| Firefox 2.0 Alpha arrives "unofficially" |
Mar. 20, 2006
Officially, the first Firefox 2.0 "Bon Echo" alpha isn't here yet. Unofficially, Firefox 2.0 code for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows is already available from the Mozilla Foundation's ftp sites. Version 2.0 is intended to be an improved version of Firefox 1.5, rather than breaking new ground, according to Ben Goodger, Firefox's lead engineer.
In addition, this is not a feature-set release. According to the Firefox 2.0 roadmap, this is a pre-feature alpha release. As such, you're not going to find such expected features as improved anti-phishing, session-restore, or remote extension management. It is, in short, a pre-release meant only for developers who are working on the program's basic internal functionality.
From a Web developer's viewpoint, the goal of version 2.0 is that its APIs (application programming interfaces) will be compatible with 1.5's APIs. That's not to say that new APIs are being ruled out, but existing APIs are very likely to stay in place.
According to the latest Firefox 2 status meeting minutes, the "ui [user interface] is known to be annoying, but [the] internals seem solid enough for a developer preview." According to these minutes, it would seem that the real alpha release will be this coming Friday, March 24th.
Users who want to try it anyway can count on seeing broken extensions and other problems. For example, in kicking the tires of this pre-alpha release we found several pages that display properly under Firefox 1.5, which failed to appear correctly under 2.0.
Firefox 2.0's feature-complete beta is due out early in the second quarter of 2006. If all goes well, the new Firefox will appear late this summer or early this fall.
Download availability
As of March 20th, you can download the US English alpha code here: Linux; Mac OS X; Windows.
Asa Dotler, the Mozilla Foundation's "community quality advocate extraordinaire" points out in his blog, "When we make a new release, we'll say so. Please don't report new releases because someone checks in a change to the user agent or similar. If we're actually doing a release, we'll announce it. Thanks."
Some screenshots of the unofficial alpha of Firefox 2.0 are available at OSDir.com, here.
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
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