Mozilla Milestone 0.9 Browser-Suite Sneak Preview

Mike Angelo -- 5 May 2001(c)

The Mozilla Organization has not yet released the Milestone Mozilla 0.9 edition of its Mozilla browser-suite. The Milestone 0.9 target release date was April 23, 2001.

Mozilla 1.0 (expected in September) will be the first general release of the Mozilla cross-platform and open source browser-suite and applications programming framework.

However, Mozilla 0.9 test (branch) builds are available for the Linux, Macintosh, and Microsoft Windows Operating systems (OSs) on the Mozilla Organization's FTP server now. (Links below.) Additionally there will be final Mozilla 0.9 release builds for several UNIX platforms and source code will be available if you want to custom compile your own Mozilla Milestone 0.9 build.

The Mozilla Organization Roadmap and development plan calls for Mozilla Milestone 0.9 to have been released to the public April 23, 2001 -- nearly two weeks ago. For more information about that please see Mozilla Milestone 0.9 Behind Schedule -- Mozilla's March to 1.0 Slows to Snail's Pace.

Mostly, the changes in this pre-1.0 edition of the Mozilla browser-suite are behind-the-scenes improvements in performance and stability. A more visible enhancement is the addition of Gopher search capability in the new Mozilla Gopher support, which was added in Milestone 0.8.1.

Some other new, visible, features previously added for March's Mozilla 0.8.1 edition were a hierarchical history and a routine to un-install themes. There also are lots of changes to ChatZilla, the Mozilla-based chat client in that release. For more information about the features added or improved in the Mozilla .0.8.1 browser-suite Milestone, please see Lizard On The Move: Mozilla Milestone 0.8.1 Browser-Suite Released.

In April, the Mozilla Organization changed its development-tree diagram to push a projected Mozilla 1.0 release back to September 2001 or later. That tree diagram anticipates at least three, 0.9.x Milestone releases before there is a Mozilla 1.0 release.

For more information about the Roadmap revisions, please see More Mozilla Roadmap & Development Plan Changes: Mozilla 1.0 Pushed Back to Q3 2001.

The new Netscape 6 browser-suite is based upon the cross-platform Mozilla browser-suite. AOL/Time-Warner's Netscape division released its Netscape 6.01 browser-suite minor upgrade 8 February 2001.

Check the MozillaQuest Magazine front page (mozillaquest.com) to find out when Milestone 0.9 is released. Meanwhile, if you cannot resist the temptation to take your own 0.9 sneak preview, you can try a 0.9 release candidate (links below). We recommend that you install Mozilla 0.9 in its own directory, that you do not get rid of your current browser(s), and that you do not set Mozilla 0.9 as your default browser -- yet.

Resources

Latest Mozilla 0.9 Branch (Test) Builds

For more information about Mozilla 0.8.1 plus download links and instructions please see our articles, Lizard On The Move: Mozilla Milestone 0.8.1 Browser-Suite Released

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