Ahead of an official release tomorrow, Firefox 9 has winged its way to various mirrors across the web and is now available to download from the official Firefox website — no messing around with a hammered Nightly FTP server this time, oh no!

The most significant change over Firefox 8 is the addition of type inference to the JavaScript engine, which singlehandedly improves JS execution speed by 20 to 30%. Without getting into the complexities of this change, type inference basically brings JavaScript one step closer to compiled languages (like C or C++) in terms of speed and optimization.

Explorer is still the main tool most everyone uses to manage files, folders and devices on their system. As a result it's received a significant focus in Windows 8, with Microsoft aiming to improve its most common usage scenarios (such as copy, move and delete) while adding something that not everyone will be happy about: the Ribbon interface.

Microsoft's Ribbon interface, which first debuted with Office 2007, split users: on the one hand it makes it easier find and use functions; but on the other it's bulky, cluttered to look at, and requires users to learn a new tool.

Fortunately, Microsoft has listened. While the Ribbon is standard with Explorer, you can 'hide' it with a keyboard toggle. Undoubtedly once Windows 8 is released, the range of popular third-party tweak tools for Windows will find the right registry value and make a minimised Ribbon the default if you so choose.

International Data Corp., a leading market research firm, said that Microsoft Corp.'s next-generation Windows 8 operating system will be irrelevant for typical PC users as it will barely offer any new and important features. As a result, Windows 8 will not catalyze people to upgrade their existing PCs or spur additional interest in getting new systems.

"Windows 8 will be largely irrelevant to the users of traditional PCs, and we expect effectively no upgrade activity from Windows 7 to Windows 8 in that form factor," an analyst with IDC wrote, reports ZDNet.

Although Windows 8 introduces a number of advantages, like quick boot and other technologies aimed to improve responsiveness of mobile and desktop computers running Windows 8, those capabilities will be barely seen by the majority of end users. What will users see will be tiled Metro interface that may be good for tablets or smartphones, but which is completely irrelevant for personal computers in desktop or notebook form-factors. Since the user interface is barely impressive, there will few upgrades from existing systems.

Another reason for lackluster welcome of Windows 8 is the fact that a lot of large corporations have migrated to Windows 7 already and will likely skip the next operating system from Microsoft.

The world's most underappreciated browser has reached a new milestone today, unloading the final version of 11.60. Codenamed "Tunny" (another name for the tuna fish), the latest revision brings a handful of new features along with various security and stability improvements. Although the company originally planned to offer version 12 as the next stable build, it has decided to make some of the new features available sooner with an interim release.

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Opera 11.60 is said to be quicker when opening or closing the software, it's faster on secure pages, it's more compatible with the Web, and the latest software uses less memory than its predecessors on "advanced web applications." Feature-wise, you'll find a revamped address bar that includes a Star button to instantly add pages to your bookmarks or Speed Dial, while the browser's email client has been overhauled with a cleaner, more intuitive design.