Aurora: Firefox's new 'Dev' Channel launches
Source: Mozilla
Following a draft roadmap published on GitHub last week, Mozilla has announced the launch of its Aurora 'dev' channel for Firefox. Mozilla's new rapid release development cycle is similar to the way in which Google releases its browser updates (ie. Stable, Beta, Dev).
According to Mozilla, the aim of the change is to "deliver new releases of Firefox faster and give users more opportunities to participate in building Firefox". The non-profit organisation says that the Aurora channel will allow developers and early adopters to test the latest features and innovations being added to the browser. Compared to the cutting edge nightly builds, referred to as "Minefield" by Mozilla, the new channel will reportedly feature increased "polish".
Version 5 of Firefox is the first branch of the web browser to have an Aurora channel release; users can now download Firefox 5a2 from the channel for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The developers say that the first Aurora release includes several performance, security and stability improvements. As previously noted, Mozilla's new channel releases will not use a standard Firefox icon, instead opting for new "Nightly" and "Aurora" icons – the icon for "Stable" releases will stay the same.
As with all development releases, use of the Aurora channel builds in production environments and on mission critical systems is not advised. Users testing the release are encouraged to provide feedback and report any bugs that they encounter.
More details about the new Firefox channels can be found in a post on the Mozilla blog. Users can find the Aurora, Beta and Final Release channels on the Firefox Future Releases web page.
See also:
- Firefox 5 coming 21 June?, a report from The H.
- Mozilla kills embedding support for Gecko layout engine, a report from The H.
- What's new in Firefox 4.0, a feature from The H.
(crve)