14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla is gearing up to release the second Beta development milestone of the next iteration of its open source browser. Firefox 4.0 Beta 2 has already reached code freeze, and right on time, at least according to Mozilla’s schedule. This is nothing short of excellent news, and it means that early adopters will get to download and start using the second Beta build of Firefox in just a few days. The final Firefox 4.0 Beta 2 bits are cooking at the time of this article, but testers will still need to exercise their patience a tad longer.
Fact is that if all goes well, Firefox 4.0 Beta 2 will be wrapped up and offered for download in only a couple of days, on July 23. In the worst case scenario, Firefox 4.0 Beta 2 could slip to July 26. Either way, come next week, participants in the Beta testing process for Firefox will be running the latest development milestone.
Obviously, Mozilla will offer a consistent evolution compared to Firefox 4.0 Beta 1. First off, the company plans to generalize the new graphical user interface overhaul to all flavors of Firefox 4.0. With Beta 1, only Windows users running the browser were able to enjoy the redesigned UI, with the Tabs now positioned on top of the address bar. With Firefox 4.0 Beta 2, Mac OS X and Linux users will also get the revamped UI. Read about additional changes in Firefox 4.0 Beta 2 here.
Mozilla has already made available for download the candidate releases for Firefox 4.0 Beta 2 through its FTP servers. The nightly builds of Firefox 4.0 Beta 2 are early releases, and not the fully fledged development milestone. Even Beta testers should hold out a few days, and wait for the real thing, so to speak.
At the same time, Mozilla is already looking ahead. Firefox 4.0 Beta will succeed one another at a rapid pace, once every few weeks. In this regard, Firefox 4.0 Beta 2 is planned for availability at the start of August, in about two weeks.
Firefox 4.0 Beta 1 and Firefox 3.6.7 are available for download here.
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