The wait for the first release candidate of Firefox 3.0 is far from over. Firefox 3.0 RC1 will be the 14th step in the development process of the next iteration of Mozilla's open source browser, and the successor of Firefox 2.0. At the same time, RC1 will also mark the milestone when Mozilla will scrap the Beta tag for a label which automatically points to the finalization of the building process. However, for the time being Mozilla has only managed to lock down the tree for Firefox 3.0 RC1 and not much more, but it offered users an update for Firefox 2.0, namely version 2.0.0.14.

"On April 8th, the Firefox tree entered a lockdown period in preparation for delivering Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1. The same process will be used for this release as for past betas - the blocker lists will be driven to zero, and only patches with explicit approval will be allowed to land in order to more tightly control potential for regressions," Mozilla stated.

Firefox 2.0.0.14 is a release designed to plug a critical security vulnerability in the JavaScript engine. At the same time, Firefox 2.0.0.14 also resolves stability issues related to the JavaScript garbage collection process generating crashes. The security update applies only to Firefox 2.0 and Mozilla failed to reveal whether Firefox 3.0 is affected in any way.

"As part of Mozilla Corporation's ongoing stability and security update process, Firefox 2.0.0.14 is now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux for free download. We strongly recommend that all Firefox users upgrade to this latest release. If you already have Firefox 2.x, you will receive an automated update notification within 24 to 48 hours. This update can also be applied manually by selecting 'Check for Updates…' from the Help menu," Mozilla explained.

Firefox 2.0.0.14 for Windows is available for download here.
Firefox 2.0.0.14 for Linux is here.
Firefox 2.0.0.14 for Mac is here.