Firefox 3 RC2 released

Author: Gareth Halfacree
Published: 5th June 2008

Firefox 3 Release Candidate 2 may well be the last testing version before the popular browser sees an official release.

If you're waiting patiently for Firefox 3 to hit the digital shelves, then it looks like you might be waiting a little longer: Mozilla has released a second Release Candidate for testing.

According to BetaNews the second RC for the popular browser appeared on Mozilla's FTP site late Monday night. Firefox 3 RC 2, as the download likes to be called, isn't due for official release until some time today after a code freeze order was issued on May 28th – a decision reached last week by the Mozilla Firefox 3 team due to a raft of issues highlighted in the first release candidate version.

Although an official list of changes between the two versions isn't yet available, Mozilla has confirmed that several major issues that raised their ugly heads with the first release client have been fixed in this version, and that this should be the last RC to be released before the official Release to Manufacturing (RTM) version of Firefox 3.

With the beta versions of Firefox 3 being installed by default within many popular Linux distros – including Ubuntu and variants – users will be hoping that the official release comes sooner, rather than later. Although the beta builds – and RC1 – are surprisingly stable for pre-release software, there's something rather unsettling about running unfinished software on a production machine, as many users of cutting-edge Linux builds are finding out.

Even with this decision to delay the release of Firefox 3 long enough for another round of testing, it's highly likely that the finished version will hit download mirrors worldwide significantly before Microsoft has finished with its rival browser Internet Explorer 8.

Any Release Candidate 1 testers here looking forward to trying the new build, or has it been fairly plain sailing since the early alphas? Share your thoughts over in the forums.