Mozilla set to release much-awaited Firefox 3.5

Mozilla has announced that it will release the final version of its open source web browser Firefox 3.5 today, the very last day of its self-imposed deadline. The release comes after three Firefox 3.5 release candidates (RC) were put out in three weeks.

The first 'RC' was made available in mid-June to about 800,000 beta users. The 22 June RC2 then incorporated feedback from the RC1 beta users, as did the final 25 June RC3.

Firefox 3.5 will include a private browsing mode that hides browser activity, a sped-up JavaScript engine known as TraceMonkey, new location services, and support for several emerging HTML 5 features.

HTML 5 support will allow the browser to natively play video encoded in the open source Ogg Theora format and Ogg Vorbis audio, which provides for manipulation and editing of video without the use of an external programme.

The release comes little over a year after the official release of Firefox 3.0 and the distribution was accelerated by the quick release of the earlier release candidates, most of which were sent to users running 3.0. Firefox 3.5 was originally dubbed 3.1 but changed when more and more features were added to the release.

According to recent Net Applications statistics, Firefox owns 22.51 per cent of current browser market share, behind the clear leader Internet Explorer at 65.5 per cent but taking more share every day.