Firefox 4 release candidate delivered to developers

Mozilla has finished work on Firefox 4 and posted the release candidate, aimed at developers, for a final bug check before its full public launch.

The browser, which was posted in the FTP section of the developer pages on Friday, brings a redesigned UI, a more Chrome-like tabbed browsing experience and support for HTML 5 to the browser. It also introduces an updated versions of the Gecko HTML and TraceMonkey JavaScript engines.

"This is the first release candidate of Firefox 4. Unless serious issues are found during in-house testing or its cycle of beta testing, this will be what we ship to users," Mozilla said on the Firefox project wiki.

The release candidate should be ready for general release around Wednesday, developers told ZDNet UK's sister site ZDNet.com on Friday.

"Mozilla can confirm that there will be an release candidate (RC), which we can expect this week. The final release timing will depend on the RC," a Mozilla spokeswoman told ZDNet UK on Monday.

The popular web browser entered its first beta in July 2010, scheduled with an October launch date. However, the project slipped off schedule and was then pencilled in for a February release date. Firefox 4 beta 12 went into beta on 25 February.

In addition, Mozilla announced on Thursday that it has opened the doors on the first developer release of its Web Apps project. The project aims to spur the development of, and provide the tools for, building web apps that can run on any device and can be distributed through any app store, or directly by the developer.

Mozilla also said that in future it is planning to allow web apps to sync with mobile devices, support for widgets and notifications, as well as providing integration with operating systems.

On Friday, Mozilla launched Firefox version 3.6.15 to remedy a Java applet issue that prevented applets from loading in version 3.6.14 which was released on 1 March.