Mozilla Firefox 3.0

The development name for Mozilla Firefox 3 is Gran Paradiso.The precursory releases are codenamed "Minefield", as this is the name of the trunk builds. "Gran Paradiso" (trans. "Great Paradise"), like other Firefox development names, is an actual place; in this case the highest mountain group in the Graian Alps. A (October 2007) post on the Mozilla Wiki "Release Roadmap" from President of Products Christopher Beard suggests a release in Late 2007 to Early 2008. A release and development schedule is available on Mozilla's website.

Backend changes :
One of the big changes in Firefox 3 is the implementation of Gecko 1.9, an updated layout engine. The new version fixes many bugs and implements new web APIsIn particular, it will make Firefox 3 the first official release of a Mozilla browser to pass the Acid2 test, a standards-compliance test for web-page rendering.
Many of the new features are defined in the WHATWG HTML5 specification.In particular, support for the controversial"ping"attribute in and HTML elements is implemented and enabled by default. The only purpose of this additional attribute is tracking clicking on links. LWN.net notes that "ping" has advantages over current click-tracking techniques because it can more reliably get the user to their intended destination and the user has the option of turning the "ping" feature off.The development team has asked users to submit feature requests that they wish to be included in Firefox 3.
Other new features include support for offline web applications, cross-site XMLHttpRequest, and APNG support.
Gecko 1.9 uses cairo as a graphics backend, allowing for improved graphics performance and better consistency of look and feel on various operating systems. Because of cairo's lack of support for Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me and Windows NT, and because Microsoft decided to end support for Windows 98 and Windows Me on July 11, 2006, Firefox 3 will not run on those operating systems. Similarly, the Mac version of Firefox 3 will only run on Mac OS X 10.4 or higher,but, unlike previous versions, will have a native Cocoa widget interface.

Frontend changes :
Work is currently in progress to make default themes for Windows and Mac, giving Firefox a more native look and feel on different OS's.
Firefox 3 theme mockup for Mac OS X.As far as frontend changes go, Firefox will boast a brand-new redesigned download manager with built-in search. Also, a new plug-in manager is included in the add-ons menu. Microformat are supported for handling files similar to file types in an operating system.
New Firefox 3 Download Manager in Windows XP.The password manager in Firefox 3 will now ask the user if they would like it to remember the password after the log on attempt. By doing this the user isn't storing a bad log on attempt in the password manager.
Firefox 3 will use the new Places system for storing bookmarks and history in an SQLite backend. The new system stores more information about user's history and bookmarks, in particular letting the user tag the pages. It is also used to implement improved algorithm for location bar autocomplete.The Mac version of Firefox supports Growl and Cocoa widgets including Aqua buttons and pull-down menus.