Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 is now available for download!

Before statrting the review, keep in note that Firefox 3.6 will be the smallest upgrade Mozilla has released to date. Before this, version jumps have been in the 0.5 (Firefox 1.0 to 1.5, 3.0 to 3.5) or 1.0 (2.0 to 3.0) order, and while version numbers are not mathematically representative, the slight 0.1 version increase reflects the overall tone of this update, and Firefox development in general which is moving to a faster release pace.

Personas

Without a doubt, the most significant addition is support for lightweight themes, also known as personas, that was previously only available with the Personas extension.

A persona, which consists of a couple of images used as backgrounds for the toolbar and status bar areas, and setting a text color, is very simple to produce, yet it significantly changes the appearance of Firefox and easily becomes a way of expression for the user.

To try it, simply visit Mozilla Add-ons, and go to the recently added Personas section. Personas are live previewed as you hover on the thumbn