Windows 7: Firefox 4.0, the Next Major Version of Firefox

Firefox 4 roadmap unveiled; beta expected in June

For quite some time, Mozilla has been hard at work on Firefox 4. What was initially planned to be Firefox 3.7 has officially been rolled into Firefox 3.6.4, which is currently available in beta form, featuring out-of-process plugins. Firefox 4 is expected to be an all-out overhaul and evolutionary version of the world's second most popular browser.
On beltzner.ca, an early product plan for Firefox 4 has been made public. The roadmap is not set in stone, however, the slide show gives the world an unheard of, detailed, glimpse into what will make up Mozilla's next major release. As seen in slide 27, the first beta is expected towards the end of June, with the final release coming in November. Keep in mind, this is all subject to change.


Here's some of what we can expect from Firefox 4:

• Speed - it will be "super-duper fast"
• Power - it will support " 5 and beyond"
• Empowerment - users will be allowed to fully control their browser, its data, and their web experience
• Completely re-vamped user interface allowing layout customization and less chrome
• Improved stability and security
• Ability to install add-ons without restarting browser
• Better tools for developers
• 64-bit support
• Hardware acceleration
• Multitouch support

Mozilla hopes to release Firefox 4 in October or November, a new version that has speed among its top goals.
"Performance is a huge, huge, huge thing for us," said Mike Beltzner, vice president of engineering for Firefox, in a Webcast on Tuesday about plans for the browser. "We created the performance story, and we've got to keep at it."
Among other features planned for Firefox 4--and Mozilla emphatically cautions that plans can change--are support for high-speed graphics and text through Direct2D on Windows; a tidier user interface with more prominent and poweful tabs; support for several newer Web technologies; 64-bit versions; and compatibility with multitouch interfaces.
Performance means any number of things in a browser. Among them: the time it takes to launch the program or to load a Web page, the responsiveness of the user interface to commands such as opening new tabs, and the speed with which Web-based JavaScript programs execute. Firefox programmers also will work on more perceptual speed improvements, Beltzner said, such as changing the order that Web page elements appear on the screen and the appearance of the page-loading progress bar.

At least a 64-bit version

They should skip over 4.0 and go to 5.0. Netscape/Mozilla don't have a good history with the 4.0 version number