Well of course the big news as everyone knows was the release of Firefox 2 and Internet Explorer 7. This weeks roundup gathers some of the comments made across the web about the releases.

A week with IE7 – The Browser Den

It should be possible to remove buttons from in interface that’s not needed to free up some space. You should be able to move buttons from the tab bar to the address bar. By default IE7 should have looked like a native Windows XP application rather than a port from Vista but should have allowed enough customisability for people who wanted it to look like it does currently to do so. I suspect a lot of novice computer users will be totally lost when this radically different interface lands on their desktop when it’s pushed through Windows update. 

Firefox 2.0 shows promise but UI needs a face lift – ZDNet blogs – George OU

Now let’s look at the GUI (Graphical User Interface) for these two brand new browsers from Mozilla and Microsoft. This is one area Microsoft seems to have leapfrogged the competition and put a lot of work in to the User Interface. Here is a series of screen shots that illustrate the differences
[...] By holding down the ALT key in IE7, the classic menu bar will be revealed. This makes both browsers use up the same screen real-estate. However, IE7 is showing you the webpage tabs the entire time while FF2 hides the webpage tabs until you actually have more than one webpage open. That wouldn’t happen until you actually open up a second webpage in a new tab which isn’t entirely obvious or intuitive. IE7 makes it blatantly obvious where you can open up a new tab. 

Firefox 2.0 first impressions: So-so upgrade, great browser – Computerworld

I can sum up my Firefox 2.0 experiences pretty neatly: I like it better than Firefox 1.5, but it’s not a major release of the browser. In fact, it’s stretching it to call this Firefox 2.0. Something like version 1.8 would be more realistic. 

Firefox 2.0 vs. IE7 in Vista: How Close? – BetaNews

Under the hood, IE was set to change as well, with Microsoft forced to base its new engine upon a different intellectual property base than the ages-old Spyglass Mosaic code. So among those who chose Firefox as a more functional, secure, and adaptable alternative to IE6 in Windows, Microsoft may have helped raise expectations that the Mozilla Organization could deliver something similarly as sweeping. 

Whatever Firefox 2.0 is, it isn’t “sweeping,” and nowhere does that fact become more evident than in a Windows Vista test environment. If you ask Mozilla — and we have — FF2′s principal changes from version 1.5 are these: 1) a cleaned up, well-tweaked user environment; 2) a new integrated spell checker; 3) cleaner handling of RSS feeds, which is one of Firefox’ hallmarks; 4) a Session Restore feature, which brings the browser back to the point where it last left off, especially after a crash; and 5) a tab bar that no longer gets cluttered. Firefox first delivered the tab bar, and it’s taken IE this long to finally, officially respond.

A Tale of Two Web Browsers – wired.com

The better browser is Firefox 2 for two reasons: innovation and ease of use. 

Both browsers are loaded with modern productivity features, but while Microsoft is just introducing these features to its browser, Firefox has already had them long enough to refine them, enhance them and make them even easier to use. While Microsoft has added an integrated search box to IE7, Firefox has added auto-suggest query completion and advanced search engine management to its own familiar search box. IE7 can now handle RSS feeds, but Firefox has several options for adding feeds within the browser, a client or your web service of choice.

Put simply, Microsoft’s new browser introduces several features that Firefox (and browsers like Opera and Safari) has had for a long time. Maybe this is because Mozilla’s open-source development framework allows it to adopt browser trends more quickly, but whether they were thought up in-house or not, you can’t beat the forward-thinking features in Firefox 2.

And a couple of security notes in the browser arena

Verisign backs Vista security green streak – The Register

The Mozilla Foundation risks losing the browser battle if it fails to keep up with Microsoft by incorporating new security technology into Firefox, a Verisign exec has claimed. 

According to Verisign product marketing director Tim Callan, the “loose collection of technoanarchists” which make up the open source development community has frustrated efforts to build new security features into its new browser

Another denial-of-service bug found in Firefox 2 – news.com

A second security flaw that could cause the new Firefox 2 browser to crash has been publicly disclosed. 

The vulnerability lies in the way the open-source browser handles JavaScript code. Viewing a rigged Web page will cause the browser to exit, a representative for Mozilla, the publisher of the software, said Wednesday. Contrary to claims on security mailing lists, the bug cannot be exploited to run arbitrary code on a PC running Firefox 2, the representative said.