Mozilla hit an early milestone today by releasing its first alpha of Firefox 3.0, giving Firefox and Web application developers an early look at the next-generation browser. This release is not intended for regular users, not even those who like to play around with early versions of a product, Mozilla said.

Code named “Gran Paradiso”, the new version has been under development for a year but isn’t expected to be final until the end of 2007.

Many key features are expected for the new version like the Cairo graphics library, which aims to make Web pages look the same whether they are being printed or viewed on a Windows PC, a
Macintosh, or a small-screen device, and there are rumors that it passes the ACID 2 test.

More on this as it comes along.