14 DAY TRIAL // The Mozilla Foundation announced at the end of last week the Release Candidate 2 for Firefox 1.5, and this time there were no complaints from testers. For the previous release, things didn't go so well for the Foxy browser.
This update represents the final step before the actual launch of the final browser and the update will be made automatically for the testers that had already installed RC1.
This automatic update system is the key element of the new release and having a tool that distributes quickly all updates of the browser makes Firefox an even stronger competitor for Internet Explorer. Firefox 1.5's most praised feature will allow users to update by downloading much smaller files. The RC2 download, for instance, is under 400KB, while previously, users had to download the entire browser, weighing in at 4 to 5MB.
Other features of this new release are faster browser navigation and popup blocking improvements. The new Clear Private Data feature provides an easy way to quickly remove personal data through an entry in the ?Tools? menu or a keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+Del). The browser will also offer DHTML support and assistive technologies such as Window-Eyes 5.5, a beta screen reader which reads aloud all available information inside applications or shows the information on a Braille display.
Firefox 1.5 RC2 can be downloaded from here.