Firefox 3.6 hits ice - won't show up till Spring

New decade, newish browser

Mozilla has delayed the release of Firefox 3.6 until the first quarter of 2010.

The outfit had been promising to deliver the next iteration of its celebrated browser before the decade was out.

However, despite spinning out no less than five betas of Firefox 3.6, the final version of the browser won't ship until next year.

Furthermore, Mozilla - which had arguably been a little overzealous with its roadmap - has also pulled the reins in on when it will release Firefox 4.0.

That version of the browser is now expected to land "late 2010 or early 2011." A beta will be spun out next summer, said Mozilla. It had originally planned to deliver Firefox 4.0 in October or November of next year.

Meanwhile Firefox 3.7 is expected to arrive in March 2010. Whether Mozilla will now hit that schedule remains to be seen, however.

Earlier this year the browser maker was forced to rejig its roadmap and jump directly from its June 2008 Firefox 3.0 release to 3.5 after a number of showstopping bugs delayed the next iteration (which should have been 3.1) of the browser several times, eventually forcing the name change.

And it seems wonks at Mozilla Towers have been struck by similar delay gremlins this time around too.

In the meantime, the organisation's Mike Beltzner has been grumbling about the Mountain View competition.

"Would kind of like to be able to watch an online video without having to see an ad for a web browser every damn time. I said no, remember?," he bah-humbugged at Google Chrome on his Twitter account on Christmas eve. Tis clearly not the season to be merry. ®