14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla is taking Firefox 3.0, and Firefox 2.0 for that matter, where Microsoft will never dare venture with Internet Explorer 8. Internet Explorer 7 is not even worth mentioning, as the Redmond company is offering end users a virtually inflexible browser. Not the same can be said of Firefox. The extensive customization capabilities offered by Firefox are among the strongest points of the open source browser and have a great deal of public appeal. Microsoft's Internet Explorer is at the opposite pole compared to Firefox when it comes down to personalization characteristics. With IE what you see is what you get. In contrast, Firefox benefits from a plethora of nuances, and virtually limitless visual tweaking capabilities.
Mozilla will continue to support a high level of personalization with Firefox 3.0, currently in Release Candidate stage for Beta 2. Case in Point: Personas for Firefox. "Personas for Firefox is an extension that adds lightweight theming to your browser. Personas is a prototype that builds upon the ideas that: themes today are too hard to find, install and use; graphic designers should be able to style the browser without having to code; browsers can be more than just desktop software, they can include online components and people just want their computer to be a little more fun and personal", reads an excerpt of Personas' description on Mozilla Labs.
Currently, personas is compatible with Firefox 2.0 and the pre-release versions of Firefox 3.0 Beta 2. In the end, Personas aims to give a superior browsing experience to its users. Personas simply permits the user to scroll through items in dynamic menus and apply the "redesign" instantly, without having to restart the browser. In this manner, Mozilla has taken all the pain out of customizing Firefox. At the same time, Microsoft will never take Internet Explorer 8 to this level, arguing that extensive customization will take an unnecessary role on the support infrastructure. And with all details muted on IE8, Firefox starts to sound more and more appealing every day.