Mozilla developers have updated the Firefox 3 (Gran Paradiso) development release schedule providing details on what to expect on each of them. Most notable change is that milestone releases will be now date based, with monthly releases, a departure from the when ready basis that has ruled since I can remember.

Alpha 4, currently in code freeze mode, is due next week. Alpha 5 should be out by May’s end and will mark the return of Places, the long delayed integration of History and Bookmarks with powerful tagging and search capabilities. Initial support for identity management (CardSpace), enhancements to the extension manager and support for web content handlers is also expected.

Alpha 6, by the end of June should bring the download manager improvements (pause/resume between sessions) and more Places polishment. Beta 1 is due by the end of July with all UI (user interface) changes in place and Beta 2 some time in September including the first localized builds.

Now, since these are date based milestones, the effective inclusion of a feature is very likely to change. Plus there is a lot of stuff not mentioned here like PDF saving, off line applications support, microformats and site specific preferences, all of them currently in the works. So this should be taken as a very high level itinerary.

I’m betting on at least a 7th alpha (if like with Firefox 2, beta only comes after feature completeness), 3 Release Candidates and delays here and there for a final release around December.

You can read the schedule here. For more details on what’s coming to Firefox 3 read here and here.