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Firefox 3.7 will become 4.0 -- Firefox 4, with updated Gecko, confirmed for later this year
Speaking at Air Mozilla yesterday, Firefox's lead developer Mike Beltzner confirmed what we've all been hopefully expecting: the latest Firefox beta, with its faster startup and shutdown times, more stability and better security, will become Firefox 3.6.4. Once 3.6.4 has been released (in a couple of days, according to the roadmap), development will shift in earnest to Firefox 4.0. The current 3.7 alpha build will be re-numbered to 4.0. Mike Beltzner's presentation with some new, juicy details of Firefox 4.0 is after the break.It's a far cry from Chrome's rampant and reckless versioning, but I wouldn't be surprised if the 3.7-to-4.0 switch is perhaps a sign of Mozilla being reactionary.
Still, let's take a look at what we know about Firefox 4.0 (or 3.7) so far! 4.0 isn't much different from 3.6.4. There's Aero support and a new theme (Strata!), so visually it will look different -- but under the hood, 4.0 is basically a vehicle to update Gecko to 1.9.3. Of course, with a new version of Gecko we're going to get faster and more standards-compliant browsing -- but I wouldn't expect 4.0 to revolutionize your Web experience. 4.0 will bring us Jetpack though and a whole slew of new, faster, no-need-to-restart add-ons. By the time 4.1 or 4.2 comes around, Firefox could be back in the hot seat.
If you're interested in what Firefox 4.0 heralds, give the 3.7 alpha 5 nightly build a test run!
Comments
8
Subscribe to commentsmcruzierMay 11th 2010 7:53AM
had firefox 3.6.4 for at least a week...???
toocool4schoolMay 11th 2010 11:05AM
that's the beta. In my experience, the nightly alpha is faster than chrome on a mac
WilliamAlemanMay 11th 2010 8:27AM
Firefox 4.1 or 4.2? I think that by that time Firefix will not longer exist. Chrome is better in every way imaginable and it already has no restart addons. Maybe Firefox had a good life.
Lonnie McClureMay 11th 2010 12:25PM
Many Firefox users will stick with it as long as Chrome lacks specific add-on(s). For me, one of those is NoScript, but many people have that one "gotta have" extension.
No restart add-ons isn't a big draw if you aren't adding new add-ons frequently.
Keep in mind that as both browsers are open source, it isn't as if features in one are blocked from being implemented in the other. The primary defining difference is the rendering engine: Webkit vs. Gecko.
FoiledMay 11th 2010 9:37AM
I probably wont be loading firefox 4 if it isn't as fast as the latest chrome beta.
I mean chrome is JUST SO MUCH faster - like instant...
Sebastian AnthonyMay 12th 2010 7:07AM
The whole plan is to make it as fast as Chrome! They're going to modify the UI until it looks almost like Chrome too...
Bryan PriceMay 11th 2010 1:06PM
Initially, I thought today's build was borked.
I couldn't manage to get to anything but the first tab.
But another restart, and it worked just fine.
That was a bit weird.
It's a portable installation, so who knows.
gilcarvrnazMay 16th 2010 7:44PM
have always preferred the Mozilla product over IE browsers... and i will never use chrome, as google is officially evil... in my humble opinion...
the may 15th nightly is fast and stable... now my default browser...
keep up the good work guys...