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Mozilla has released the first Firefox beta under its new rapid-release model: a program designed to ensure more frequent updates to the browser at the expense of huge, sweeping changes between new Firefox versions.


Case in point—the company just sent Firefox 5 from the newly designed Aurora development channel to the public-facing Beta channel. That means that it's available for public consumption and feedback. However, the list of new features might seem a bit scant at first, especially if one takes into account the historical jumps that have previously occurred between Firefox version numbers.

"The shift to a rapid release development cycle delivers cutting edge Firefox features, performance enhancements, security updates and stability improvements to users faster," reads the blog post announcing the Firefox 5 beta release.

The Firefox 5 beta builds a few new updates into the browser, but nothing especially monumental or Earth-shattering. Aside from the standard bevvy of enhancements to the browser's performance and standards support, Firefox 5 only really comes with two additional features of note. The first, support for CSS animations, gives web developers the ability to add a little extra flair to their pages. This could include making text slide into place across the browser or having different elements of text magically appear as different parts of an animation hit, to name a few examples.

The second big feature found in Firefox 5 specifically relates to Mozilla's rapid-release model. In this case, Mozilla's added an option to allow users to more quickly switch between one of the three main development channels in the rapid-release cycle: Aurora, a version of the browser where most proposed features are introduced (and an iteration that's much more stable than Mozilla's nightly Firefox builds); Beta, a more stable test build of the browser for public consumption; and Release, the standard iteration of Firefox designed for all users to download.

To access the feature, one need only pull up the "About" screen under Firefox's Help menu. Clicking on the "Change" link allows a user to switch to the Release, Aurora, or Beta channel—after clicking "Apply and Update," the browser automatically downloads the requested version.

So what do you, Firefox fan, need to know? Firefox 5 beta is up and ready: Although its new features might not make huge changes in your standard browsing experience, the browser beta will at least allow you to switch between Firefox variants depending on your need to have more features, or more stability, at a moment's notice

Mozilla is sticking to its new fast-track development cycle, with plans to release a beta version of Firefox 5 on Tuesday, May 17.Meanwhile, the company is also working on phasing out Firefox 3.5.


Firefox 5 is currently in Mozilla's Aurora channel, but will move to beta tomorrow. Aurora is a recently created channel that now comes between nightly builds and beta in order to "deliver features to users at various levels of quality and polish," Mozilla said last month.

Firefox 5 for Mobile is also scheduled for a beta release tomorrow, according to the MozillaWiki.

Firefox 4 made its debut on March 22, about a year after the release of Firefox 3.5. Perhaps taking a page from Google Chrome, however, Mozilla is now shifting to an 18-week release cycle, which means we'll see several updated versions of Firefox this year.

Firefox 5 is scheduled for a final release on June 21. Firefox 6 is currently in the nightly channel and is scheduled to move to Aurora on May 24.

On Firefox 3.5, meanwhile, Mozilla will automatically upgrade 3.5 users to 3.6.

"We don't think self-selection will ultimately get us to the place we need to be," Christian Legnitto, Firefox release manager, wrote in a note posted to the developer mailing list. "We will force 3.6 on 3.5 stragglers not choosing to update to Firefox 4 or 3.6."

"We feel comfortable making the major update choice for users because a) the versions are very similar and b) we'd rather lose a small amount of miffed users than leave a large amount of users vulnerable," he continued.

On the Firefox 3.5 end-of-life Web site, Mozilla said it can't support the browser "into perpetuity." The company said it was frustrated with efforts to get users to move away from 3.5, and is "worried too many people do not upgrade and are on vulnerable and unsupported versions of Firefox."

At this point, 12 million people are on Firefox 3.5. But Mozilla said the upgrade from 3.5 to 3.6 is the "perfect storm" for automatic updating since it did not drop support for any platforms between the two versions, there is 95 percent add-on compatibility, and there are virtually no UI changes.

Legnitto did not discuss when this forced upgrade might occur; "No real actions need to take place until June," he said. The launch of Firefox 3.6.18, however, is scheduled for June 21.