A New Batch Of Browsers

There's a new batch of browsers on the horizon and they're all going to be vying for your attention.

So will you be changing your browser soon?

I'm not convinced I'll be changing from Firefox and luckily for Fox lovers, Version 2 beta 1 is available for download now. http://developer.mozilla.org/ Of course as always with beta versions be aware it may contain bugs so either put up or wait until the full release is out. There doesn't appear to be too much obvious change with "Inline spell checking for text areas" being the change I'm most enthused about, but then Fire Fox is pretty good already.

IE 7 Beta 3 is available for download and of course has a whole host of improvements to shout about but that's because previous IE versions were so far behind the times. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx Unfortunately, where previously it had been easy to install a standalone version alongside IE 6 for test purposes it's now much more difficult. It would cerainly be nice for developers of browsers to consider web developers that need to test on a range of browsers for once!

Opera 9 is out and available and pretty damn good I have to say from briefly using it. Opera is the only browser that performs properly in the Acid 2 Browser test which tests browser support for web standards. During my brief session using Opera I have to say it was noticeably quicker than Fire Fox as well.

For a more thorough comparison of all the browsers mentioned visit the Extreme Tech article.