Mozilla continues to cook the first beta for Firefox 3.0 (Gran Paradiso). At the end of the past week, the first release candidate of Gran Paradiso Beta 1 was misinterpreted as the actual Beta of the open source browser. The flood of downloads that ensued forced Mozilla to shut down its FTP servers and to come out revealing that Firefox 3.0 had yet to step out of alpha stage. The actual release details and timetable for the availability of Firefox 3.0 Beta 1, although promised since November 7, have not been made available.

However, Mozilla, through its traditional nightly build release strategy managed to drop even the second Release Candidate for Firefox 3.0, although the version passed virtually unnoticed, but surely causing less of a stir compared to the RC for Gran Paradiso Beta 1. At this point in time Mozilla has made available the second release candidate for Firefox 3.0 Beta 1, which you can go ahead and grab via this link. Since the release is nothing more than a development milestone remember not to use the RC of Gran Paradiso Beta 1 as your primary browser.

And keeping in line with the pace so far, Mozilla will make available tomorrow, November 15, 2007, the third release candidate for Firefox 3.0. At the beginning of October, the count of Firefox 3.0 blockers exceeded 600 bugs for the final release of the open source browser's next version. The outstanding volume of bugs is the sole reason for Mozilla having fallen behind the schedule with the development of Firefox 3.0, the final version of which was initially planned for late 2007.

With the code for Beta 1 already completed and with the release on the way, Mozilla will deliver the second Beta in December, working to wrap up the code by the end of the first week of the next month. With the vast mass of bugs still lingering on even after Beta 2, it is possible that Mozilla will drop more beta versions ahead of the final Firefox 3.0 in 2008.

Microsoft on the other hand is only focused on not dropping a single word about Internet Explorer 8. The next version of the Redmond company's proprietary browser is also in the works, but no details have transpired about the development timetable of IE8. Internet Explorer 8 is expected to drop at the end of 2008, although it could slip into early 2009.