Mozilla's steaming ahead with new beta builds of its Firefox 3.6 browser. After last week's release of Beta 2, the developer has already made available Beta 3 - a free update that contains over 80 new bug fixes.
In addition to the numerous bug fixes, the latest beta release revokes a number of Windows 7 enhancements available in prior releases. Beta 3 offers no support for Jump Lists, Tab Previews or Taskbar-based download progress. It is unclear whether or not these features will return in later releases.
Mozilla's previous release, Firefox 3.6 Beta 2, included over 190 bug fixes.
Mozilla lists Firefox 3.6 Beta 3's list of "what's new" as follows:
- (NEW) Changes to how we allow third party software to integrate with Firefox in order to prevent crashes
- (NEW) The ability to run scripts asynchronously to speed up page load times
- More than 80 bug fixes from the last beta to improve performance, stability, security and features
- This beta is available in more than 60 languages - get your local version
- Users can now change their browser's appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas
- Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe
- Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames
- Support for the WOFF font format
- Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time
- Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies
Firefox 3.6 Beta 3 is available to download at Mozilla.com.
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(and given that they chose a 3rd *beta* release to add significant new features)
Do they have Release Candidates as well as Betas? I know of a few projects that do this. They will add back end functionality in the Betas, but not the RCs.Quote
It's all about how that project defines the different development stages. There are no hard and fast rules :)
True, my comments were a rough generalisation. However, 'beta' stage (and being a few weeks away from RC) is an idiotic point to be making critical architectural changes to your code base, no matter how you look at it.Quote
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