In case you didn't already know, Mozilla has released security patches for Firefox and Thunderbird. The new version is 1.5.0.9 for both, unless you've already made the move to Firefox 2.0, in which case, you'll be upgrading to version 2.0.0.1.
I have been using Firefox 2 for a short while now. So far as I have noticed, the new version is not tremendously different. It's got some minor niceties, one tiny glitch, and a couple of design changes -- most of the major changes are evidently under the hood. The glitch is occasional ghosting on the tab title text that seems to occur when the browser window loses focus and then regains it; i.e., if you switch to another program's window and come back to the Firefox window when you have multiple tabs open. From what I can see on the Mozilla forums, this only affects those with particular graphics cards, and in any case, is easily remedied by clicking on the tabs. I only experience this on one of my machines, an old Dell Precision 330.
I've been making some notes on the new Firefox, and I might have some more to say in a short while. Bet you can't wait!
One reason to think about upgrading to Firefox 2 is that Mozilla has announced that it will stop supporting Firefox 1.5 as of next April. That means that no more security patches will be issued. It also implies that there are probably fewer people working on the older version as of right now. As the browser is one of the most attacked channels to your computer these days, it's probably worth moving to the new one sooner rather than later.
If you have disabled automatic upgrades, and do the usual Help -> Check for Updates drill, Firefox will upgrade itself based upon your current version. In other words, if you're still running version 1.5.x, you won't get offered the upgrade to version 2. To get the major upgrade, visit Mozilla's site. To read the details about what's new, see the release notes.
In all cases, the upgrades are painless. Moving to version 2 does require downloading the entire new program (about 5.7 MB), and it will overwrite the existing version, but you won't lose your bookmarks and other preferences.
I haven't heard about Tbird 2 yet.
Update
2006-12-22 13:32 EST
I know I rant about this a lot, but if you're still using Internet Explorer as your primary browser, you should stop. Here's another reason, which seems to be making some buzz lately on the blogs that I watch: If you visit a site using IE 6, that site can silently access the contents of the Windows Clipboard. If you're using IE 7, you'll get a warning. Chances are, however, that if you're using Windows XP and IE of any version, you've long since gotten into the habit of dismissing Windows's pop-up warnings without reading them.
There's a proof of concept on the Scripting Magic site. To test it, copy something to the Clipboard, say, a glob of text from this page, and then click the link.
Visiting the site with Firefox will give you a warm fuzzy. With IE? Well, I hope it scares you straight.
P.S. If you like the geek humor (I love the geek humor), have a look at Rixster's take on this matter.
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