If Mozilla is able to stick to its current plan for Namoroka, then the successor of Firefox 3.5 will be available for end users one month after Windows 7 hits the shelves. At the end of the past week, Mozilla launched the first Alpha version of Firefox 3.6, which is currently up for grabs alongside Firefox 3.5. So far so good, Mozilla managed to produce Alpha 1 in August 2009, integrating all the major platform pieces and reaching a sufficient level of development milestone stability for the next iteration of the open source browser in order to release it to generate feedback from web and add-on developers.

Beta 1 is the next stage in the evolution of Firefox 3.6, and the current plan is to release it in early September 2009. By Beta 1, Mozilla is looking to integrate all graphical user iteration pieces and to have a string-complete browser milestone, ready for localization work. Beta 2 will follow Beta 1 shortly. And, in fact, the second Beta of Firefox 3.6 will also be the last, scheduled to drop in late September.

With Firefox 3.6 Beta 2, Mozilla will deliver a polished release, and will labor to resolve major stabilization problems that will survive Beta 1. Beta 2 will also be the release to bring to the table the final application programming interface (API) modification that will impact add-on developers.

There will be a single Release Candidate of Firefox 3.6. Mozilla pointed to mid-October 2009, but no later than the end of that month for Firefox 3.6 RC to become available for download. This will allow for the final development milestone of Firefox 3.6 to be released in November 2009. Of course, users must understand that the Firefox 3.6 roadmap is by no means set in stone. Changes could come up at any time.

A piece of good news for Windows 7 users is that Firefox 3.6 will indeed play nice with the latest iteration of the Windows client, more so than Firefox 3.5. Mozilla will integrate Firefox 3.6 with Windows 7 when it comes down to the Windows Aero Glass GUI and to features such as Windows Aero Peek. No word yet on whether Firefox 3.6 will support Taskbar thumbnail preview or Jumplists.

Download Firefox 3.6 Alpha 1 for Windows
Download Firefox 3.6 Alpha 1 for Mac OS X