Mozilla Delays Firefox 3.1 Beta, Announces Other Browser Updates

by Sam Dean - Aug. 12, 2008Comments (7)

Mozilla has a whole roster of news headlines related to its browsers out today. In its about:Mozilla newsletter, the company has announced that a new version of the Camino browser is available (it's developed by the Camino Project, but is based on Mozilla's Gecko layout engine). Many Mac users love Camino for its lickety-split performance. Mozilla has also confirmed that a sixth milestone version of its upcoming mobile browser, dubbed Fennec, is out. And, as ZDNet reports, the beta of the next version of Firefox--version 3.1--has been delayed from August 19th until September 9th. Here are the details.

Regarding Firefox 3.1's beta, the pre-alpha for which we wrote about here, ZDNet reports that "some of the features planned for 3.1 — including bulk tagging, Javascript enhancements, cross-site XHR and workers threads — are not going to be ready by the end of the month." Mike Gunderloy has worked with the pre-alpha build of version 3.1, and says "the Ctrl+Tab tab switcher, complete with thumbnails, is very nice."

Regarding the new version of Camino, it is described as "a maintenance release which contains various security and stability updates to Camino 1.6.x. All users are urged to update.” The underlying Gecko rendering engine in Camino--from Mozilla--has been updated, which presumably will make the browser faster.

Fennec (the word means "small fox"), is a very critical browser in Mozilla's overall strategy, and we've written about why before. It's targeted to be available for the upcoming wave of Linux- and Android-based mobile handsets due out later this year, where it could be a key application for them.

The new milestone version of Fennec demonstrates Mozilla's ongoing commitment to this new mobile browser. Some observers have questioned whether Mozilla will be able to deliver an open source mobile browser with a small footprint and the kind of performance that Opera Mini has. However, it's clear that Mozilla is working hard on this. The company also has an iPhone-like touchscreen interface in the works for Fennec browsing.

I was hoping for Firefox 3.1 next week, though. I guess we'll have to wait.


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7 Comments
 

Any idea when v4.0 will be out?

0 Votes

The Ctrl+Tab Tab switcher with thumbnails sounds awesome. Now only if there was a shortcut to see a grid of the thumbnails for ALL the browser windows/tabs currently open (similar to the Fn+F10 for the mac) it would truly increase my productivity...

0 Votes

I would love to see Fennec kick Safari's ass - I'm tired of all the iPhone users fingering, stroking and pinching their screens in public - Get a Room!

0 Votes

downloaded TOR using internet explorer, but cannot launch it

hello, i am user from China. as you know, internet are often blocked. in fact, i cannot open the ADDON page using firefox. i wonder if the firefox Chinese simplified version is already filtered by the government or not. I suspect that either the company or the government, or jointly block some of firefox function from properly running here. i was able to download TOR using internet explorer. but could not run it. i think the extension is not a normal EXE and the windows do not know what to do with it. well. in any case, can you tell me how to open TOR? i would appreciate using TOR properly to surf online comfortably and safely. Thank you

Hello, this is another sign that China blocked mozilla. the following message returns when i tried to post this question on mozilla's support questions. look, it said "incorrect thread". Fuck the government in China. and Fuck those who submit to that government.

错误

Incorrect thread

0 Votes

Hi John, I think you are referring to this post from our sister blog: http://webworkerdaily.com/2008/08/11/operator-anonymous-browsing-is-usef... The OperaTOR browser doesn't install when you just click on the .exe. You'll find some instructions that tell you to put all the files in one directory that you create. Click on the .exe file after you have done that and the application should install fine.

Best from the U.S.--enjoying the Olympics, Sam

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The dates you're listing for 3.1 beta are the code freeze dates; it usually takes 5-7 business days between code freeze and release, so you shouldn't expect Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 any earlier than September 16th.

We're just as anxious as you to get it out to you, though! :)

0 Votes

Wow, It's great I love to see these new changes

Firefox beta 3.1

0 Votes
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