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Mozilla have released an alpha 1 of Firefox 2, codenamed ‘Bon Echo’.

Bon Echo Alpha 1 is a developer preview release of our next generation Firefox browser and it is being made available for testing purposes only . Bon Echo Alpha 1 is intended for web application developers and our testing community. Current users of Mozilla Firefox 1.x should not use Bon Echo Alpha 1.

I have not yet downloaded and tried for myself, but I would expect it to bust numerous current Firefox extentions and themes but, as the blurb above says, if you are a web application developer it’s good to get a look-in at an early stage. [Please feel free to report your experiences on this page, especially where it concerns improvements or otherwise to standards/CSS rendering.] And while you’re at it, if you haven’t already done so, you might want to check out IE7 beta preview 2.

Your Replies

#1 On March 22nd, 2006 7:20 am Grayson Mixon replied:

I’ve been using Firefox nightly builds for a long time, so I’ve been seeing this development on a day by day basis, and I can tell you that it’s great. Extensions and themes do get busted, but that’s only because of the way Mozilla handles extensions. The extension identifies itself as compatible with Firefox 1.0 to 1.5, but this alpha identifies itself as 2.0a1, automatically disabling extensions and themes that do not say that they are compatible. However, Mr Tech’s Local Install has a feature to enable them. So, you won’t be without. All extensions that I’ve used or that people I know use are completely compatible with 2.0, once you bump the extension’s maxversion.

Themes are another story. They more easily break, and if they haven’t been updated for 2.0, then there will be some minor breakage. However, for users of Qute, you can download QuBranch, which is 100% compatible. For other themes, you can probably find unofficial copies of the theme on the Mozillazine Forums that are compatible, and if the original author is still developing the extension, an official release will be out in a week or two.

#2 On March 22nd, 2006 7:23 am Grayson Mixon replied:

One more thing, IE View Lite, Nightly Tester Tools, and Tab No X are compatible with 2.0 without having to bump the maxversion. I’m cool like that.

For users who don’t like the close buttons on tabs, who like the old close button setup, there was a bug to put in an option to switch back, but Ben Goodger, the lead Firefox dev, 86′d that idea. So I created an extension called Tab No X (check Mozilla Update) that puts the close buttons back the way they were.

#3 On March 22nd, 2006 9:48 am John replied:

So I created an extension called Tab No X (check Mozilla Update) that puts the close buttons back the way they were.

That’s what makes Firefox so great.

#4 On March 22nd, 2006 12:14 pm elmer replied:

just please guide me coz im a biggener

#5 On March 23rd, 2006 2:44 am ionut replied:

The new Bon Echo Alpha 1 sounds interesting!

#6 On March 23rd, 2006 8:17 am David Owens replied:

Hi Elmer,

If you are a beginner, I reccomend you stick to Firefox 1.5 Get Firefox. This release is aimed at developers and is nowhere near a finished product.

#7 On March 23rd, 2006 8:39 am WaSP Member Ian Lloyd replied:

Like David said, Elmer, this version of Firefox is not for you. Stick to v1.5

#8 On March 23rd, 2006 10:24 am Stuart Maynard-Keene replied:

I like it, the bookmarks being in SQLLite is really handy when searching for that elusive link!

#9 On March 25th, 2006 4:13 am Greg replied:

How does it do in the Acid test?

#10 On March 28th, 2006 1:32 pm Julian Bennett Holmes replied:

On the Acid 2 test, it fails miserably.
check out my screenshot

Yeah, I’d say that’s a pretty bad fail.

#11 On March 28th, 2006 1:59 pm John replied:

Julian,

Not as miserably as it could. Besides, the Firefox team has made it clear that while Acid2 perfection would (rather, will) be nice, it is not their current focus.

#12 On March 28th, 2006 2:13 pm Grayson Mixon replied:

The Firefox rendering engine is being completely rewritten for 3.0. It is very close to passing, much closer than 2.0. Check out the trunk nightlies if you want to see the 3.0 work. Mozilla expects 3.0 to pass acid2.

and 2.0a1 doesn’t fail too badly. it is much closer than, say, IE.

#13 On March 29th, 2006 8:02 pm Julian Bennett Holmes replied:

John,

That’s true.
Here’s my screenshot of Internet Explorer 5 for Mac’s result of the Acid 2 Test

#14 On July 6th, 2006 8:30 am E. H. aka ZeHoS replied:

Er, Julian…. where…
/me blinks hard.
Where’s the smiley face in that screenshot!? Does your browser seriously not render the image at all? (I know IE5 doens’t like PNG files, but one would at least expect to see other parts of the image)

/me blinks again, just to make sure.

ZS

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