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Until now, Mozilla has discouraged average internet users from moving on from Firefox 2, which was launched in October 2006. But Mozilla Corp vice president of engineering, Mike Schroepfer, says the beta four version of the software is ready for the general public. "In many ways it (Firefox 3) is much more stable than anything else out there," he claims.

Mozilla will change

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the warning message on its website, which currently advises: "We do not recommend that anyone other than developers and testers download the Firefox 3 beta 4 milestone release. It is intended for testing purposes only."

However, Firefox users might want to check the compatibility of their favourite extensions before making the leap to Firefox 3, as the beta will write over the current Firefox 2 installation.

Engineers at Mozilla are still putting the finishing touches to the software and hope to release the final version of Firefox 3 by the end of June, Schroepfer adds.

A fifth beta, due to begin within the next few weeks, will involve "tuning the visual look and feel of the program and further improving its stability," according to Schroepfer.

Firefox 3 is nearing completion just as rival Internet Explorer 8 has entered its first beta.