Mozilla Shows What’s to Come in Firefox 3.6 Alpha Release
Mozilla has released the first alpha test version of the next version of Firefox.
According to Mozilla, the main focus for Firefox 3.6 will be speeding up the browser’s user interface. Speed improvements have already been made to the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, which helps pages render more quickly, and other plans call for speeding up common tasks like opening a new tab, a new window or a sidebar panel.
The alpha release of Firefox 3.6 is still not stable enough to recommend for everyday use, but testers who want to try it out can do so now. It’s available at the Mozilla Developer Center for Windows, Mac and Linux.
The browser maker is hoping to get Firefox 3.6 (code named Namoroka) out a bit more quickly than its last release, Firefox 3.5, which was delayed several times before it finally arrived in June 2009.
“Unlike the year that passed between Firefox 3 and Firefox 3.5, we expect that this 3.6 release will be released in a small number of months,” writes Mozilla’s Chris Blizzard in a recent blog post.
The faster turnaround time means that Firefox 3.6 won’t have quite as many new features as 3.5 offered, but there’s still plenty of good stuff in the roadmap.
In addition to the speed boost, there are a few new features in this alpha, like the long anticipated Ctrl + Tab switcher with thumbnail previews (originally intended to arrive in 3.5) and a new method of auto-completing form fields that relies of frequency of use rather than simple alphabetical sorting.
Web developers will be happy to hear that quite a few new features in CSS 3 will be making their way into Firefox 3.6. The alpha release supports the background-size property as well as some cool tricks for handling background images with CSS. Now designers can specify the size of background images on web pages, stretching them by dictating what percentage of the browser window’s width they take up. There are also some new methods for applying gradients to page backgrounds, enabling designers to create more interesting, colorful backgrounds without using images at all, just by defining a few colors in their HTML.
Firefox 3.6 alpha 1 is still a long way from being a browser you want to use on a regular basis, but it offers a glimpse of what’s in store for Firefox fans. If you’d like to help out with bug testing, head over to the Mozilla Developer Center and grab a copy.
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