I downloaded the Firefox 1.0 browser this morning and have been using it throughout today. There are very few differences between 1.0 PR and 1.0 but one change which I found straightaway (and loved) is the ability to control how links from other applications (like an RSS Reader) open. You can choose to open them in a new window, in a new tab in the most recent window, or in the most recent tab/window.

This is brilliant – I regularly use an RSS reader and click on the links in it. Now I can click on multiple links, let them open in the background, and have them all open as tabs in a single window I had open in the background. This will make subsequent reading so much easier!

Other changes include bug fixes, enhancements to the Find function in View->Page Source (it now uses the Find Toolbar) and the Find toolbar losing content when a new tab is clicked. More of the changes are outlined in the What’s New in Firefox 1.0 page for those who are interested.

What concerns me most though is its stability – I found that 1.0PR crashed after about 2 days bring a host of windows and tabs with it. It is too early yet to tell if 1.0 is more stable, but I will update this post in a couple of days when I have a better idea of its stability.