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Firefox 3.5 by month’s end

Robert Hallock June 16, 2009 4:08 PM ET in Tech

firefoxThe Mozilla Foundation has announced today that the next major iteration of Firefox, version 3.5, is due by month’s end.

Firefox 3.5 has risen from humble origins as the minor 3.1 update, codenamed Shiretoko, into the vastly more ambitious project seen today. Though Shiretoko looked compelling when it was first announced, the subsequent introduction of Google’s Chrome and development in other browsers prompted a deadline setback and heightened aspirations.

The new version of the increasingly popular browser carries a clearinghouse of features, some 5,000 in all according to Mozilla. Headlining for the raft of changes includes: HTML5 streaming video, IP geolocation for location-sensitive websites (think restaurant searches), a knockoff of IE8’s InPrivate browsing mode and a dupe of Chrome’s webpages-as-apps feature.

A release candidate is expected forthwith, and the final version will be cleared for takeoff in the early days of July.

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2 Comments:

  1. Cliff_Forster
    Keepin it real
    16 Jun '09, 4:46 pm

    Firefox is still the leader, but when you look at how much better IE became with version 8, and how sexy Chrome is (at least on the surface), and how feature rich Opera is becoming with version ten, Mozilla had better do something big with 3.5 or they are going to start loosing some of the share they have worked so tirelessly to obtain.

    The competition is great news for us.

  2. mirage
    Veteran Icrontian
    16 Jun '09, 10:46 pm

    Chrome (by Google), IE (by MS), Safari (by Apple) are all corporate products. Firefox is the product of internet community, free/open software. Although all of them are free to download and use, corporations behind the first three can and do have conflicts of interest with privacy and freedom of internet users. Firefox is my choice and I can not wait to see version 3.5 released.

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