Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 just became available for early adopters, Web site/Web application developers, and Firefox Extension developers. Mozilla.org provides Firefox for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X in a variety of languages and 1.5 Beta 1 can be downloaded from the Mozilla.org site.

This is the first Beta release of the next-generation Firefox browser, to be released later this year, and it is being made available to the Firefox developer and testing community for compatibility testing and to solicit feedback.

Among the new features in 1.5 Beta 1, according to the Mozilla.org site, are the following:

• Automated update to streamline product upgrades. Notification of an update is more prominent, and updates to Firefox may now be half a megabyte or smaller. Updating extensions has also improved.
• Faster browser navigation with improvements to back and forward button performance.
• Drag and drop reordering for browser tabs.
• Improvements to popup blocking.
• Clear Private Data feature provides an easy way to quickly remove personal data through a menu item or keyboard shortcut.
• Answers.com is added to the search engine list.
• Improvements to product usability including descriptive error pages, redesigned options menu, RSS discovery, and "Safe Mode" experience.
• Better accessibility support including DHTML accessibility.
• Report a broken Web site wizard to report Web sites that are not working in Firefox.
• Better support for Mac OS X (10.2 and greater) including profile migration from Safari and Mac Internet Explorer.
• New support for Web Standards including SVG, CSS 2 and CSS 3, and JavaScript 1.6.
• Many security enhancements.
• List of notable bug fixes since Deer Park Alpha 2