Web Devout tidings

Many recent news articles claim that a Mozilla Firefox 2.0 alpha version (the development stage before beta) has been released. This is not the case. The confusion is derived from a recent version number change in the nightly development builds, which are publicly available but are only intended to be used by developers and pre-beta testers. The nightly build version numbers have changed in preparation for an upcoming alpha release, but Mozilla has not yet officially released it and there are still additional changes that are expected to be made beforehand.

Asa Dotzler, the leader of Mozilla’s Quality Assurance program, has responded to these false reports.

Update: It appears that the alpha development is currently frozen, meaning it will not receive any more changes until the official alpha release unless the quality assurance group deems it necessary. The alpha release will be called “Bon Echo” (previously planned as “Bon Ocho”) rather than “Firefox” in order to discourage the general public from using it. Bon Echo, like other Firefox developer releases, is named after a landmark, specifically Bon Echo Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada.

Update: Bon Echo alpha 1 has now been officially released. Again, this should only be of interest to Firefox developers and people who wish to actively take part in the beta testing and bug report process. This version should not be used for general web browsing, as there may be serious bugs that result in loss of data or crashes.

The Mozilla group has released Camino 1.0, a web browser for Mac OS X based on the Gecko rendering engine which also powers Firefox, SeaMonkey, and other browsers. Although several Gecko-based web browsers are available for Mac OS X, Camino has been specifically optimized for the Macintosh.

Following Microsoft’s recent decision to discontinue support for the Macintosh version of Internet Explorer, Camino joins Safari, iCab, Opera, and Firefox as a viable and more modern alternative.

Edit: Added iCab to list of modern Mac OS X browsers.

Can sex appeal encourage people to switch to a more modern web browser? Femfox.com hopes so. Femfox.com is a grassroots Firefox promotional website with a glamorous twist. It is the brainchild of a 31-year-old woman who is featured in the website’s main attraction: a series of photographs, called “Episodes”, of the amateur model in seductive poses. The site aims to use glamour, seduction, and humor to draw the attention of new audiences to the Firefox web browser.