According to Mozilla's initial plans, the first Beta of Firefox 3.1 codename Shiretoko was slated for availability by the end of August 2008, but this is no longer the case. Firefox 3.1 will only be released in October this year. The beta code freeze for the successor of Firefox 3.0 was moved from August to early September and subsequently to the end of the following month. In this context, Mozilla will take over a month to deliver Firefox 3.1.

 

“As we discussed a bit at the development call, we're going to be moving the code freeze for Beta 1 to September 30. This schedule adjustment will better allow us to incorporate feedback from the Alpha on exciting features like worker threads before Beta, and adjusts for some of the impact of MU on build and release resources,” revealed Mozilla's Vice President of engineering Mike Shaver.

 

Following the availability of Firefox 3.1 Beta 1, codename Shiretoko will move to Beta 2 release which is currently scheduled for the end of October 2008. Until Beta 1 drops, Mozilla has yet to release the second Alpha for the open source browser. “Alpha 2 builds will be produced using the code from Aug 19, as before, and we should have a schedule for the build availability and release pretty shortly. (Likely around Sept 2, if you made me guess. Don't make me guess.),” Shaver added.

 

On the other hand, Mozilla has started delivering Firefox 3.0.1 as a major update to Firefox 2.0.0.16 and will continue to replace version 2.0 with the launch of v3.0.2. Mozilla expects Firefox 2.0.0.16 and Firefox 3.0.2 to be launched simultaneously sometime in mid-September. In parallel, Firefox 3.1 Shiretoko is also being built with the first Alpha builds planned for the end of this week, or the start of the next.

 

Firefox 3.1 Alpha 1, Firefox 3.0.1 and Firefox 2.0.0.16 are available for download here.