Firefox 4 Beta 2 now available

Mozilla has made Firefox 4 Beta available to the public.  Now it does not have the Tab Candy feature that is in the custom build (that build is a beta 3 pre-build).  New features in Beta 2 are.

  • Tabs are now on top by default on Windows and OSX – Linux will be changing when the theme has been modified to support the change.
  • You can turn any tab into an “App Tab” by right-clicking on it and selecting “Make into App Tab” from the context menu.
  • Web developers can animate content using CSS Transitions.
  • Responsiveness and scrolling improvements from the new retained layers layout system.
  • JavaScript speed improvements due to engine optimizations.
  • Changes to how XPCOM components are registered in order to help startup time and process separation.
  • See the complete changelist from the previous beta.

Features from Firefox 4 Beta 1

  • You can search for and switch to already open tabs in the Smart Location Bar
  • New Addons Manager and extension management API (UI will be changed before final release)
  • Significant API improvements are available for JS-ctypes, a foreign function interface for extensions.
  • The stop and reload buttons have been merged into a single button on Windows, Mac and Linux.
  • The Bookmarks Toolbar has been replaced with a Bookmarks Button by default (you can switch it back if you’d like).
  • Crash protection for Windows, Linux, and Mac when there is a crash in the Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime or Microsoft Silverlight plugins.
  • CSS Transitions are partially supported.
  • Full WebGL support is included but disabled by default at this time.
  • Core Animation rendering model for plugins on Mac OS X. Plugins which also support this rendering model can now draw faster and more efficiently.
  • Native support for the HD HTML5 WebM video format.
  • An experimental Direct2D rendering backend is available on Windows, turned off by default.
  • Web developers can use Websockets for a low complexity, low latency, bidirectional communications API.
  • Web developers can update the URL field without reloading the page using HTML History APIs.
  • More responsive page rendering using lazy frame construction.
  • Link history lookup is done asynchronously to provide better responsiveness during pageload.
  • CSS :visited selectors have been changed to block websites from being able to check a user’s browsing history.
  • New HTML5 parser.
  • Support for more HTML5 form controls.

Download it yourself and tell use what you think:
Firefox 4 Beta page

NOTE: The Tab Candy feature in the last firefox post did not make the deadline for this beta, I would expect to see it in Beta 3.

4 Responses to “Firefox 4 Beta 2 now available”

  1. its fast i love it i cant wait for the final

    • Yup, Final is going to be awesome. I just hope they add a little more space between the minimize, maximize, and close button and the tabs (on top) bar. And fix the statusbar drop down menus.

  2. its fast i love it i cant wait for the final

    • Yup, Final is going to be awesome. I just hope they add a little more space between the minimize, maximize, and close button and the tabs (on top) bar. And fix the statusbar drop down menus.