The Mozilla developers have released the first beta release of Firefox version 3.6, which uses the rendering engine Gecko 1.9.2 and JavaScript 1.8.2 for better performance.
Other highlights include full screen display of native videos with support for poster frames, which allows specification of an image that is shown before the video is started. Then there is support for HTML5 and other new web technologies, so-called Personas for switching the browser's appearance with one click, and alerts about out-of-date plugins.
More information can be found at Mozialla's release notes for Firefox 3.6.


I have installed Firefox 3.6 Beta release on Windows XP Pro, and so far it’s good. It does start up a little slow, and for whatever reason, it won’t allow me to install the IE tab, which I need on some sites (Microsoft Updates, for example). But I’m sure that will be fixed. Funny thing, I didn’t even get the chance to enjoy 3.5.4 before File Hippo Update Checker offered me this beta update. But I always go for the newest browser that Firefox offers, with no regrets. When will Mozilla breakout their own OS? I sure would give it a try. It can’t be worse than Windows.