14 DAY TRIAL // The beta version of the upcoming Firefox 5 has been released. With the switch to the rapid release cycle, new Firefox versions will be coming a lot faster, ideally one every six weeks. Firefox 5 is the first release built under the new development cycle and most of Mozilla's attention is on tweaking the system and ensuring that everything goes smoothly.
That said, Firefox 5 does come with several enhancements and new features. Besides the obligatory performance and security improvements, Firefox 5 Beta introduces support for the new CSS Animations standard.
Firefox 5 Beta also debuts the channel switcher feature, which enables users to switch back and forth between the three different Firefox channels, Aurora, Beta and Release, with only a couple of clicks.
"Mozilla is pleased to release a new Firefox Beta for download and testing," Mozilla announced.
"Mozilla recently introduced the Firefox Aurora development channel to support more frequent releases. The shift to a rapid release development cycle delivers cutting edge Firefox features, performance enhancements, security updates and stability improvements to users faster," it explained.
"After five weeks of testing on the Firefox Aurora channel, the next version of Firefox is ready for the beta channel," Mozilla added.
Those used to a batch of new features and major improvements from one version of Firefox to the other will be disappointed. Firefox 4 was released only a couple of months ago and users will be hard pressed to find any noticeable differences between it and the new Firefox 5 Beta.
That's not to say there's nothing there, Firefox 5 is faster and fixes plenty of bugs left over from Firefox 4. It also plugs several security holes, granted, available in Firefox 4.0.1 as well.
Web developers will also appreciate support for the new CSS Animation standard which enables them to create powerful animations using simple CSS code.
Firefox 5 also improves support for the Do-Not-Track header designed to notify websites and ad networks that the user doesn't want tracking cookies to be used to store a profile for personalized ads.
Firefox 5 Beta is now available for download. If you've been using Firefox 5 Aurora, you can switch the channel to continue to use Firefox 5, otherwise you will be automatically updated to Firefox 6 which should debut in the Aurora channel momentarily.
Firefox 5 is scheduled to be released about a month from now, on the week of June 21.
Firefox 5 Beta for Windows is available for download here. Firefox 5 Beta for Mac is available for download here. Firefox 5 Beta for Linux is available for download here.