Firefox 3.6 Beta 2 – A Quick Review

I’ve been testing Firefox 3.6 for a couple weeks now. This is just a quick review of a couple new features.

First of all, help Mozilla test Firefox 3.6. This is a pretty stable beta for me and will probably be stable for you. Check it out.

Firefox 3.6 Beta 2 comes with Personas. It is basically a lite version of the bigger and more comprehensive themes. You can hop over to the Personas Download Site. If you have the beta, just hover over one of the previews and your Firefox chrome will automatically change. To keep it, simply click on the preview image and then click wear this. I would never install a theme in fear it would slow an already slow Firefox, but Personas appear to in no way affect the speed because they are so tiny.

Less impressive than Personas, but still pretty neat, there are new tricks in the open video technology. Check out this video and once it is playing, click on it and select full screen. If you haven’t guessed, it’s not Flash, it’s not Java, it’s not SilverLight. It’s just Firefox magic. It clear and very consistent even repeatedly switching to and from full screen. I don’t think it will catch on very soon, but in a couple of years, it will be a standard to provide a high quality, possibly high definition, video without anything plugins required.

Finally, there are 190 changes, mostly subtle, from Beta 1 to Beta 2. I seriously encourage you to check out Firefox 3.6 Beta 2 if you’re not afraid of using a in-testing piece of software. I’m really enjoying it.