14 DAY TRIAL // The first alpha flavor of Firefox 3.6, also known under the name of Namoroka, is finally here. Following the release of Firefox 3.5 (codenamed “Shiretoko”), the new flavor of the Web browser is based on the Gecko 1.9.2 platform and is focused mainly on areas like performance, personalization and customization, task-based navigation, web application support and system integration. The Firefox 3.6 Alpha 1 is now available for all those willing to give it a try.
“The first developer milestone of the next release of Firefox – code named Namoroka Alpha 1 – is now available for download. Namoroka is built on pre-release version of the Gecko 1.9.2 platform, which forms the core of rich Internet applications such as Firefox. Please note that this release is intended for developers and testers only,” Mozzila states on its Developer Center site.
For what it's worth, this Alpha of Namoroka / Gecko 1.9.2 has been mainly intended for developers, thus most of the changes it includes are targeted at them. As such, they will find some features like support for multiple background images, Geolocation address support, a reorder event to embedded frames and iframes, support for the -moz-background-size CSS property, as well as fixes for a wide range of interactions between web content, CSS and plugins.
Some of the new features the Firefox 3.6 Alpha 1 release brings forth include: - Compositor (Phase 1), which moves Gecko to using one native widget per top-level content document. - A new focus model - The chromedir attribute has been replaced with a pseudoclass - Several new CSS3 properties including background size and gradients for background images - Speed improvements to the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine - Startup and responsiveness improvements throughout the application
According to Mozzila, the final version of Firefox 3.6 is expected to become available in the following few months. The upcoming flavor of the browser will focus mainly on the user experience it will be able to deliver, while new web developer features are also reported to be included. The entire list of changes Firefox 3.6 Alpha 1 comes with can be found here. Developers interested in learning more about Namoroka / Gecko 1.9.2 should access this page.
Download Firefox 3.6 Alpha 1 for Windows Download Firefox 3.6 Alpha 1 for Mac OS X