Firefox 2.0 PRE-RELEASED!

Earlier today, Mozilla put Firefox 2 out on the FTP servers! Now keep in mind this really a pre-release to get the download mirrors ready. The official release on the product page (getfirefox.com) will not be updated until Tuesday around 6:00 PM PDT. Also, the FTP server is overload and/or restricted at the moment so here are some alternative ways to get your hands on Firefox 2 if you cain’t wait:

• Ryan at CyberNet News >> Download Firefox 2 – Just Released has his download widget for Firefox 2. Select your language and click the button for your OS to download.
• On the Mozilla Firefox Product page there is a link Firefox 2 Preview Release. This is Firefox 2.0 RC3 which is almost the exact same thing as the final release.

Just a reminder before you go downloading this release, some extensions still may not be working with Firefox 2. When you first run Firefox 2 it is going to run a compatibility check, after this check it will display a warning with the incompatible extensions. At this point you will be given the option to check for updates. Any extensions that do not get updated will automatically become disabled. Most extension developers should be releasing (if they have not already) Firefox 2 compatible extensions. To manually check for updates go to Tools, Add-Ons, click ‘Find Updates’ Button.

Spell Check Tweak

The new inline spell checker introduced with Firefox 2 is set by default only to check multi-line text areas. What this means is if the text area is a single line (example on Delphi Forums, message and poll titles are a single line text area) you must manually select Spell check this field from the context menu. This can be fixed with a simple modification to about:config.

• Click the about:config button (if about:config extension is installed) or open a new tab and type about:config in the address bar and press enter
• In the filter field type layout.spellcheckDefault
• Double-click on the entry and in the pop-box enter 2
• Click OK

Download Manager History Tweak

I found this info on the Firefox Builds board on mozillaZine. Some of you may recall from Firefox 1.5.0.* builds the download manager would keep a history of your downloads. By default it would retain this history until you choose to clear the list or if you changed the settings via a menu option.

Due to possible performance issues associated with having long download list, Firefox 2 by default clears the list as soon as the download is completed. You can change this option by going to Tools -> Options -> Privacy and checking Remember what I’ve downloaded. However there is a third option to retain the list until the browser exits, but this can only be set via an about:config entry:

• Click the about:config button (if you have the extension) or open a new tab and type about:config in the address bar
• In the filter field enter browser.download.manager.retention
• double-click on the entry and enter the corresponding number below:

  • 0 ~ List clears when download is completed
  • 1 ~ List clears when you exit the browser
  • 2 ~ List clears only via ‘Clean Up’ button

• Click OK
• Close about:config editor or tab

Keep in mind the “performance issues” were NOT fixed so the change in the default behavior for the download manger was only a band aid.