Mozilla Firebird version 0.8 has being released and has been renamed to Mozilla Firefox. Some of the new features include an improved download manager, a real Windows installer (no big deal for geeks versed in the lore of .ZIP, but still nice :-p), and improved handling of some file types. Check out the complete list of release notes and the FAQ page. The one thing that I'm not sure I like is the availability of extensions. I have a bunch of extensions that I use to add even more functionality to Firefox, and the installation notes state that you should disable any Firebird extensions before installing Firefox. I'm still playing with Firefox, and so far I haven't had any problems re-enabling extensions, but it's definitely something to keep in mind when installing over an old version. This is only the first day of the release, so I'm sure that their servers are swamped and the extension situation will be addressed.

Additionally, Mozilla Thunderbird 0.5 was released today. The main new addition is the ability to synchronize address books with Palm PDAs (long overdue), but there is a multiple identity feature that looks intriguing as well. Take a look at all of the new features and fixes of this release. I don't have a PDA yet to test Thunderbird's capabilities with this, but it certainly spurs me on to buy one now that I know I'll be able to synch properly.

As many of you know from my frequent raves about Mozilla products, I use the Mozilla Firebird web browser and Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail application pretty much exclusively (unless an application forces M$ upon me). I can't say enough about how much I prefer them over M$ products, although from the frequency of my posts about them, I guess I say a good amount. ;-) I won't belabor the point too much, but I find these products indispensable and infinitely more reliable and secure than the equivalent M$ products. Try them out and you'll see, or feel free to post a comment with any questions or opinions...