Mozilla said that this release will focus on HTML5 enhancements, giving us the feeling that the silent update feature will be pushed to version 11.
Aurora 10 will get WebGL anti-aliasing, support for the HTML5 Visibility API, 3D Transforms, some additions to its developer tools, web workers, DOM and Javascript functionality such as the addition of the battery API. However, we were surprised to see that Mozilla does not list the silent update as a feature for Aurora (Firefox) 10. In its feature tracker, the silent update has been marked as "at risk" and may not make it into version 10 as a result. As controversial as the silent update is among enthusiast Firefox users, there has been little doubt that the mainstream would like to make the update process more convenient, which possibly could convince more users to stay with Firefox.
Another much anticipated feature is not mentioned either - a tool that would automatically import Chrome bookmarks and settings to Firefox. It appears as if this feature will also not surface until version 11 - and is even mentioned as "at risk" for version 11. These two features, as well as a the new home tab (also marked as "at risk" for version 11) are features that Firefox would have needed need yesterday rather than tomorrow to be able to be more competitive with Chrome. At least the silent update support is a must-hit target for version 10.
If you're feeling a little adventurous, but not too much, then check out the download for Firefox 9 beta here.
