Mozilla Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 Released

Mozilla Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 is now available for download. Also known as the 1.8 Beta 4 milestone, this is the first beta release of the next major Firefox update and is aimed at testers, extension/theme authors and Web developers. The final release of Firefox 1.5, which will be widely promoted to end-users, is scheduled for later this year.

New features include an improved software update system, faster Back and Forward navigation, a feature for clearing private browsing data, drag-and-drop reordering of browser tabs, a redesigned Options/Preferences window and better popup blocking. Web standards support is also improved, with support for Scalable Vector Graphics, JavaScript 1.6 and more CSS. Accessibility is also better (including new DHTML accessibility features), security has been enhanced and there's now greater support for Mac OS X.

Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 can be downloaded from the Firefox project page or the Firefox 1.5b1 directory on ftp.mozilla.org. The Mozilla Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 Release Notes have more information and The Burning Edge has an unofficial list of what's new in Firefox 1.5 Beta 1.

Looking ahead, Mozilla Firefox 1.5 Beta 2 is scheduled for release on Wednesday 5th October and the first Firefox 1.5 release candidate is due on Friday 28th October. See our earlier report on the Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 schedule for more details.

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