Download Mozilla Firefox 3.0 alpha 4

Mozilla set a new development milestone a few days ago prepared of the Firefox 3 branch, which is also known as Gran Paradiso. Meanwhile, the developers have already arrived at the fourth alpha version of Firefox 3.0, which is available from this ftp folder can be downloaded for, among other things Linux (8.2MB), Mac OS X (17MB) and Windows (6.3MB). Gran Paradiso is the codename of the next branch of Mozilla Firefox that uses Gecko 1.9 as an engine to render web pages. Firefox 3.0 alpha 4 ships with many changes, including improvements to the user interface of the Mac OS X edition. In addition, support for offline browsing has been overhauled and bug fixes have been made for the Gecko engine. Alpha 4 also had support for Growlbut this one was taken out at the last minute because it was before a crash took care† What has changed in Gran Paradiso Alpha 4 is listed below. The developers have already started work on the next alpha version. A pre-alpha of this can be found in the nightly buildsof which the full alpha at the end of May is expected†

Gran Paradiso Alpha 4 is now available for testing. New features in this development milestone of Mozilla Firefox 3 include the FUEL JavaScript library for extension developers, a redesigned Page Info window, improvements to offline application support and Gecko 1.9 bug fixes.

Several Mac OS X additions have also been made, including support for Growl notifications, improvements to the Cocoa user interface and an initial version of the Breakpad crash reporting tool.

Gran Paradiso Alpha 4 is intended for Web developers and the Mozilla testing community only, with regular end users strongly advised to stick with the stable Firefox 2 for now. Alpha releases of Firefox 3 are branded using the Gran Paradiso codename in an effort to discourage regular end users from downloading them.

Gecko 1.9 Alpha 4 introduces several new features which can be tested by using Gran Paradiso Alpha 4:

• Inclusion of the FUEL Javascript library for extension developers. More details available on the FUEL Wiki
• New Page Info window
• Many Cocoa user interface improvements and bug fixes
• Improvements to offline application support. Enabled Listing of Offline Resources and implemented SQL device for the offline cache. See Marking Resources for Offline Use for further details on offline support.
• Miscellaneous Gecko 1.9 bug fixes

Some of the changes in Alpha versions of Gecko 1.9 affect the web and platform compatibility of Gran Paradiso Alpha 4. For detailed information about changes in Gecko 1.9 and Gran Paradiso, please read these pages:

• Gecko 1.9 Changes affecting websites
• Firefox 3 for developers

Known Issues

All Systems
• The Cairo graphics system has drastically changed the way all text images are rendered from previous versions of Gecko, so occasional misrenderings of non-latin scripts and fonts may occur.
• The Phishing Protection notification bubble is hidden by the content area (see bug 341950.)

Windows

• Upscaling images can result in misrendering, causing the edges of the image to appear blurry.

Mac OS X

• The user’s choice of a default font may not always be honored.
• Font decorations such as underline and strikethrough may be drawn incorrectly.
• Complex script (ex: Indic) may be misrendered.

Linux and Unix systems

• Loading any page with Chinese, Japanese or Korean text can hang the browser (see bug 357637).
• Performance on complex script (ex: Indic) may be slower than previous versions of Gecko.
• Compatibility issues have been reported when users are not running Xorg 7.0 or better.
• Users may experience problems when attempting to print complex pages.