irefox 3.6 Release Candidate 1 (RC1), which followed a run of betas that started in early November, features nearly 100 bug fixes from the fifth beta that Mozilla issued Dec. 17. The fixes resolved numerous crash bugs, including one that brought down the browser when it was steered to Yahoo's front page.

Another fix removed a small amount of code owned by from Firefox. The code was pointed out by a Mozilla contributor, and after digging, another developer found the original Microsoft license agreement. "Amusingly enough, it's actually really permissive. Really the only part that's problematic is the agreement to 'include the copyright notice ... on your product label and as a part of the sign-on message for your software product,'" wrote on Bugzilla, Mozilla's bug- and change-tracking database. Even so, others working the bug said the code needed to be replaced with Mozilla's own.

RC1 may be the last preview before Mozilla declares the edition done. "Should everything run smoothly during testing this is what will be released to our users as the official version after a beta period," noted a page on the dedicated to Firefox 3.6 RC1 testing.

If past practice is any clue, the final of Firefox 3.6 could be ready for downloading as early as Jan. 18. Last summer, Mozilla delivered the release candidate of Firefox 3.5 on June 20, then . In 2008, the window between the last release candidate of Firefox 3.0 and the final was 13 days.

RC1 was once slated for release in October 2009, with a final Firefox 3.6 scheduled for the following month. But Mozilla delayed Firefox 3.6 as it struggled to make deadlines, then decided Dec. 17 to issue a fifth beta rather than push for a release candidate. Even so, Mozilla maintained that it would get RC1 out by the end of 2009.