Roadmap Targets Firefox 3.1 For the End of 2008
Firefox 3 hasn’t hit prime time just yet, but already Mozilla has released a draft plan that would put the next version, Firefox 3.1 in users hands by the end of 2008. According to a post from Mike Shroepfer, Mozilla VP of Technology, on the Mozilla mailing list the company would like Firefox 3.1 to arrive alongside Mobile Firefox later this year.
If Mozilla can indeed bring Firefox 3.1 by the end of the year it would mark the fastest update in the company’s history. Typically Mozilla takes about a year between Firefox releases.
Among the improvements and new features being discussed for Firefox 3.1 are support for the HTML 5 element <video>>, cross-site XMLHttpRequests (XHR), merging the search and URL bars and more.
Many of the features planned for Firefox 3.1 were once slated for Firefox 3, but failed to emerge in time. Improvements like XHR and well as native JSON DOM bindings and more have been progressing in recent months despite the fact that they were removed from the Firefox 3 roadmap. Expect the same treatment to apply to Firefox 3.1. Shroepfer says that “any features not ready in time [for Firefox 3.1] will move to the next major release.”
Beyond Firefox 3.1, users can expect a slightly longer development cycle for Firefox 4, with the current schedule putting the next full point upgrade at late 2009. However Firefox 4 could see some significant changes like merging Mozillaâs JavaScript engine (known as SpiderMonkey) with the recently open-sourced Tamarin JS virtual machine from Adobe.
So what about Firefox 3? Well we’re at the release candidate stage alreadym and it looks as through the final version should — barring last minute issues — be available in June.
[via Mozilla Links]
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