So which is the best beta browser? Come the end of the year, when both of these should be available, which should you plump for? The lads over at Bit-Tech tested both the new browsers on the latest beta of Windows Vista:

A quick note on speed. We did not find any perceptible difference in page rendering speeds between the two browsers. As with XP, IE7 is faster to load for the first time than Firefox. However, once you've loaded Firefox, it's just as fast to close and reopen.

Clearly, IE7 is a massive upgrade - and now there's really nothing that Firefox does that IE doesn't, in terms of functionality. What Firefox does have is a large library of extensions for those who like to customise their browser, as well as the general pro-security feature of open source vs. closed source. It pains me to say it, but my initial impression is that for a lot of people, there's no real reason to head to Firefox. Internet Explorer is such a large improvement over version 6 that it's hard to imagine what would get you to bother downloading it, unless you're a Mozilla fanboy or an extensions addict.

Regardless of your position on the FF v IE debate, it's clearly good that average joes that haven't even heard of Firefox are going to end up with a better (and safer) browsing experience in Vista. If IE7 is such a massive improvement, it's hard to see what about the new Firefox really justifies the moniker '2.0'. It really seems like more of a 1.6 - there's not a lot of difference here. The browser wars just got a lot more interesting...