According to CNET, Mozilla has announced some delays to their much anticipated browser updates. Originally scheduled for the end of 2009, Firefox 3.6 has officially been pushed back to the first quarter of 2010, allowing Mozilla to ensure stability before its release. Currently Firefox 3.6 is available as a fifth beta release. It's unclear if more betas will be necessary, or if Mozilla will jump straight to the release candidate stage. Firefox 4.0, originally planned for 2010, is now looking at a late 2010, early 2011 release, with a beta due in the summer of 2010.
To hold users over until the completely revamped Firefox 4.0, Mozilla will continue working on the release of Firefox 3.7. It's currently due sometime in 2010 and is expected to include the following features:
- Overall better performance
- 25% reduction in startup time
- Jetpack (new plug-in interface, easier and no restarting needed)
- 1st stage of Electrolysis (moving plug-ins into separate process from main browser)
- Weave (bookmark, password, plug-in, and open tabs synchronization)
The integration of Electrolysis will bring Firefox closer to Chrome, in that it will separate tabs into separate processes. However, the first stage (scheduled for 3.7), will separate plug-ins from the actual browser, allowing Firefox to avoid problems with plug-ins, such as Flash, crashing the entire program. Firefox 3.6 will bring theme integration with the inclusion of Personas, but overall, no UI changes will be present. Firefox 3.7 is also not expected to contain any UI changes, as the
Download: Firefox 3.6 Beta 5
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