The Mozilla Foundation has announced that it is releasing the first beta version of Firefox 2.0 on July 11 this year.

The release is being seen more as getting into a browser war with Microsoft, which has released the third beta of its much-hyped Internet Explorer version 7.0.

Meanwhile, the Mozilla Foundation has already posted the beta version as a public "release candidate" on the Mozilla FTP site, although it will be ready for mass utilization only on July 11.

According to early testers, the beta has at least two new significant features that include an integrated spell-checker, and an anti-phishing tool. While the spell checker is meant to be a helping hand for bloggers and forum members, the phishing tool warns users of potentially dangerous sites, details of which are stored on local lists, along with Google's site listing.

Moreover, Firefox 2.0 includes a horizontal scrolling capability for tabs, and an ability to close a tab directly from within the tab itself. The Options dialog has been re-worked to incorporate a horizontal, tab-based interface, amongst other changes.

The new version of Firefox offers relief for early adopters of Intel-based Macintosh hardware. Besides, the Windows release candidate of Firefox 2.0 Beta 1 can be downloaded directly, along with Mac and Linux versions. There is one fear though that it will overwrite existing themes, and render existing extensions unusable.

Additionally, a "portable" version of Firefox 2.0 has also been made available by Mozilla.