Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 Available For Download

Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 Available for Download

With Firefox 3.1 Alpha 2 delivered in the first half of September 2008 and the feedback incorporated in the development process, Mozilla is gearing up for the next stage of Shiretoko.

he first taste of Firefox 3.1 is now available for download. Mozilla is offering the nightly trunk of Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 Pre signaling that the release of the first Beta development milestone of codename Shiretoko is just around the corner. In this regard, September 30 was synonymous with the code freeze of Firefox 3.1, but although Mozilla indicated that the Beta 1 build would be delivered in October, it failed to pin point a specific deadline.

“It's time to test the Firefox Nightly Trunk Build in preparation of the Firefox 3.1 Beta 1! We are on the road to Firefox 3.1 Beta 1, so there is plenty to test! If you want to test your favorite Firefox Feature, great! But you can also run some more tests in Litmus and try out the Nightly Build and the other great new Firefox improvements,” revealed Mozilla's Carsten Book.

According to Mozilla, Firefox 3.1 is set up to deliver a range of improvements across the table. Shiretoko will feature an enhanced Awesome Bar delivering superior control to end users as well as privacy enhancements. In addition, Mozilla is cooking a performance boost for Firefox 3.1, and the much publicized evolution from the JavaScript rendering engine to TraceMonkey is an illustrative example in this context.

Firefox 3.1 will also feature Private Browsing Mode, which Microsoft introduced in Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2, support for Windows Vista's Aero Glass, but also closer integration with Ogg Vorbis and Theora codecs, native JSON, CSS 3 and HTML 5. Following the release of Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 in October, Mozilla will make available at least one more beta in November 2008.

Download:

Firefox 3.1 Alpha 2 (link 1)

Firefox 3.1 Alpha 2 (link 2)