Mozilla readies new Firefox for May release

RC1 is a coming.

By Gregg Keizer, Computerworld (US)
Published: 09:55 GMT, 13 May 08

Mozilla has announced that it has stopped making changes to the first release candidate of Firefox 3.0 and is working to get that build to users by the end of the month.

"We are code complete for Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1 (RC1)," said Mike Schroepfer, Mozilla's vice president of engineering, in a post to the company's development blog on Saturday. "If all goes well we should have the Release Candidate publicly available in late May."

The release candidate - typically the final stage before software goes final - will be pushed to more than 1.2 million users when it launches, Schroepfer said.

It's possible that RC1 will be the one and only release candidate. "The QA cycle for RC1 is more extensive than the betas since this may be our last milestone," Schroepfer said in a message posted to the "mozilla.dev.planning" message forum. However, if serious bugs are uncovered, "we will continue to release new Release Candidates until we are ready for final ship," he said.

Mozilla developers quashed several bugs starting Friday morning to make the Saturday "code freeze" deadline, according to the mozilla.dev.planning forum. Among the fixed flaws was a regression bug that made Firefox 3.0 incorrectly convert characters when loading URLs.

Mozilla issued three release candidates in the run-up to the final code of Firefox 2.0 in 2006; as recently as late March Schroepfer said that he expected Firefox 3.0 to follow that same pattern.

The open-source developer last updated its under-construction Firefox 3.0 nearly six weeks ago when it released Beta 5 to testers. Days before that, Schroepfer said Mozilla was shooting for an early-May RC1, but warned that that target might slip. "The release candidates will move a little slower than beta," he said in late March, because of the need to account for more public feedback than with earlier builds.

Also in late March, Schroepfer said that the final version of Firefox would likely ship in June. Monday, he said that Mozilla is still on track for a final release by the end of next month.

Firefox currently accounts for about 17.7 percent of the browser market, according to Net Applications's most recent data. Microsoft's Internet Explorer retains the browser lead with 74.8 pecnt, while Apple's Safari holds down third place with a distant 5.8 percent.

What are your views on this subject? Use the form below to post a comment on this article up to 500 characters.

Characters remaining: 500

Related Applications news

Microsoft Office 2010 beta available for download

Developers can get hands on software preview

19 November 2009

Microsoft reveals Silverlight update plans

Version 4 to beef up out of browser application support

Microsoft beta to shake up directory services

Developers to bake access control into applications

Salesforce launches own social networking app

Chatter could be 'Facebook for the enterprise'.

Related Applications reviews

Microsoft Office 2010 beta

Akvis ArtSuite 5.0 review

PeerBlock review

Email this article to a friend or colleague:

PLEASE NOTE: Your name is used only to let the recipient know who sent the story, and in case of transmission error. Both your name and the recipient's name and address will not be used for any other purpose.

Techworld White Papers

Database security: Preventing enterprise data leaks at the source

IDC discusses the growing internal threats to business information, the impact of government regulations on the protection of data, and how enterprises must adopt database security best practices...

Download Whitepaper

Service-oriented security

SOA has become an integral part of enterprise software by providing a framework to efficiently develop software as services that is easily sharable, reusable, and integrated. No where is the need more apparent than in the Identity Management space. Welcome to the age of Service-Oriented Security (SOS).

Download Whitepaper

Data protection prospective vendor checklist

Organisations need a way to map business needs against all these challenges in procuring a technical solution. To help, SANS has developed the following Prospective Vendor Checklist.

Download Whitepaper

Unlock the power of the mainframe

This whitepaper presents the notion of CICS as an integration hub based on a component-based, service-oriented architecture supporting Web services. Highlights will review the challenges and contrasted support for Web services natively in CICS.

Download Whitepaper

Techworld UK - Technology - Business

COLT White Paper

Are all VoIP services the same?

Questions to ask your service provider to ensure you get the VoIP service you need
With careful choice of partner, your business can have all the advantages of VoIP access - reduced costs, flexibility and simplicity - without the drawbacks.
This white paper is your guide to ensure you get right the VoIP service and details the pitfalls which businesses would do well to avoid.

Download white paper
BMC

Ride the express lane in the journey to speed ITIL adoption

Explore the challenges in making the journey to ITIL and the criteria for selecting consulting services
By following ITIL practices, your IT organisation will become more closely integrated with the business. We recommend making the journey to ITIL in a sequence of six incremental steps, the phases of which are driven through execution of a strategic transformational roadmap.

Download white paper

Webcast: IT Financial Management: Cost Optimisation for Efficiency and Agility.
On Demand Webcast
Join this webcast to learn about the techniques and technologies that can help you prove the value of IT to the business by understanding the true cost of today's IT services and those that will be necessary to deliver future success.

Register Today

Site Map

IDG Network

* *