Firefox 3.1 targeted for year-end

Mozilla is proposing to release Firefox 3.1 as a fast-track update by about year-end 2008.

The company said at a Tuesday meeting that it wants to put out the alpha release of Firefox 3.1 next month and a beta version in August.

If it can hold to its planned schedule, it plans to deliver the finished product either by year-end 2008 or early in the first quarter of 2009.

Mozilla planned Firefox 3.1 as a fast-track update to incorporate new features that weren't finished in time for inclusion in Firefox 3.0, but that were "nearly complete" according to Mike Schroepfer, Mozilla's VP of engineering.

Firefox 3.0 took Mozilla more than a year and a half to finally complete following its release of the previous version, Firefox 2.0.

More than 21.8 million copies of Firefox 3.0 have been downloaded since its release June 17. µ

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