Mozilla late on Friday released the first beta of Firefox 3.6, a minor upgrade slated to wrap up later this year.
Delayed by over two weeks as developers closed out last-minute bugs, including one that pushed the release back by several days last week, the Firefox 3.6 beta contains relatively few visible changes from June 2009's Firefox 3.5. Instead, most of the enhancements have been made to under-the-hood components, including the TraceMonkey JavaScript rendering engine.
[ Follow developments in business applications with InfoWorld's Killer Apps blog. ]
Among the new features visible to users is integrated support for the scaled-down browser skins dubbed "personas" by Mozilla, and new warnings to users when they reach a site that calls on outdated plug-ins, such as Adobe's Flash Player or Apple's QuickTime.
The warning is only the last of several moves Mozilla's made in the last two months to reduce the number of users who are vulnerable to attack because they haven't updated third-party plug-ins. In early September, Mozilla debuted plug-in checking with updates to Firefox 3.5.3 and Firefox 3.0.14, which automatically detect outdated versions of Adobe's Flash Player and prompt users to upgrade to the newest -- and theoretically the most secure -- edition.
Since then, Mozilla has added a page on its site where users could manually check other plug-ins for obsolete editions. The Firefox 3.6 beta, however, displays a warning when the browser is asked to call up an outdated plug-in. "Some plug-ins used by this page are out of date," the message reads.
Also debuting in the beta of Firefox 3.6, said Mike Beltzner, director of Firefox, are support for new CSS, DOM, and HTML 5 technologies; support for full-screen video embedded with the video HTML tag; and support for the Web Open Font Format (WOFF). JavaScript performance has also been boosted, said Beltzner in a post to the Mozilla developer center blog, and start-up times have been reduced.
Some features once destined for Firefox 3.6, however, have been dropped, including one that was to take advantage of Microsoft's new Windows 7 . Integration with Windows 7's jump lists -- a feature that would list recently-visited sites when Firefox's icon is right-clicked in the taskbar -- has been postponed and wasn't included with the beta.
Support for Windows 7's Aero Peek and taskbar thumbnail previews did make it into the Firefox 3.6 beta, even though Mozilla had some last-minute work nailing down the former.
All versions of the browser now offer thumbnail previews when users cycle through the open tabs with the Ctrl-Tab key combination. The feature is disabled by default in the beta, however. To switch it on, users must edit Firefox's configuration file by entering "about:config" in the address bar, locating the "browser.ctrlTab.previews" item and double-clicking it to change its setting to "true." Firefox must be restarted for the change to take effect.
This whitepaper explains the terminology and concepts behind Data Replication technologies and establishes some sizing rules through worked examples. Learn the new paradigm in disaster tolerance—protect data anywhere.
Download now »
Server virtualization is a popular option for dealing with mounting datacenter costs. Another equally promising approach is the use of an Application Delivery Controller. Citrix NetScaler provides a low-cost way for organizations to reduce their server count and accrue cost savings from a reduction in space, cooling, power and personnel.
Download now »
The emergence of WLANs has created a new breed of security threats to enterprise networks.
Included in HP ProCurve WLAN solutions is security technology that alleviates threats from WLANs through:
* Monitoring wireless activity inside and out of the enterprise
* Classifying WLAN transmissions into harmful and harmless
* Preventing transmissions that pose a security threat to the enterprise network
* Locating participating devices for physical remediation
Effectively address data protection challenges, implementing solutions that help store and protect business–critical data while cutting costs and improving efficiency and reliability.
Download now »
Sign up to receive InfoWorld Resource Alerts
Like any valuable resource, IT is a terrible thing to waste. But by applying the same lean techniques that have been used to streamline manufacturing processes, IT departments can reduce costs, improve performance and better manage resources.
Download now! »
Stephen Elliot, vice president of strategy for CA's Infrastructure Management and Data Center Automation business unit, explains why difficult economic times drive the need for simplified management capabilities and advanced automation tools.
Listen now! »
According to a recent study CA conducted with 300 CIOs and top IT executives, 64 percent of respondents say they've already invested in virtualization, and the other 36 percent reported that they plan to invest in virtualization.
Download now! »
In this video learn about process automation in a virtualized world. How CA and VMware are enabling enterprise datacenter automation.
View now! »
17 Recommendations
