Starting with Firefox 5, the Gecko (rendering engine) version numbering will now be the same as Firefox version. Presently with Firefox 4, the Gecko version is 2.0 (though it was 1.9.3 during the Alpha releases as Firefox 3.7). Now with Firefox 5, Gecko version will also be 5. I first noticed this when I was looking at the build id information for the Firefox 6 Nightly build I am currently using. Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:6.0a1) Gecko/20110415 Firefox/6.0a1 ID:20110415030205 The rv:6.0a1 portion refers to the Gecko version, which in this case is 6.0 Alpha 1. Compare this to…

Just Released Firefox 5 Aurora – April 14th Schedule this Coming Week None Future Release Firefox 3.5.19 – April 26th Firefox 3.6.17 – April 26th Firefox 4 Macaw (4.0.1) – April 26th Firefox 5 Beta – May 17th Firefox 6 Aurora – May 24th Firefox 5 Release – June 21st

Mozilla has released the first Aurora build of Firefox 5,  Alpha 2 on April 12th. Firefox 5 is the first release being done under Mozilla’s new aggressive development plan.  Here is how the plan works, there are 4 stages or development channels each approximately 6-weeks each with a total of 18-weeks from Nightly to Release: Nightly (Weeks 1-6) – the freshest (and sometimes unstable) developmental builds new features will be introduced during this cycle. Since Firefox 5 has moved to Aurora, Firefox 6 is now in the Nightly cycle. Aurora (Weeks 6-12) – all new features for this new version…

So back in February I posted about Mozilla’s new release schedule for Firefox in 2011. At that time the actual schedule hadn’t been fully drawn up yet as they were waiting on the release of Firefox 4. Now, I did mention the different channels or phases of the release schedule on the Firefox 5 Aurora Release post. Again these channels or phases are: Nightly, Aurora, Beta and Release and normally each phases lasts 6-weeks and will usually start on a Tuesday (except Nightly which will be the day after the Aurora release of the prior version). Firefox 5 is on…

Mozilla has a code name for each of the major Firefox  builds usually named after national parks. Firefox 3.6 was Namoroka (National Park in Madagascar) while Firefox 4.0 is Tumucumaque (National Park in Brazil). Starting with Firefox 4, each release is going to have its own animal code name. Keeping with the Amazon theme, the next main update for Firefox 4 is going to be Macaw. You could say this would be Firefox 4.0.1, but Mozilla rather you not. They are trying to get away from the numbering as any time there is a security update (aka Firedrill release) this…

I don’t think I mentioned this change before. In Firefox 4, the orange RSS feed icon that used to appear in the address bar for sites that had feed has been removed. In its place, is a new ‘Subscribe’ toolbar button which does the same thing. However, the Subscribe button is not on the toolbar by default. To add, right click on the toolbar and select Customize… and then locate and drag the subscribe button to your toolbar. My only complaint about the new button is it should be orange (instead of solid black) when you can subscribe to a…

Okay, Mozilla is doing some funky things right now with the new update process. For those of you still on the Nightly (your Firefox button will now show Nightly instead of Minefield) builds, you likely noticed you just got bumped over to 6.0a1. I have no idea yet why we went from 4.2a1pre (which was suppose to be a ‘placeholder’ for Firefox 5) to 6.0a1. I’ll look into this more later on. In the mean time to get your addons working again: Open a new tab and type in the address bar about:config If needed click on the I’ll Be…

The first update for Firefox 4.0 is scheduled for release later this month. Firefox 4.0.1 code named Macaw (yes, Mozilla is now giving the updates code names as well) is scheduled for April 26th. Further updates for Firefox 3.5 and 3.6 will also be released on this date. These updates had been scheduled prior for April 19th. Source: Mozilla Links

Mozilla is planning a major release day on April 26th. Besides updates for Firefox 3.5, 3.6 and 4.0 there will also be an updated for Thunderbird 3.1 as well. The release of Thunderbird 3.1.10 is directly connected to the releases of Firefox, so should these become delayed the Thunderbird update will be delayed as well. Currently there is no information available regarding the next release of Miramar (Thunderbird 3.3). Alpha 3 was released about a month ago on March 15th. Not sure if the next release is going to be Alpha 4 or Beta 1.

A couple years ago the development of Thunderbird was split off from Mozilla into its own separate organization, Mozilla Messaging.  This did not work out as well as hoped. Case in point, future development after Thunderbird 3.0 has been rather lacking over the past couple years. Mozilla has decided to re-take control of Thunderbird and merge Mozilla Messaging into Mozilla Labs. Mozilla Labs is a specialty team that handles the development of experimental projects such as Personas, Jetpack, Sync and Test Pilot to name a few. David Ascher will continue to head the development of Thunderbird under the new Mozilla…