Mozilla Corp. late yesterday unveiled the second release candidate of Firefox 3.0 and said all of the issues that remain are on the server or site side, not in the application itself. Firefox 3.0 Release Candidate 2 (RC2) fixed about 40 bugs identified after Mozilla issued the first release candidate three weeks ago. Among the higher-profile patches added to RC2 was one that addressed a performance problem in Firefox for Linux. Mozilla made the decision to go with another release candidate last week — rejecting the option of shipping Firefox 3.0 as is, then following up with a bug-fix update later. Mozilla executives assured users that the additional RC would not delay the expected launch date, which has been set for mid-mont. more
In some tech-industry circles, Firefox already is preferred over Microsoft’s (MSFT) Internet Explorer and Apple’s (AAPL) Safari, but it still isn’t used by most people, and Mozilla is hoping to broaden its appeal … My verdict is that Firefox 3.0 is the best Web browser out there right now, and that it tops the current versions of both IE and Safari in features, speed and security. It is easy to install and easy to use, even for a mainstream, non-technical user … Firefox 3.0 rules on both Windows and Mac. I couldn’t find any significant downsides to Firefox 3.0. Every page I tried rendered properly and rapidly on both platforms … [it] regained the speed crown. It beat IE 7 handily on my test Windows computers and edged Safari slightly on my test Macs. more
The second Firefox 3 Release Candidate is now available for download. Ongoing planning for Firefox 3 can be followed at the Firefox 3 Planning Center, as well as in mozilla.dev.planning and on irc.mozilla.org in #granparadiso. You can find out more about the new Features of Firefox 3 in the “What’s New” section of the release notes. Testers can download the second Firefox 3 Release Candidate builds for Windows,Mac OS X and Linux in over 45 different languages. Developers should also read the Firefox 3 for Developers article on the Mozilla Developer Center. more

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