The Mozilla open-source army is asking for the users' help to test their next versions of Firefox and Thunderbird, well not the entire versions, just the software update mechanism that will eliminate the need to download large files to replace outdated versions of the browser and e-mail client.

"We are now ready to do some testing of software update for both Firefox and Thunderbird," Mozilla Quality blog read Thursday. "To that end, we have a page up on our new QA Community wiki that explains how to test the software update feature."

Initially, Firefox 1.5 was announced for August, but now, the new browser is expected to reach beta in this year's September, which will be followed by the final version somewhere towards the end of 2005.

The features prepared by Mozilla Foundation for the new version are related to better functionality and an extension system that allows the faster installing and management of third party developed add-ons.

Firefox 1.5 will also include support for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), which is a set of instructions for handling the rendering of 2D images.

To become a beta tester for Mozilla click here.