After the very successful launch of Opera 8 a few weeks ago, more than a few Firefox aficionados have started to wonder if their fluffy open-source browser is headed for rough times. The Mozilla Foundation has not provided the public with a significant upgrade for 6 months, downloads are starting to curb, IE7 Beta is on the horizon, and the novelty of "browsing on the alternative side" looks to be wearing off.
Mozilla is banking on their next major release (dubbed internally as "Deer Park") to significantly improve the browsing platform put forward by Firefox 1.0. The Foundation plans to distribute the first of many prerelease builds early this coming week, showcasing most new features that will make their way into the June 1.1 release. New features planned for Fx 1.1 include instantaneous Back-Forward, a revamped software update system, signifigant changes to the way Firefox handles extensions, full support for Scalable Vector Graphics, and thousands of bugfixes page rendering improvements.
Interested in helping out or learning more about nightly Mozilla development? Sites like MozillaZine and The Burning Edge track nightly bugfixes, while a dedicated group of community members (like Peter(6) of MozillaZine) volunteer time out of their day to help coordinate the massive community effort. MozillaWiki is a great place to learn more about the software development cycle, and discover just when your favorite addition will be included with the browser which has shaken the very foundation of the internet. Stay with Neowin, one of the first to announce the release of Firefox 1.0 as we cover all the latest Mozilla news.