility lottery long after it's too late to turn back. I did pretty well at home, but I haven't added much to the home install. Granted, you can always reinstall an older version if you truly can't stand to live without some version of an extension, but I'd prefer to be given the choice up front, with all cards on the table, instead of regretting the decision after I made it.

"This is it?" or "The New Features"

Let's check the list, shall we?

• Visual Refresh: Translation... glowing buttons. Did I say I wasn't really excited about 2.0? I mean, the top item on the list of amazing new features is "glowing buttons." I think they could have lead with something a bit punchier. That's just me, I'm in marketing though.
• Built-In Phishing Protection: Everyone seems to be racing to protect me from phisihing these days. I guess I appreciate it. I'm also reasonably well educated and know that my bank doesn't send me emails, and thus, no matter how amazingly reasonable the request for the updating of my "personal information" sounds, I should probably not click on that link that looks so plausibly like something my bank would use.
• Enhanced-Search Capabilities: Translation... Google Suggest. Only now it works on other engines too, and you can manage all those search engines "easily." I suppose this feature set is only "news" in comparison to whatever controversy Microsoft will be facing about their choice of Live as the default search in IE7.
• Improved Tabbed Browsing: Translation... annoying me. I'll say, thanks to Cutts' blog (like he needs more backlinks), that I know how to "fix" this now. This "improvement" was just annoying, trying to remember to go up to the individual tab instead of just sliding off to the top right of the bar and closing there. What's even better? I know now that if you "middle click" on a tab it closes it. Handy tip. I suppose I grudgingly admit the new tab system is more "functional", but this creature of habit just can't adjust to it.
• Resuming Your Browsing Session: Translation... sure, we crash, but we even crash better than Internet Explorer. Open up all those tabs and fill in that form data automatically when you restart after a crash. I've had to use this a bit more often than I would have liked on my home machine. I don't think it's Firefox, but the "NoScript" extension I have at home that seems to lend some major instability. Can't recall the last time I've had a crash at the office.
• Previewing & Subscribing to Web Feeds: Wow, I'd care if I actually used RSS with any regularity. Now you can add them to "Bloglines," whatever that is.
• Inline Spell Checking: Finally, something cool. Spelling and I have rarely been the best of friends, so the development of so-called "spell checkers" was a welcome addition to modern life. Granted, I started screwing up differently, and even screwed up the spell checking, which is a testament to the vast adaptability of mankind. In any case, this is a great feature for anyone who posts to forums, comments on blogs, or maybe uses some web based chat. Now people will flame you less for your bad spelling and more for your accurately spelled opinions. That's what the internet is really all about, after all.
• Live Titles: "Microsummarys?" Um, this really isn't going to fly, sorry to say. The idea only aspires to being a curiosity, or perhaps, at best, "neat". It requires a little too much effort on the part of the average site owner to actually implement. Judging from this "astounding" list of sites with Live Titles, it's not exactly catching on like "wildfire."

Let's see... Improved Add-ons manager... okay, I guess, the last one worked fine for me. JavaScript 1.7... whatever, I don't use the previous versions. Extended search plugin format... okay, bottom of the barrel, do you feel me scraping...? Updates to the extension system... right... SVG text... "Now on a curve!" I don't recall ever seeing a website with SVG text, period... New Windows installer... well, that's useful... once...

I suppose I should reiterate I love Firefox, despite the tone of this blog. We only viciously criticize the ones we love. I'm just a little disappointed in the new feature set. It didn't grab me. It seems I could have simply gone on with 1.5 and still have everything that makes me love Firefox. In fact, if I wasn't able to "fix" the tab "improvements" I may have done just that. The Inline Spell-Check is pretty much the only "must have" on the list, for me at least.

What have we learned? I love ellipsis. And Firefox, too. Only... maybe they should have just called this Firefox 1.75 and I would have had appropriately scaled expectations. Instead, it's "2.0" and I'm just a little unimpressed.