Mozilla Overhauls UI for Firefox 4 Beta

[Android1]

First preview debuts browser's new Windows look; expect updates every 2 to 3 weeks.

Mozilla on Tuesday released the first beta of Firefox 4, a major upgrade expected later this year that features a revamped interface, support for a wide range of Web technologies and performance improvements.

Firefox 4 Beta 1, which missed its original end-of-June ship date by less than a week, is available for Windows, Mac and Linux, although the most obvious changes -- the reworked interface -- is only offered automatically to Windows users.

"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," said Mike Beltzner, director of Firefox, in an introductory message on the Mozilla blog. "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."

The tabs-on-top look is present by default only in the Windows version of Firefox 4. Mac and Linux users can switch on the UI feature from the View menu by selecting Toolbars and then Tabs on Top.

Firefox 4 Beta 1 can be downloaded for Windows, Mac and Linux from Mozilla's site. At the moment, only an English-language version is available.

Source: Computerworld

[caveman-jim]

Mozilla Releases FireFox 4.0 Beta 1

Mozilla has released Firefox 4.0 beta 1 for public testing! Enjoy the new 'tabs on top' look with streamlined menu bar (i.e. missing, push the alt button to show or just enable it again under view).

Download here and enjoy! Of course, you'll want to tweak it to take advantage of your fancy Windows 7 system featuring Direct2D acceleration:

Enter ‘about:config’
Click through the warning, if necessary
Enter gfx.font in the ‘Filter’ box
Double-click on ‘gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled’ to set it to true
Below this, right click and select New > Integer to add a pref setting
Enter ‘mozilla.widget.render-mode’ for the preference name, 6 for the value
While you are in about:config you can also enable WebGL - enter webgl in the filter box and change the webgl.enabled_for_all_sites to true.

You may want to install the latest WebM codecs (grab the windows installer zip), as well, for enjoying all the HTML5 / VP8 test sites.

If you're feeling like that's not edgy enough for ya, get on the Mozilla FTP and get the pre-alpha builds (all platforms, 32 and 64-bit) of Minefield (yep, it's a full of unexploded bugs! well, possibly).

[Android1]

Sorry, Jim.

[caveman-jim]

Mine's way better.

[Android1]

Mine's way better.

I could move mine to General Software and link it to yours if you wish.

[caveman-jim]

Just watch and learn, droidy

[Android1]

[DaNdo]

visually, it's another Chrome wannabe.

[crack1up]

Personally, I prefer the tabs at the bottom for ease of use. However, we all don't think alike.

[caveman-jim]

It's two checkboxes to change it back.

[spyre]

Something worth bearing in mind is that if you have Direct2D acceleration enabled and install display drivers or enable or disable Crossfire or SLI it renders your Firefox window unusable until you close and then restart the browser.