Firefox 2.0 Release

[Franjo]

Looks like it was released a day early according to Bit-Tech. I didn't even know it was coming out.

Official FTP is Here (ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/2.0/) (Which is getting Bombed, I'd use the mirrors)

Mirrors:
English, US version is Here (http://mozilla.osuosl.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/2.0/win32/en-US/Firefox%20Setup%202.0.exe)
English, UK version is Here (http://mozilla.osuosl.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/2.0/win32/en-GB/Firefox%20Setup%202.0.exe)

Thanks to Bit-Tech for the info. The web form spell checker helped me out already while posting this news

[Xerxes]

Take that IE 7

[Sandman]

Looks like I'll have to upgrade when I get home.

[51|RandoM]

me too. I'm too lazy to get a spell-checking extension that might slow down startup by a second, but if they build it in I have to accept it. Applied Apathy, as a way of life.

[Franjo]

What's New in this Development Milestone

There is a lot in Firefox 2 RC 3 that you can play around with and give us feedback on:

*

Visual Refresh: Firefox 2's theme and user interface have been updated to improve usability without altering the familiarity of the browsing experience. For instance, toolbar buttons now glow when you hover over them. We will continue to improve the look and feel throughout the release candidate process.
*

Built-in phishing protection: Phishing Protection warns users when they encounter suspected Web forgeries, and offers to return the user to their home page. Phishing Protection is turned on by default, and works by checking sites against either a local or online list of known phishing sites. This list is automatically downloaded and regularly updated when the Phishing Protection feature is enabled.
*

Enhanced search capabilities: Search term suggestions will now appear as users type in the integrated search box when using the Google, Yahoo! or Answers.com search engines. A new search engine manager makes it easier to add, remove and re-order search engines, and users will be alerted when Firefox encounters a website that offers new search engines that the user may wish to install.
*

Improved tabbed browsing: By default, Firefox will open links in new tabs instead of new windows, and each tab will now have a close tab button. Power users who open more tabs than can fit in a single window will see arrows on the left and right side of the tab strip that let them scroll back and forth between their tabs. The History menu will keep a list of recently closed tabs, and a shortcut lets users quickly re-open an accidentally closed tab.
*

Resuming your browsing session: The Session Restore feature restores windows, tabs, text typed in forms, and in-progress downloads from the last user session. It will be activated automatically when installing an application update or extension, and users will be asked if they want to resume their previous session after a system crash.
*

Previewing and subscribing to Web feeds: Users can decide how to handle Web feeds (like this one), either subscribing to them via a Web service or in a standalone RSS reader, or adding them as Live Bookmarks. My Yahoo!, Bloglines and Google Reader come pre-loaded as Web service options, but users can add any Web service that handles RSS feeds.
*

Inline spell checking: A new built-in spell checker enables users to quickly check the spelling of text entered into Web forms (like this one) without having to use a separate application.
*

Live Titles: When a website offers a microsummary (a regularly updated summary of the most important information on a Web page), users can create a bookmark with a "Live Title". Compact enough to fit in the space available to a bookmark label, they provide more useful information about pages than static page titles, and are regularly updated with the latest information. There are several websites that can be bookmarked with Live Titles, and even more add-ons to generate Live Titles for other popular websites.
*

Improved Add-ons manager: The new Add-ons manager improves the user interface for managing extensions and themes, combining them both in a single tool.
*

JavaScript 1.7: JavaScript 1.7 is a language update introducing several new features such as generators, iterators, array comprehensions, let expressions, and destructuring assignments. It also includes all the features of JavaScript 1.6.
*

Extended search plugin format: The Firefox search engine format now supports search engine plugins written in Sherlock and OpenSearch formats and allows search engines to provide search term suggestions.
*

Updates to the extension system: The extension system has been updated to provide enhanced security and to allow for easier localization of extensions.
*

Client-side session and persistent storage: New support for storing structured data on the client side, to enable better handling of online transactions and improved performance when dealing with large amounts of data, such as documents and mailboxes. This is based on the WHATWG specification for client-side session and persistent storage.
*

SVG text: Support for the svg:textpath specification enables SVG text to follow a curve or shape.
*

New Windows installer: Based on Nullsoft Scriptable Install System, the new Windows installer resolves many long-standing issues.

[KarmaGhost]

Word is it's almost identical to RC3, so if you have that, take your time in downloading this. No big rush.

[GunnyMo]

Oooooooo just downloaded and installed it! Sparkly!

I love the goddamn spell check! It's like having Word in your browser! Wheeeeee!

:D Thanks, Mozilla!

[Spigot]

Hmm... gonna have to upgrade soon. I resisted getting Firefox for so long and now I can't imagine using IE.

[NeoSuplex]

Using it now and totally pissed off that it doesn't have better tab options/compatibility with Tab Mix Plus. WHY THE HELL DON'T MY BOOKMARKS SPAWN NEW TABS!
Thorg hungry, Thorg want tabs!

[Kelegacy]

Gonna upgrade in a few seconds. I love FireFox, but I use Google Toolbar for my spellchecker. And since I learned how to use adblock, EvAv loads up faster than ever (and gets rid of the annoying banner ads like Bully). At work on IE it's just plain atrocious. No ads = instant loading.

[KarmaGhost]

Using it now and totally pissed off that it doesn't have better tab options/compatibility with Tab Mix Plus. WHY THE HELL DON'T MY BOOKMARKS SPAWN NEW TABS!
Thorg hungry, Thorg want tabs!I dunno, but have you tried middle clicking them?

[J Arcane]

Eh. Call me when they're reporting that they've actually fixed the constant resource leaks and slowdown.

And several of those "new features" are in Opera already anyway.

[ElPresidente]

Of course they are. We all know that, for the most part, the Mozilla team is in a constant state of playing catch-up with Opera. :P

Oh I love a good browser fight. :D

[Dag-Sabot]

I'm gonna get this -if only to get rid of these bully ads.

[GunnyMo]

I also downloaded the Noia theme. Woot! Super sexy! Heh, for a poor slob who doesn't know (or care) about "resource leaks and slowdown" Firefox is outstanding. :p

[Kelegacy]

Where you getting themes from, GunnyMo? Also, is there a way to get the font aliasing like IE7 has?

Holy shit, this is awesome. It just underlined GunnyMo, telling me it was spelled wrong.

OMG IT DID IT AGAIN!

OMG IT UNDERLINED OMG!

!!! TWICE!

[SlamDunk]

What is missing from those release notes is a mention if it's safe to just update Firefox 1.5.0.7 to v2.0 or is it recommended that you uninstall the old version first.

Install instructions and advice is always good to have. Thank you.

I downloaded mine from here:

http://ftp-mozilla.netscape.com/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/2.0/win32/en-US/Firefox%20Setup%202.0.exe

[GunnyMo]

Where you getting themes from, GunnyMo? Also, is there a way to get the font aliasing like IE7 has?

Holy shit, this is awesome. It just underlined GunnyMo, telling me it was spelled wrong.

OMG IT DID IT AGAIN!

OMG IT UNDERLINED OMG!

!!! TWICE!

ROFL! Just go to the "Tools" menu, click Add-Ons then Themes and you'll see a "Get Themes" down in the bottom right corner. Click that and away you go. I did have a couple hitches configuring FF to accept installs, etc., but once you get past that you are on a roll!

OMG! It's underlining OMG! and GUNNYMO! Holy crap! laksjdflkjasdf (that's just so I can see more spelling mistake underlines!) It's the 2nd coming of Jeebus! OMG! That's underlined, too!!! :D

(lol I'm having too much fun with this)

[Odyzen]

Been using Opera (http://www.opera.com/products/desktop/) for a while now and it already have these features. So I give props to Opera for having these features plus a few more (bittorrent, mouse gestures, etc). I will be downloading Firefox 2 regardless. Hopefully it's more optimized and have less CPU usage.

[Kelegacy]

ROFL! Just go to the "Tools" menu, click Add-Ons then Themes and you'll see a "Get Themes" down in the bottom right corner. Click that and away you go. I did have a couple hitches configuring FF to accept installs, etc., but once you get past that you are on a roll!

OMG! It's underlining OMG! and GUNNYMO! Holy crap! laksjdflkjasdf (that's just so I can see more spelling mistake underlines!) It's the 2nd coming of Jeebus! OMG! That's underlined, too!!! :D

(lol I'm having too much fun with this)

Yeah, I figured it out right after I asked. I really do enjoy the spell-checker. With Google Toolbar I had to go up top and click the ABC arrow to get it to check, but with the integration I get on-the-fly notices, like Word. Neat. Still keeping the Google Toolbar because it makes searching simple (without having to leave the page you are viewing) and has other great features.

I grabbed Noia, too.

[J Arcane]

Been using Opera (http://www.opera.com/products/desktop/) for a while now and it already have these features. So I give props to Opera for having these features plus a few more (bittorrent, mouse gestures, etc). I will be downloading Firefox 2 regardless. Hopefully it's more optimized and have less CPU usage.
Now, I have to stop you on one thing. I love Opera with all my heart, but the Bittorrent downloader is terrible.

Azureus FTW.

[Kelegacy]

Been using Opera (http://www.opera.com/products/desktop/) for a while now and it already have these features. So I give props to Opera for having these features plus a few more (bittorrent, mouse gestures, etc). I will be downloading Firefox 2 regardless. Hopefully it's more optimized and have less CPU usage.
I haven't used Opera for a while, probably last year, and I didn't keep it long. Don't remember why I left it, but I should give it another try.

How is bittorrent integrated? What are mouse gestures? That stuff sounds great.

[Metal Jesus]

I have been very impressed with Firefox for a long time now. What a great browser.

On my Ubuntu linux machine, I even use an offshoot called SwiftFox, which is incredibly fast. IE can't touch it. :P

[GunnyMo]

I grabbed Noia, too.

Isn't it...sparkly! It's like my browser is wrapped in plastic wrap! :D

[Kelegacy]

Isn't it...sparkly! It's like my browser is wrapped in plastic wrap! :D
Having problems...I can't get it to work. Under tools there is no THEME option. I looked on the webpage and it says to select THEMES...but it isn't there!

Nevermind. Duh.

[MasterEvilAce]

Gonna upgrade in a few seconds. I love FireFox, but I use Google Toolbar for my spellchecker. And since I learned how to use adblock, EvAv loads up faster than ever (and gets rid of the annoying banner ads like Bully). At work on IE it's just plain atrocious. No ads = instant loading.
I'm surprised nobody has bitched at you for blocking the ads on EA... Considering ads are a source of revenue for EA.

[Kelegacy]

I'm surprised nobody has bitched at you for blocking the ads on EA... Considering ads are a source of revenue for EA.
I'm a subscriber. I don't give a crap about the ads. I donated, subscribers shouldn't have to see the ads. So I don't.

And really though, I want to view pages as best I can. I only started blocking them when the Bully Ads gave me grief. Rolling over them initiated a movie that had to load, and to close the window I had to click CLOSE. Not cool at all. That's one thing I hate about AIM, to the point where I started using MSN Messenger more--the annoying cursor-based ads.

[MaiXu]

Awesome! A lot of my favorite extensions still work, and there looks to be a lot of new functionality built right in to the browser!

And now I'll never mispeel anything ever again!

[Odyzen]

Now, I have to stop you on one thing. I love Opera with all my heart, but the Bittorrent downloader is terrible.

Azureus FTW. Yeah, I haven't used the bittorrent on the thing :p. it supposed to be a transparent handling thing that make it look like you're downloading a regular file. I'm still using Azureus and I can't leave it. But the Bittorent search widget is great. Just mentioning Opera has other features.

I love opera because of it's low cpu usage. It doesn't hug resources. I find Firefox take two to threes times more and that's a drag on my laptop.

Mouse gestures are mouse movements you can make to replace button clicking. Like right-click and hold then move mouse left then let go of button makes the webpage "go back". It makes certain things a lil move convenient.

Oh! you can open tabs in the background. I never figured out how to do this in Firefox. Downloading Ff2 now.

[MaiXu]

Oh, and I'm pretty sure you can get extensions for BitTorrent and mouse gestures.

Mouse gestures are something akin to "hold down right click and move the mouse left = go back to the last page." Or it could be "hold down right click and make a circle = page reload." I used an extension for this and found it pretty useless.

[Rirath]

If you haven't been using the RC's for ages now, why the heck not?

And I say this all the time but:

USE THE "NIGHTLY TESTER TOOLS" EXTENSION TO FIX "BROKEN" EXTENSIONS WITH ONE CLICK!

[Rirath]

Mouse gestures are mouse movements you can make to replace button clicking. Like right-click and hold then move mouse left then let go of button makes the webpage "go back". It makes certain things a lil move convenient.

Oh! you can open tabs in the background. I never figured out how to do this in Firefox. Downloading Ff2 now.

There's plenty of mouse gesture extensions, and opening tabs in the background is as simple as middle clicking them. (Turn off "automatically go to new tab" if you've got it turned on in options.)

[J Arcane]

I use mouse gestures constantly. I did when I was still using Firefox as well. They're awesome, because I can just flip the mouse in a direction to go where I want.

The bittorrent thing basically just sets it up so that BT downloads are handled from the same tab as your other regular downloads. They also added BT's search engine to the default set of sites in the search bar. But trouble is, the downloader performs almost as terribly as original Bittorrent, and the BT search engine is crap.

[Spigot]

Very spiffy. Just going to go install Noia now.

Ooo... I like the spell checker. I hadn't bothered with it until now, but man. Very spiffy.

[GunnyMo]

Having problems...I can't get it to work. Under tools there is no THEME option. I looked on the webpage and it says to select THEMES...but it isn't there!

Nevermind. Duh.

oh, lol. I started the "quote" and then saw your never mind but I was having fun with the spell checker so I kept going. :D

[EternalGamer]

Built in spell check is awesome news. I currently use Clusky toolbar add on to Firefox, which brings up links to dictionary.com and wikipedia for any word I right click on. It's pretty useful.

But tab browsing changed my internet habits forever. I know I.E finally has it now, but it annoys the hell out of me using other people's PC's with older version of I.E. It's just as irratating as trying to use a mouse without a scroll wheel (you end up continually rubbing the top of the mouse to no avail).

[NightRain]

Yeah this is a great update. My only complaint is some extensions no longer work, hope they are updated soon especially image shack Tool bar and Tab Browser Extensions, have to say though the spell checker is awesome.

[Phanto]

This is just a public preview release?!?! isn't the "retail" thing right?

[EternalGamer]

Horray to Firefox for attempting to keep America literate via easy spellchecks.

[jeffool]

Yeah, I figured it out right after I asked. I really do enjoy the spell-checker. With Google Toolbar I had to go up top and click the ABC arrow to get it to check, but with the integration I get on-the-fly notices, like Word. Neat. Still keeping the Google Toolbar because it makes searching simple (without having to leave the page you are viewing) and has other great features.

I grabbed Noia, too.Mouse gestures are nifty, but I mostly surf on a laptop now and don't even have a mouse, so I've gone nearly keyboard-only and haven't looked back. For opening a search in a new window so I don't lose what's in this window I hit: Alt+d, Tab, enter the search term, and hit Alt+enter and it opens in a new tab. Not sure how Google Toolbar handles it.

[NeoSuplex]

I dunno, but have you tried middle clicking them?

Yeah. Those were the Pre TMP Days. I try not to think about them. Besides, there is no middle Enter button. The auto-new-tab thing was a small part of what I loved about that plug, though. Session manager was also great and extra beautification of the tabs was just icing.
If I can't browse on Keyboard alone, something's not right.

[snubber]

Azureus FTW.

correction:
Azureus FTL.
µTorrent FTW.

[thecrazyd]

It crashes on my computer at work... I'll give it a shot at home.

[Odyzen]

opening tabs in the background is as simple as middle clicking them. (Turn off "automatically go to new tab" if you've got it turned on in options.) That's why I never could open tabs in the background (it still opened in the foreground)! Fucking kaggar. Oh well. I'll try out Ff2 tonight and see how it goes. Maybe I'll move back. :D

[NeoSuplex]

Also, where's this spell checker I keeo hearing about?

[thecrazyd]

Anyone get a newmonitor@nsautomonitor@@sapaupr@@PBD@Z missing dll crash on launch? Any suggestions?

[Kelegacy]

Also, where's this spell checker I keeo hearing about?
It's built into Firefox. If you try to type in a reply box (like I'm doing now) and spell a word like dierkdfji there should be a red line beneath it, flagging it for correction.

[shnastybiznastic]

Mouse gestures are nifty, but I mostly surf on a laptop now and don't even have a mouse, so I've gone nearly keyboard-only and haven't looked back. For opening a search in a new window so I don't lose what's in this window I hit: Alt+d, Tab, enter the search term, and hit Alt+enter and it opens in a new tab. Not sure how Google Toolbar handles it.
Agreed. Every once in a while, one of my friends will shoot me a link to an extension for some program that incorporates gestures, but if I wanted to hold a fucking mouse, I'd work in a goddamned pet store. Everything I do everyday has a button assigned to it and I know most of the hotkeys to programs I use all the time. The only killer is when I can't get imagemagik to something, then I have to bust the mouse out. Probably should get a tablet to deal with that.

correction:
Azureus FTL.
µTorrent FTW.
Sure, if you don't need NAT traversal, IPv6, web seeding, and only run Windows.

Looser.

[NeoSuplex]

It's built into Firefox. If you try to type in a reply box (like I'm doing now) and spell a word like dierkdfji there should be a red line beneath it, flagging it for correction.

Negative on that one. Mine must be busted...
aiffakjgsahfj. See?

[J Arcane]

Sure, if you don't need NAT traversal, IPv6, web seeding, and only run Windows.

Azureus is the only BT client I've found so far that will actually still work well from behind my router's firewall.

[MFAC]

The spell checker is suppose to work automatically right?....... I'm using version 2 now and it does not seem to be working......there a trick or something to activate it meh?

[iamhurtin]

maybe your a really good speeler :)

[MFAC]

maybe your a really good speeler :)

No its not that..... hehe, I wish.

[dirtbag]

Nice update for a great browser! It will cleanly install over 1.5.whatever, but leave 2 separate entries in your "Add/Remove Programs" in the CP.

[rein]

I love it. Nice built-in features to replace some of the add-ons I was using.

[Metalhaze]

Oooooooo just downloaded and installed it! Sparkly!

I love the goddamn spell check! It's like having Word in your browser! Wheeeeee!

:D Thanks, Mozilla!

Yeah well Safari did that a long time ago....nothing new....just no PC browser ever chose to add this feature.

Come to think of it...most apps (like iChat and Mail) have a built in spell check that underlines in red what is spelt wrong as soon as you type it.

[ElPresidente]

Yeah well Safari did that a long time ago....nothing new....just no PC browser ever chose to add this feature.

Opera has had spell checking for ages.

Although it was not real time checking like the new version of Firefox or what Safari has. You needed to right click and request a spell check.

[MrE]

I'm a big Firefox fan, but v2.0 has already closed on me twice. Then I get the wonderful "Firefox has detected that it didn't shut down properly, would you like to restart your last session?" message. Great. Maybe not quite ready for prime time.

-E

[Mason]

Opera has had spell checking for ages.

Although it was not real time checking like the new version of Firefox or what Safari has. You needed to right click and request a spell check.
And Firefox has had Word-like spellcheck extensions for quite some time. I'll be bidding a fond farewell to Spellbound.

Could we just circumvent all of the browser-related dick-waving? Opera is smaller, faster, and has the cool features built-in first. Firefox is extensible and customizable, and no matter how esoteric your browser-based hankerings are, there are five extensions for it.

Neither one will put shards of glass in your morning cereal, though. Browsers won't run on a platform of populist reform and then sell out to corporate interests. Browsers don't kill people, and neither do people with browsers. So I think we can trust everyone to make their own choices here.

[Ravenlock]

I'm a big Firefox fan, but v2.0 has already closed on me twice. Then I get the wonderful "Firefox has detected that it didn't shut down properly, would you like to restart your last session?" message. Great. Maybe not quite ready for prime time.Really? That's strange. I hopped on the 2.0 bandwagon from 1.5.0.7 once they hit RC2 (which means I've been using it for a week or two now), and I've been browsing with it constantly with usually 10 or more tabs open at a time, and haven't had a crash yet. I've got a bunch of extensions going, too - I think this is their best, most stable release yet.Could we just circumvent all of the browser-related dick-waving? Opera is smaller, faster, and has the cool features built-in first. Firefox is extensible and customizable, and no matter how esoteric your browser-based hankerings are, there are five extensions for it.Yup, Opera and FF are both great browsers, and if Opera does what you need right out of the box, you'll love it. To me, the great tragedy is that Opera is the more solid browser technically, but web designers write their pages for IE/FF. So somebody downloads Opera, thinks "gee, this is neat", but then GMail and GCalendar and Hotmail and maybe their bank's website or something else just don't work quite right and they give up on it. That plus some extensions I really like are what brought me back to FF.

But really, guys, you can't go wrong with either, and it's great the quality, free browsing options exist. Feel free to love both the nimble, solid quality of Opera and the boundless possibilities of FF + extensions, nobody needs to know. ;)

[ElPresidente]

Could we just circumvent all of the browser-related dick-waving? Opera is smaller, faster, and has the cool features built-in first. Firefox is extensible and customizable, and no matter how esoteric your browser-based hankerings are, there are five extensions for it.

I actually do like both browsers... my preference is for Opera since it is better made for power keyboard short cut users.

I just love a good browser fight. :P

[muddi900]

I am so accustomed to the mouse shortcuts of opera, I can't switch even if I wanted to. And of course there is widget.

[Disgustipated]

Been using Firefox 2 since RC2 and all I can say is its golden. It's alot like 1.5 but the session restore stuff is pretty cool. Nothing really majorly changed, it's just a tiny step up.

OH, and the spell checker is fucking cool!

[MrWonderstuff]

I'm typing this and there's no splling checker. ;-)

Where is it FFS?

[dead]

tis good. and i think its less of a CPU hog as it was last time. however i don't really like the brownness (OMG SPELL CHECK) of the window...

[Kem0sabe]

<- Using Firefox 3.0a (Minefield)

Its pretty stable and is faster than 2.0 me thinks.

[Spigot]

Heh. Browser fights... This reminds me of when I was in university... IN 1996!

[Mortis]

Anyone know how to get rid of that big ass ugly round button at the end of the address bar? In the older version I could just drag it off via customize but now it appears to be attached to the address field so that is removed along with it.

[alienhead]

Have they fixed memory leaks? Running it right now and its using 60 megs of ram. The longer its open the more ram it uses. yesterday i happened to open task manager and it was at 170 megs. That's with one tab open. Fix that and we have a winner.

[michaelwhite]

Tabbed browsing is great, but I got tired of Firefox mysteriously deleting my bookmarks when I would organize them. I do a lot of reading and missing bookmarks is an issue for me. So, I went back to IE, and while it is inconvient having to open multiple windows, I see no reason to ever use Firefox again.

[dead]

Have they fixed memory leaks? Running it right now and its using 60 megs of ram. The longer its open the more ram it uses. yesterday i happened to open task manager and it was at 170 megs. That's with one tab open. Fix that and we have a winner.

i believe it has been fixed. my Firefox is running at 35.5Mb with 5 tabs open.

the inability to remove some icons is a bit annoying though.

[Asylum-GameServers]

^^ Ya its running at about 30Mb for me with five tabs also and seems to load things a bit faster. Loving the spellcheck, although I gotta remember to use it.

[net7runner]

Anyone know how to get rid of that big ass ugly round button at the end of the address bar? In the older version I could just drag it off via customize but now it appears to be attached to the address field so that is removed along with it.NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[JediSanf]

Quick question on the OS X version. Has anyone figured out how to make the Dock icon ALWAYS open a new window (regardless of any windows already open)?

[J Arcane]

Tabbed browsing is great, but I got tired of Firefox mysteriously deleting my bookmarks when I would organize them. I do a lot of reading and missing bookmarks is an issue for me. So, I went back to IE, and while it is inconvient having to open multiple windows, I see no reason to ever use Firefox again.
Umm, how about not using a browser that is essentially a giant back door into your system?

[Dr.Finger]

A few little gripes.

They took the 'open new tab' button completely off of the tab bar and replaced the single 'close tab' button with one for each tab. 2.0 won't let me put these back where I'm used to them. I keep shooting the mouse to the top right to close tabs. Its annoying.

[Spigot]

A few little gripes.
I keep shooting the mouse to the top right to close tabs. Its annoying.
Yeah. I keep closing active tabs by accident. That said, I'll get used to it. I quite enjoy the new tweaks.

[Xaerin]

They took the 'open new tab' button completely off of the tab bar and replaced the single 'close tab' button with one for each tab.

From the support forums:
"-How to I get rid of the close buttons on tabs (go back to how Firefox 1.x was)? Type about:config in the address bar, press enter, and set browser.tabs.closeButtons to 3."

You could try that. Apparently the memory leaks are fixed, we'll see. 1.5 is on 64mb atm but I've seen it around 200mb with Pandora playing.

[MacD]

Damn...I wish they'd done a bit more with teh tabbed prowsing. I always find myself webbrowsing per subject...I end up with a lot of tabs open, but those tabs are usually 3 to 5 belonging to the same subject and opened for later reading.
What I'd like to see is tree'd tabs (master/sub tabs): a series of master tabs (saveable) which if clicked open the tabs containing webpages. That way I could have a tab containing all my oblivion pages, another with my 3dmodeling pages, one containing those helpfull programming links, etc.

Hmmm....guess I could program it muyself, but I'm a bit busy :P

[Cavalier]

The spell checker is suppose to work automatically right?....... I'm using version 2 now and it does not seem to be working......there a trick or something to activate it meh?

It's only there by default on the en-US version (allegedly), on any other version, right click on the text entry space and click on "add dictionary".