Thursday, August 11, 2005
Mozilla Firefox - faster, more secure, easier to use and sporting a new look, this latest Firefox release sets a new standard for web browser innovation. Mozilla Firefox project (formerly Firebird, which was formerly Phoenix) is a redesign of Mozilla's browser component, written using the XUL user interface language and designed to be cross-platform. It is small, fast and easy to use, and offers many advantages over other web browsers, such as the tabbed browsing and the ability to block pop-up windows. Firefox has the most ways to customize your online experience specifically for the way you use the web. There are more than 6,000 Add-ons (little extras that augment Firefox to meet your unique needs) just waiting out there to help you do more, have more fun and be more creative online. Firefox keeps your personal info personal and your online interests away from the bad guys. Simply put, your security is our top priority.
Firefox 3.6 (code-named Namoroka) will be based upon Gecko 1.9.2. Please collect information about changes that will impact developers here, and our happy, helpful documentation gnomes will make sure that articles are written to explain your hard coding work.
Namoroka will employ a highly iterative, milestone based development process which will rely on feedback from developers, testers and users to ensure that we are properly investing time and resources. An initial exploration phase will be used to investigate development cost and benefit, as well as to create user interaction prototypes. This will be followed by an alpha development phase for early user testing and feedback, and then a beta phase for broader compatibility testing.
Namoroka will focus on the following areas:
Performance
Observable improvements in user-perceptible performance metrics such as startup, time to open a new tab, and responsiveness when interacting with the user interface. Common user tasks should feel faster and more responsive.
Personalization & Customization
Simplify the development, discovery, installation and management of browser customization and functional extension. Where possible, provide a custom fit user experience based on a user's interaction history. Act in the user's interests, leveraging existing knowledge about their identity and browsing habits.
Task Based Navigation
Allow users to organize their tabs, history, downloaded files, and other resources according to the task they were attempting to accomplish. Provide support for executing common web-based tasks, mash-up style, without having to visit a website.
Web Application Support
Blur the distinction between web and desktop applications, providing web developers with the tools required to create rich application experiences for a user who is connected or disconnected from the Internet. Act as the intermediary between web applications and the user's OS desktop.
System Integration
Integrate with the look and feel of the host operating system, including data-level interactions with existing system services such as dictionaries.
Namoroka Alpha 1 is an early developer milestone for the next version of Firefox that is being built on top of Mozilla's Gecko 1.9.2 layout engine, Namoroka Alpha 1 is being made available for testing purposes only, and is intended for web application developers and our testing community. Current users of Mozilla Firefox should not use Namoroka Alpha 1.
Namoroka / Gecko 1.9.2 Alpha 1 introduces several new features:
• Compositor (Phase 1), which moves Gecko to using one native widget per top-level content document. See this blog post or bug 374980 for more details.
• A new focus model, described here and tracked in bug 178324
• The chromedir attribute has been replaced with a pseudoclass
• Several new CSS3 properties including background size and gradients for background images
• Speed improvements to the TraceMonkey javascript engine
• Startup and responsiveness improvements throughout the application
Homepage - http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/3.6a1/