Firefox 2 Beta 1 milestone released

[beltzner]

Please note: We do not recommend that anyone other than developers and
testers download the Firefox 2 Beta 1 milestone release. It is
intended for testing purposes only.

Firefox 2 Beta 1 is now available for download at
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/bonecho/all-beta.html. This is the
fourth developer milestone focused on testing the core functionality
provided by many new features and changes to the platform scheduled
for Firefox 2. Ongoing planning for Firefox 2 can be followed at the
Firefox 2 Planning Center, as well as in mozilla.dev.planning and on
irc.mozilla.org in #bonecho.

New features and changes in this milestone that require feedback include:

* Built in Phishing Protection
* Search suggestions now appear with search history in the search box
for Google, Yahoo! and Answers.com
* Changes to tabbed browsing behavior
* Ability to re-open accidentally closed tabs
* Better support for previewing and subscribing to web feeds
* Inline spell checking in text boxes
* Search plugin manager for removing and re-ordering search engines
* New microsummaries feature for bookmarks
* Automatic restoration of your browsing session if there is a crash
* New combined and improved Add-Ons manager for extensions and themes
* New Windows installer based on Nullsoft Scriptable Install System
* Support for JavaScript 1.7
* Support for client-side session and persistent storage
* Extended search plugin format
* Updates to the extension system to provide enhanced security and to
allow for easier localization of extensions
* Support for SVG text using svg:textPath

The Firefox 2 Beta 1 project page makes it easy for testers to provide
feedback and report bugs. You can download Firefox 2 Beta 1 builds for
Windows, Mac OSX and Linux in several languages. Testers should also
be sure to read the release notes to learn about known issues.

Note: Please do not link directly to the download site. Instead we
strongly encourage you to link to this Firefox 2 Beta 1 milestone
announcement at
http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2006/07/12/firefox-2-beta-1-milestone-released/
so that everyone will know what this milestone is, what they should
expect, and who should be downloading to participate in testing at
this stage of development.

[beltzner]

I wanted to also mention a big thank you to Reed Loden and Steven
Garrity for working hard at the last minute on the changes required to
get the download page up and running. This will make linking to
localized release candidates a lot easier in the future. Great work,
guys!

[beltzner]

annnnd I forgot to mention that the Mozilla Developer Centre already
has an article going for developers about all the changes in Firefox
2.0!

http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Firefox_2_for_developers

cheers,
mike

--
/ mike beltzner / phenomenologist / mozilla corporation /