When DailyTech last reported on Firefox 3.0, Mozilla was still playing around with Beta 3. Since that time, the Mozilla released Beta 4 and Beta 5 iterations along with numerous nightly builds. Over the weekend, however, Firefox 3.0 eked closer to final code with Release Candidate 1 (RC1).
The development of Firefox 3.0 has been a long and steady process, but RC1 gives Mozilla more firepower in its ongoing battle with Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser and to a lesser extent, Safari and Opera.
Firefox 3.0 is built on the Gecko 1.9 Web rendering platform and includes better memory management, improved performance, enhanced security features, and improved usability. Other new features include built-in antivirus protection, easier password management, a new download manager and improved integration with Windows and OS X.
According to Mozilla, changes specifically attributable to the latest release of Firefox 3.0 include:
- Improvements to the user interface based on user feedback, including changes to the look and feel on Windows Vista, Windows XP, Mac OS X and Linux.
- Changes and fixes for new features such as the location bar autocomplete, bookmark backup and restore, full page zoom, and others, based on feedback from our community.
- Fixes and improvements to platform features to improve security, web compatibility and stability.
- Continued performance improvements: changes to our JavaScript engine as well as profile guided optimization continues to improve performance over previous releases as measured by the popular SunSpider test from Apple, and in the speed of web applications like Google Mail and Zoho Office.
Firefox 3.0 RC1 is currently available for download in multiple languages for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux platforms.