As promised, the beta is here, grab it if you want it, try it if you haven't. Mozilla is hoping that users find this release to be a "good echo" of what they have gotten used to. Firefox 2 hasn't changed much, interface-wise, from the original. Existing users will be instantly familiar with the standard button bar, links bar, and the row of tabs. One minor change is the ability to scroll the tab bar horizontally when it gets too large. Tabs also have small "X" boxes attached, making them easier to close. Under the hood, however, there have been numerous bugfixes and improvements, in addition to some welcome new features.

As always, if you find something really cool or the browser borks your box, let me know.

FYI, the open source browser commands a 15.82 percent usage share in the United States, and a whopping 39.02 percent in Germany. Australians are also big Firefox users, with the browser holding 24.23 percent of the market down under.