A new version of the resurgent Mozilla project’s Firebird browser was released yesterday under the new name “Firefox,” which seems to me to be an even dodgier moniker than Firebird, but I guess they had a good reason for the switch. I downloaded the Mac OS X version and played around with it a bit today, and it seems buggier than previous versions of Firebird that I’ve used; I had some trouble scrolling through a few Web pages, troubles that seemed caused by the application’s user interface, rather than the rendering engine.
Aside from that, which I expect will be remedied before too long, this release continues to build on the browser’s reputation as an up-and-comer. Exactly how it will achieve a critical mass of users, I’m not at all sure, but I remain enthusiastic by its elegance. I’m also feeling pretty positive about the new default theme for Mac OS X, which goes by the name of “Pinstripe.” It cannily combines the elegance of Safari’s toolbar set while eschewing Apple’s gaudy fixation with brushed metal windows.