Mozilla has even put a link on the main page asking users to test drive the new Firefox release before comes out of its beta phase. Well, I can not say no to that.. I tested 3.5 when it was a beta, and I was very surprised about the increase in performance compared to previous releases. So I do not want to miss out on an early peek at 3.6.

What I have found is that the easiest way to test Firefox 3.6 on Ubuntu is to use Canonical's Launchpad.net web site. There is a Ubuntu Mozilla Daily Build Team that releases the latest builds from Mozilla as Ubuntu packages. Including the aforementioned 3.6 release, but also 3.7 (but I will leave testing 3.7 until it leaves alpha stage).

Go to the Personal package archive, click on Technical details about this PPA, select your Ubuntu version in the list. I use Karmic (9.10) which means I should use

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa/ubuntu karmic main

Go to System > Administration > Software Sources. Select tab Other Software. Click add and paste.

Then go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manage. Search for firefox-3.6 and install that package.

Run Firefox 3.6 beta from Applications > Internet > Namoroka Web Browser. Enjoy!

So, first off. I have only run it for a bit now and.. well, 3.5 someone? It is very similar to Firefox 3.5, atleast on the surface. I will continue to use the beta for my daily web business and will update this post when I discover something new.

Update Jan 9th, 2010: The computer has been through one update cycle in Ubuntu's Update Manager. It removed Firefox 3.5 from my computer and replaced it with Shiretoko 3.5 (Firefox 3.5 beta track) !! That means that I currently have no stable Firefox release installed on my laptop. My guess is that Launchpad.net has a daily build of Firefox 3.5 beta track that is more recent than the stable version, thus it replaced the stable version that I had installed with the beta. I don't know what to do at the moment. Either I will stay on beta or change the repositories and revert to stable - and miss out on Firefox 3.6 beta.

Uninstallation should be simple. Go into System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager. Search for Firefox. Remove Firefox 3.6 completely. When removed, go to System > Administration > Software Sources. Remove the Launchpad.net PPA link. Run the Update Manager. I believe Shiretoko 3.5 will revert to Firefox 3.5 at that time.