Release Candidates are the penultimate versions of upcoming software that for all intents and purposes could pass for the final product. Often released after a beta and just prior to an actual unveiling, RCs are relatively complete and representative of the perks new software offers -- as evinced by February's IE9 RC which helped pave the way for Microsoft's official launch of its latest web browser.
Over the weekend, Mozilla tweaked its own Firefox RC leading up to tomorrow's official release of the browser's fourth iteration.
The RC went live Friday reports ZDNet. A forum post made by Firefox director Mike Beltzner discussed the details necessitating a second Firefox 4 RC, concluding that the official release would not be impacted as a result.
"There is no change required to our schedule," Beltzner said. "We still expect to release the final version of Firefox 4 for Windows, OSX and Linux on March 22nd as planned."
According to the official Firefox 4 RC release notes, the March 18th update boasts a few other inclusions to compliment what Beltzner called "isolated fixes in order to better protect Firefox 4 users" - such as the blacklisting of HTTPS certificates and updated localizations. The new Firefox also provides a new tab location (above the address bar) and an emphasis on personal customization via add-ons.
Microsoft published its RC for IE9 on February 10th. Following the browser's launch last week, it was downloaded over 2 million times within the first 24 hours.
We'll know soon if Firefox 4 can pull in similar numbers: it releases tomorrow. Until then, you can download the latest RC for it here. (Via ZDNet)
