Firefox 3 beta 5 is available for download now. In general, Firefox 3 is based on the Gecko 1.9 Web rendering platform. You may ask what is Gecko ? Gecko is an open source, free web browser layout which used in all other Mozilla’s software such as Firefox, Thunderbird and the old Netscape browser. Gecko is one of the most popular layout engine beside Trident which was used in Microsoft Internet Explorer. Firefox 3 will be built on the latest version of Genko and comes with tons of improvements compared to Firefox 2. Check the followings features quoted from mozilla.org:

• Improvements to the user interface based on user feedback, including changes to the look and feel on Windows Vista, Windows XP, Mac OS X and Linux.
• Changes and fixes for new features such as the location bar autocomplete, bookmark backup and restore, full page zoom, and others, based on feedback from our community.
• Fixes and improvements to platform features to improve security, web compatabilty and stability.
• Continued performance improvements: changes to our JavaScript engine as well as profile guided optimization continues to improve performance over previous releases as measured by the popular SunSpider test from Apple, and in the speed of web applications like Google Mail and Zoho Office.

You can see a new design on the navigation panel: - Neat and new back and forward button. - Notice the address bar drop down list displays more information. There is a complete and long release notes available if you want to read it. You can download the beta releases here, just choose your language and you are on your way. Bear in mind this is a beta release, it may not stable and contains bugs and security issues.

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