Download Firefox 3.7 Alpha 1, Forget Firefox 3.6

Mozilla’s open source browser has reached the first major development milestone in the evolution past version 3.6. Firefox 3.6, the minor update to Firefox 3.5, was made available to the general public at the end of January 2010. Just a couple of days ago, users were able to read right here on Softpedia that Mozilla was cooking the first Alpha Build of the next iteration of the open source browser, released under the moniker Firefox 3.7. The first fully-fledged Alpha development milestone of Firefox 3.7 is now available for download, and users will be able to find links at the bottom of this article.

Essentially, with the release of Firefox 3.7 Alpha 1, early adopters are getting the Mozilla Developer Preview of Gecko 1.9.3 Alpha 1. And make no mistake about it, Firefox 3.7 Alpha 1 is designed for testers and developers and not for the public. The Mozilla Developer Preview of Gecko 1.9.3 alpha 1 brings to the table new features of the Gecko layout engine, and in doing so breaks compatibility with some add-ons and websites. Mozilla is making the build available exclusively for testing purposes. Users that can’t help it and want a taste of what Firefox will bring to the table in the future should be advised that the installer of Firefox 3.7 Alpha 1/ Mozilla Developer Preview of Gecko 1.9.3 Alpha 1 has the Set as default browser box check.

There are a number of new features explored in Firefox 3.7 Alpha 1/ Mozilla Developer Preview of Gecko 1.9.3 Alpha 1, including support for CSS Transitions, support for SMIL Animation in SVG, support for WebGL, etc. “It also contains several other significant changes: on Mac OS X, we render text using Core Text rather than ATSUI. We rewrote major parts of the code for handling scrolling. We rewrote the way a snapshot of a document is taken in order to print or print preview. We made significant changes to table border handling. We made various architectural changes to improve Web page performance,” revealed Mozilla’s David Baron.

However, just because Mozilla released Firefox 3.7 Alpha 1, there’s no guarantee that version 3.7 will ever come to fruition. Fact is that the "Developer Preview" label has been slapped on the release because Mozilla simply hasn’t determined yet as where this version of the open source browser fits into the Firefox product roadmap.

Firefox 3.7 Alpha 1/ Mozilla Developer Preview of Gecko 1.9.3 Alpha 1 for Windows is available here.
Firefox 3.7 Alpha 1/ Mozilla Developer Preview of Gecko 1.9.3 Alpha 1 for Mac OS X is available here.
Firefox 3.7 Alpha 1/ Mozilla Developer Preview of Gecko 1.9.3 Alpha 1 for Linux is available here.

Firefox 3.6 Final for Windows is available for download here.
Firefox 3.6 Final for Mac OS X is available for download here.
Firefox 3.6 Final for Linux is available for download here.

Follow me on Twitter @MariusOiaga.