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The first developer preview release of Firefox 2.0, codenamed Bon Echo, is now available for testing purposes only. You should probably avoid installing it on a production desktop client if you intend to continue using version 1.5.0.1 (or earlier) and want to save your existing environment.

Bon Echo Alpha 1, the first development milestone of Mozilla Firefox 2 aimed at developers and testers, is now available for download from ftp.mozilla.org. Bon Echo Alpha 1 is the first of many developer milestones on the path to Firefox 2. This milestone is focused on testing the backend infrastructure supporting the new Places functionality.

Source: mozillaZine.

New Features

• Changes to tabbed browsing behavior
• New data storage layer for bookmarks and history using SQLite
• Extended search plugin format
• Updates to the extension system to provide enhanced security and localization
• Support for SVG text using svg:textPath

Supported Platforms

• Windows (XP Recommended)
• Linux (tested on Linux Fedora Core 4)
• Mac OS X

A list of notable bug fixes is forthcoming.

If you feel like living on the bleeding edge, or want to help out by evaluating one of the first builds, jump in there and give it a try.