The latest stable release of the Firefox Web browser is on its way. Firefox 10 will emerge from beta with a few new features, most of which are geared toward developers. As is often the case, the new version pushes forward with a few of the latest features in emerging Web standards like CSS3, HTML5 and related technologies. In Firefox 10, it’s more about the under-the-hood stuff than the on-the-surface user experience.
Some of the more significant enhancements include a full-screen API for Web apps, support for CSS 3D transforms and an improved handling of plugins and how they’re updated.
Mozilla is working to keep up with Chrome, the three-year-old browser that recently knocked Firefox out of second place. To this end, it has sped up its release cycle and even nabbed Pete Scanlon, a former Google marketing manager who had a hand in creating major promotional campaigns for Chrome.
This release also marks the start of Firefox’s new Extended Support Release version, which it announced in response to longstanding concerns within the IT community about the browser’s rapid release cycle, which can be a challenge for IT managers to keep up with.
This update also includes some enhancements to the mobile version of Firefox, which includes many of the same upgrades as the desktop version, plus improvements to Firefox Sync, which lets users sync their browser across devices. So far, Firefox’s mobile footprint isn’t anything close to the market share it commands on the desktop. It currently has a browser for Android, but has yet to make a serious foray into iOS, which has tighter restrictions on third party browsers.
As frequent and aggressive as Firefox’s updates have become, the open source browser still has some catching up to do with Google Chrome and even less popular browsers like Safari and Opera when it comes to implementing certain features.
