Firefox 3.5 is already a few months “old” and Mozilla is gearing up to launch its follow-up, Firefox 3.6. This latest version is only a small evolution nowhere near the number of updates and new features that 3.5 had but it's still more than just a bug-fixing release. Now, the first Firefox 3.6 beta is out the door bringing with it better customization options courtesy of the newly integrated Personas theme engine, and a couple of new features plus the usual batch of fixes and performance updates.

High on the list of new features is Personas, which is now fully integrated into the browser, allowing users to change the look of their Firefox with just a couple of clicks. Personas is a lightweight theme engine that has been in development for about half a year over at Mozilla Labs. It permits users to easily create and install new skins for Firefox. The feature is now mature enough that Mozilla developers believed it was time to make it a part of the proper browser. And, with over 30,000 designs to choose from, there's probably something there for anyone.

Firefox now comes with a notification feature warning users if the plugins they have installed are out of date. This may not be too glamorous but it's a very important step towards making the browsing experience safer as old versions may have unplugged security holes that malicious attackers could exploit. The feature has been around since Firefox 3.5.3 and 3.0.14 but initially it only notified users if their Adobe Flash plugin was old.

The new beta also continues to broaden the support for modern web technologies like HTML5 but also adds new CSS and DOM features. The <video> HTML5 element also gets full screen support and poster frames that serve as a placeholder for videos when they aren't playing. Firefox 3.6 also comes with support for a new open web font format, WOFF, which brings a few advantages over other formats like OpenType and TrueType. Mozilla has also been working on improving the performance of the browser, a big focus now that Chrome has taken the speed crown, and Firefox 3.6 is now faster and more responsive overall. Mozilla says startup time has also been improved. Finally, the new beta has a number of Windows 7-specific features you can read more about here.


Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 for Windows is available for download here.