By Jim Finkle
BOSTON (Reuters) -
A new version of Mozilla's popular
Firefox Web browser is ready for download with improved
security and memory use as the tiny company takes a stab at
Microsoft Corp's dominant Internet Explorer.
The program's creators told Reuters on Thursday that the
privately-held company's trial version of Firefox 3 browser is
ready for the masses to use after months of development.
Until now, the company has discouraged average Internet
users from moving on from Firefox 2, which was launched in
October 2006.
"In many ways it (Firefox 3) is much more stable than
anything else out there," Mozilla Corp Vice President of
Engineering Mike Schroepfer said in an interview.
Key rivals to Firefox are market leader Microsoft's
Internet Explorer and Apple Inc's Safari browser.
Engineers at Mozilla are still putting the finishing
touches on the software and hope to release the final version
of Firefox 3 by the end of June, Schroepfer said.
Mozilla is in a battle with Microsoft, which unveiled an
experimental version of its Internet Explorer 8 in Las Vegas
earlier this month and is looking to expand its presence on the
Web through its bid to acquire Yahoo Inc.
Additions boost security and allow users to run Web sites
when they are not connected to the Internet. Mozilla also says
Firefox 3 uses less computer memory than Firefox 2.
Until now Mozilla has discouraged the typical computer user
from exploring these new features. But its developers said on
Thursday that the situation has changed and that they will be
revising their Web site.
As of Thursday afternoon, the Web site still stated: "We do
not recommend that anyone other than developers and testers
download the Firefox 3 beta 4 milestone release. It is intended
for testing purposes only."
But they said that as they concluded their fourth round of
tweaking their software, they determined it was ready for prime
time.
A fifth round of changes, due to begin within the next few
weeks, will involve "tuning the visual look and feel of the
program" and further improving its stability," Schroepfer said.
(Reporting by Jim Finkle; Editing by Brian Moss)
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