Firefox 4 Beta 1 has officially been announced, with Mozilla hoping that its next generation browser can prevent rivals like Google Chrome and Apple's Safari from eating into its market.
The candidate build surfaced at the end of June, but the company has now formally rolled out Firefox 4 Beta 1 for testers.
Firefox 4 will bring a host of new features, and the first full beta release will showcase the biggest change, a big change to the user interface.
Top tabs
By default tabs will now be at the top of the browser – in a style reminiscent of Opera and Chrome, and will be joined by new features such as a revamped add-on manager, WebM HD video support and privacy improvements.
"Firefox 4 Beta 1 includes dozens of major features and improvements– by testing them early we'll be able to respond to your feedback for future versions of Firefox," blogged Mozilla.
"Once you download Firefox 4 Beta 1, you're part of our beta program and will receive regular updates as more features launch."
User experience
Mozilla explained that the decision to move the tabs was based on improving the user experience.
"If you are using a Windows PC, the most noticeable new feature will be the look of the browser.
"We moved the tabs to the top to make it easier to focus on the web content and easier to control the tools in your Web browser.
"Also, if you have Windows 7 or Windows Vista the Menu bar was replaced with a single Firefox button so you can get to the most used options with just one click. These changes will be coming soon for Mac and Linux."
Your comments (5) Click to add a new comment
bradavon
July 7th 2010
5. As already discussed Firefox is no more or less bloated than Opera (which has loads of features that strictly aren't browser features. Opera Unite anyone?). Firefox has the biggest extensions library out there, something Opera cannot even do to start with. You may not need Firefox extensions but many do. I'd definitely miss many I use daily.
Firefox (or Chrome) + Xmarks offers Opera Link and I'm sure some TechRadar member said Firefox 4 will have it built in anyway. Chrome is the other browser I'm keeping an eye on, now it supports extensions! It's much faster than Firefox and sure it may not quite be as fast as Opera (although there is little in it) but like I said it too supports extensions.
If a browser doesn't support extensions, it's a non-starter for me. Firefox takes too long to open and has a dated UI of course but it's the extensions that make it a must-have IMO. The UI at least we know has been updated in Firefox 4.
Firefox, Opera or Chrome are all excellent browsers. It's down to personal preference. You dislike Firefox (obviously you do), we get it!
p.s - Opera 10.70 is still an iteration of the version 10 arm of Opera. Again an unfair comparison. Firefox 4 is clearly going to be a big Firefox upgrade and it's simply way too early too tell how it will compare to any other browser.
Don't waste your time dissing Firefox, dis. the IE and Safari crowd. They're the ones who really need educating :-D.
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mgillespie
July 7th 2010
4. @bradavon
Fine, i'll wait a week and compare it to Opera 10.70 Alpha1 which will slaughter it even further....
It's not that I dislike Firefox, it's that I really can't comprehend why people still use it, it's bloated, insecure, slow and ugly (although less so in 4.0).
With the internet using exploding, and more and more people using a browser for almost all their PC work, it's clearly your most important desktop (or mobile) application, so why use a **** one like Firefox? You can get Opera for free for both Desktop and Mobile, and it's better than anything else out there, it even keeps all your data, bookmarks in sync between all you other Opera installs (including those on the Wii, i believe).
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bradavon
July 7th 2010
3. Give it a rest mgillespie. You're not a Firefox fan, we get the message.
Again to compare a released browser (Opera) with one that's not released for months has no practical value.
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psyfur
July 7th 2010
2. I've been using the beta for a week and I'm not that impressed. There are a lots of bugs rendering flash and the browser is very slow to load pages.
I'll keep with FF 3.6 and Chrome
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mgillespie
July 7th 2010
1. Firefox is an abysmally slow experience these days, it's a bloated corpse washed up on a beach.
4.0b1 does not may things better, infact it makes things worse. The added UI sparkle slows things down even more.
http://files.myopera.com/mgillespie/files/Firefox4vsOperaVsIE.png
Better than IE, granted, but 1/3 of the speed of Opera, without any of it's features.
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