Firefox 1.5 Beta Nearly Ready

The so-called "release candidates" of the beta edition were posted for last-minute testing prior to the beta being released, wrote Asa Dotzler, the community coordinator for Mozilla, in his blog.

"If you're interested in more focused testing, some of the areas that you might hammer on are topsite testing, update testing, and putting any ecommerce or webmail accounts you have through their paces," Dotzler added.

"If the feedback doesn't turn up anything horrible in the next half day or so, we'll be in a great position to ship this beta."

The release candidates can be downloaded from the Mozilla FTP servers for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Firefox 1.5 will feature a new software update mechanism, and "Fastback," which caches previously visited pages in memory for faster display after clicking back and forward buttons.

The update, once called Deer Park, has been delayed several times, most recently in late July when Mozilla said that the addition of new features had slowed development.