Firefox 1.5 Beta coming next month

Firefox 1.5 Beta coming next month

Mozilla Foundation is expected to launch the first beta of the much-awaited next release of the popular Mozilla Firefox web browser sometime next month. The organization has already confirmed that they are skipping directly to version 1.5 and they plan to release the final version of this browser before the end of the current year. They are already being credited for giving Microsoft enough worries to get them to release an updated Internet Explorer browser before the end of the current year. This month we saw the first beta of Internet Explorer 7 launched in private test groups.

Even the web statistic companies have admitted noticing a growing increase in popularity of the Mozilla Firefox browser. Information from these companies claim that the open source application has already taken a 10% market shares most of which came from the share of Internet Explorer. However, Internet Explorer is still used by more than 80% of the users online.

Mozilla Firefox is currently in version 1.0.6 and has seen a series of security related minor updates. The next version is expected to get a major update in feature which is quite a surprise considering the original planned release. Mozilla Foundation said in a statement: “What we have been doing is better than initially planned, so instead of calling it 1.1, we think it deserves the name of 1.5.” some of these features might include better overall functionality and an improved extensions system. it is also expected to come with extended support for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), a specification for rendering two-dimensional graphics in browser interfaces.

The foundation also wants to make a serious attempt at getting an entry into the corporate scene, which continues to largely use Internet Explorer for their employees. They recently formed a for-profit entity called Mozilla Corporation for the similar purpose.