For quite some time, Mozilla has been hard at work on Firefox 4. What was initially planned to be Firefox 3.7 has officially been rolled into Firefox 3.6.4, which is currently available in beta form, featuring out-of-process plugins. Firefox 4 is expected to be an all-out overhaul and evolutionary version of the world"s second most popular browser.
On beltzner.ca, an early product plan for Firefox 4 has been made public. The roadmap is not set in stone, however, the slide show gives the world an unheard of, detailed, glimpse into what will make up Mozilla"s next major release. As seen in slide 27, the first beta is expected towards the end of June, with the final release coming in November. Keep in mind, this is all subject to change.
Here"s some of what we can expect from Firefox 4:
- Speed - it will be "super-duper fast"
- Power - it will support "HTML 5 and beyond"
- Empowerment - users will be allowed to fully control their browser, its data, and their web experience
- Completely re-vamped user interface allowing layout customization and less chrome
- Improved stability and security
- Ability to install add-ons without restarting browser
- Better tools for developers
- 64-bit support
- Hardware acceleration
- Multitouch support