After releasing some news of Firefox 3.6 just a few days ago, Mozilla has opened its doors on Firefox 3.6 Alpha 1, codenamed Namoroka.

Firefox 3.6 is not going to include many new changes like Firefox 3.5 did, but rather is aimed at improving speed and reliability. Windows 7 support (jump lists and Aero peak) do not appear to be on their way for this release.

Mozilla Links has posted a full review of the new browser. Firefox 3.6 Beta  1 is expected some time in September, with the final version on track for November of this year.

Downloads and more information are available from the Mozilla Developer Center.

Third time’s a charm, with tab previews now expected to be included in Firefox 3.6, after the feature was dropped from Firefox 3 and Firefox 3.5

Tab preview provides a visual preview when switching between tabs in Firefox (Ctrl + Tab), much like Alt + Tab when switching between programs in Windows Vista and above.

Tab preview is available in the latest Firefox 3.6 nightly releases but is turned off by default. To enable tab preview, set browser.ctrlTab.previews to true via about:config.

Firefox 3.6 is expected to be released sometime in 2010.

Mozilla has realesaded updated to both Firefox 3 and 3.5 yesterday, fixing several security and stability issues.

A full list of changes can be found in the Firefox 3.0.13 and Firefox 3.5.2 release notes.

Users of either browser should have the updated pushed out to them, or you can manually get the update by going to the help menu and selecting check for updates.

Web browser market share results for July 2009 have been released thanks to Market Share by Net Applications, and for another month Microsoft Internet Explorer is down again.

Internet Explorer dropped almost half a percent to 67.68%, while Firefox was up 0.04% to 22.47%.

Other winners for the month were were Safari up from 3.79% to 4.07%, and Google Chrome up from 2.40% to 2.59%.

Opera had another bad month falling from 2.03% to 1.97%.

Interesting results for Firefox, with the release of 3.5 seems to have failed at attracting any more market share. Full results for June and July 2009 are available online.

It has been 4 and a half years in the making, but Firefox has finally surpassed 1 billion total downloads since Firefox 1.0 was first released.

Here are some other interesting milestone statistics:

• Firefox 1.0 is released on November 9, 2004, 1200 days ago.
• 100 million reached on October 19, 2005, 344 days later.
• 200 million reached on August 2, 2006, 287 days later.
• 300 million reached on February 12, 2007, 193 days later
• 400 million reached on September 7, 2007, 207 days later.
• 500 million reached today February 22, 2008, 168 days later.
• 1 billion reached today July 31, 2009.

Congratulations to the Firefox team and here’s to the next 1 billion!

Hot on the heals of the Firefox 3.7 interface mock-ups, Firefox 4.0 mock-up designs have surfaced.

While the new Windows interface looks similar to that of Firefox 3.7, there are some slight differences, including an in-line refresh and stop button.

Two separate designs have been proposed, one with tabs above the address bar, and one with the tabs below the address bar as is currently the case. More screen shots are available after the jump.

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For those that are still using Firefox 3, Mozilla has updated the browser to close 9 security holes, 4 of which were rated critical.

A full list of changes can be found in the release notes, and the update is recommended for all Firefox 3 users.

The update will be pushed out to existing Firefox 3 users in the next 24-48 hours or can be updated from the Help menu.

With Firefox 3.5 barely out the door, the Mozilla team is already working on Firefox 3.7, which is expected to have a brand new user interface, tweaked for Vista and Windows 7 Aero.

Below is an initial mockup of Firefox 3.7 running in Windows Vista, with features including:

1. Embracing Glass: Toolbar and Tabs using Glass. Buttons translucent and slightly glossy to meld with the toolbar. Raised 3D look achieve tactile “feel”.
2. Page Button: Connect the Page button to the left side of the tab area. Directly connected to the Page.
3. Tools/Bookmark Bar: Connecting the Tools button to the side of the Window to emphasize the fact that it is used for customizing and changing the UI. Adding a button next to that to toggle the Bookmarks Bar which is turned off by default.

More screenshots are after the break.

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Mozilla has released Firefox 3.5.1 which fix several security and stability issues.

One security vulnerability is rated as critical, and could allow a remote attacker to gain control of a users PC.

Firefox 3.5.1 can be downloaded from the Firefox website, and will automatically be pushed out to existing Firefox 3.5 users. A full list of changes can be found in the release notes.

Security firm Secunia are warning of a zero-day securty exploit which has been discovered in Firefox 3.5 allowing a milicious site to execute arbituary code.

“The vulnerability is caused due to an error when processing JavaScript code handling e.g. ‘font’ HTML tags and can be exploited to cause a memory corruption” said a spokesperson from Secunia.

No word from Mozilla on a fix yet, but Firefox 3.5.1 will likely be released in the coming days to address the issue.