Mozilla warns of further Firefox 4 delays

Mozilla is planning to take its Firefox 4 browser to at least a 12th beta before releasing the final code.

The news came from Firefox release manager Christian Legnitto, who said in a blog post that Firefox 4 beta 11 will be followed by yet another version before the browser moves into the release candidate phase.

A recap of the most recent Firefox planning meeting provides additional detail, suggesting that the beta 11 build could arrive next week.

"Beta 12 has a small enough list of bugs that it's plausible it will be the last beta, though we're not locking that up since some of the plug-in work needs to crystallise before we can assess timing risk," Mozilla said.

The news will be a disappointment to those hoping to see the Firefox 4 release candidate soon. The ninth beta build of the browser was released in December, alongside rumours that it would be the final version.

The progress has been slowed, however, amid reports of errors that include issues with Microsoft's Hotmail service.

:story: Full story: V3.co.uk

I have been using 4.0 regularly for the past week. I think the Firefox developers are right in holding back on the release candidate. Firefox 4.0 is just too buggy.

The good news is that when it is not hanging, it is much faster than version 3.5. Also good news, I am receiving virtually daily updates. Shouldn't be long before it is ready for final release.