Firefox 1.5

Firefox 1.5

I hope you guys are as excited as I am about the release of the much-anticipated 1.5 patch for Firefox, the popular Mozilla Browser. This update comes after a lengthy stint in beta version where it has been since early August. The update brings a few nice features to the table including improved security capabilities as well as ease-of-use functionality through the implementation of intuitive components that were inspired mostly by end-user input.

Here’s a list of the new capabilities and features that comprise the new 1.5 patch for Firefox:

• Automated update to streamline product upgrades. Notification of an update is more prominent, and updates to Firefox may now be half a megabyte or smaller. Updating extensions has also improved.
• Faster browser navigation with improvements to back and forward button performance.
• Drag and drop reordering for browser tabs.
• Improvements to popup blocking.
• Clear Private Data feature provides an easy way to quickly remove personal data through a menu item or keyboard shortcut.
• Answers.com is added to the search engine list.
• Improvements to product usability including descriptive error pages, redesigned options menu, RSS discovery, and "Safe Mode" experience.
• Better accessibility including support for DHTML accessibility and assistive technologies such as the Window-Eyes 5.5 beta screen reader for Microsoft Windows. Screen readers read aloud all available information in applications and documents or show the information on a Braille display, enabling blind and visually impaired users to use equivalent software functionality as their sighted peers.
• Report a broken Web site wizard to report Web sites that are not working in Firefox.
• Better support for Mac OS X (10.2 and greater) including profile migration from Safari and Mac Internet Explorer.
• New support for Web Standards including SVG, CSS 2 and CSS 3, and JavaScript 1.6.
• Many security enhancements.

If you’re not a Firefox user this might be the time to give it a try, especially after all the unpatched security holes that Internet Explorer has had lately with parsing Cascading Style Sheets. Firefox can also import all your IE settings including favorites to help the transition go smoothly. This import features gives the user a sense of comfort and familiarly with Firefox from the first use. In addition Firefox has tons of downloadable themes and plug-ins to change the look and functionality of your browser to completely suite your needs.
So, if you've always wanted to try Firefox now is the time to do it. If you are already a user then go out and update your little red tailed friend because you’re going to love the new features.

~Chad Stelnicki