Browser Security News

Despite some indications to the contrary this week, the Mozilla Foundation did not release its next version of the Firefox browser, which is still being widely, publicly tested under Release Candidate 2. As Mozilla’s vice president for engineering, Mike Schroepfer, told BetaNews on Friday, Firefox releases take place on a qualitative basis, not on a deadline or time scale. The organization will release the next production version of the browser when it feels it’s ready for prime time.

One of the new browser’s key elements, and perhaps the beneficiary of the greatest amount of change, is its new JavaScript interpreter. As more Web sites take advantage of the new benefits of Asynchronous JavaScript — especially as they embed objects or functionality from Google and Microsoft Windows Live — the JavaScript interpreter may play a much more active role, not only in the operation of the browser but in the implementation of Web-based applications.

With many in the original JavaScript development team from Netscape now working with Mozilla — including Brendan Eich, JavaScript’s creator and Mozilla’s CTO — the developers of Firefox 2.0 see an opportunity to propagate the component that could replace the HTML rendering engine as the Web’s most prominent and influential component. BetaNews | Firefox 2.0 to Feature New JavaScript 1.7