Today Mozilla released the third beta for the next major Firefox update, version 3.1. Firefox 3.1, which will likely be re-numbered to Firefox 3.5, will have one more beta before the final release this summer.

... this Firefox version, carries the code name "Namoroka" Alpha 1, and it is also currently referred to as Firefox.next. And like other Firefox Alphas, it does not bare the Firefox logo. This release uses the Gecko 1.9.2 engine and will likely include several interface improvements in later versions, such as new graphical tab-switching behavior, which was removed from 3.5 with Beta 2.

Last night I downloaded the latest beta release from Mozilla, Firefox 3 Beta 1, meaning to just have a look-see so that I could pen a few impressions. Since then, I haven't bothered to load up Firefox 2 because, even though it's a pre-production test version, Firebox 3 Beta 1 is a mighty fine browser.

Although Firefox 3.5 (formerly Firefox 3.1) is still in beta, Mozilla is already developing Firefox 3.6 code-named Namoroka. Slated for an early-to-mid 2010 release, the browser will be marketed as Firefox.next (FX) moniker in a nod to new technologies set to take Firefox to the next level.

"This week Mozilla released the first beta of Firefox 3. Originally scheduled for mid July, the delay responds to the very long list of features this new version brings. Eight alphas and an estimated 14 months under development are both firsts for a Firefox upgrade but again are necessary for the amount of improvements and new features Firefox 3 will bring..."

Mozilla recently released the first testing version of the next major Firefox release. Not all features planned for Firefox 3.1 are included in Beta 1.

Firefox 3 developers are taking all the time that they need to accomplish their new Firefox. After the Beta 1 Mozilla has released Firefox 3 beta 2 to get more feedbacks about bugs from its testing community. Bugzilla was a little bit busy lately since the beta 1 thousands of bugs fortunately 900 of them are fixed. Firefox developers are trying to reveal more bugs to make their Firefox 3 better. The Beta 2 features are very promising and the Firefox 3 will definitely beat all competitors.

Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 is done and beta 4 is slated to be released on April 14. That’s the latest from the Mozilla Firefox team, which held its weekly meeting on Tuesday.

After changing its stable release policy to a more accelerated pace, Mozilla released Firefox 5 pretty quick after the latest major Firefox version was put out. Firefox 4 was released on March 22, 2011 and this version follows only three months later. Here’s an announcement on the Mozilla Blog website.