The fix to bug 718465 draws a tab's background color immediately when it is selected, then the page is shown once Gecko draws to it. This has the advantage of immediate visual feedback when a tab is created or selected since the previous page is no longer shown (thereby fixing bug 740335 and bug 718465). But there's still a bit of a delay before Gecko draws to the tab, so this has the disadvantage of first showing an empty page (i.e., just the background color) every time the tab is switched, which may be a bit jarring. To smooth the transition, we can try using a fade animation when the page is drawn.

Not sure if we want this, but I figured it would be worth a test. Here's a build: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/35559547/fennec-select-transition.apk To test it, create multiple tabs and switch between them.

Maybe I was overreacting when I landed bug 718465 - from the lack of bug activity here, it doesn't seem like anyone notices a difference.