14 DAY TRIAL // Both Mozilla and Apple are right on track to release version 3.0 of their respective browsers on the Windows platform by the end of 2007. The Cupertino-based company announced through the voice of Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs on June 11, concomitantly with the release of Safari 3.0 Public Beta for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows Vista and Windows XP, that the final version of the browser will be made available for download together with the launch of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Meanwhile, Windows users can get a taste of Leopard on Windows Vista and Windows XP today.
Mozilla if not far behind Apple. The Foundation is currently also aiming to deliver Firefox 3.0 by the end of this year, targeting a November release to be more specific. Back in December 2006, Mozilla launched Gran Paradiso Alpha 1. Since that point no less than five additional alpha milestones of the next generation of Mozilla's layout engine, Gecko 1.9, were made available to developers. The last of them, Gran Paradiso Alpha 6 went live on July 2, 2007, and can be downloaded for testing purposes only. Users should deploy neither Gran Paradiso Alpha 6 nor Safari 3.0 in production environments, and should not use the products as the default browsers.
But Alpha 6 marks an important milestone for Mozilla. This is the last alpha release of Firefox 3.0. By the end of this month, Mozilla plans to deliver the first beta of Gran Paradiso. Firefox 3.0 Beta 1 Code Freeze is currently scheduled for July 17 with the beta dropping on July 31. "Feature Frozen, including UI. All strings complete avail for l10n for planned features. Still allowances for string changes as a result of feedback from Beta1," Mozilla revealed. Firefox 3.0 Beta 2 will follow in September, and the finalized browser in November.
By contrast, Microsoft is dragging its feet when it comes to Internet Explorer 8. The Redmond company did reveal that the gap between IE6 and IE7 will not be repeated with IE8, pointing to a late 2008, early 2009 release. Still, while Microsoft is dogfooding Internet Explorer 8, there is still little detail available on the browser.