Peter Sbarski22 April 2007, 9:25 AM
The browser battle is heating up again with Firefox 3 due for beta release in about two months. We've investigated the feature set and taken the Gran Paradiso alpha out for a spin.
 Gran Paradiso: looks similar to Firefox 2 at this stage, but the real improvements are under the hood. |
With the estimated release date of Q3 2007 and beta by the end of June, Firefox 3, code-named "Gran Paradiso", is beginning to generate some buzz around IT water coolers.
We've done a bit of research to let you know what this relentless browser juggernaut is going to offer once the Mozilla Q&A team signs off on it.
N.B.: Gran Paradiso Alpha 3 is available to download right now but bear in mind that it is buggy and doesn't have all planned features implemented.
The Firefox 3 requirements document - which you can read right here - describes the proposed feature set, requirements and prioritization for the development of Firefox.
Firefox features are given a priority rating from P1 (mandatory) to P4 (future). If a feature is assigned P1 it is considered to obligatory. Firefox will not ship without it. P2 indicates a highly desirable feature. The product will benefit from it greatly but it's not compulsory. P3 indicates a feature that is nice to have. Finally anything rated P4 is something intended for a future release.
Here are a few interesting tidbits from the requirements document and the official wiki site:
- Mozilla wants to issue one major Firefox release a year (Firefox 3 in 2007, Firefox 4 in 2008, etc…) to drive adoption.
- Windows Vista, XP, 2000 and Mac OS X 10.3.9+ (Universal Binary) compatibility are a P1 priority. Linux compatibility is a P2 priority. Windows 95, 98, Me and Mac OS X 10.2 are no longer supported. Other platforms are not mentioned.
- Offline application support is a major feature planned for Firefox 3.
- The Cairo vector graphics library is already implemented in the current apha release.
 Cairo rendering: even its alpha form, Gran Paradiso is much faster at rendering Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) than Firefox 2. |
Firefox 3 will ship with the following P1 features and improvements (not full list):
- Unified add-on and plugin management system.
- Better detection and retrieval of missing plugins.
- Support of all possible media types on all platforms (as best as possible).
- Simplified content handling UI.
- Smooth upgrades while retaining branding customization.
- ACID 2 test compatibility (Alpha 3 passes it already).
- Ability to lock in branding (this feature is intended for distributors).
- Addition of (backend and UI) support for offline app usage.
- Improved error collection, reporting and usability of the crash report UI.
- Countermeasures for Java/plugin/extension vulnerabilities.
- Website content restrictions.
- Support for web services as MIME type handlers.
- Protection and safeguard against data loss.
- Bookmarks backup/restore functionality and remote bookmarks.
- Cairo vector graphics.
- Integration of Vista parental controls.
- Allowing the user to save the password after they know that the login was successful.
- Improvement of performance of bookmarks, history usage and retrieval operations.
- Better UI indication of encryption, identity, security and privacy context.
- A more unified interface to improve usability and discoverability of features.
- MSI installer support.
Firefox 3 may also ship with the following P2 features and improvements (not full list):
- Simplified add-ons system: fewer clicks to install, conflict resolution, a visual cue to indicate when new add-ons are available.
- Addition of a permanent restart button.
- A revised download manager with pause/resume support, anti-virus integration and improved handling across multiple sessions.
- Easy export of bookmarks to other applications.
- Blacklisting of malicious websites.
- Better integration with online support resources.
- Improvement of the password manager by the way of enhanced autofill for multiple accounts, improved usability of the password manager list, etc…
- OS-level secure password storage integration.
- Saving of web pages as PDF documents.
- Persistent text zoom across sites.
- Improvement to the UI including improvement to dialogs and alerts, presentation of certificates, resizable search bar and many other things.
Chris Beard, Mozilla’s vice president of products, told APCmag.com that offline application support was a major feature. He said, “offline application support is an anticipated feature in Firefox 3. Firefox users will be able to access Web-based e-mail, calendars, RSS feeds and old content without being connected to the Internet.
"We're also investigating how we can structure bookmarks and navigation history to make these resources easier for users to access and manage. The long term roadmap for Firefox continues to align with our vision of an open, shared, and healthy Web.”
Regarding the projected timeframe for the release of Firefox, Chris told APCmag.com: “We're in the midst of alpha releases now, with our product plan published, and with our first beta scheduled toward the end of Q2 [before end of June].
"We typically have more than one beta release and multiple release candidates before we declare a release final. We are committed to delivering the best experience on the Web.
"Our entire release process is open and public, and we attract hundreds of thousands of people who help us test and provide feedback throughout the development process.”
Briefly: Hands-On Gran Paradiso
We submitted ourselves to Gran Paradiso Alpha 3 and had a pretty good time with it. Its interface was identical to that of the current release of Firefox but we didn’t mind -- glossy interface makeovers are for Microsoft and Apple's marketing departments, not the open-source community.
We were more impressed with the fact that it passed the Acid2 test with flying colours (see images), which means standards-based web programming should see another boost when Firefox 3 is released and reaches an adequate penetration level among users.
 Firefox 2 Acid2 Test Result |
 Gran Paradiso Acid2 Test Result |
Its performance, speed wise, was about as good as that of Firefox 2.0. With 5 tabs opened Gran Paradiso consumed about 48MB of RAM as opposed to Firefox 2 which consumed about 60MB.
Cairo worked well. We didn’t notice any major problems or glitches.
Gran Paradiso is shaping up nicely. We’ll continue to monitor its progress and keep you up-to-date.
What features do you want to see Firefox 3 (or, maybe, Firefox 4)? Let us know in the comments below.