14 DAY TRIAL // The second Firefox Aurora release has been wrapped up and is being offered for download and testing to early adopters.
With the launch of Firefox 6 Aurora, Mozilla moves onward on the new path it has embarked after the advent of Firefox 4.0, when it drastically accelerated the release cycle for new major versions of its open source browser.
Firefox 5, currently in Beta, will be finalized and offered to end users on June 21st, 2011, after which, Firefox 6 will graduate from Aurora to Beta, and Firefox 7, available in Nightly at the time of this article, will move to Aurora.
“The new features in Firefox Aurora give users and Web developers more control over their browsing and development environments while improving overall performance,” revealed a Mozilla representative.
Firefox 6 sports better web standards support compared to Firefox 4.0 and Firefox 5, Mozilla revealed. Additional support for HTML5, DOM level 3, server-sent events, networking technologies etc. is designed to better equip developers when building Cloud applications designed to mirror desktop programs.
End users are bound to experience faster start-up times, improved plug-in compatibility and better privacy with Firefox 6.
With Panorama Groups on Demand Firefox 6’s startup time and overall experience is kicked up a notch, since the new features give customers control over when loading saved Panorama tab groups. In addition, Add-ons Manager with Plugin Check now expands compatibility checks to encompass plug-ins.
Privacy enhancements in Firefox 6 involve the introduction of the Data Management Window. Considered an experimental feature, it enables users to manage the level of access that third-party websites have to their browsing data (cookies, passwords and location information).
Further enhancements in Firefox 6 are designed to appeal to web developers. Devs will be able to use the new Web Developer Menu under the Firefox Aurora Menu Button’ take advantage of a flexible Web Console, and easily create and try JavaScript snippets in Firefox 6 with the Scratchpad.
"If you already have Firefox Aurora installed, you will receive an automated update notification within 24 to 48 hours. To check if you are running the latest Firefox Aurora, go to the “About Aurora” Menu and select “Apply update manually”. Please be aware that not all add-ons are compatible with the latest Firefox Aurora," the Mozilla team member added.
Firefox 6 Aurora and Firefox 5 Beta for Windows are available for download here.
Firefox 6 Aurora and Firefox 5 Beta for Mac are available for download here.
Firefox 6 Aurora and Firefox 5 Beta for Linux are available for download here.