Firefox 3.1b2 Watch

Over the last week there were hopeful signs that the beta 2 version of Firefox 3.1 (Shiretoko) would be released.

There were in fact a few teasers that it would be released on November 21st, but alas, that did not come to pass.  From what I can tell, the official release might be around the 28th, give or take a few days.

I suppose that one could dive into the “nightly” Minefield builds, but I’m trying to be good of late and stick with the slightly more stable beta versions.

On the Watch Tower

Some b2 watch-bits while we wait:

Releases/Firefox 3.1b2 – MozillaWiki – Basic pre-release checkpoints and timetable.

WeeklyUpdates/2008-11-17 – MozillaWiki – Big picture on Mozilla release activity. Its all about bug-killing and quality assurance.

Firefox3.1/StatusMeetings/2008-11-19 – MozillaWiki – For the most part it seems that most (all?) of the release blocking bugs have been neutralized.

However, it looks like one anticipated feature will get yanked out of this beta version, again; Ctrl-tab preview switching.  For specific reasons why this is being held back see bug 465843 link.

If you don’t recall, this is the Vista-ish alt-tab feature that pops up a preview page highlight dock-style when ctrl+tab-ing through tabs on a browser window.

If you read that bug link, seems there is some interesting behind-the-scenes discussion on the merits and application of the feature when just one or two tabs exist.

Anyway, looks like there is still some cleanup work and decisions to be finalized before we get a working 3.1b2 in our hands.

So until things become “official” I guess I will keep checking in at the Index of ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/ site and look for a new folder called 3.1b2.  Sometimes I can get lucky and snag it a day or so early that way.

Coming soon to Firefox: Tab Tearing

One of the newest features that 3.1 will offer is an expanded feature called “tab-tearing.”

Mozilla Links offers a great video and rundown of this capability. Firefox 3.1 gets tab tearing.

While previous versions of Firefox have always allowed some URL drag-n-drop handling, say a link from the desktop, a file, email application, or from the bookmarks, tab-tearing is a bit different

Basically it allows you to click and hold on a tab and drag it off the browser window and when released it will open in a new browser window and be removed from the originating browser window.  Or you can drag the tab off the existing Firefox window and drop it on another Firefox browser window and it will be added to the destination and removed from the source.

If it sounds complicated, it really is basic.  Hop to the link and view the very short window video and you will see what I mean.

Claus V.