Open Beta: Firefox 3B5rc2

Dave Winer asked "Are you using firefox 3?"

I am pleased to say that I am (FF 3B5rc2) and I am very comfortable with it. As a browser it feels rock solid. While it still has the characteristic pointy edges that Mozilla betas are know for (the "Home" button image for example) everything 'under-the-hood' appears to be working perfectly.

I am more surprised by the reaction of many users who insist that without their preferred add-ons they cannot work with the beta. But I am not insensitive to their plight... only a couple of beta versions ago I felt much the same way.

and then something happened in my browser worldview...

As with many paradigm shifts I began to 'check my technological baggage'. Here is what I have found...

Extensions:

CustomizeGoogle: This extension has migrated seamlessly through all of the betas that I have tried. It is not that it is absolutely essential to my browsing experience but rather it survived because it is not FF version dependent.

Weave: This extension is new - it is doesn't work with versions before FFv3 so I guess you could say it is version dependent. Weave is Mozilla's alternative to GoogleSync. Ironically, losing gSync might well have been a deal breaker for me ... Weave allowed me to commit to FFv3B5rc2 becasue I could load it (and Weave) on my two primary Linux systems.

Add-ons

Turns out there is only one Add-on that I really miss ... FaviconizeTab is the utility that allows tabs to be reduced to just their favicon size ... but again, it is not a Firefox 3 deal breaker.