Firefox Bon Echo Alpha 2 - new Firefox 2.0 test release

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If you're interested in what the upcoming Firefox 2.0 will look like, you might want to check out the Bon Echo Alpha 2 release:

[mozilla.org...]

As the name suggests, this is a developer preview release - it isn't stable enough for general use yet. Some highlights:

Links default to opening in new tabs, not new windows

Close buttons now appear on every tab

Inline spell checking in text boxes

Search suggestions now appear in the search box autocomplete for Google and Yahoo!

New search plugin manager

Improved support for previewing and subscribing to web feeds

New microsummaries feature for bookmarks

New Add-Ons manager improves the user interface for managing extensions and themes

It is worth reading up about what to expect in Firefox 2.0 - in all it looks like there will be a lot of improving the basics such as feed handling whilst still keeping to the simple approach and leaving extra functionality to extensions.

If you do decide to install Bon Echo, you should use the Firefox Profile Manager [kb.mozillazine.org] to create a new profile for the test installation - otherwise your existing profile has a strong chance of being wrecked by the test release. Make a full backup for your profile directory too, you have been warned! :)