Ben Goodger, Firefox's chief engineer, updated the Inside Firefox web page late last week with some of the features expected in the next release, which Goodger said must be completed by March to enable a finished version 2.0 browser to be completed by mid-summer.

Goodger's "brief snapshot" of to-do items include user-interface improvements such as a cleaner look, but also productivity features such as an inline spell checker for webmail and other HTML-based applications.

"It's going to be an exciting year," Goodger said. "Not since the run up to Firefox 1.0 have I been so excited about the content of a release. Firefox 2 is going to be great."

Firefox 2 will be based off of the same Gecko branch that shipped Firefox 1.5, so the two should be compatible from a web developer's point of view, Goodger wrote. APIs might be added, but none should be changed, he said.

"From a development point of view, the idea of Firefox 2 is to deliver significant user experience enhancements on top of a relatively stable rendering engine as significant retooling is done on the main development trunk for what will become Firefox 3, and deliver them in a timely fashion," Goodger said. "By being deliberately cautious with our goals for the rendering engine, we hope to avoid long cycles of shake and bake that delayed Firefox 1.5 (which had more substantial Gecko changes than user interface changes)."

How the browser manages bookmarks will be adjusted to improve the back-end speed and extensibility, as well as improving their utility. Tabs will also be treated more like windows, apparently meaning that users will be able to do more than simply reorder them, as the recent 1.5 release allows. Firefox 2.0 will also improve the way the browser handles Atom and RSS feeds, Goodger said.

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