Firefox 3.6.4 Will Add the Out of Process Plugins Twist

The next update to Firefox 3.6 will be a minor refresh with a twist. Essentially, Mozilla has taken the Out of Process Plugins feature from the next major iteration of the Firefox browser and integrated it into the version of Firefox released earlier this year. Early adopters are already free to test-drive Firefox 3.6 with OOPP via the codename Lorentz release, which was offered to testers almost a week ago. Firefox 3.6.4 will be the first stable version of the open source browser to feature Out of Process Plugins, which will also be included in future iterations of Firefox.

“Firefox 3.6.4 will include out of process plugins for Windows and Linux. Builds were delayed by a day, this will likely push back our schedule. Expect QA signoff late on Friday or early Monday. Expect to publish as opt-in upgrade to beta channel on Monday,” a Mozilla representative stated.

While codename Lorentz Beta is currently available for download and testing, it appears that Mozilla will also produce a Firefox 3.6.4 Beta soon. In this regard, Firefox Lorentz is nothing more than Firefox 3.6.3 plus out of process plugin code for Windows and Linux, while version 3.6.4 is expected to deliver additional changes, including the traditional security and stability updates. Another way for testers to try out OOPC is through Firefox 3.7 Alpha 4.

The Mozilla Developer Preview 1.9.3 Alpha 4 was also released to testers the past week, and it appears that Mozilla is planning a steady flow of Alpha builds. “Gecko 1.9.3 will form the core of Firefox and other Mozilla project releases. Mozilla expects to release a Developer Preview every 2-3 weeks. If you’ve been running a previous release, you will be automatically updated to the latest version when it is released. This preview release contains a lot of interesting stuff that’s worth pointing out, and contains many things that were also in previous releases,” Mozilla noted.

Firefox 3.6 Lorentz Beta (3.6.3 Plugin 1 / v3.6.4) for Windows is available for download here.

Firefox 3.7 Alpha 4 / Mozilla Developer Preview of Gecko 1.9.3 Alpha 4 for Windows is available here.
Firefox 3.7 Alpha 4 / Mozilla Developer Preview of Gecko 1.9.3 Alpha 4 for Mac OS X is available here.
Firefox 3.7 Alpha 4 / Mozilla Developer Preview of Gecko 1.9.3 Alpha 4 for Linux is available here.

Firefox 3.6.3 for Windows is available for download here.
Firefox 3.6.3 for Mac OS X is available for download here.
Firefox 3.6.3 for Linux is available for download here.