Mozilla shoots out fifth Firefox 3.6 beta

Mozilla has released a fifth - and surely final - beta of Firefox 3.6, a complete version of which it plans to spin out before the end of 2009.

The Firefox 3.6 beta 5 update comes with a few tweaks to how Mozilla allows third party software to slot into the browser. The change should help prevent crashes, said the open source outfit.

"This version is also faster and more responsive than previous versions, and has been optimised to run on small device operating systems such as Windows CE and Maemo," said Mozilla in the latest beta's release notes.

Changes and new features in the upcoming browswer include support for the HTML 5 file API, a tweak to how third-party software integrates with Firefox to beef up stability, and a mechanism to prevent incompatible software from crashing the browser.

Plug-ins might be playing catch-up with the latest beta, however, noted Mozilla.

"Add-ons installed with previous versions of Firefox may not yet have been updated by their authors to work with Firefox 3.6 beta," it said.

It's available in 70 languages and contains more than 100 bug fixes since the last beta, which Mozilla pushed out during Thanksgiving last month.

So, can we expect to see Turkey redux with Mozilla spinning out the final version of Firefox 3.6 on Christmas Day? Because after all, stranger things have happened, right? ®