The Mozilla Foundation on Wednesday (June 9, 2004) posted a new Release Candidate (RC) version of Firefox for download, taking the free stand-alone browser one step closer to completion.

Last updated in February, the new Firefox 0.9 RC features a new interface theme scheme that's consistent across all three supported platforms: Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

The update also sports improved migration tools for moving from other browsers, including shifting Favorites, History, settings, cookies, and passwords from Internet Explorer; and migrating similar settings from Mozilla, Netscape, and Opera to the Windows version of Firefox. Similar migration tools for the Linux and Mac editions -- from such browsers as Apple's Safari and the Linux Konqueror browser to Firefox -- are scheduled to show in future releases, according to Mozilla.

Since Firefox is still in pre-release form, the majority of the changes in 0.9 RC are tweaks and bug fixes. Firefox remains on track for a final release later this year.

The 0.9 RC edition of Firefox can be downloaded from the Mozilla Web site, Mozilla.org.

Also this week, the foundation released the third, and "hopefully final candidate" for Mozilla 1.7, the refresh of its browser/e-mail suite. Dubbed RC3 (for Release Candidate 3), it too can be downloaded free from the site.