Firefox 3 Release Candidate now available for download
Please note: The Firefox 3 Release Candidate is a public preview release intended for developer testing and community feedback. It includes new features as well as dramatic improvements to performance, memory usage and speed.
Context & Ripple Effects
Firefox 3 has progressed through public test builds since the first beta in November 2007, followed by Beta 3 in February. The release candidate narrows that cycle toward validation of the browser's feature set and its stated performance and memory improvements.
Mozilla is explicitly using developers and the wider community as a testing channel, making feedback from this build part of the product's final quality-control process.
First-order effects
- Developers and community testers can evaluate Firefox 3's new features, speed and memory behavior in a public preview and send defects or compatibility feedback to Mozilla.
- Mozilla gains a broader test base for the release candidate than an internal test program alone could provide.
Second-order effects
- Feedback from developer testing can concentrate Mozilla's engineering work on stability, performance and memory issues identified across real-world configurations.
- Web developers have an incentive to test sites and extensions against the candidate before Firefox 3 reaches a wider audience.
Third-order effects
- The beta-to-release-candidate sequence reinforces a browser-development model in which public builds turn users and developers into a distributed compatibility and quality-assurance network.
The trend: Browser makers are treating public preview releases as a core mechanism for validating performance and compatibility before broad distribution.