Mozilla today released Firefox 6, the second edition since it shifted to a rapid-ship cycle that delivers a new version of the browser every six weeks.
The company also patched 10 bugs with the upgrade, and issued an update to 2010's Firefox 3.6 that fixed seven flaws total, six of them different than the ones quashed in Firefox 6.
Today's release of Firefox 6 was the second time in a row that Mozilla met its self-imposed deadline since the debut of a faster shipping schedule in March. Mozilla has historically struggled to ship browser upgrades on time, but is now 2-for-2 after picking up the pace.
Although Mozilla listed more than 1,600 changes to Firefox 6 in a full bug list, the open-source developer called out only a few in its release notes, among them highlighting domain names in the address bar -- both Chrome and Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) do something similar by boldfacing domain names -- reducing startup time and for developers, adding a JavaScript prototyping tool called Scratchpad. Read more...
Mozilla is on track to release Firefox 6 next week, according to notes posted on the company's website.
Developers have signed off on Firefox 6 and anticipate no problems that could delay the Aug. 16 release of the browser upgrade, meeting notes show.
"On track with a few bugs still remaining. No concerns for Tuesday," the notes stated.
Mozilla has used a new rapid-release schedule since this spring. The schedule delivers a new version of Firefox every six weeks, a move many have compared to the pace Google has maintained for its Chrome browser for more than a year. Read more...