Julio Ojeda-Zapata reports on the early release (tomorrow) of Firefox 2.0 in The browser race is speeding up. An excerpt follows:

I love technology, but I’m fanatical about only a few things high-tech. Firefox is one of them.

The Web browser has always been an underdog to Microsoft’s market-dominant Internet Explorer, but Firefox is vastly superior in features and usability. That’s why it’s my fave browser.

So I am excited this week because Firefox creator Mozilla Corp. is releasing version 2.0. (It’s due to be available on Tuesday afternoon.) Its improvements aren’t revolutionary, but I’m rooting for the increasingly popular program to maintain its momentum in a suddenly intensified browser race.

That’s right: Dozing giant Microsoft recently awoke after neglecting its browser for years and also is offering a revamped version. It was released in final form Wednesday. While this new Internet Explorer isn’t revolutionary, either, and won’t make me ditch Firefox, it’s just useful and powerful enough to keep Microsoft in the browser game.

I test-drove near-final versions of Firefox 2 and Internet Explorer 7 on a Windows XP computer. There’s also a Macintosh version of Firefox, which I put on a new Intel-based Mac mini as well as an older, pre-Intel iMac machine…

The article goes on to evaluate Firefox 2.0 and IE 7.0. Check it out.